Bogleheads.org

Sheepdog

This actual married couple's medical health care cost history may be of some help. Other's history would be different, of course. Total medical cost in retirement, 1999-2017 for 2 married persons. (I retired at 65 in Oct. 1998.): 1. Medical, dental, sight and hearing expenses, out-of-pocket, over th...

Sheepdog

My car is super old but I just keep driving it. They say drive it until the wheel fails off. We once owned a car that had a wheel come two different times. So I think we are getting their. No one was hurt but I will always remember that wheel passing the car it went a long way. Off subject, but you...

Sheepdog

Attend an appropriate city/county council meeting and be prepared to speak in the public comment period. Sidewalks costs lots of money. Councils must set priorities. Do many walk like you? One person will not do it.....have as many as possible to attend. Create a petition, go door to door to get tho...

Sheepdog

We have our trust with will, etc. set up. Our 2 sons know that they will receive approx. half of our investments. They know the charities where the rest will go and are happy with that. Only one charity knows their bequest and that will be our house. They can dispose of it as they feel fit. That wil...

Sheepdog

What was our total cost of car ownership the last 10 years (2008-2017) . Two seniors, owning and driving two American branded autos Average annual mileage per car 7500 Includes all relevant expenses such as gasoline, maintenance, taxes, insurance, auto parts and accessories, auto purchases (after tr...

Sheepdog

I called the hospital and ask for discount since the amount was substantial. they offered none and said I had to pay all of it. I guess it depends. Repeating again....the hospital had already negotiated a price reduction with the insurance company earlier. They wouldn't (couldn't) negotiate with th...

Sheepdog

Decided to look and comment......don't know why.
23% stock -0.61% YTD return

Sheepdog

I am in my mid 80s and, fortunately,almost any auto is fine with me. (Although I sold my 1960 MGA two years ago.....getting harder to get out of.) My wife is "only" 78, a kid indeed, but she has some mobility problems and has difficulty getting into my 2010 Ford Edge (I am keeping this one for anoth...

Sheepdog

Investopedia has instructions which you may wish to read https://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/05/011005.asp It includes suggestions already written from Bogleheads, but all in one place. For example, a section begins with: Failing to withdraw your RMD by the applicable deadline may resul...

Sheepdog

Sounds like a good plan. I plan to do similar. I'm wondering how I might document that plan in case I die first Ha! I understand!!! I have written things down and explained, but I doubt if my love will follow it. Thru most of my years with her, I know she will budget things the way she wants to. I ...

Sheepdog

. How much cash do you keep on hand? It's not necessarily "cash" but it could be checking, short term bond funds, money market and maybe even shorter term CDs coming due. Without being too long winded....I am retired. I have a set percentage to take from all accounts...for me it is 4.5% a year. I h...

Sheepdog

Marketwatch published an article this week at https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-new-trump-tax-calculator-what-do-you-owe-2017-10-26?siteid=rss&rss=1titled "The Trump Tax---Will You Pay More or Less". Complete the "Tax Calculator". See how you stand. Interesting look. (I am not helped as it shows...

Sheepdog

I know where 100% of our spending has gone for the last 20 years using Microsoft Money. dknightd I think this is the hardest category to budget for "expensive one time projects". How you budget for that? How do you "pull the one time projects into a separate category so that they can be accounted fo...

Sheepdog

I may be the most senior contributor on this thread. Present age is almost 85. Stock allocation has been based on my ability and need to take risk. At retirement at age 65 it was near 60% stock and all future income would be from SS and investments only. I only needed to invest for total return to m...

Sheepdog

For my 20 years I have taken out as needed. I do not increase or decrease with inflation. I scheduled a maximum average annual withdrawal of 4.5% I performed an arithmetic exercise of what my annual withdrawal would have been if I took out 4% of my initial balance and increased it by the annual CPIU...

Sheepdog

edit to add more about income tax. My last year employed (1998) income tax totaled $24,000. My income tax for 2017 was $160. That's a lot of extra available spending money. My spending, including taxes, was $84,000 in 1998 and was $73,000 in 2017. My nest egg today is 44% higher than when I retired...

Sheepdog

I have used AARP The Hartford for4 years for my Homeowners and Auto insurance. I went to them then because of lower rates. I went through a major search then looking at a good number of insurance firms. The rates increased negligibly until this year. This year the Auto policy went up 15.4%. Last yea...

Sheepdog

In fact, Bogleheads know that between eliminating savings (like 401(k) contributions), eliminating payroll taxes, eliminating the mortgage, and often reduced income taxes, they can live the same lifestyle in retirement on less total income. That hits us (wife and I) exactly).....20 years retired......

Sheepdog

The important thing in investing in and for retirement is to have your safe plan in place when financial markets do collapse and they will. For example, I live off of my savings and SS only.....no pensions and have for 20 years. I knew what to do before the 50% 2008-09 collapse, but greed got to me ...

Sheepdog

I prepared and e filed my and 2 friend's federal and state returns using free OLT (OnLine Taxes).

Sheepdog

The stock markets were closed for Good Friday

Sheepdog

I define my income coming from Social Security and investment's Total Return. I see no reason to break down Total Return. Since, on the average, my nominal assets increase slightly most years (neglecting inflation) I don't spend all of my "income". Yes, that is a simplistic view, but it is the only ...

Sheepdog

Sheepdog, You've posted these numbers before, but as I recall, they are nominal, not real? If that's the case, your spending has dropped, not increased, through the years. 64k in today's dollars is quite a bit less than 57k in 1998 dollars. Yes, of course, these expenditures are nominal as all mone...

Sheepdog

MnyGrl, How much do I need to plan for when Medicare kicks in, if one is reasonably healthy? I wrote our (my wife and I) in-retirement medical cost history a couple of years ago. I copied it for you. This is not our estimated health care costs in retirement. (I retired at 65.) This is our actual cos...

Sheepdog

There are studies, but individuals seldom match a study. Mine doesn't. All retires are not the same. Spending, of course, relates to how much has been saved and how much other income you may have. What is your lifestyle? We bought cars on a scheduled basis before retiring. We traveled domestically a...

Sheepdog

19 years 6 months out. Accounts are still growing, spending is still growing and that is with very conservative investments. That accounts growth is nominal growth, but if I recalculated my growth for the affect of inflation in this period (real growth) it is virtually even. (A good Boglehead calcu...

Sheepdog

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Sheepdog

19 years 6 months out. Accounts are still growing, spending is still growing and that is with very conservative investments. That accounts growth is nominal growth, but if I recalculated my growth for the affect of inflation in this period (real growth) it is virtually even. (A good Boglehead calcul...

Sheepdog

Mr. BB is correct. A short history of my in-retirement "budgeting: Since all of my needs and luxuries come from investments and SS only, I have to watch my savings balance. During my 20 years in retirement, I have not budgeted specific amounts for items , but I do have an average dollar amount taken...

Sheepdog

Magesty Palm grows reasonably well indoors with decent light. Sunlight is not required. They will grow well. "Dumb Cane" (Dieffenbachia), a larger leaf plant will grow 4 to 5 feet or so. If you have a Lowes, you can probably find both indoors there. They are not very expensive and are available at m...

Sheepdog

flyingaway wrote: ↑
Mon Mar 19, 2018 12:16 pm

Did your investment make up for the money spent?

Yes, it has....invested very conservatively (age in bonds until it reached 77% bonds (23% stock)) where it has remained. My nest egg is about 42% more than when I retired 20 years ago, and after taking out an average of 4.59% a year.

Sheepdog

Maurie Backman, The Motley Fool, wrote this retirement financial article: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/retirement-cost-average-american-828-124700312.html It states "One of the most challenging aspects of saving for retirement is not knowing how much money you'll need to pay the bills in the futur...

Sheepdog

I have a card I don't user much but I've had it for 25 years, so I'm keeping it for that reason alone. The same here, but it is 31 years old (Discover which I use only for their quarterly special 5% rebates.) My most active cards (because of rebates) are 6 years and 1 year old. I still have 5 other...

Sheepdog

Withdrawal percentage 2017 4.06 2016 1.93 2015 3.51 2014 5.12 2013 4.28 2012 3.18 2011 7.52 2010 4.89 2009 3.11 Average 9 year 4.18% All spending needs come from savings and Social Security only. Okay, you have mine. What does that tell you? Extra note: I am 84. Investment's worth on 12/31/2017 is 5...

Sheepdog

I haven't been there recently. It has been an interesting and diversified travel destination. Google "is it safe to travel to morocco 2018" or any other travel question you can think of. Try Trip Advisor as well. You will find some good information it appears.

Sheepdog

You wrote: Possibly there is a package that would have let me file both federal and state returns for free, and maybe next year I will find it - or maybe in 2018 I can achieve perfect buy-and-hold, with no gains from sales to report . I have used free tax software and filed electronically for federa...

Sheepdog

I am an 84 year old retired person. I purchased "enhanced dental" as an addition to my Anthem BC BS Advantage plan. The underwriting insurance company is Liberty Dental. It cost me about $40 a month. The Advantage plan already includes twice a year exams, bite wings and cleanings so the $40 monthly ...

Sheepdog

delamer wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 08, 2018 11:25 am
We get this request periodically from AmEx. It is phrased something like “so we can make sure we are offering you the best product for your situation.”

Which I interpret to mean “so we can annoy you with marketing e-mails for products that you don’t want.”

I always ignore them.

ditto

Sheepdog

Oh well. I didn't see this until now and I was really looking forward to attending my first one on the 20th anniversary of my retirement. (Oct 2, 1998 was the actual anniversary.) Sigh....... That's too bad Sheepdog. Maybe next year for both of us. I am sure I am not just speaking for myself in say...

Sheepdog

Oh well. I didn't see this until now and I was really looking forward to attending my first one on the 20th anniversary of my retirement. (Oct 2, 1998 was the actual anniversary.) Sigh.......

x

Sheepdog

From Investopedia Vanguard Blows Past Rivals in Target Date Fund Assets https://www.investopedia.com/news/vanguard-blows-past-rivals-target-date-fund-assets/?partner=YahooSA&yptr=yahoo According to the report, Vanguard had $632 billion in total target date fund assets as of the end of last year. Tha...

Sheepdog

Regarding the Kennedy decision, I am confused as to whether the decision would have been the same had there been a QDRO for the account in question. Perhaps a SIP isn’t subject to a QDRO. Regardless, I am still uncertain as whether a QDRO would be outweighed by the existence of a beneficiary design...

Sheepdog

My wife suffered a massive stroke last April when she was 70 (71 now) and will likely be in a nursing home the rest of her life. I don't have LTC insurance on her, and it's costing me well over $6700 per month to keep her there. I hope to be be moving her to Texas soon where the costs are less, but...

Sheepdog

This is another way of saying the same as Rick, but adding in risk tolerance. Holding cash as a portfolio position provides benefits for aggressive traders as well as investors with less tolerance for risk. Aggressive traders can take advantage of portfolio liquidity for opportunistic purchases, whi...

Sheepdog

Ron wrote: ↑
Sat Mar 03, 2018 1:25 pm

What's most important is that I received my first SS check/deposit last month ...

- Ron

Congratulations for your good planning. Enjoy your retirement.

Jim

Sheepdog

Our (retired couple) ratio of minimum vs discretionary expenses over 2016 and 2017 was 52.5% minimum and 47.5% discretionary As an example of what I considered as minimum expenses were groceries, general house expenses (maintenance, supplies, garbage disposal, homeowners insurance, etc), medical and...

Sheepdog

0.3% in 2017 and 2% in 2018. (Social Security)

Sheepdog

I have seen a time like the present before, haven't I? Be calm, friends, this too shall pass. This may take a while or may just be a blip, but be prepared....including your emotions.

Sheepdog

We are a retired couple, ages 84 and 77 at the end of 2017. I can give you our costs each year since 2010. Our out of pocket medical expenses for the last 8 years are listed in each category are: (First amount shown is for 2010, followed by 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017} Medical insuranc...

Sheepdog

miamivice wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 01, 2018 12:27 pm

Why do you say 100k property damage seems low? I think it'd be hard to do more than 100k property damage in an accident.

Not too hard.
1. Ever read of a vehicle running off the road and hitting a house?
2. How about hitting a loaded truck?

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