indyfabz

Because I am a lowly in-house lawyer who spent BIG $ on jerseys and thus cannot yet afford to retire.

indyfabz

Thanks. I started developing a plan B yesterday in case heading NW would be unwise.

datlas 

datlas 

Bummer. Some day, I hope.

Speaking of bike touring, one of my club-mates is currently riding from Holland to Spain with his two sons. They are in France right now. They have a good life!

seedsbelize 

Been blissfully retired since the age of 23. Independently poor.

MoAlpha

I want to retire next year every Spring. Then Winter rolls around and I hold off.

indyfabz

For me, it's mostly about health care. I have good insurance through work that costs me nothing out of my paycheck every two weeks. I also have a pension plan, so every month I stay means more money when I retire.

datlas 

Don't get me started on healthcare costs. I have to pay over 25K/year for a crappy high-deductible plan. The only benefit I get is that I can use pre-tax dollars to pay for it. I have 11 more years to wait for Mediscare. Sad!

indyfabz

Is that for all four of you? Remember that I am single with no dependents. A co-worker of mine is married with two kids. I forget what he told me he pays, but I remember it sounding like a lot. Not your kind of a lot, but a lot.

We are covered by one of our owner's plans. I believe it's actually self-insured. My deductible is $1,350/year. (You can also opt for a $2,700/year deductible plan that costs less, assuming you have to contribute.) Max out of pocket for in net work is $6,000/year. No referrals or pre-authorizations needed, at least for things like MRIs and spinal injections.

The reason I don't have to contribute is because I am entitled to 3x my salary in life insurance. I have absolutely no need for life insurance, so I reject it and take the minimum I have to, which is $10K in coverage. The cost savings offsets what I would otherwise have to contribute to my health insurance. In fact, it exceeds it, so I get money added to my pay every two weeks.

datlas 

I want to semi-retire (drop to half time) ASAP. I have to wait one more year to see what pans out with daughter #2 college costs. Then I can do the numbers and work backwards.

datlas 

Yes it's a family plan but 3K deductible for each of us. It's through that big evil company around the corner from you.

FWIW my feeling is that life insurance makes sense for younger people. Buy a level term policy when you are young for cheap and save your money. By the time you are my age, you should have enough in savings that you don't need or want life insurance.

indyfabz

I have no debt, no one to take care of and I would never leave my sister (of any of my other relatives) a penny. Where would the life insurance money go? If I die today, nearly all of my savings will go to a not-for-profit.

rpenmanparker 

Very slight break in the humidity in Houston overnight. Maybe a couple of degrees dew point drop at best. But man, could I feel it on my ride this morning. Same temp as the last few days, but just a little bit dryer.

As far as insurance is concerned, Medicare rules. And the former employer still provides a cheap supplemental policy. Not 100% coverage. More like 80/20, but it is only $54 per person per month, and the in-network out of pocket caps at $3,000 per person. Doesn't really increase the payments that Medicare makes like a 100% supplement would do. It more just extends the Medicare coverages into areas they are weak in like international travel coverage, some mental health stuff, etc. I find it funny that most Medicare recipients never had a 100% health care policy their whole lives, but when United Healthcare/AARP comes calling to sell supplements, they think that is what they have to buy. I'm pretty sure that the annual premium of the 100% "F" supplement is higher than my out of pocket limit, and even with all my ailments, I never have spent all of that.

datlas 

Agree. Of course you could ask that your bike schwag be distributed to some people who would use and/or appreciate it.

MoAlpha

That is a simply insane amount of money. Is it a PPO of some kind?

We have been on Tricare since 1989, first getting care at the old National Naval Medical Center and Walter Reed and then at the new combined facility. It was a mixed bag, but "free." Now we're with the Hopkins HMO for about 1500/yr plus copays, because we finally got sick of the crap primary care clinic at WRNMMC. When we hit 65, Tricare will convert to our secondary payer. It's like living in our own little socialist economy.

seedsbelize 

I forget about health insurance. Fortunately ours is very good here. I rarely had it while living in the USA. We couldn't make it there, in retirement.

datlas 

It is a ridiculous amount of money to pay for relatively modest coverage. Yes it's a PPO but nothing really special. Healthcare costs in USA are out of control and unless you have employee and/or government supported coverage, the cost is quite high. Sad!

MoAlpha

Some doctor talk:

The thing that scares me about the closed systems is surgical oncology. It's so surgeon/center dependent that you can literally die from your network. Friend of mine grew a sarcoma off his diaphragm and around his great vessels. His local oncologist sent him to Georgetown, where their big cancer surgeon (whom no one I talked to had ever heard of) took one look at the scans and ran away. Wouldn't even return phone calls. His staff told my friend to go home and put his affairs in order.

Instead, he got on the internet and found the guy at Memorial-Sloane who does four of these a week. The surgeon, in turn, sent him back to a medical oncologist at GW, right across town(!), who looked at the tumor markers and said, "Yeah, we treat that." He had chemo, went to NYC for radiation, then surgery, got more chemo, and he's recurrence free at 1 year and racing to Bermuda with me next week. If he'd-a listened to the first guy he'd be dead and if he hadn't had the Tricare Blue Cross equivalent, he'd be out a million bucks.

datlas 

Agree it's a problem. It requires people to be sure they are (or have) an advocate. Common things like blood pressure or diabetes or garden-variety heart disease are treated the same everywhere, but uncommon problems may require a second or third opinion.

seedsbelize 

I'm gonna take this out for a fitting in a little while, once the temperature drops below the upper nineties. I truly hope to be well enough to take it out for a real ride tomorrow morning. Without further adieu:

The last bike I will ever buy. That sentence doesn't make sense, but I think I've used the correct form, no? Grammar police?

MoAlpha

That's a pretty bike and I have no problem with the sentence, even though I see the issue.

Rowan

Fitting in with older bikes, I have just pulled an Apollo road bike from my shed to build up into one to go on the trainer.

I got the frame from a shop at a rubbish tip for something like $30, and as I have owned an Apollo in the past and liked it, I thought I would take the Aussie product and give it a new life.

I had bought it for Machka, but I found the top tube is as long as my other pleasant bikes and maybe too long for her, I had started to some work on it, and it was stored on wheels and tyres meant for decent road bikes. I have to get together the BB, cranks with gears and rear gears and chain, plus narrow up an old aluminium seat post so it will slide down the tube. Even found a decent Brooks saddle another in-storage bike which will be ideal.

And, I discovered I had pre-experimented with a slightly wider handlebar than on my Hasa, so there will be a swap there.

Nice week or so of fiddling ahead.

I think I have all the stuff to make it work

LesterOfPuppets

Nice!

Very manly small chainring there.

I hope you can get a proper binder bolt for it down there in the tropics.

Rowan

Interesting read for me on the medical insurance side of things. In Australia, it is a little different, and while I do have medical insurance for me and Machka, it doesn't cost a fortune, and fortunately the hospital and ongoing treatment after my workplace accident has been largely borne by the state through hospital funding, and undoubtedly federal sources for some doctors, too.

I have been hugely lucky to have incredibly talented medical staff treat me and get me a lot better than I was... or in some worthwhile opinions, than I was ever likely to be again.

LesterOfPuppets

Hey, it's Grant Green's birthday!!!

time to chill...