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Hello!! HAPPY HUMP DAY to all!! Three hump days left with the last hump day being my last working day, except for one day the following week. I have to split it because if you take 5 days of sick days you need a doctors excuse. Actually 15 and a half days left to work...which sounds too good to be true!!!! Adding my friendly humpday pals plus pic of my new puppy. One of my retirement presents to myself. Also have 2 cruises booked for another 2 presents to myself!!! HAPPY HAPPY!!!:)[ATTACH]333564[/ATTACH]

 

Deb

Where are you going on your next two cruises? Kevin and I are actually doing two cruises this year. At Easter, we are going on the Quantum before it leaves the US. We will be diamond after that cruise. We can drive or take a bus to New Jersey. At the end of July we are going to see our new grandchild in San Antonio. We thought that since we already paid airfare, we could cruise out of Galveston which we have not done for years. We got a wonderful rate a few weeks ago.

Hey Debbie,

I found a blouse with camels on it. A perfect Wednesday outfit.

Is it really that wonderful day today. I have one day left to work this month, 14 in December and about 10 in January..WOW!! Doesn't seem possible. Took the day off today to watch grandkids while mom and dad are at the hospital with the latest addition to their family. They had a 7 pound baby girl!! So HAPPY HAPPY HUMP DAY TO ALL!!![ATTACH]331609[/ATTACH][ATTACH]331609[/ATTACH]

 

Not the regular but will be celebrating soon!! WHOOT! WHOOT!!!

 

Deb

Congrats Deb! We will have number 6 in June.

Well I am NOT retiring yet :), but my friend (she had never cruised before) and I just got back from a short cruise.

 

I had never done a short cruise before, always a 7 day or longer. I had some vacation to use up, so we went on the Carnival Sensation, an older ship where I had read quite a bit of "negative" reviews on this ship recently, but decided I wanted to "make up my mind" in regard to this ship on my own.

 

We cruised to the Bahamas, and I "tried" to bring back the warmth to Kansas City, but it would not come, and we NEED the warmth bad right now. :) We found the Sensation, even though it was an older ship, to be a good one, with plenty to do, and the personnel, in "every" area of the ship were just as friendly as could be. We had a great time, and Judy got HOOKED on cruising, and can't want to do another one. :)

It is so easy to get hooked! Cruising is a great way to travel.

Of the five teachers that retired from my school in the last five years, 4 of them are now subs except for the one that moved to Louisianna (in your part of the woods, Debbie).

One of the teachers at my school gave every teacher a small camel to display on Wednesdays.

No, not missing that part, testing, grading, or Common Core.. EEK!!!. Ours is Friday and I will be laminating and cutting things out for the next week. Lol, not going to sub for the first year off because for some strange reason it is not allowed. Might do it after that but not for extended times. Like at the most 2 times a week....lol;)

 

Deb

Each school system is different. When I retire (a few years down the road), I plan to either sub or work part time. I can collect my pension and still work for ADW as long as it is less than 20 hours. But that is down the road.

Question??? How many times do you check your calendar to see how many days you have left to work??? My answer is almost daily now!!! And checking off each day with a permanent marker...6 days left in November, 14 days in December and not a whole lot of days in January!! Not sure because of vacation days and definite retirement date not yet set. Whoot! Whoot!

 

Deb

Hi Debbie,

Today is my second day of parent teacher conferences. I know you are not missing that part of teaching. Are you going to sub after you retire?

We got into cruising about 8 years ago after my husband was sick for two years. I thought traveling would be out of the question for the rest of our lives because of his neurological problems. But actually it is the best way to travel for us ( unpack once, no driving, all details taken care of and a medical unit close by). Some cruises have been the departure port, some the ship, some the price of the cruise, and others cruises where it was going.

As for drawing SS and working at the same time, I have never had a problem in receiving my SS for several years. I don't make top dollar, but then I don't make the lowest wages either. I do work for a large corporation, and have been working for them for 16 years. I had heard that you could only make so much, and I had talked to my SS office, and they said I could draw all of mine and still work full time.:)

Could I ask how old you were when you started getting SS?

Yes, the full retirement age is dependent on the year you were born. I have been reading everything about retirement from SS to figure out when I will retire. If I go three more years (after this school year) I will turn 66 in Feb. of that year. I can start collecting SS which I plan to do and still work. I am thinking about one more year after that (67) so that I can put some money in the bank. But let see what life brings.

I also found out that I can collect my pension from the school system and still work for them but it has to be 20 hours or less. I just want to keep my options open because life can change in a moment.

I can't keep my health insurance from my job. When I quit it is gone, so we will have to get gap insurance.

Decisions about retiring are just as important as choosing your career.

I am quoting from the link that was posted.

Starting with the month you reach full retirement age, you can get your benefits with no limit on your earnings.

If you look at the SS booklet that I got from SS on p. 6, they have a chart to determine what is full retirement age. If you were born between 1943-1954 (which is most people on this site), full retirement age is 66. It goes up with each year after 1954. 1960 is age 67. My children have to probably work to age 70.

On p. 13 of the SS booklet it says "In the year you reach your full retirement age , you benefits will be reduce $1 for every $3 you earn over an annual limit until the month you reach full retirement age. Once you reach full retirement age, you can keep working and your SS benefit will no be reduced no matter how much you earn."

Once you hit retirement age (66 for most of the people on this line), you can collect SS and continue to work. At this age there is no limit as to the amount of money you can earn. You are limited to amount you can earn if you retire early (62-65). One of the teachers at my school is has been collecting SS for the past year. She turned 67 recently and plans to work for a few more years. By the way, her mother lived to be 102.

NIH is a few miles from my house. We have students in my school who have parents that work there. This is not the first time that we have had an outbreak. There was one in 1976 and we made it through that one.

We are from Milwaukee originally and I know beer made Milwaukee famous. My husband helped to design some of the bottling machines in the breweries.

I was 20 years old when Milwaukee county lower the drinking age to 18 because the surrounding counties (like Racine County) was 18. But onboard so you don't run into problems I would follow their rules.

Hmmm . . You should check with a professional but I believe the teacher at your school may be correct. Your parent being able to "gift" anyone -- children or anyone else -- a certain amount each year tax free is correct also. (This amount may be changed from year to year by the government.) Care should be taken not to drain the finances of the parent, however. But I would definitely seek professional advice. :)

According to my sister who talked to her lawyer, he said that if I inherited $13,500 from my mom after she died, I would have to pay taxes. But if she gave it to me before as a gift there are no taxes.

The teacher at my school said that when her mom died (at the age of 102) she inherited money but did not pay any taxes. She said that it has to be a large amount of money to pay inheritance taxes.

Just checking for people who have had experiences with it.

Since I have gotten a lot of good info about retirement on this site, here is another question. My mom is in her mid-80's. My sister reworked her will when my dad died. Her lawyer said that she can give the kids gifts of $13,500 while she is living to avoid us paying inheritance taxes if we got it latter. One of the teachers at school said that there is only inheritance taxes on large amounts of money. I always thought their was that tax no matter how much you inherited.

Got information on my pension yesterday -- looks like I filled out all the paperwork correctly! Now have to figure out the Medicare for DH starting in December. Then nothing else to do until I turn 65 next October. Whew!! There is a lot to do but now the payments will be automatically deposited into my checking account. That sounds nice:)

 

BTW, went to what would have been my new school last week. The school is beautiful and, for a change, nothing was skimped on the classrooms. But everyone was going crazy! Schedules for teachers seem to be changing on the hour, no paper of any kind, no working copiers or printers, technology all messed up. I left with a smile on my face making sure that no one could see! Katherine

Sounds like a normal school. My schedule has been changed 3 times since last Wednesday. Our smartboards will not be here until Sept. 14. But my classroom is ready for tomorrow.

I live in the UK. I have put in a claim for my state pension as I am eligible to receive it soon. Anyone claiming state pension during a qualifying period receives a one off payment towards cost of heating in the winter. I will also be able to claim a bus pass for free travel at certain times of the day. I think I will be able to use that anywhere in England, but not Wales or Scotland.

 

Everyone pays national insurance, which goes towards all social security benefits.

 

 

 

There are some advantages to getting older! I have been getting free prescriptions since I was 60. It's good to get into the cinema etc at a discounted rate.

I will get a pension from the school system that I work for and social security from the Federal government. We get health insurance too but not all things are covered so we need supplemental insurance. We get a lot of prescriptions and they are not free. Thankfully, the most I have to pay is $60 for a 3 month prescription. We get all kinds of discounts after 65 in stores.

We sold our home. It was big, 4000sq. feet and only the two of us. We wanted to travel. Sold it, put everything in storage (8X8X16 container), and travelled for seven months. We only used 3 rooms so why pay the taxes, utilities, and insurance.

 

Feels so liberating to downsize

 

Back now, renting. Looking to buy a condo or something that we can lock the door and walk away from. Next five out of seven months we will be travelling so that purchase may have to wait until next spring.

 

Moving away from our children? One has moved away. The other is back in town but has worked overseas. Who knows where he and his SO will end up.

 

We may in fact continue to rent and buy something in a warmer climate instead.

We live in a small house. In fact, it was built in 1951 after the war for families needing housing. It never had an addition like some in the neighborhood. When we bought we had 3 kids and planned to add on but we thought Catholic school would be the best so we had tuition. Then college, we only paid for 1. Two years ago I cashed in an annuity and we redid our basement so we now have two bathrooms, storage, a family room and extra bedroom. Two of our sons moved to other states (but we did that too when we were younger) but our daughter lives here. Now we have room when people come to visit and room for our two grandchildren here. We did get rid of a lot of things because most of the basement was used for storage.

If everything goes to plan I will be taking the 'retire and return' scheme at the beginning of 2015. I will get my UK state pension in a couple of weeks, and the winter fuel allowance this year. I am applying to take my occupational pension from the beginning of January, and going back to work three days a week. I need the extra cash from working, and would get bored if I didn't have that to do.

 

With my Epic transatlantic and Braemar mini-cruise as well as Christmas preparations, it doesn't seem that far off!

could you explain what the winter fuel allowance is?? What kind of health care do you have? Trying to see the differences in countries. I will work part time when I retire for the same reasons.

Actually school starts for the students on Monday. I am ready.

Between the traffic and the taxes in Montgomery County Maryland (DC suburbs) I can't wait to leave. There is a significant difference in cost of living in Delaware,and no sales tax. Real estate taxes are so much lower...and it wont take over an hour to drive 13 miles, my current commute to work in DC.

 

Just 8 more weeks: 25 work shifts and 15 vacation shifts...my last day is October 14. After 45 years of nursing my working days are numbered!

My son and daughter-in-law are both nurses. My son worked at Walter Reed Hospital (or Wallyworld as they called it) when he was stationed here. His wife worked at Children's Hospital. They lived in Silver Spring not far from us but I don't remember how long it took them to get there. My son had to help out at the Pentagon a couple of days after 911 to care for the workers who were doing clean up.

Between the traffic and the taxes in Montgomery County Maryland (DC suburbs) I can't wait to leave. There is a significant difference in cost of living in Delaware,and no sales tax. Real estate taxes are so much lower...and it wont take over an hour to drive 13 miles, my current commute to work in DC.

 

Just 8 more weeks: 25 work shifts and 15 vacation shifts...my last day is October 14. After 45 years of nursing my working days are numbered!

When we left Wisconsin 28 years ago, we were happy to pay the property taxes in Maryland because they were lower. Sales taxes in Chicago and San Antonio much higher, although Texas has no state tax. So you have to play the game and go with what makes you happy. We don't drive a lot and we have a hybrid car so we get our gas in PG county about every 3 weeks. I live about 10 minutes from the school that I teach in so traffic is not bad. I do have to pick up my grandchildren at times in Laurel which when the weather is bad can be challenging.

We are originally from Wisconsin but have been in Maryland for 28 years. I have one son in Chicago and one son in San Antonio so we have family all over. My daughter and her family live about 10 minutes from us so I don't want to move even when I retire.

Can someone explain to me why people that retire sometimes sell their homes and move?? I'm sure there are many reasons, but leaving your home and family seems sort of sad to me. Am I missing something???:confused:

 

Deb

As someone just said, there are many reasons that people move. My friends are moving back to be with their kids. Her parents up and moved to NC after they retired. I think if you are in a cold, high cost area money might be an answer.