We’re heading into retirement, and I need to talk to a financial person about how to order our 401(k)s and IRAs so that they are at the correct risk level. Then after we retire I need to change investments so that they produce an income stream. I have no idea how to proceed.
I can’t discuss this with other people at, say, work, because talking about money just isn’t done among polite people. I try to do research online about professionals, but they are all about saving for a retirement that’s years down the road. I contact one or two professionals, but they want to talk to me about making sure we have life insurance and medical insurance, etc., and they also want to do our taxes. That’s not what I want.
I’m all at sea about how to order finances when on the verge of retirement, and can’t get the advice I need. I suppose I’ll have to order up a copy of “Retirement For Dummies” and go from there.
I feel ya, brother. We have a family member that we thought was going to be protected against hookers and blow through a trust, only to find that, since he was a named beneficiary on all his accounts, he’s going from ‘broke, living under his father’s roof’ to quite nearly rich…and zero life experience to learn a little restraint.
So the feelings aren’t “hey! Helluva windfall!” It’s “dear lord, I hope this guy we care about doesn’t end up homeless in 18-24 months”.
Twice?! Twice is a good night for me. Add enlarged prostate to the OPP list.
I stopped to pick up a bag of sugar on the way home today. A ten pound bag and it felt like 50. Honestly, when did I get so weak? Maybe I should start using a bag of sugar as a workout weight.
You might ask HR or the company you’re paying your 401k into. Know that you’re not alone. Im finding that, while I’m still 10-15 years from retirement, I have a weird decision with what to do with a PERA account in about 8 years. Lump sum? Monthly for just me? Monthly for me and the wife after I die…I HAVE to make a decision?
My current company’s retirement company wanted me to consolidate with them, but their package was earning 14% and the one from my last employer was earning 17%.
When you consolidate…dija know they mail you a live check? In the mail. Like junk mail?
We consolidated all of our IRA accounts a plowed them all into a single account. Much easier to keep track of and manage. I opted for the least risk, because reasons, and I missed the recent big run-up in the market, but I don’t miss the stress of seeing the downswings. Between that retirement account and the other retirement (government, military) income, we can draw down at this rate of withdrawal until we’re 92 or so.
Mine, last week, had a USTreasury check in it; with no explanation whatsoever.
After hunting up advice on how to tell whether something actually is a USTreasury check, and waiting a few days in case a letter of explanation showed up, I went through the process of finding out how to find out why one has such a check with no explanation. (I was afraid it was a mistake, and they’d demand it back later.) Turned out to be a refund of something I was owed six years ago.
Add cherry juice to your Keeping Gout at Bay strategies. You probably don’t remember my Bout of Gout discussed here a couple of years ago (that’s okay), but I read a lot on it and cherry juice helps.
I once knew a woman who studied nutrition a lot. She said that people often overeat because they think they’re hungry when in fact they’re thirsty. Broth (Better than Bouillon) was enough to get me through.
My two most recent complaints: 1) My left elbow. Sometimes it seems to want to come apart, like the tendons and muscles and whatever are getting sloppy at the joint. Fuck, that hurts. 2) My right thumb. Sometimes I push down on something and owww, is there a bone that’s going to break? Most of the time these two things are fine and if I’m triggering it I don’t know how. I had a knee replaced at the end of August so maybe arthritis is just going to be my thing.
I wish. Four is my average. There’s nothing wrong with my prostate or my bladder, it’s my sleep apnea. Even with the CPAP, I guess my sleep is more easily interrupted by bladder urges than is normal. On the plus side, I have absolutely no problem falling back asleep, so there’s that.
Add lazy leg veins to my list. Now I have to wear compression sox and use a lymphedma pump a couple times a week. I had a sore that just wouldn’t heal, didn’t turn into an ulcer, thank og, but yeah, lazy veins ferchristsake. (Also called correctly, chronic venous insufficiency)
Just know that most insurers will not pay for an MRI unless certain indications are present. If you’re willing to pay for one out of pocket, that would solve that issue.
I guess I better check that before I go. The only way I can still move is with about 9 Gabapentin and two or three Motrin every day and even that isn’t doing the trick very well anymore. I had a shot in my neck about 11 years ago that worked like a charm, so maybe my history will allow for it. I’m on medicare now.
Thanks Doctor QtheM. I am so frustrated and uncomfortable that I didn’t think about the possible charges.
We were (are) pretty confused/uneducated/out of our depth regarding post-retirement finances. Our credit union has a financial advisor whose services are free to us, altho he does earn a commission on the products he sells. We’ve been working with him for 8 years now, and it’s been great. We’re nervous/low-risk so he set us up with a couple of annuities when we rolled our 401k accounts. Mine has more than doubled in value, and we don’t anticipate touching it till I have to at 70 1/2. My husband’s has almost doubled (it was a different fund for reasons) and since he’s younger than I am, it’ll be longer till we have to tap into that. We’ve got a third one that’s a little higher risk, and barring some unforeseen financial need, it will be our grandkids’ college fund.
Short suggestion - check with your financial institution and see if they offer such a service. Or join a credit union that does.
CPAP saved my life. After dealing with the crooks that sold it to me. ($1200 for a $450 unit)….and then Phillips told me using it was gonna make me DIE and recalled it…and I needed to deal with the crooks again. (I didn’t add it up, it’d just make me mad. At least it was pre-tax money)
But then my brain took back hold and I’m back to waking up at 1:30 to 3am most nights. At least working from home I can get back 90 minutes or so if sleep at 5am. Used to be I’d wake at 2am and that’s it…I’d be boned for the day. Falling asleep at street lights.
I had been waking up in the middle of the night, thinking I had to pee…turned out it was because I was snoring. I started sleeping on one side, stopped drinking, and made other changes, but what I wasn’t discovering was that sleep apnea was causing my blood oxygenation to drop too low. This leads to long term kidney and liver and heart damage, makes driving dangerous, and you just feel miserable.
HAVING a CPAP is wonderful…dealing with RoTech to GET the CPAP…then doing it again two years later when the first was recalled, was a Royal PITA.
While I still wake up at night, when I’m sleeping, the quality is significantly better.
Agreed. I’ve had one for roughly a decade now, and after finally forcing myself to acclimate to the weird sensations, I’ve been sleeping wonderfully. Oddly enough, my average was 7.5 hours before retirement, and now it’s up to 9.5 average. Apparently I was really sleep deprived while working.
I tried to get another one, or a backup model, or something. But the CPAP-Industrial complex tightly controls the market and prevented my access to a new one. God forbid I should get one, set it to the correct Hg amount and begin using it without their grubby fingers in the deal.
I went on EBay and other market websites, and finally found my exact model for sale. It had about 50 hours on it and the previous owner had given up. I offered $200 and now have a backup unit exactly like my original, with the same settings. It’s in a case in the bedroom and I test-run it a few times a year to ensure everything’s working. My old one hit 30,000 hours recently and automatically reset itself to zero. I guess they didn’t plan on it working that long (although I would’ve expected something like 32,767 hours instead of exactly 32K). I expect the old one to fail any day now, but I’m ready when it does.
