and to Teresa's Particles, I've been introduced to a new blog, Boom2Bust.com -- and the particular pointer went to an article on maintaining one's standard of living in retirement.
One of my friends who retired this past year said he just got a call from his old company, and they want him to come back to work again. Now I will note that he's pretty near a genius, and they are only showing good sense. I'll also note that he started living off his 401(k) and found that he really should have saved more.
The article noted above especially details the amount of money one needs for medical care in retirement, and spots it at 250K to 550K. I don't think that many people have that kind of money set aside for their entire retirement, no less just for medical care. I know that out of pocket medical policies are insanely expensive. Mine has been about 7K a year, and it is a relatively inexpensive policy that I got to by paying 18 months of COBRA and then immediately starting the policy as a guaranteed continuation. There was no inexpensive alternative.
People joining AARP and anticipating reasonably priced health insurance will get a real shock. AARP does not have a regular full medical policy available in most states, but only a couple of wimpy supplemental policies that will pay maybe 200.00 out of a room cost of 5K or more per night. A band-aid on an evisceration, in other words.
Watch your candidates, folks ... see if they speak of the problems that are looming. Most people are headed for financial disaster. Maxed credit cards. Maxed credit. No bankruptcy. No insurance. No money.
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The 250k to 550k figure sounds about right to me. Last year I was able to get a true picture of my parents' finances for the first time. They always acted like they were close to being destitute, but they were doing fine ONLY because by dad had a pension and their health care costs (except for their relatively modest premiums) were covered at almost 100%.
My parents always saved and invested the best they could. Without the safety nets my parents enjoyed, I can't see how too many of us have a chance to pay our way through our retirements.
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