athena53
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- May 11, 2014
- Messages
- 7,384
Don't forget the scary scenario of one spouse in LTC and the other in the home. My mother died 4 years ago but Dad is in LTC and it's costing $9,000/month in SC. He has the resources, thank God.
I overshot, too, especially since I'm widowed at this point with no plans to remarry. While I'm stashing money in the grandkids' 529 accounts and giving more to charity these days because I'm not spending it on travel, my net worth has gone up over 3%/year AFTER withdrawals since my retirement in 2014 and I'd like to keep it growing. DS is my only child and he and DDIL live modestly and would probably donate a lot of the money if I started gifting to them. I gave them $10K when they bought a bigger house, at DS' request, but that's the only time they ever asked. He'd done a good job of running the number sand figured that amount would make the total monthly payment about the same as it was in the smaller house. (Property taxes were lower in the new location.)
I see way too many retirement-related posts on FB with responses from seniors who are struggling and can't afford dental care or ended up with hefty penalties on Medicare B because they tried to save money by not enrolling when eligible, or widows dealing with the shock of the 1/3 decrease in household SS income after DH died. Three months ago my car died after "only" 134,000 miles and I grumbled and bought a 2020 model-something I never thought I'd do. I wrote a check for it and I'm still under my target withdrawal for the year.
Better to be conservative.
I overshot, too, especially since I'm widowed at this point with no plans to remarry. While I'm stashing money in the grandkids' 529 accounts and giving more to charity these days because I'm not spending it on travel, my net worth has gone up over 3%/year AFTER withdrawals since my retirement in 2014 and I'd like to keep it growing. DS is my only child and he and DDIL live modestly and would probably donate a lot of the money if I started gifting to them. I gave them $10K when they bought a bigger house, at DS' request, but that's the only time they ever asked. He'd done a good job of running the number sand figured that amount would make the total monthly payment about the same as it was in the smaller house. (Property taxes were lower in the new location.)
I see way too many retirement-related posts on FB with responses from seniors who are struggling and can't afford dental care or ended up with hefty penalties on Medicare B because they tried to save money by not enrolling when eligible, or widows dealing with the shock of the 1/3 decrease in household SS income after DH died. Three months ago my car died after "only" 134,000 miles and I grumbled and bought a 2020 model-something I never thought I'd do. I wrote a check for it and I'm still under my target withdrawal for the year.
Better to be conservative.
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