The Hidden Costs of Retiring Early

yahoo ^ | Friday, December 5, 2008 | Angie C. Marek

[BenLurkin]

Back when Mark Turetsky was an entrepreneur, building a business empire that sold pork rinds, cotton candy and beef sticks in bulk, he seldom worried about insurance. His only health hiccups were high cholesterol and acid reflux—common problems for a guy his age. So he had no qualms about coverage when he decided to take the plunge and retire early, at age 55.

The qualms kicked in later, when Turetsky, still eight years away from qualifying for Medicare, looked into buying new health coverage. His insurer told him that now that he was buying on the so-called individual market instead of through his company, the annual cost of covering himself, his wife Stephanie and son Jacob would more than double, to $27,600, or the price of a Honda Accord. And when Turetsky shopped for a better deal, things got Kafkaesque. The local Blue Shield affiliate told him it didn’t cover anyone in Greenfield Park, N.Y., the rural township where he lives, because the area is “riskier than average.” The AARP’s “young retiree” health plans, he learned, aren’t even offered in his state. Turetsky joked with Stephanie that he’d become a greeter at Wal-Mart if it would keep his medical costs down. Ultimately, he bought the only policy he could find, which doesn’t cover some routine doctor visits—and still costs him almost $13,000 a year. Suffice it to say, this wasn’t part of Turetsky’s script for retiring young. “This whole insurance thing,” he says, “entirely blindsided us.”

[Chickensoup]

Most early retirees I know work a small part time job to pay for insurance.

[WalterSkinner]

BTTT

[VOA]

health-insurance-insanity...
bump

[VOA]

“
Most early retirees I know work a small part time job to pay for insurance.
“

Apparently because they HAVE to.

[2banana]

In the decades after World War II, of course, most retirees could count on generous health perks, and those who retired before 65 could usually get the same bounty if they’d logged enough years with their employer

They could also be expected to die at age 62...

[mylife]

I was just squawking about this yesterday

[SamAdams76]

I do not understand. Health care is expensive. Those "big bad corporations" that everybody likes to yip-yap about are subsidizing health care for millions and millions of employees. Corporations often pay 70% or more of the premiums on behalf of their employees. Because the health care is subsidized, employees often do not realize the true cost of health care. Instead they moan and groan about the token premiums they are asked to pay by their employer and feel ill-used.

As for retiring early, that is overrated as well but that's a subject for another article.

[JoeProBono]

[bpjam]

let me just pretend to be your typical liberal bureaucrat big-government socialist:

This guy refused to buy insurance during all his years despite having the money and he contributed to the high cost of health care by not participating in the pool. The only solution for this man is single-payer healthcare which Hillary tried to give us and the Gingrich Congress destroyed.

But seriously, in NY state there are places which don’t offer insurance??? Where is the NY State Insurance Comissioner? How did this guy get to 55 and never buy health insurance? $13,000 is enough for a typical gold-plated plan like the ones in Congress. This is one incredibly out-lying case wihch doesn’t need to be solved by the Federal Government. And this guy can always go back to work since he ‘retired’ from his own job and not because he had to.

[mylife]

I bitch because my employer agreed to give me certain benefits ad part of my pay package but they change my benefits from year to year in cost and quality.

They agreed to give me medical as part opf my retirement package and then after 15 years of working for them in earnest the took that benefit away.

That is BS

[Chickensoup]

Yes because they have to ...duh.

The article is whining aobut how they are going through their principle...well, someone who has paid famly individual premiums for twenty-five years, I guess the answer is...these people didnt research their retiremnt costs very well. Heck I was paying 1100 per month for health insurance for my famil in 2001. Premiums for individual policies did not just skyrocket, they have been high for at least 15 years. this is not rocket science.

[VOA]

The Hidden Costs of Retiring Early

From what I've seen over the past three decades:

1. Don't retire early unless there's a juicy separation/parachute
attached.

2. Don't take a private sector job (as my friends that took
boring jobs with the Federal government will retire fat and happy
at 55...in much contrast to my fellow college grads that took
private-sector jobs).

Call me cynical, but that's what I've seen amongst my fellow
Chemistry grads.

[Amelia]

You’d think he’d have looked into that before deciding to retire.

[HighlyOpinionated]

Work for the State or Federal Government and get vested. Then when you’re 60, if you’ve been vested and are working for a different State, you can draw your retirement from your other State(s) as well as draw your income. You don’t ‘gain’ anything by not taking the money at age 60.

I have always told EVERYONE to try to locate a State or Federal job. HOWEVER, States like Georgia are now “out sourcing” their computer maintenance and who knows what will follow. One guy I know will still have a job with the out-source company, but he will have nine years ten months in with the State . . . just two months shy of being vested when his job transfers from State to Private Sector. Bummer for him.

I was very fortunate and I also retired early while the getting was good. The month after I retired there was a major change in the way Medicaid casework was handled. I’m too much a people oriented person to be happy just doing tons of paperwork with little interaction with clients.

[hinckley buzzard]

“This whole insurance thing,” he says, “entirely blindsided us.”

It shouldn't have. It should have been a priority concern ahead of time to get this lined up and nailed down. Bad planning and naivete by the pork rinds guy. Too bad.

[boxer21]

Well, it has happened to the best of us and the worst of us. Corporate promises aren’t much good even if they are in writing. Conditions change and the past can’t be dragged into the 21st century.

I know this: eating well but not too much plus getting exercise is probably the best medicine and you don’t have to join a fitness center for that.

You don’t have to go to the doctors every two weeks just because he says to - tell him maybe every six months unless your condition is serious.

Use generics.

Get a policy that has that high deductible and pay for your doctor visits; if things go south, at least you won’t be bankrupted.

Expect to pay for your care - there is no such thing as free healthcare; if you believe that than you are not being realistic.

If you smoke, drink heavily, guzzle down 64oz bottles of soda every day, eat a lot of sweet stuff and sit on your butt - you get no sympathy here.

[gbs]

National Health Care sales coming from a politician near YOU! Just another way to sell it to the sheeple!

[Crystal Cove]

Where did you come up with the idea that he never puchased health care insurance? The article says he never worried about insurance, but I didn’t see anything that said he didn’t have insurance while he was working.

I have insurance, and I never worry about it.

[avenir]

“As for retiring early, that is overrated as well but that’s a subject for another article.”

Still wouldn’t mind hearing your thoughts on it, though. It’s a subject that interests me as I don’t see a)being able to retire early or b)wanting to.