Month: June 2018

Mid-year Check Point – Dollars & Sense

First, a picture of the best Ile Flottante in Paris, from Restaurant Georgette:

ile flottante

We travelled to Paris in the off-season, and before we left I checked Trip Advisor for the best Ile Flottante because that is Mrs. Nosurprisesretirement’s favorite French dessert. Ile Flottante is basically a delicious soft meringue (the ile or island) floating (French flotte – to float) on an even more delicious custard.

The overwhelming sentiment on Trip Advisor was for Georgette and they were right.  Take a walk from the Left Bank Sorbonne area across the Jardin du Luxembourg and you’re there.

Check Point One – Budgeting (Dollars)

Thinking back to our budgeting post,  ‘Oops, or New Year Fiscal Fitness’, we discussed using a spreadsheet for budgeting and tracking.  We ended up trying the ‘Personal Budget Planner – Extended’ and have been satisfied, especially because I did not have to develop the spreadsheet myself.

Positives:
-we have been tracking a very high percentage of expenditures, so the ‘actual’ portion of the budget v. actual tracking is accurate
-the budgeting experience was enlightening (a polite word for occasionally opposing and sometimes loud opinions) as we determined what to include and at what amount
-actual v. budget tracking is available for any given month.

Negatives:
-the comparison feature does not support a year to date comparison of spending to budget
-the available rows for budgeting may cause you to combine budget items on a single row (likely not a problem for most people, but I wanted a lot of individual tracking).

The tracking has been going well and I would recommend this spreadsheet.  In areas where we go over budget, we often learn we under-allocated at the budget level. Surprisingly, since we track ‘everything’, the ‘pocket money’ budget line is always almost 100% under budget!

So far it seems like our retirement budget could be appropriate and achievable, barring any bad surprises.

And now a picture of the finest Indian Taco in Phoenix from The Fry Bread House:

Indian taco

The Fry Bread house is a small but popular establishment in central Phoenix.  We can definitely recommend any of their fry-bread tacos (or ‘fry-bread sweets’ desserts!) and the rich and spicy green chile stew.

Check Point Two – Fitness (Sense)

In the ‘What Was I Thinking’ post I talked about exercise and flexibility.  On the plus side, I have been relatively active, especially with walking in the neighborhood since the weather got nicer.  I document my activity on a free phone app called Microsoft OneNote, so I actually know where I stand v. my goals.   On the minus side, I have not met my goal of 30 minutes 4 times per week as much as I wanted.

Here is ‘The Drummer’, (1989-90), B. Flanagan (Wales); Hirschhorn Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC:

The Drummer

Note – not a great sun angle on the photo, because we were there in the off-season!  No crowds, so it was like a private sculpture garden on the Mall!  Also, it seems like all the museums in DC are free – excellent deal!

Funtirement!

Funtirement is my daughter’s name for when I take a Friday off for my own three-day weekend.  This week for Funtirement, I used the firm’s preventive care benefit and went to the clinic for a science experiment. It turned out well and it looks like I only need the ‘experiment’ every five years now.

Actions you can take include:

-Do your own mid-year checkpoint.  What’s going well and what could you improve? Remember, perfect is the enemy of the good.

And if you have not seen the “Why you should read this blog…WIIFY” post, it’s here.

Questions, comments, or suggestions for retirement surprise areas you want to know more about?
-Leave a comment
-Use ‘Contact’, above, to send an email.

 

Carp time! (a play on Carpe Diem)

Well golly, we had a couple of bad retirement surprises this week.  One was that a father of some of the kid’s high school classmates passed away at a young age, only 66.  The other, less bad, was finding out that a relative would need surgery at a much younger age that we thought.

If you’ve followed No Surprises Retirement for a while, you know that we focus on avoiding bad retirement surprises.  No one can avoid every bad surprise (but you should be trying!), so remember to enjoy some carp time.  Carp time would be fishing for those who enjoy it, but others can carpe diem (seize the day) and enjoy their favorite activities.

There is a balance

One could completely abandon planning and work and instead seize enjoyment until the money runs out, then live like a pauper.  On the other hand, one could work like a dog, scrimp and save, plan, buy annuities, wait until FRA or 70 ½ for Social Security and then not live to enjoy it.  There is a happy median of enjoying what you have while judiciously planning for the future.

Savor what you have

Those of us who are not retired usually have to go to work.  Since it’s a requirement, what are you doing to savor and enjoy it?  Without going all Zen on you, I can tell you that in my job, I look for the good parts to savor in several areas:
-colleagues – their banter, their admirable traits which include technical skill and adaptability, their quirks which can be irritating and endearing at the same time
-customers – their ability to collaborate, their humor, their gratitude when we deliver for them
-routine – the gift of routine which provides a sense of stability
-change – the excitement of something new, like a new project (admittedly, not all changes have been fun over the past thirty some odd years…)
-coffee – our cafeteria makes a perfect Starbucks Pike Place and I REALLY savor that with half and half daily.

If you’re already retired, you likely have established some routine that meets your needs and, hopefully, provides opportunity for savoring.

I’d like to hear from you in the comments or by email to nosurprisesretirement@gmail.com on what you do to ‘carp time’ (or carpe diem) in your usual life.

A reader wrote in!

A couple of weeks ago a reader wrote in and shared Barry Ritholz’ ‘Retirement Pyramid 2.0’.  Thanks, reader, for sharing.  Barry’s pyramid focuses a little differently than mine, more toward financial behaviors, but it is excellent and I recommend that you click on the link and review it.  Barry and his team usually give very sound advice – I follow a number of them on the Twitter.

Funtirement!

Funtirement is my daughter’s name for when I take a Friday off for my own three-day weekend.  This week, the three days of Funtirement found us waking up about the same time as a work day, enjoying lunch at a British pub style restaurant, and cleaning up some paper work at home.  We also got our license plates updated, watched two episodes of Live PD, and had a pizza from the pizza place in the old neighborhood.  I read the latest issue of The Economist, economically sourced from my local library, an article on Faroe Islands food in The New Yorker, also from the library, and a retirement study from Aegon. (The Faroe article used the words ‘rank’ and ‘fermented lamb tallow’ in relation to the food – not going there soon ever.) Finally, we enjoyed a Father’s Day ice cream sundae gathering at my daughter and son-in-law’s house.  All the kids and wonderful grandchildren were there.

Next week’s Funtirement will be scientific!  I’ll be headed over to the clinic for some routine maintenance.  For those of you old enough to remember, it will be a replay of Fantastic Voyage…

Actions you can take include:

-Pause, reflect, and see what you can find to savor in life.

And if you have not seen the “Why you should read this blog…WIIFY” post, it’s here.

Questions, comments, or suggestions for retirement surprise areas you want to know more about?
-Leave a comment
-Use ‘Contact’, above, to send an email.

Risky retirement talk

Remember that the goal of No Surprises Retirement is to help you minimize or eliminate surprises that can damage your retirement.  A risk is defined as “exposing something valued to…loss”.  We’ll discuss a couple of risks today, both involving healthcare; inflation and coverage.  The goal here is preparation and risk mitigation or avoidance, not fear and depression.  We will review a change in the Federal government direction on pre-existing conditions that may affect your retirement date.  On the inflation side, we will look at the healthcare inflation trend and see what that does to your retirement lifestyle.  Let’s start with the pre-existing conditions situation.

Pre-65 retirement risk – pre-existing conditions coverage is unstable

If you are planning on retiring before Medicare (pre-65) and don’t have retiree medical care from your employer, this might be a good time to consider continuing to enjoy your work colleagues and workplace a little longer, until a potentially expensive change to individual health insurance is more settled.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, sometimes called PPACA or nicknamed Obamacare, mandated that insurance companies take all applicants regardless of any pre-existing conditions and charge them on a community-rated basis.  Since the general audience of No Surprises Retirement is likely in the retirement age range, a lot of us likely have pre-existing conditions.  Examples here could include a diagnosed knee condition, heart problem, cancer treatment in the past, or abnormal liver test results.  Basically, under PPACA, pre-existing conditions were not a problem for anyone.

But, there’s a change!

It’s kind of a long, involved story, but there are a number of states who are suing in Federal court to have the PPACA declared unconstitutional. Winning was not a slam dunk, but if they won, all of the PPACA could go away, including the coverage of pre-existing conditions part. Risk level – moderate.

Just this week, the Federal Government’s Department of Justice decided to not defend the PPACA against the state lawsuit. This makes it much more likely that the PPACA will go away.  Risk level – high.

If the PPACA goes away, pre-existing conditions would then come back in to individual health insurance underwriting.  People (think pre-65 retirees here) applying for individual health insurance could be rejected or have exclusions for their pre-existing conditions.

What can I do, you ask?

Remember that without health insurance or with insurance with limitations on pre-existing conditions, you could be liable for some very large medical bills if you have a serious illness or accident.  I had a knee infection that cost about $25,000 (and is now a pre-existing condition!).  If you incur a large medical bill without coverage because of a pre-existing condition, that money would likely have to come from your retirement savings and potentially lower your retirement income for the remainder of your retirement, a bad retirement surprise

In my case, I am very concerned about what will happen to coverage for pre-existing conditions.  I have decided to avoid the risk of a change to the way pre-existing conditions are insured and now plan to do my best to stay employed and covered under my employer’s plan until we are eligible for Medicare. If, for some reason, the risk for pre-existing conditions coverage improves, I can always re-plan.

What does FRED say about healthcare inflation?

Remember that inflation is “a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money”.  You’re paying more for the same thing.

FRED is Federal Reserve Economic Data.  The St. Louis Fed, using FRED data, states, “…Going back as far as the series are available, since 1948, the price of medical care has grown at an average annual rate of 5.3% while the entire basket, headline CPI, has grown at an average annual rate of 3.5%. In the past 20 years, in the regime of stable inflation, headline CPI has grown at an average annual rate of 2.2%, whereas the price level of medical care has grown at an average annual rate of 3.6%—about 70% faster.”

What does that translate to?

Let’s be optimistic and assume that healthcare inflation will stay toward the lower side at 4%.  That means that healthcare costs will double approximately every 18 years, or once or twice over the span of a typical retirement.  Inflation is reverse compound interest working against you.  If you retire at 62, by the time you’re 80, your insurance premiums and out of pocket costs will likely have doubled; they increase a little each year.

The question here is what will have happened to your income in the same time period?  While Social Security is inflation adjusted, that inflation adjustment may not keep up with healthcare inflation.  US Government and Military pensions are inflation adjusted, but most defined benefit plans are not inflation adjusted. Depending on your investments, IRA investment returns can offset some inflation.  In any case, you will likely need to plan to spend more on healthcare and less in other areas.

What can I do, you ask?

Use less healthcare by getting in and staying in the best shape you can.  Proper exercise, diet, and sleep.

Monitor your personal healthcare prices and shop around for the best non-emergency prices.

Learn about healthcare prices and different approaches.  When you find one that you like, register and vote for political representatives who will represent your position in state legislatures and the U.S. Congress.  As an example, some people want Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices while others want Medicare to stay away from negotiating.  Whatever your position, if you don’t vote, you are letting others decide your health insurance inflation fate.

Actions you can take include:

-Plan your risk strategy around pre-existing conditions and health insurance.

-Spend some time on healthcare inflation and potential solutions, then register and vote.

If you have not seen the “Why you should read this blog…WIIFY” post, it’s here.

Questions, comments, or suggestions for retirement surprise areas you want to know more about?
-Leave a comment
-Use ‘Contact’, above, to send an email.

Interesting question – take two

Last post we took a detour to discuss travel.  Travel is the most cited ‘want to do’ activity in retirement.  This week we’ll really spend time on the interesting question.

The interesting question

I was reading a practicing financial advisor’s article in a financial planning magazine and ran across an interesting question; “Is your goal to be the richest person in the graveyard?”

If you’re like me, the first place you went with the question was money, particularly a legacy to heirs of money.  Your legacy is important and financial planning around a monetary legacy is critical if it might be large. However, let me suggest that while money is a consideration, perhaps money should be the lesser part of your legacy.  You have already built a part of your legacy, cash and non-monetary, over the course of your life.  You now have the chance to add to your legacy in your pre-retirement and retirement years.  Let’s consider legacies.

What’s in your legacy?

In my case, my family members left me the values of honesty, hard work, perseverance, adaptability, and continuous learning.  I hope and believe that we passed these on to our children and that they will pass them on to the grandchildren. I have some friends that are retired teachers.  They are childless, but I hear stories of how even today former students will stop them in stores and remind them of the values and lessons they learned in their classes.  The legacies of some of my coworkers (many still living) to me included exemplary work ethics, technical excellence, generosity, sharing, caring about, and humor.

Values

You have already left a value legacy.  You can build on it by making it explicit; consider writing an autobiography and pointing out the values you were trying to pass on.  One of my most treasured possessions is a copy of a typed transcription of my great-great-grandfather’s diary from several months in the 1860’s.  Your autobiography could connect multiple generations with your values legacy.  Don’t worry about the grammar and spelling, they will treasure your history and memories.

Actions

A number of our friends continue to create their legacy in pre-retirement and retirement by contributing to the community.  Some are committed to environmental causes; one keeps an entire mile of street free of litter as part of an adopt-a-highway program.  Another group helps with youth development by volunteering for Scouting.  Some friends do genealogy to document their family lineage. Still another set helps with anti-poverty and disaster relief through religious institutions and non-profits. Others help maintain our democracy by volunteering with their political parties.

I have attended a number of funerals where “the dash” was read.  Think about your ‘dash’ and consider how you might engage in the community.  Here’s a link to Volunteer Match which can help you find opportunities to meet your interest and abilities.

Back to the money

“Is your goal to be the richest person in the graveyard?”  The financial advisor indicated that he strongly encourages clients to definitely not be the richest person in the graveyard.  A different way of saying this is, ‘die broke’.

Why not be the richest person in the graveyard? A few reasons come to mind:

-quality of life

-estate tax

-smaller gifts instead of a large inheritance.

Hopefully your RIP is set up to provide you with a lifetime retirement income, regardless of how long you live.  If you spend too frugally, you could end up with a lower quality of life than you could afford, leaving a larger estate that was necessary.  Consider the balance in your retirement spending between quality of life and monetary legacy.

Even though the Federal estate tax limit has been raised, that does not mean your state’s estate tax has followed.  Dying with a large estate and no estate tax plan can cost a literal fortune.  I know of one middle-class family that wrote a $40,000 estate tax check because of poor planning.  With minor planning and gifting they would have had no estate tax due – ouch.  Charitable donations and gifting are a couple of techniques for avoiding any estate taxes.  If you will have retirement income outside of Social Security and/or a defined benefit pension, a checkup with an attorney specializing in estate planning will likely be well worth your time.

If you are fortunate enough to have some financial assets that you think might pass on to your heirs, consider multiple smaller gifts while you are living.  One advantage here is that you will get to see the next generation enjoying the gift, which may have been used for a home, car, or vacation.  One key rationale for smaller gifts is that they are less likely than a large inheritance to enable sloth or other moral hazards of wealth without work.

Consider what legacy strategies fit best for you, including dying broke.

Actions you can take include:

-Consider how you might answer the question, “Is your goal to be the richest person in the graveyard?”

-Consult an estate planning attorney to see what, if any, estate plan you might need.

And if you have not seen the “Why you should read this blog…WIIFY” post, it’s here. 

Questions, comments, or suggestions for retirement surprise areas you want to know more about?
-Leave a comment
-Use ‘Contact’, above, to send an email.