I agree with you...
I think medical will be our biggest expense. We are both, as my mom used to say, "sickeningly healthy" so never have had much in the way of medical expenses. But we are getting older - ok, getting old! - so that will probably change. My teeth are another matter - I have terrible teeth (thanks, mom and dad , it's inherited on both sides the family) and my dental bills have always been astronomical. I see no reason they won't continue to be...sigh...
Here's another thing that might make you feel better about turning down the job....since this is the middle of the year, any additional income will be taxed at your highest bracket. If you or your hubby was offered a monetary incentive to retire, taxes on anything else you earn this year may be obscene. On top of that, if your new job will be contract work, you'll have to pay about 15% of your income to social security and medicare. So you have to look at how much money you'd really get to keep if you accepted a job this year.
That said, I don't know your situation or personalities but I retired at 51 and have been retired 14 years. I love it! It was a little scary at first since we also had some unexpected expenses right off the bat. The biggest surprise of all was medical expenses. We were fortunate to have health insurance and since we've always been healthy, we didn't plan for the various minor things that happened to us that required deductibles/copays for several years. Ugh! Then after the medical stuff was under control, our dentist retired and the new dentist wanted to cap all my back teeth!!
I think medical will be our biggest expense. We are both, as my mom used to say, "sickeningly healthy" so never have had much in the way of medical expenses. But we are getting older - ok, getting old! - so that will probably change. My teeth are another matter - I have terrible teeth (thanks, mom and dad , it's inherited on both sides the family) and my dental bills have always been astronomical. I see no reason they won't continue to be...sigh...