Retirement Rolling Along

 It is hard to believe that my husband retired 14 years ago today, and we moved to Indiana from Texas just a few days later. It doesn't seem that long ago, yet at the same time it does seem like our life in Texas was pretty far back. 

Yesterday while I had a therapy session in Fort Wayne, my husband did some shopping. At Northcrest mall he browsed Kohl's; then deciding he didn't have enough time to look in other stores, he went to AAA also in Northcrest and visited with the travel agent we used  to book our Panama cruise. She advised him that if he wanted to cruise in winter 2022 he should book soon as the ships are filling up fast. I am not yet comfortable with the idea of cruising. Not so much because of fear of getting sick, but because of the risk of cancellation. The bugs in this new way of doing things on board also need to be worked out. 

When he rejoined me, we went to Asakusa for lunch. We have not had much experience with Japanese restaurants. This was a new restaurant for us. We ordered the (Bento) box lunch. For my 2 entrees I selected shrimp and vegetable tempura and teriyaki steak. My husband picked chicken katsu (a sort of breaded and fried chicken tenders) and the Texas roll (sushi). Besides a mound of rice, sauteed mushrooms, and a few carrots and pieces of broccoli, this meal came with soup and salad. The few times I have eaten Japanese soup (miso), I have not been impressed. This soup was not miso. It had mushrooms, green onions, and tempura crumbs. It was delicious. The salad had a ginger dressing. We will have to go back sometime, but in the same strip mall there is in an adjoining building another Japanese restaurant which we will probably try before returning to Asakusa.

I chose this restaurant because it is close to Costco where we needed to stop to buy some hearing aid batteries. It was so hot (upper 80s) and humid, it was wearying just to go from the car to the entrance. We are in a stretch of rainy days. Last Friday we participated in our condo community's garage sale. It rained almost all day and sometimes had downpours. It just started raining now as I am typing this. 

Before heading home, we stopped at Ollie's because of the Customer Appreciation week. The extra 15% off wasn't much of a discount, but I bought two books for $7.25. 

As long as my eyes work, I will be a reader. That is just a normal part of my retirement life carried over from pre-retirement.

My RMD Starts Later

Congress just passed the new SECURE act which makes changes in retirement requirements. I already received a reminder from Fidelity that next year I need to take RMD from my funds. But not so now. I expect I may receive another email explaining the change. Now retirees don't have to take a required distribution until they turn 72. Since my husband and I are living off of his pension and our Social Security monthly checks, unlike people needing that money for living expenses, I can delay taking money and paying taxes on it until 2022. That will simplify my tax calculations next year. 
You can read about the other changes in this article. I had pretty much given up on this RMD change taking place in time to benefit me, but it was tacked onto the new spending bill which passed. 

This Is The Life

I went to the North Webster Friends of the Library sale yesterday. I bought 12 items (10 books, one large-print; 2 audio books) for the retirement library. I bought for myself 2 jigsaw puzzles, and got one puzzle for free as it had a piece missing. One of the puzzles is Christmas/winter scene so I put it away. The free 500-piece puzzle I started yesterday afternoon and finished this morning. I really like it. It reminds me of my beachcombing interests.

The daffodils are rampant around our neighborhood. Tomorrow is the Peabody Retirement Community tulip festival, but I have seen hardly any tulips around here, and those not open. Maybe the end of next week I can travel to North Manchester. We are to be in the 70s after Sunday. Our pear tree has lots of buds; they will probably open into a white canopy by mid-week. The weeping willows and magnolias have their new growth. 

My husband is starting on a big woodworking project for the Chime Choir. They need new tables. He is building a prototype and after he gets feedback, he will build 16 tables to hold the chimes. He did procure the wood for the legs. Next will be the plywood sheets for the tops. 

 

Tonight we will attend a recital at a local church of the students in Grace College's Worship Major program. This is a new program so we don't know what to expect. Grace College eliminated its Music Major program several years ago.

Our Carson's is shutting down (one of the Bon Ton chain stores) by August. So far the liquidators haven't marked down the prices much. I plan to go to the bigger Carson's store in Fort Wayne on Tuesday to see what bargains they have. I will be sorry to see it go away. 

I need to go to the AAA office in that city to make a payment on our 2019 winter cruise. Yes, we put a deposit on a partial-canal trip to Panama with Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Cartagena Columbia as additional ports. This will be on Princess, a new cruise line for us.

Other than a two-night stay at a B&B in South Haven, Michigan in July, we have no other travel plans. 

In the past month there have been over 720 views of my blog by sources in Italy. It skews the statistics terribly and has taken a lot of joy out of blogging. There is no good way for me tell if real people are enjoying and learning from my blog. I wish this robot viewer would disappear. 

Ah, well, at last it feels and looks like spring which lifts the spirits.

What is your financial strategy?

I recently learned of a website that appears to be helpful for those trying to save for retirement or other goals or to get out of debt. Choose to Save is fairly basic, but some of the tools and links are helpful. I took the Retirement Personality quiz. The decisions we make about our finances are rooted in our personalities. If nothing else, this quiz is an eye-opener to how other people deal with decisions affecting the future. It might be a wake-up call to those whose savings “plan” is to put aside what is left each month, which unfortunately is usually nothing. Lots of people in denial as to spending and savings habits.

 

The main point of course is that without any strategy or plan, you are unlikely to reach a satisfactory retirement. Do you feel that your situation is hopeless so why bother? If you do not take any active steps to prepare for retirement, then you will probably not fare very well. It is wishful thinking to count on never losing your employment or thinking you will always be healthy enough to work in later life. You need to take steps now to position yourself for retirement whether that is paying down debt or figuring out likely expenses (there is a calculator on the site) so you can figure out how to live within your means.

 

I do believe the professional financial planning community and brokerages, etc. mostly give advice to sell products or earn commissions or annual fees. However, if you are within reach of soon-retirement, you do need to figure out what your basic expenses might be and how they match your projected income. This site will help.

 

We retired in 2007. Individual medical insurance has eaten up large amounts of cash, but even so we have lived modestly and not really dipped into our IRAs for living expenses. That is fortunate considering that our investments like most people’s retirement investments took a hit when the recession arrived and the stock market fell. And of course one earns peanuts on non-retirement savings as well. Still, God has provided for us and though we may not travel as much as we would like or purchased the pick-up truck my husband covets <smile>, we were able to use some equity from our house to move into a retirement community and buy some new furnishings. We did visit a financial planner in December 2008 for a one-time evaluation. She suggested funds that might be more appropriate to our investment horizon and risk comfort. We did the adjustments ourselves rather than pay her a fee for that service. Being rather frugal, paying a percentage of our funds each year for management just doesn’t sit well. I am also transitioning into low-cost mutual funds such as index funds. We try hard to utilize our savings in an efficient manner by reading resources relevant to our situation. Choose to Save is one such site. You might also find Scott Burn's articles interesting. Just don’t float along without giving thought to your future.