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Kathy Wilhelm, who comments on HumbleDollar, and blogs, as mytimetotravel is a former software engineer. She took early retirement in order to travel. More recently, she moved to a CCRC where she staying very busy. Born and educated in England, she has lived in North Carolina since 1975. She has written several articles for HumbleDollar.
One fund or two?
14 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 10/14/2025
FIRST: Randy Dobkin on 10/14 | RECENT: mytimetotravel on 10/15
What is retirement?
59 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 9/13/2025
FIRST: Cecilia Beverly on 9/13 | RECENT: Michael1 on 9/16
How to win at FIRE from the Wall Street Journal
26 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 9/2/2025
FIRST: Winston Smith on 9/2 | RECENT: DrLefty on 9/4
Don't Discount Luck
31 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 7/23/2025
FIRST: Rick Connor on 7/23 | RECENT: Regan Blair on 7/26
Some people are never satisfied
39 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 7/10/2025
FIRST: Mark Crothers on 7/10 | RECENT: mytimetotravel on 7/12
A Question for our UK posters
32 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 6/27/2025
FIRST: Mark Crothers on 6/27 | RECENT: DrLefty on 6/30
A Nuanced View of FIRE
34 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 6/16/2025
FIRST: bbbobbins on 6/16 | RECENT: mytimetotravel on 6/18
Mr. Quinn would be nervous. Would you be?
67 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 5/29/2025
FIRST: DAN SMITH on 5/29 | RECENT: R Quinn on 6/3
An Insignificant Sum?
20 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 3/26/2025
FIRST: baldscreen on 3/26 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 3/28
Longevity Income?
7 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 11/7/2024
FIRST: Dan Smith on 11/7/2024 | RECENT: Kevin Lynch on 11/8/2024
How should I allocate my bond funds?
11 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 10/10/2024
FIRST: Randy Dobkin on 10/10/2024 | RECENT: mytimetotravel on 10/12/2024
What I Saw With Meals on Wheels
17 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 9/5/2024
FIRST: baldscreen on 9/5/2024 | RECENT: mytimetotravel on 9/15/2024
Do You Own a Safe?
42 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 8/23/2024
FIRST: Jeff Bond on 8/23/2024 | RECENT: stelea99 on 8/29/2024
A CCRC is not an Assisted Living facility
32 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 7/9/2024
FIRST: Jonathan Clements on 7/9/2024 | RECENT: kt2062 on 8/12/2024
How is a CD a bond?
6 replies
AUTHOR: mytimetotravel on 7/17/2024
FIRST: Dan Smith on 7/17/2024 | RECENT: Rick Connor on 7/17/2024
THESE DAYS, IT SEEMS every other article on retirement talks about a neat division between the go-go, slow-go and no-go years, with retirees moving seamlessly from one to the next.
I don’t remember seeing anything about these stages back in the late 1990s when I was contemplating early retirement. Instead, when I quit full-time work in 2000 at age 53, I just wanted to travel before I got too decrepit.
I did travel—extensively—right up until 2017,
LATE LAST OCTOBER, I was one of the first to move into the new building at my chosen continuing care retirement community, or CCRC. Now, more than five months later, I’m more confident than ever that I made a good decision.
I’m in my mid-70s, single and childless, with relatives 3,000 miles distant in both directions. Both bathrooms at my old home were up 15 stairs. Aging in place was not a good option.
I’D JUST ARRIVED IN the charming, car-free village of Murren in the Swiss Alps, and was trying to find my B&B on the helpful signpost near the station. Stepping back for a better view, I tripped over the curb, with my backpack pulling me further off-balance. I went down with my left wrist under my hip.
Two wonderful British couples rushed to my assistance. One pair took my backpack to my B&B and the other escorted me back down the mountain to a doctor’s office.
I DON’T REMEMBER when my hearing started deteriorating. I suppose it came on gradually. I definitely remember when I developed tinnitus—ringing in the ears—and it was tinnitus that sent me to an audiologist in 2012.
She confirmed the information I’d already found on the internet: There’s no cure for tinnitus. While I would always miss the complete silence I’d previously enjoyed, at least mine was a tolerable background hum, unlike some horror stories I’d read.
ONE REASON I WAITED so long to sell my house was my extreme reluctance to move all my belongings. I didn’t want to deal with the hassles involved—because I’d gone through that less than a decade earlier.
In 2013, I had the house renovated. I replaced almost all the flooring, with hardwood downstairs, carpet upstairs and tile in the bathrooms. I also updated the kitchen cabinets. That meant, of course, that every single thing in the house had to be moved.
I NEVER PLANNED TO retire at age 53. I wasn’t an early adopter of the FIRE, or financial independence-retire early, philosophy. In fact, I didn’t start saving seriously until my late 30s, when I left my first husband and finally realized that—unlike pensions in my native U.K.—my U.S. pension didn’t come with an annual cost-of-living adjustment.
Instead, three developments in the late 1990s led me to consider quitting. First, I was no longer enjoying my job.
IF MEDICARE’S A MAZE, its Part D drug plan is a maze within a maze, with no one good path and plenty of so-so choices, along with a couple of potential “gotchas.”
Until 2006, Medicare offered no coverage for outpatient drugs, so today’s situation—however imperfect—is certainly an improvement. It’ll improve even more for people with high drug costs in 2024 and 2025, as I’ll explain at the end of this article.
What if you have Medicare Advantage,
I GREW UP IN ENGLAND, with health-care coverage provided by the National Health Service, so I’m extremely sympathetic to people calling for “Medicare for All.” Still, I do wonder whether they realize that Medicare is neither cheap nor simple. My medical costs in 2021 were more than $10,000, with half of that for a single drug. And it would have been even more without the $3,000 a year kicked in by my former employer.
WE HAVE A MEDICAL profession apparently wedded to the notion that quantity trumps quality. That’s why, although I have no problem with being dead, I have serious concerns about the process of becoming dead. I have no wish to linger for months attached to tubes, or to disappear for years into the mists of dementia.
I have few childhood memories, and I wouldn’t swear to the accuracy of those I have. Still, one from my teens has remained with me.
I EXPECTED TO SPEND early 2017 blogging about my fourth round-the-world trip, which I’d just completed, and planning my next journey. Instead, I spent much of the year on the couch with a heating pad, in between assorted medical appointments, everything from acupuncture to meeting with an infectious disease specialist.
Eventually, I got a definitive diagnosis—I had a form of rheumatoid arthritis—and, in early 2018, an effective medication. But I had been forcibly reminded of something I’d first learned 10 years earlier,
Comments
Tithing is left over from the days of established churches. It used to be a legal requirement and was often paid "in kind". Some countries still levy a "church tax". If you are an active church member it seems reasonable to pay something towards the operation of the church. In general, I think that what is lumped under the heading of "charity" should be the business of the state and be covered by taxes.
Post: Tithing is a mistake … for some people.
Link to comment from October 20, 2025
Sorry things aren't working out the way you expected so far. Nothing to be done about the dog, but maybe an interim schedule would help? Riding at 2:00 on a Monday may not work with your part-time gig, but you can always move the class. Same with the gym. Instead of your wife's "religious functions", maybe there are some volunteer opportunities you could get involved with. I doubt there are many religious organizations that couldn't use another volunteer.
Post: MONTH TWO AND ITS NOT GOING WELL
Link to comment from October 20, 2025
Over the years I've been told that eggs are bad for me, and then good. Butter has been bad for me, and then good. Ditto coffee, fats, carbs, cheese, probably chocolate. I no longer pay much attention to the latest "bad for you" campaign. I enjoy drinking wine with dinner. If it kills me a few months faster, that's OK. At 78 I really don't care whether it's bad for me or not. Actually, if it were that bad I'd already be dead.
Post: Drinking and finances
Link to comment from October 19, 2025
As a fellow introvert I sympathize - and am impressed. I've always said that if I had to sell things to make a living I would starve. Life as a techie was much more relaxed!
Post: The Final Curtain Call: My Double Retirement
Link to comment from October 19, 2025
Congratulations on a successful journey. I agree that it's never too late. I didn't start saving seriously until my late 30s, after I left my first husband and realized my pension didn't have the COLA I would have expected if I were still in the UK. I was fortunate to discover Vanguard fairly early, and to have little interest in possessions and none in shopping. I was also fortunate that the mega-corp was willing to pay my pension and provide retiree medical when I reached 30 years service, even thought the benefits have been progressively reduced.
Post: It is never too late. By Chris
Link to comment from October 19, 2025
Some people get excellent care. A lot of people get OK care. Some people get substandard care. Some people get too much care. Compare infant mortality rates.
Post: ACA Subsidies for Early Retirees
Link to comment from October 19, 2025
The mega-corp I worked for did the same. Now they have replaced the annual payment (which never went up) with a Medicare Advantage plan. It's currently a good plan, with no restrictions on which doctors you can see, but I have no faith it will remain that good, and am on Original Medicare plus Medigap despite the cost.
Post: ACA Subsidies for Early Retirees
Link to comment from October 19, 2025
As I have written here before - probably too often - I chose to move to a CCRC. I will have been here two years at the end of this month and I still consider it one of my best decisions. There is a whole lot going on, I have access to a gym and a pool and a slew of exercise classes, and I am making new friends. My new primary care physician is a geriatrician in the CCRC's on-site clinic. I am walking distance from a grocery store, restaurants and my new dentist, and there's a bus stop outside. When I need more care I will move to the other side of the building to Assisted Living. Of course, CCRCs aren't for everyone, and they aren't cheap, although not always, or perhaps even often, as expensive as the one near Dick in New Jersey. Turns out mine has nine studios, and three just got new occupants with a non-refundable entry fee of $81,000. The ad hoc arrangements described in the article probably work well for families, I have more doubts about unrelated strangers. Even if there are no personality clashes, what will happen when someone needs the kind of help I will get in Assisted Living, never mind Skilled Nursing? They sound more like a solution for the "young-old", those still in the go-go years. You also need to plan for living into the "old-old", or no-go years.
Post: Housing options for older Americans
Link to comment from October 19, 2025
Got it. I use Google as little as possible, although I do have a Google phone. I know the password for my email account, plus when I was traveling I had key passwords on a slip of paper I kept in my money belt. I also traveled with an iPad which I used for any financial transactions - with a VPN.
Post: Digital Lockout: A Cautionary Tale
Link to comment from October 17, 2025
I'm not sure I fully understand the problem (although I do understand the frustration). Why couldn't he access his email on the new phone? I used to put local SIMs in my phones when I was traveling and I had no problem accessing email.
Post: Digital Lockout: A Cautionary Tale
Link to comment from October 17, 2025