Millions are "Unretiring"

[aaronc879]

I give platelets every two weeks. Because of this frequency and the shortage and subsequent incentives, I'm "making" about $30 per week in visa gift cards. Whoo hoo! Mad money!

Check out plasma instead. That is twice a week and around here pays around $150/wk if you do 2 every week. Some bonuses on top of that. I went a few times and got the new donor rate of $125/session for the first 4 sessions. Then I stopped because they are under staffed and I had to wait an hour and a half just to get to the chair to start the session which then takes an hour. I may go back though at some point.

 

[MarieIG]

Eh, I would rather sleep in my car than work full time but I would probably work full time rather than sleep outside under a bridge.

Not in lieu of a home, but there was a time when DM was terminally ill and I was working long hours running to the hospital every day; that I did spend some time sleeping in my car in the parking lot outside of the office building where I worked. (Basically, everyone in the office knew it but no one gave me a hard time.)

 

[aaronc879]

Not in lieu of a home, but there was a time when DM was terminally ill and I was working long hours running to the hospital every day; that I did spend some time sleeping in my car in the parking lot outside of the office building where I worked. (Basically, everyone in the office knew it but no one gave me a hard time.)

I had a co-worker doing 12 hours shifts who would sleep in his car in the parking lot between shifts. It was much quieter than his house with 5 kids in it all under 10 years old. He did that 2-4 nights a week for a few years.

 

[MarieIG]

I had a co-worker doing 12 hours shifts who would sleep in his car in the parking lot between shifts. It was much quieter than his house with 5 kids in it all under 10 years old. He did that 2-4 nights a week for a few years.

I can see how that would be . . .

 

[Music Lover]

Re "unretiring", a friend lost her contract gig doing tech writing a few months back. Thought she'd try ER (just turned 60). She and DH are super frugal, have paid off house, cheap ACA health insurance. Then the unexpected expenses hit. House needs painting and quotes were about $18k (she was shocked). Last time they'd done it themselves, but due to some ortho issues they're not prepared to do that now (at least not the upper story). Then she needed some minor outpatient surgery, which was $5k out of pocket. After some number crunching she determined they'd be OK financially if they live to 80, but if they live longer things don't look so good. So, she's now looking for a tech-related j*b similar to what she did 15 years ago. I wish her luck but suspect she'll run into ageism. Will be interesting to see how things evolve for her.

Super frugal, paid off house, cheap insurance. What am I missing? Don't both of them qualify for SS? Don't they have any savings? What about pensions?

 

[Alex The Great]

Re "unretiring", a friend lost her contract gig doing tech writing a few months back. Thought she'd try ER (just turned 60). She and DH are super frugal, have paid off house, cheap ACA health insurance. Then the unexpected expenses hit. House needs painting and quotes were about $18k (she was shocked). Last time they'd done it themselves, but due to some ortho issues they're not prepared to do that now (at least not the upper story). Then she needed some minor outpatient surgery, which was $5k out of pocket. After some number crunching she determined they'd be OK financially if they live to 80, but if they live longer things don't look so good. So, she's now looking for a tech-related j*b similar to what she did 15 years ago. I wish her luck but suspect she'll run into ageism.

There are certain things hard to understand in this story. How unexpected expense of $23K can ruin their net worth so much? If this is a case, I suspect they were actually not ready for retirement since no allocation has been done for expenses like that.

 

[marko]

Others care to share their back up plans?

No backup plan.

We're experiencing a bit of personal "deflation": DW hits Medicare early in '23, saving us about $15k, our boat sale not only brought in a nice chunk but we're saving a little over another $15k in annual maintenance and storage, a nephew graduated college so our (ahem) "heavy support" for his tuition has also evaporated.

Overall, I think we'll be able to weather the inflation storm nicely.

 

[disneysteve]

There are certain things hard to understand in this story. How unexpected expense of $23K can ruin their net worth so much? If this is a case, I suspect they were actually not ready for retirement since no allocation has been done for expenses like that.

Not only that, but neither routine home maintenance like painting nor the periodic occurrence of medical expenses really count as "unexpected" expenses. Those are absolutely things that one's plan should already account for.


Most of what people refer to as "emergencies" aren't actually emergencies. Just because someone neglected to plan for them doesn't make them emergencies.

 

[Gumby]

It is a blunt solution, but if people assumed a 2% SWR, they could avoid this problem. Otherwise, they'll need to really know their current spending and accurately project it going forward, lumpy expenses and all. There just is no substitute for the hard work of planning, but it seems many just don't want to be bothered, so we see circumstances like this.

 

[Koolau]

Two guys at w*rk blew their retirements trusting the same broker to write covered calls for them. It was so bad the guys were successful in a law suit against the broker. BUT, the damages recovered were insufficient to keep them from going back to w*rk. The main mistake they made was assuming they could spend 8%. Oh, and the w*rk they had to do wasn't the well-paying gig they retired from. Their j*bs were more on the order of pick-up w*rk (repositioning cars, for instance.)

 

[Letj]

Eh, I would rather sleep in my car than work full time but I would probably work full time rather than sleep outside under a bridge.

I am hoping people realize this is tongue in cheek. The point is no way in hell are we going back to work even if we have to cut to bare bones.

 

[RobbieB]

Two guys at w*rk blew their retirements trusting the same broker to write covered calls for them. It was so bad the guys were successful in a law suit against the broker. BUT, the damages recovered were insufficient to keep them from going back to w*rk. The main mistake they made was assuming they could spend 8%. Oh, and the w*rk they had to do wasn't the well-paying gig they retired from. Their j*bs were more on the order of pick-up w*rk (repositioning cars, for instance.)

Eight percent?

Whoaaaa... that would explain it. Even I (the BTD guy) don't do that much -

 

[Music Lover]

It is a blunt solution, but if people assumed a 2% SWR, they could avoid this problem. Otherwise, they'll need to really know their current spending and accurately project it going forward, lumpy expenses and all. There just is no substitute for the hard work of planning, but it seems many just don't want to be bothered, so we see circumstances like this.

2% is unattainable for most people and IMO it's unreasonable. Some people might never be able retire under those standards. But also, withdrawing 8% is just stupidity. However, there is a lot of room to be reasonable in between both of those extremes.

 

[pdxgal]

There are certain things hard to understand in this story. How unexpected expense of $23K can ruin their net worth so much? If this is a case, I suspect they were actually not ready for retirement since no allocation has been done for expenses like that.

Exactly. Hence the "unretirement" after about 4 months. It was an aspirational ER that doesn't look to be feasible.

 

[pdxgal]

Not only that, but neither routine home maintenance like painting nor the periodic occurrence of medical expenses really count as "unexpected" expenses. Those are absolutely things that one's plan should already account for.


Most of what people refer to as "emergencies" aren't actually emergencies. Just because someone neglected to plan for them doesn't make them emergencies.

The unexpected part of the house painting was that they'd planned to do it themselves, as they did 15 years ago, but my friend had a bike accident last year and had to have a hip replacement. That's limited her physically. I am sympathetic to their having to pay more for medical than they'd anticipated. Our healthcare system is a mess, and many, many people are blindsided by astronomical out-of-pocket costs (the #1 cause of personal bankruptcy, IIR).

OP was hypothesizing IIR as to reasons for unretirement. My friend is an example of someone who quit or was laid off during COVID and aspired to retire -- maybe even announced it -- but then realized it wasn't financially feasible.

 

[luckydude]

Others care to share their back up plans?

I don't have a backup plan. If I can't make it on a 0.4% SWR, I deserve whatever hell that comes to me.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We don't really have a back up plan these days. SS and pensions cover most of our expenses. The pensions are from multiple companies and all PBGC backed so it is unlikely those would all go under at one time. Our withdrawal rate is under 1% in my latest budget. We're also still working on low overhead living. Once we have solar panels, a heat pump, xeriscaping, etc. we should be able to drop the withdrawal rate even lower. We have a high allocation to a TIPS ladder and not a lot in stocks, so this year actually hasn't been too bad for us. If the asteroid hit or we some other type of Black Swan event we could probably cut back on discretionary items like travel and entertainment and live on SS and pensions alone, downsize or move to a lower COL area.

 

[JoeWras]

I don't have a backup plan. If I can't make it on a 0.4% SWR, I deserve whatever hell that comes to me.

You are Lucky, Dude!

 

[skyking1]

Indeed he is.
I am in the possible OMY crowd, but not because of recent market conditions. I can feel it in my bones; I'll be having a hard time in transition and will part-time my way out of it.

 

[old medic]

Can't you go back on your empl*yer's health insurance?

Yes.... If I go back full time.... and thats not going to happen.
Hell I would need about 30 hours of continuing education to maintain my different certifications just to go back part time.

My ex boss has made several offers and opportunities for me to make some side money doing medical standby for events... (Can you say free concerts) And a former partner has also offered me PT work basically the same event place.
Actually, leading up to me retiring I had over a dozen job offers, and many are still available.

 

[Koolau]

Eight percent?

Whoaaaa... that would explain it. Even I (the BTD guy) don't do that much -

Heh, heh, and the same broker writing covered calls for them was the guy who told them that 8% was safe!

I still recall one of the two guys (he was a direct report and occupied the next alcove to me.) He kept telling me how great his "guy" was and how he was getting "out of here" before I was. I didn't know what I know now, but I KNEW that 8% was too much. Unfortunately, this report was "smarter" than anyone else.

He was an "okay" report but the type who resented everything. His big thing was that he could run all the instrumentation better than I could (since he did it 8 hours a day.) In fact, when I wanted to use the instrumentation for a project, I might have to ask him or another report for a brief refresher on the "buttons." BUT when stuff quit w*rking, he wouldn't tell me until I began getting reports that his data had stopped flowing. I'd stroll into the lab, look at his outputs and tell him what was wrong - all in 5 minutes. Somehow it never sunk in for him that my expertise was worth something. But I'm not gloating.

 

[Badger]

Re "unretiring", a friend lost her contract gig doing tech writing a few months back. Thought she'd try ER (just turned 60). She and DH are super frugal, have paid off house, cheap ACA health insurance. Then the unexpected expenses hit. House needs painting and quotes were about $18k (she was shocked). Last time they'd done it themselves, but due to some ortho issues they're not prepared to do that now (at least not the upper story). Then she needed some minor outpatient surgery, which was $5k out of pocket. After some number crunching she determined they'd be OK financially if they live to 80, but if they live longer things don't look so good. So, she's now looking for a tech-related j*b similar to what she did 15 years ago. I wish her luck but suspect she'll run into ageism. Will be interesting to see how things evolve for her.

Sorry to hear about your friend. After reading this forum for so many years I am always surprised at how many people retire early yet are not sufficiently financially prepared. These folks did well for having a paid off house and cheap ACA at 60yrs old and living a frugal lifestyle.
However, it appears they didn't consider that their house would need painting at least once more when they would not be able to do the work themselves and that there very well could be a number of medical issues during the next couple of decades that would require some extra cash.
I realize that trying to land another job at 60 yrs can be difficult yet as many have said here before taking the leap into retirement it would be wise to first consider not cutting the amount of your nest egg so close that you can't weather any future storms.
Before I retired I made sure that we could survive even if the house burned down and we lost all our possessions. But then I am a "belt and suspenders" kind of guy. Our only problem would be if the Federal Government collapsed and there was anarchy.

Cheers!

 

[Teacher Terry]

Check out plasma instead. That is twice a week and around here pays around $150/wk if you do 2 every week. Some bonuses on top of that. I went a few times and got the new donor rate of $125/session for the first 4 sessions. Then I stopped because they are under staffed and I had to wait an hour and a half just to get to the chair to start the session which then takes an hour. I may go back though at some point.

A friend of mine is making good money doing this and I looked up which medical issues exclude you and unfortunately if you are on a beta blocker for a heart issue it’s not wise to do it or donate blood.

Bad enough my second husband managed to hide most of our money before the divorce but never thought I would have to divorce my third husband and split everything. When people go on about how others don’t plan sometimes unexpected things happen. Ask yourself what your situation would be if both these things happened to you. I basically had to start over at age 45 and then split at age 66.

 

[JoeWras]

Check out plasma instead. That is twice a week and around here pays around $150/wk if you do 2 every week. Some bonuses on top of that. I went a few times and got the new donor rate of $125/session for the first 4 sessions. Then I stopped because they are under staffed and I had to wait an hour and a half just to get to the chair to start the session which then takes an hour. I may go back though at some point.

Well I was kind of joking. The mad money is nice, but I don't do it for the money. I do it because platelets are desperately needed, especially by cancer patients since many treatments wipe them out. It takes many, many units of whole blood to make up a single platelet donation. Additionally, some patients need single-source platelets instead the aggregate. Platelet apheresis is a sacrifice. It takes 60 to 120 minutes, depending on my count and whether I'm willing to give triples. It is only 1% of blood so the process takes time to extract the sliver in the centrifuge column.

Plasma is easy to give in comparison. The column is so large (55%) they can split it off in no time.

Geez, now I sound like I'm tooting my horn and falling on my sword for humanity. Back to un-retiring.

 

[luckydude]

You are Lucky, Dude!