Do you have a stash of cash squirreled away somewhere to help pay for unexpected expenses?

Even if you pull out the plastic to cover the expense, you still need to pull money from somewhere to pay the credit card bill when it comes due.

Life continues to happen in retirement. Murphy certainly visited our home recently.

Due to supply chain issues during COVID, we’d paid to have our nearly 10-year-old dishwasher repaired twice so we could continue to have a working dishwasher. Not this time. Dishwashers are available again without a 12 month wait. When the appliance repair technician presented me with a quote of $488.10 to repair the dishwasher door on Monday, it made more sense to replace the unit. I declined the repair, paid the diagnostic fee and proceeded to Home Depot purchase a new dishwasher. It’ll be installed on Saturday.

In mid-July, I received a notice the company who handles my health insurance premium billing would be transferred to a new servicer. Shouldn’t be a big deal, except we’d paid a few months ahead and had a credit balance. The letter stated that the credit balance would not transfer to the new provider. I would receive a refund within 30-90 days along with “their apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.” This suddenly meant I now had to come up with the funds to cover 2 – potentially 3 – premium payments while I wait on my refund.

My COBRA payments have to be made via ACH transfer or check – not credit card. And COBRA rates aren’t cheap either! Thank goodness for the emergency fund! Fortunately, we won’t have to pay COBRA rates once I’m eligible to be “officially retired” in a few months. The countdown is on to return to active employee/retiree rates.

My point for sharing this is an Emergency Fund is a necessity – even for retirees. Start with $1000, then work your way up to one month of after tax income. Continue until you have six months of expenses saved up. Do not spend this money on new clothes, vacations or other niceties. It is for unexpected car repairs, medical bills, home repairs and true emergencies like a job loss. If you are heading toward retirement, aim for THREE YEARS of living expenses in your Emergency Fund. You can use this money to live on while riding out craziness in the stock market. You won’t have to sell assets at a loss to raise funds for living expenses.

Now that the kids are back in school, isn’t it time you went back to school, too?

Hear me out.

One of the secrets to staying engaged and mentally sharp as you get older is to adopt a lifelong learner mindset. Are you curious about something? For quilters, is there a better technique to make multiple HSTs or FG? Do you want to learn how to knit, crochet, paint or even play pickle ball? Do you want to learn conversational Spanish? Signing up for a course is an option, but there are so many other ways to learn that might be a better fit for you (and cost less).

Join/visit a local group/organization that hosts a weekly/monthly craft night.

Visit a retail store that caters to the subject that interests you. Is there a demonstration available? Handouts or free project pages for beginners?

Explore resources available at your local public library. Check out books, read digital magazines and take free online classes (Craftsy/LinkedinLearning). Some libraries feature Maker Spaces with equipment you can use at designated times. Your local library may also offer meeting space for a crafting group.

If you meet the age requirements, your local senior center is often an excellent resource for classes, groups and social outings. The senior center near where my Friday sewing group meets has long arm machines available for use. I will definitely be looking into this!

Subscribe to a special interest group on Facebook. I have learned SO much about vintage sewing machines from my FB groups: tools and supplies that actually work, sources for vintage parts, downloadable machine and service manuals, plus who not to hire to repaint my Featherweight.

YouTube and Pinterest are digital tools that I find extremely helpful for adult learning. YouTube offers video content on most any subject out there. It will take an investment of your time to curate channels & content that meet your needs, but you can learn to DIY a lot of things using YouTube. You can follow and subscribe to channels you find helpful and create your own playlists of videos you want to bookmark for future reference. Pinterest offers a similar platform to locate and tag written and photographic content (e.g. tutorials) that is also very useful.

Once you’ve learned a new skill, be sure to share your knowledge with others – write a blog post, teach a session at your guild meeting, post on Instagram, share informally at a retreat or at craft night. Don’t keep it all to yourself!

Are you a teacher in Georgia who is vested in the TRS plan, but don’t think you can make to 30 years of service or age 60 – the magical time you can apply for retirement benefits?

Attend a TRS pre-retirement counseling session. Go to a group informational session and follow-up with a one-on-one session with a TRS counselor. You can do this more than once, if necessary. TRS is your best source for retirement planning information for non-traditional retirement scenarios – not necessarily your district’s HR office.

If you fall between 10-25 years of service and are still under 60, you have a decision to make:

Do you want to continue health insurance benefits into retirement? If so, do you have 5 years of service credit prior to January 1, 2012? If not, your premiums are going to be much higher because you’ll fall under a different retirement subsidy scheme. I bring this up because many folks who took a job with the school district in the late 2000’s as a second career with the promise of a pension and health insurance after a 10 year vesting schedule are now ready to retire and are learning that their health insurance premiums in retirement are way more than they expected.

If you elect to continue health insurance benefits into retirement, how will you cover the insurance gap to make sure you maintain continuous SHBP coverage between your last date of employment and your first pension check? COBRA and State Extended Coverage may be used to fill that gap. If you’re vested in TRS, then you qualify to keep your SHBP coverage in force as long as you are willing to pay the COBRA premiums. There’s some paperwork you have to complete at each stage and you have to stay on top of deadlines, but the option is available. We are utilizing this option and I would still be working if this option were not available.

Your retirement pension amount is calculated on the average of your highest salary over 24 consecutive months of service. If you quit, then go back for a year at a much higher salary, you’ll earn service credit, but that salary won’t count toward your pension calculation. Likewise, if you move to a part-time TRS covered position or one at a lower salary, you’ll earn service credit and your pension will still be calculated based on your highest salary over 24 consecutive months. Moving to a part-time position was my back-up plan in case we couldn’t figure out how to cover the insurance gap between last date of employment and official retiree status

Important dates to keep in mind:

Official retirement date: 1 day of month following your 60th birthday.

Application window: Anytime from 6 months prior to your 60th birthday up to your 60th birthday. Earlier is better.

First check: 15th of month following your 60th birthday. 1st of month every month thereafter.

Your first pension check will not include a deduction for health insurance, so you’ll have to cover that yourself if you’re keeping SHBP coverage in retirement. Make sure it is billed correctly at retiree rates! I’ll be on top of that! You have no idea how much we are looking forward to paying retiree rates after several months of COBRA payments.

Disclaimer: As stated earlier, your best source of information is directly from TRS. Each person’s situation is different. I would have never known about the option to use COBRA/SEC coverage had the TRS rep not told me about it in early 2020. My district’s HR office didn’t know anything about it.