My mother passed away at the end of the year, and my brother and I are neck deep in all the “stuff” you have to do (get deeds transfered, sell the house and property, pay her 2023 taxes, sell all the "stuff in her house, and much more.)
She wasn’t rich by any means, but the money she left (my Dad passed away around 5 years ago) me and my brother is enough for me to pay off the house and be completely debt free. My 401K is in decent shape and I have a pension (remember those?) from the global company I left back 20 years ago that has grown nicely. Between those and SS, we calculated we should be able to retire. I have a successor I hired a year ago who I’ve been mentoring who seems ready to move into my office and take over the labs, and I have significantly upgraded this company’s technical capabilities. In short, it’s time.
It’s exciting and scary. My last day is end of June. We’ve got to figure out Medicare and lots of other “stuff.”
Anyone here retired who can offer tips and advice?
If you haven’t already, I recommend a trip through the Retirement Dreams thread: Retirement dreams?
There are others who know a lot more about Medicare than I do, but I can speak to retirement itself…my last work day was back in 2013. You’ll certainly want to keep an eye on your finances, but as long as you’ve got your budget lined up and stay within it, don’t spend time worrying about money. You don’t need money to stay active and engaged - I personally spend a lot of time volunteering, reading, and playing games - but of course if you have the means, you can also do more expensive stuff!
I am not retiring for a while but I have been watching some youtube videos on Medicare and the differences between supplemental plans. Seems that having the right supplemental plan can save a lot of heartache down the road. It gets complicated that advice for one state and what to select can change a lot in another state or some such.
I was wondering if there are any services/advisors that charge a fee to go over the choices (besides sale people).
My cousin is a retired nurse and this is what she does. I’m sure she’s not the only one. It’s complicated and you need a knowledgable, third-party who isn’t selling you anything to help you chart a course.
Sounds like you’ve got all your ducks in a row. Condolences about your mom and good luck on your retirement. I second the advice about the other retirement thread. I may still have a few years, but I’m close enough that I follow that one and will probably follow this one now too.
For supplemental/Medigap to cover the 20% out of pocket, non-drug costs, I got a list from the medicare.gov website vs the many brokers that will tried to sell me this or that. I then took the list and hit up BBB or other service review sites to get an idea of problems relating to claims and other issues. Some reviews can be discarded if it’s something minor like not liking the website. I found 2 plans in my state that weren’t terrible.
The medicare.gov site also allows easy shopping for Medicare Part D drug plans by inputting what drugs are currently needed and it’ll show what yearly out of pocket costs are projected for various pharmacies. However, different drugs will be different tiers, so costs could change in future.
I’ve gone thru hell with a UHC Medicare Advantage plan from a family member’s retired employee group. The ‘all-in-one’-ness is enticing, but it’s a gamble having insurance being the arbiter for care authorization. They’ll automatically and initially deny, deny, deny for anything they can. And I had to see a family member get beaten up and go into depression because of it.
For advising, I tried using the Health and Human Services number for Medicare in my state but the reply time was 3 or 4 weeks and we needed help immediately.
@JeffL I am truly sorry to hear about the loss of your mom. My sympathy to you and your family.
I lost my mom in late 2022, and your laundry list of “stuff” sounds exactly like where I was a year ago. It is an overwhelming amount of work to do when you’re also still grieving, hang in there my friend. Tackle it one day at a time and eventually the list of completed tasks starts getting longer than the uncompleted ones, and then there are no more tasks to do. My mom’s death hit me the hardest on two different days: once the day she passed away and again near the end of that long list of tasks, the day I walked through her empty home one last time after spending months cleaning it out, selling her possessions and walking potential buyers through it. In a way dealing with all of that stuff allowed me to have a sense of closure that I might not otherwise have felt. It was like I was saying goodbye to my mom a little bit each time I closed an account, filed a form, cleaned out a room, or sold something of hers to someone I knew would enjoy owning it. By the time I was finished I felt equal parts sadness and fulfillment. I hope you and your brother can feel that same closure at the end of your process.
Also, Congrats on the upcoming retirement! Still a dozen years out from that myself, so not much advice to give there other than to reiterate the “find a good Medicare Supplemental Insurance plan” advice. If you work(ed) for a large corporation or in the government or education system check with your employer, as sometimes they can help retirees with that. My mom was in higher education most of her career, and her supplemental plan was a really nice one (Humana via Benefitfocus) that her employer helped her enroll in when she retired.
@SlainteMhath thank you. I still find myself wanting to text her and tell her I’m retiring, or call her to talk about something her great grandson did at school.
I couldn’t recommend this enough. There are a class of healthcare providers that are kinda the way we hoped they would be; dedicated to care, savvy to corporate bullshit, able to manipulate doctors and systems to the patient’s advantage, etc. etc. I ran into them from Hospice, that’s where the best nurses go to thrive. Every one was sharp as a tack, every one had at least a therapist’s ability to communicate and suggest. I was just incredibly impressed.
Anyway, sorry I made that about me, but to reiterate it sounds like @TimElhajj’s cousin is invaluable.
First I want to pass my condolences to you and your brother for your mom passing. That period can be especially rough with the family for a whole hell of a lot of reasons. I wish you both well and hope things for the estate progress quickly.
But related to that, if I could, please let me recommend to others dealing with things like that, or how to handle that as you move into retirement with any additional living parents, etc. Locate and use an Elder Law attorney. We’d been battling getting things handled for my wife’s mother for well over a year before we were finally recommended to take that same action, for her it was regarding her owned property, how to get approved for Medicaid to help with retirement home cost, etc. And that 2 hour chat with the attorney could have solved MONTHS of issues we had and also led us down a road that could have saved a lot of wasted money we spent in the meantime.
And to pivot back to retirement, don’t be afraid to speak to a financial advisor who specializes in retirement financial advice. It can save a lot of time and pinpoint things that you’re forgetting or didn’t anticipate in your own planning (or lack thereof.) Even in the worst case: you spend some billed time with someone like that and they check everything over your plan and end up with no recommendations and approval for where you’re at … you’ve still checked your work. Don’t wing it.
I got my official notice in the mail yesterday from Social Security confirming distribution beginning July 1. Thank goodness we have 401k savings too lol.
Hey man, we’re all in the same boat and so many of us are around the same age here too. I’ve read tons of things here that have gotten me thinking enough to look into them.
I just seriously sat in a meeting with an elder attorney, having NO knowledge of what the hell they actually do and saying over and over to myself, “why didn’t we come here sooner.” Sometimes using an expert can really get things to the meat of what you have to do.
I can 100% agree. It’s shocking just how bad the knowledge and support for elder care and post-death care can be, and you don’t even realize it until you finally run into someone who knows what they are doing and cares. An estate lawyer is invaluable, hospice nurses should be engaged way before you think you need them, and at-home care is almost impossible to arrange without a huge amount of luck (and money.) If someone is in their 40s it’s time to start talking to CPAs and lawyers to start wheels turning to prepare for the death of parents. When it gets more critical you won’t have time to do things properly.
@JeffL , sorry for your loss, it can be a whirlwind. One thing I would mention is that if your mother left you IRA/s and you’re retiring, then it’s best you don’t take money out of them until you have stopped earning income, as distributions are taxed as normal income. Wait until you have a zero $ year and then look at tax brackets to figure out what’s an advantageous amount to take out that year, you have 10 years to fully distribute the IRA so you should min/max it.
Edit: Also one other think Skipper said, if you’re in front of an expert and they can’t get to the meat of what you have to do, find another expert. I talked with the simple country hyperchicken lawyer down home about settling my parents’ estates and he couldn’t even begin to tell me time, cost, or steps. He pretty obviously was fishing for me to just say “yes” and then hide himself in billable hours. Then we talked to a proper estate attorney who, in the initial meeting, laid out the entire plan and estimated the costs inside of 30 minutes, and it was much, much less expensive than the bumpkin was suggesting.
