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The following is a post on a blog – part of a discussion why seniors should not pay property taxes.
What caught my eye was “we planned ahead” and “Plans changed. He passed unexpectedly.”
“We planned ahead, made sure that we were out of debt when we retired. House and cars were paid. We sold our family sized house and moved into a one smaller one, paid it off. That was the plan and we were comfortable with both receiving SS and his police retirement.”
“Plans changed. He passed unexpectedly. It’s true that we hadn’t been in our smaller house for 30+ yrs and I don’t have a mortgage, but taxes / insurance / living expenses / and now healthcare expenses. . .”
Did they actually plan ahead? Was one of them passing during retirement to be considered unexpected?
We don’t know all the facts, but no life insurance, no investments? I would conclude they did not plan very well, at least planning for a surviving spouse.
“I’ve been waiting for 1/2 of his retirement for 3 yrs and find living solely on SS next to impossible.”
Not knowing the full story, I can’t comment on her pension, but that should take a month or so not three years-another factor in poor planning or understanding their benefits.
There are a lot of people like this out there either not planning or thinking they have planned, but didn’t. 😢
This poor woman also asked if any of the blog readers had any suggestions 😱
At least living mortgage-free was a good part of the plan. She can either stay in her home or sell it and move to an apartment, if necessary. I remember a former pastor once making a request for contributions to a widowed parishioner so she could stay in her house. My thought at the time was that she needed to sell it. Relying on fellow parishioners for handouts didn’t seem like a sustainable plan. But, as above, not knowing the whole story, it’s easy to come up with a simple solution. Judge not lest ye be judged.
What happens after the first of us dies, is one of the first questions to ask of your planning.
The pension could be many things. Did she sign off, giving him the life only option? If not, I’d suggest getting her state representative involved. There seems to be something going on that she does not understand.
Absolutely right.
That is sad. Did they not understand that one SS payment would disappear when the first spouse passed? And I don’t even understand about his police pension. Sounds like maybe it wasn’t set up properly?
Definitely a cautionary tale to dot all of one’s i’s and cross all the t’s before making big retirement decisions.
It is sad, but I have to say it all my years conducting retirement seminars for our workforce, I am not surprised at the lack of planning or knowledge, especially among spouses. We had arguments break out in our sessions when a spouse learned something she was not aware of or had been (intentionally) left in the dark by the husband. One woman started beating her husband with a rolled up newspaper.
If I butcher the famous quote by former President Eisenhower: “Plans are worthless, but some plans come in handy if well conceived and thought through. Unfortunately, I’m guessing this person had one of the worthless plans.
Certainly an incomplete plan.