Making a big decision [Early Retirement]

[Kraken]

This would all be easier to figure out if I knew (a) how much money Blue Hills will really earn in a year, and (b) how long I will really live, but those are both unknowns at this stage.

Unless you have some really bad chronic diseases, why are you assuming you won't live longer than 78 years? I think the average male life expectancy in the US of a 62 year old man is 82 years. I think there are online tools where you can input your health data and they can give you reasonable estimates.

Unless you have chronic health issues, or really, really need the money, taking SS early is a bad deal. It is a siren song that lures far too many people into making a bad financial decision.

Lifelong smoker, overweight, heavy drinker. One life expectancy calculator says that I can expect to live until 86.3 despite all that...so by waiting I would enjoy a net gain of $460/mo * 96 mos past break-even = $44,160 more in total benefits. Not chicken feed. OTOH, in just a few weeks my income will fall to $0 + $???, so I'd really like some guaranteed money now.

Most likely I will push hard for editing work through 2019 to see what $??? works out to. I can't make a smart choice until I know that (and waiting even one more year would increase my monthly benefit somewhat).

I need $15k per year to live the lavish lifestyle to which I am accustomed. That's 300 hours of editing. That's only 6 hours a week, so one regular gig would do it. This year I only made $5,400 from Blue Hills, but I wasn't pushing it hard because I still had my Curio City income.

[LordMortis]

How Much Can I Earn And Still Get Benefits?

You almost ruined everything

For the earnings
limits, we don’t count income such as
other government benefits, investment
earnings, interest, pensions, annuities,
and capital gains.

Whew.

[Scuzz]

So you can make a set amount before the SS benefit is reduced. that is what I thought.

[em2nought]

because I still had my Curio City income.

What are you doing with Curio City, selling to someone or just shutting down? I keep inadvertently reading about "digital nomads" making money from drop shipping. I think drop shippers are just middlemen, taking a cut sort of like a freight broker. I saw mention of a delivery van somewhere when I briefly searched here for "Curio City" so I assume you don't do that, I wonder if you could convert Curio City to drop shipping and shift the labor intensive stuff to other people online?

[dbt1949]

For all those planning to retire, what are you plan on doing the rest of your life?

[em2nought]

For all those planning to retire, what are you plan on doing the rest of your life?

If I was to base the answer off what I've witnessed with my mother I'd say going to doctor appointments, but I'm going to answer with Thai bar girls.

[Kraken]

because I still had my Curio City income.

What are you doing with Curio City, selling to someone or just shutting down? I keep inadvertently reading about "digital nomads" making money from drop shipping. I think drop shippers are just middlemen, taking a cut sort of like a freight broker. I saw mention of a delivery van somewhere when I briefly searched here for "Curio City" so I assume you don't do that, I wonder if you could convert Curio City to drop shipping and shift the labor intensive stuff to other people online?

I am liquidating my inventory and closing down to focus on my editing business.

I did some dropshipping. Curio City advertised the products, took the orders, and collected the money, then sent the order to the dropshipper for fulfillment. They would bill me for the merchandise and shipping charge, plus a small dropship fee. That usually worked out OK, but it put me at the mercy of the shipper -- I couldn't control when or how the item was shipped, and if a customer complained, I was stuck between them and the shipper. I hate relying on other people/companies, as they seldom met my own high standards. Also, the markup was lower than I could get by buying in bulk and shipping orders myself.

I considered keeping it going in a reduced capacity, selling only dropships and proven bestsellers, but after 13 years I'm sick of retail, and it's gradually gotten harder and harder for a small company to survive. There's a reason there aren't many mom-and-pop shops online anymore. But that's a long and complicated story.

For all those planning to retire, what are you plan on doing the rest of your life?

My editing business is completely portable, and I can take or leave assignments as I see fit. So I expect to keep doing that forever. "Retiring" just means taking social security, not that I'll ever stop working entirely. I already consider myself semi-retired (just don't tell Wife that), so I don't expect retirement to be much different than my current life.

[em2nought]

I am liquidating my inventory and closing down

Thanks for the reply.

I had a small snack food delivery business at one time, twenty years on I still have the occasional nightmare of not having ordered enough of a particular nut and having to place a second minimum $1000 order way too soon. LOL

[dfs]

There's a reason there aren't many mom-and-pop shops online anymore. But that's a long and complicated story.

I know it's tangential to the thread, but I would be interested in hearing your perspective on why this is so.

[Kraken]

There's a reason there aren't many mom-and-pop shops online anymore. But that's a long and complicated story.

I know it's tangential to the thread, but I would be interested in hearing your perspective on why this is so.

In a word: Amazon. In 2005 they still did not have their fingers in every pie, nor did they define standards that everybody else has to meet. I targeted the novelty/gift store niche because there was no online category-killer at that time, and because it was fluid enough to allow considerable adaptation. Today Amazon blots out the sun, and customers have been trained to expect immediate free shipping, no-hassle unquestioned returns, etc. Only big guys can offer all of that profitably.

I won't even go into marketing and SEO, except to say that if you want to compete for eyeballs, you have to spend big bucks for professional help. The days when you could afford to bid on effective keywords are over. That's on Google.

They tried a few times over the years to recruit me as an Amazon seller, but (a) the economics didn't work (they take ~20% of every sale), and (b) one must surrender one's independence to join the collective -- you have to conform to so many standards that they define your business, and you're effectively working for them. They own the right to market to your customers, and they own all of your sales data. If your product is too successful, they can (and do) simply take it over.

In the end, 85% of my revenue was going to my product vendors, Google (for advertising), PayPal (credit card processing), my CPA (tax prep), state government (taxes), and a smattering of small vendors like my web host, packaging supplier, etc. I couldn't make it on the remaining 15%.

Finally, complying with ever-changing technical and security standards became too difficult for a non-technical guy like me, and I got tired of trying to keep up.

There is still room for independent sellers who have exclusive products -- things that you manufacture or import yourself. (I tried to develop some products like that without success.) But for all of the above reasons, you need to do enough volume to pay a marketer, an IT person, and an accountant, in addition to enough people to fulfill high sales volume. I just don't think it's possible for a one-man, home-based operation to make it anymore...and that's all I ever wanted to be.

[Madmarcus]

For all those planning to retire, what are you plan on doing the rest of your life?

Focusing on my desire to make things and/or try out new skills. I have no idea if I'll ever have grandkids but I'd like to be the cool grandfather who has a workshop. Of course that's not cheap which tends to work against retiring early.

[Jaymann]

For all those planning to retire, what are you plan on doing the rest of your life?

Playing video games, a lot of reading and audio books, driving Uber on the weekends and growing marijuana plants (which was denied me in my youth). The grandkids are a sinkhole for any spare time.

[Hamlet3145]

Add me to the list of people who probably won't ever fully retire. My job is teaching online university classes. As long as my brain still works and I can prop myself up at a laptop for a few hours a day I'll be able to do it. This also pairs well with retiring to a beach in Thailand. (You can get a retirement visa anytime after age 50 as long as you show that you have about $26k in a Thai bank account--it's still your money; you just need to maintain the balance to renew yearly).

[LordMortis]

For all those planning to retire, what are you plan on doing the rest of your life?

Right now don't care. The first thing is get to a position where I can not work and still afford to live. Then I can figure out what old man life perpetually being on summer vacation of a 13 year old (plus bills and house upkeep) will be like. My guess if the first two years will be spent doing not much at all. After that, it's hard to say. Charity work would be nice with the problem being I won't want to commit to it like it's a job. That would make it... a job.

[Grifman]

Whew, just got through filling out my application for ACA (Obamacare),and whew, glad that is almost over. I had previously estimated my income so I was ready for that but I was totally surprised about all the questions that they had about my current employer coverage and potential employer coverage. They wanted to know who to contact at my employer about my current coverage (as if at a multi-billion dollar corporation there's one person to call), and questions about my current premium cost and future premium cost if I took my employer coverage. So I had to go online and scramble to find that info. But when it was all said and done, I was accepted, and am eligible for up to $1,040/month subsidy (woot!). I did call their hotline twice with questions and the service was prompt and agents seemed to know what they were talking about, so go govt! Process still took me about 2 to 3 hours in total, longer than I thought.

Well, that was enough for one night, I'll make my policy selection on Monday, since the President Derp has the exchange shut down for "maintenance" on Sundays. But that shouldn't take long as I have already done my research and know the policy I plan to take. So far so good!

[Kraken]

2-3 hours of work seems like a reasonable hurdle to clear for $1,040 per month.

If Wife can hold on until her 10-year anniversary, her employer will basically give us free Medigap insurance for life. (I don't know exactly how it works, but I do know that works out as almost-free healthcare for life.) Even if she didn't love her job, she'd stick with it just for that. Fortunately she's totally down with working for another 5 years, and possibly beyond that.

We're just 3 years away from Medicare, so our insurance outlay should take a healthy cut then.

[em2nought]

I was accepted, and am eligible for up to $1,040/month subsidy (woot!).

The federal government should just buy everyone passports and health insurance in South or Central America. They could even provide free airline tickets and still save BIG bucks. LOL

[LordMortis]

Whew, just got through filling out my application for ACA (Obamacare),and whew, glad that is almost over. I had previously estimated my income so I was ready for that but I was totally surprised about all the questions that they had about my current employer coverage and potential employer coverage. They wanted to know who to contact at my employer about my current coverage (as if at a multi-billion dollar corporation there's one person to call), and questions about my current premium cost and future premium cost if I took my employer coverage. So I had to go online and scramble to find that info. But when it was all said and done, I was accepted, and am eligible for up to $1,040/month subsidy (woot!). I did call their hotline twice with questions and the service was prompt and agents seemed to know what they were talking about, so go govt! Process still took me about 2 to 3 hours in total, longer than I thought.

Well, that was enough for one night, I'll make my policy selection on Monday, since the President Derp has the exchange shut down for "maintenance" on Sundays. But that shouldn't take long as I have already done my research and know the policy I plan to take. So far so good!

And wow, on the other stuff. Is that because some sort of COBRA coverage or does the ACA always work this way.

Congrats on the subsidy. :envy:

[Grifman]

Update . . .

Finally selected my plan. Managed to find a Silver plan that covers my primary care doctor, $0 premiums after the subsidy (!!!), deductible $250, maximum annual expense of $600. I have probably underestimated my income by two or three thousand per year, but I'd rather owe the government than have them owe me. Also managed to find a decent dental plan (no subsidies there). It covers a maximum of $1,000, while my former employer dental covers $1,500 but the premium here is $55/month cheaper than my former employer, plus my dentist is in network on this new plan, so overall I should come out ahead on this! Because of my periodontal disease I'm a heavy user of dental insurance so this was a good find.

Regarding LM's question about all the questions asked about my employer insurance, my guess is that they want to be sure that the Marketplace is indeed a better choice? I really don't know, seems strange to me, especially since I told them I was retiring.

I was surprised by one thing about the process. I really thought I would be challenged in some way on the huge drop in my income from 2018 to 2019. I read some experiences of other early retirees using the market place and minimizing their income and they got a lot of questioning about their income level, and had to go round and round until they got final approval. My approval was quick and automatic, and I've not heard anything since I got the email saying I was approved. So now, that's all over with and I am counting down the days . . .

[Kraken]

Nice. Obamacare subsidies are one thing I don't mind seeing my tax dollars used for. You're welcome. (And yes, I know the financing is a little more complicated than that.)