Deeno - You are at least right on one count. I do have a lot of time on my hands, depending on how you measure time. I'll admit I retired a bit early, but you have to understand that I was a workaholic in SV and suffered from significant burnout towards the end. I was also highly specialized and those skills are fading and losing currency, plus a couple years after retiring I suffered a heart attack and a stroke so going back just isn't in the cards. After the stroke they figured out that I was diabetic. It was a tough three days.
I measure time in terms of useful life. Males of our species usually predecease females. In a little over 30 days I turn 60. So I estimate I have 20 to 30 years left max and probably only 10+ years to enjoy the good stuff - skiing, sailing, traveling. I helped bury my father-in-law last week after he had just turned 87. My own father died when he was a couple weeks younger than I am now. That was 40 years ago. Medicine is better these days and I am taking a bunch of pills to keep my ticker going. So work is not in the cards and my long term planning horizon is shrinking.
Basically we have no earned income. We got $200 back from the Fed and State combined for 2005, after having paid $200 combined total. For 2006 we should get the $40 Fed credit and we paid zip. For 2007, I have already started drawing out cash from the IRA. Its either do that or use debt mechanisms such as credit cards or equity lines. I used to do a lot of that as I was building towards retirement. Fortunately I have no debt at present. I do pay a lot in property taxes but most of that is offset by rental income so on the whole we are pretty well balanced. Accelerating the IRA draw down will raise our taxable income, but looking at things simplistically isn't that what I saved all that money for?, not to reward any final beneficiaries.
My basic plan is that we will deplete all cash assets by my age 70, then start peeling off RE assets, to fund life as we go on. Then when the dance is over and we are both called to meet our maker, the beneficiaries can deal with the residue as the probate attorneys refer to it. In the mean time I will ski, sail, travel and yes, plan for our final departure.
They invented those darn ROTH IRAs about 30 years too late. |
