In Retirement

I was mulling over a thought recently. It seems that over the last nine months I’ve become so enamoured with the fixed income I secured with an annuity when first retiring that a little voice in my head keeps whispering to load up on some more.
At the moment I have a term annuity that lasts ten years and covers all my essential spending. Out of curiosity I decided to get some quotes for a single payment immediate annuity (SPIA).

A personal story – I’m not advocating anything.. Well, I take that back, I think Dr. Quinn is spot-on when he says you should begin benefits when you need them and the heck with the fancy math.
I’m 66, wifey is 65. She’s never worked since our marriage 42 years ago.. Well, I take that back, that woman has out worked me beyond measure. 5 Children. Homeschooling. The youngest is now 30. 9 Grandchildren. Threats of more.

We recently watched a Netflix series, The Beast In Me. A looked down upon family member, was asked why he didn’t want in on the greedy wealth that his brother and nephew had. His answer, “I’ve got something that they don’t; enough”.
I think that sentiment holds a lot of wisdom for many of us as well.

I’ve been thinking about a retirement scenario lately, a thought experiment that says something about how I spend my morning drinking coffee in the sunroom…it probably suggests I should go for a run rather than thinking.
Picture this: You’re facing a savage 25% market drawdown that grinds on for a full decade. You’ve been sensible, maintained a proper cash and bond cushion to weather the inevitable storms, but after five years drinking latte’s and ignoring the situation,

I wrote this for my blog and will use it in the future, but I thought HD was a good place to get feedback.
First we eliminate all existing retirement vehicles – 401k, 403b, IRA, Roth , etc. all terminated, no longer permitted. 
They are replaced with one standard plan whether employer-based or not. One set of limits, rules and regulations. All contributions on an after-tax basis. All earnings tax-free upon withdrawal but not before age 55 or disability.

For many years I, and probably many of you, have been reading from the gospel that people, on average, will collect the same amount of money from Social Security without regard to the age that benefits begin. 
The thing is, we have been preaching that gospel for as far back as I can remember. Actuaries calculated this decades ago, and over the years, life expectancy have increased. An exception was during COVID, still, the mortality tables have us living about 3 years longer than 30 years ago.  

Jonathan used to chastise me for saying that I thought a good goal for retirement income was to replace 100% of base pay or salary- excluding overtime and any form of bonuses. 
I was making a suggestion, opinion, not suggesting a requirement because given most people don’t reach that goal, it is obviously not required even while desirable. 
However, that’s the way Connie and I live. In fact, between my pension and our combined social security,

MY RETIREMENT HAS been wonderful so far. Honestly, sometimes I have to stop and remind myself how lucky I am. Rachel and I have our health and enjoy each other’s company, which is not always true when a couple retires. However, there are four things that concern me as I reach my mid-70s.
Loneliness
I tried calling Mark, my old high school friend, a couple of weeks ago, and I haven’t heard from him.

Yesterday an involuntary chuckle escaped my mouth. I hadn’t entirely lost the plot and descended into madness—I happened to be thinking about my financial arrangements for the first few years of my recent retirement and in retrospect, I found them amusing.
On Humble Dollar we all, I assume, like to think of ourselves as rational and reasonably “on the ball” when it comes to our retirement portfolio and finances. One of my choices makes me question my right to claim the same ability.

I’ll go to with the basics, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
But if you look at the popular rhetoric on social media and from several senior advocacy groups, you will see “we” deserve more, we earned it, we paid our dues. “We” being seniors, the elderly.
I don’t feel that way at all. I don’t want to see more resources diverted to those of us who were fortunate to achieve those age designations, especially at the expense of the younger generation,

Drleftys comment on a recent thread about retirement anxiety got me thinking: Dana isn’t alone in this. Why does the early”golden age” so often feel more like free-fall, and what can we do about it?
For decades, you’ve been sold the vision: retirement is the ultimate prize. A perpetual vacation where the most stressful decision is whether the day starts with a third cup of coffee or a walk in the park. But for many who actually arrive there,

Ben Carlson’s column today is a reprint of a method for sustainable retirement spending. You start by calculating your spending requirements in retirement (although I don’t see an allowance for inflation) and have four year’s worth set aside in cash or cash equivalents by the time you retire. Then there are rules for when you withdraw from cash or stock, and when you replenish cash. It sounds like the remainder of the portfolio is all in stock.

Recently Connie and I got together with friends, two other couples who live in our 55+ community.
We are all among the most fortunate retirees. It costs a minimum of $26,000 a year just in taxes and HOA fees to live where we do. 
One of us has a pension, one fellow ran his own businesses, went bankrupt once, but started another business many years ago sold it last year. The other man worked for a large company but saved diligently to enable them to move into our community. 

This past week I received notice that my radiologist’s office experienced a “data security event”. Name, social security number, date of birth, driver’s license, incriminating pictures of my herniated lumbar disc, etc., could have been obtained. I’ve lost count of how many similar letters I, my spouse, and my children have received over the past years. For early ones, I took them up on their offer of one free year of credit monitoring. Several years ago,

American social security advice is admirably clear, I’ll give you that. Delay Social Security until seventy to maximize your monthly benefit and create the ultimate hedge against outliving your savings. The maths is clear and unarguable, an eight percent per year, guaranteed return for every year you wait past your Full Retirement Age. It’s presented with such confidence, if only one’s life was such a tidy actuarial table.
But for millions of Americans, watching this from my perch in the UK,