Retirement

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We have been retired for seven years, and to date it is the best time of our life.  A year and a half ago we began campground hosting, and we love it.  It is all volunteer work, but we do get our campsite free.  We get to see a lot of country and meet a lot of nice people.  We have hosted Turkey Run State Park in Indiana, Patagonia Sonita Creek Nature Conservancy in southern AZ, St. Croix National Scenic Riverway in Wisconsin, Calf Creek Recreation Area at Escalante, Utah, and will host the Caloosahatchee Regional Park at Ft. Myers Florida this winter.  So far this year we have been home for eight weeks.  Ruth won't leave now till after Christmas, and I was ready to leave a week after we got back.
 
Wow, not sure what is getting into my husband.  We had to drive to Liberty today to take care of business. We were talking about him getting his part of the motorhome done so DD and I can use it maybe in January to run down to Corpus Christi or those invirins for a first run.  He said oh, if you and Sue Anne really enjoy using it we might consider getting a DP and a newer one later.  What am I hearing??  He goes, well TV and satellite would be limited, I'm saying why, its just a fee. He likes driving places, that isn't an issue, so if he drove till I got good to help that would work too.  He wants to work till age 66, needs to do that to get full SS, he will be 64 this year so not that far away.  He was talking about working till age 70 but I would prefer he didn't.  Of course that depends on his health which is excellent. It's just hard as he says to give up a good paycheck since he also enjoys what he is doing.  He has to pass a physical each time he goes on a new overseas assignment, his upcoming one is in Angola.  As my doc says I'm healthy to, I just have quality of life issues, stomach problems, flat feet, very very flat feet, so back problems but nothing life threatening and yes I know we are blessed. He takes no meds, I do only for stomach issues and some arthritus.

I'm telling him that lots of folks on the forums are saying the Bluebird Wonderlodge or just a Bluebird brand is a really good motorhome, even the older ones.  He said oh we can look into that later if you decide this will be fun.  But he thinks maybe we should buy a lot maybe one in the east, west, south, and north so we can park there and stay awhile, I would prefer not as I would like to go new places.

Well what can I say?  But Sue Anne and I love to fish, hubby could care less, yes, I know very wierd in my opinion.  But that's ok, we can fish and he can fiddle.  He likes sitting around and talking about oldtimes so I'm sure he would find lots of guys to talk to around campgrounds. He also would jump inand help anyone that needed it.  So things are looking up, we shall see how it goes.  We are just so overwhelmed with work around here right now, we prioritized the things he has to do, then will have as a bonus anything else we can do.  Had to hire a carpenter to do our addition, he finally realized he just doesn't have time.  Thats new too.

 
 
Social Security is actually a pretty good government run program.

If you start collecting at 62, and have some of it taxed because you continue working, SS recalculates your benefit and you end up with higher  benefits in the future.

If you start collecting at 62 and later start working again, you can suspend your SS benefits, and when you restart, SS will adjust your benefit to reflect both the new earnings and the fact that you stopped collecting for a period of time.

If you start collecting at 62, you can at some point pay all of it back (without interest??)  and SS will recalculate your benefit as if you started at the later date.  This may be beneficial if you have the funds, maybe from an inheritance, selling a home etc.  You then get the higher benefit from that point on.  (Could be better than purchasing an annuity!)

For couples it is worth doing a bit of research on various options, especially if one spouse has had significantly greater earnings than the other.
Since I am not married I haven't looked to closely at those options.

Dan
 
wdhul said:
For couples it is worth doing a bit of research on various options, especially if one spouse has had significantly greater earnings than the other.
Since I am not married I haven't looked to closely at those options.

Well, not all couples. Tom & I, together for 35 years (most of our lives together), has a large difference in incomes but the problem is the so-called DOMA.

-Don- SF, CA​
 
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