Dreamin ... Dreamin on a Sunday Afternoon

Good morning ... Please believe me we’re feeling no pain ... and that’s goes to say, yet we’ve not drunk a drop of anything more serious than plain old Folgers blend. We are just soooo into it being the weekend! You know its to the point that I am thinking ... we’re in general a pretty happy sort. Usually, even on the weekdays. Most things go along smooth as long as we get to bed early enough for the early morning hours. In talking to our friend the other day, he made a comment that he can be on his own for about 1 ½ hours - 2 hours, but other than that he generally likes to be around people. We’re just not like that. I think our tolerance for being on our own is more like 3-4 days. We’re guessing given a month or two practice we could surely extend that too! That is 3D people. Computer people are different. Of his variety, I start to miss after ½ to 1 day. Maybe I would be sociologically considered only half socialized. Hmm interesting. Maybe the computer has become my Waldo Emerson Pond.

Yesterday, was a people day, as it turned out. My friend came by a couple of hours early with a surprise. He not only brought beautiful purple and yellow flowers, he brought the fixings for a whole pre-Thanksgiving meal. And then ... He COOKED IT!!! Man-o-man ... just doesn’t get any better than this! It was the most lovely time. While the turkey was doing its thing, we sat in the living room and talked and talked. That is the thing I miss the most. I can let go of the movies, the mall trips, Saturday morning breakfasts, and walks in the park. But, I do love to chat! We were going on a general manner. He was describing things going on in his life and plans he was making ... and, we got in this mood. It’s been a unspoken concern, but of late, we’ve been wondering what’s going to become of us and how one day will we retire?

That point seemed then to take up the rest of the young afternoon. I know that I will never get married again. Haven’t looked for it in a long time. So, that being the case, "How would things work out?" My friend is in general pretty darn smart about how life works. It seemed at first the last thing I wanted to think about was moving again, but he made a pretty convincing argument. Basically, he was saying that we needed to secure the cost of our housing so that we are going to be able to live on a very frugal budget. I didn’t like what he was saying aboutworking past my prime at all as he is planning to do with his umpiring and independent selling of small jobs for the disabled.

I did come to believe and am still thinking that we are going to have to start saving and saving soon. We used a calculator on line and it said that at our income, adjusting all the while, for small 3% increases and the cost of living ... IF we saved about 10% ($350) a month, we would have enough money with social security to last until about age 76. That is a pretty sobering thought. I know we’ll get some kind of pension from work, but I haven’t the slightest how slim that might be. AND, we’re going to have to think through that Sr. Tess could leave the Center one day that leaves our job slightly precarious.

The last thing we were going to need doing is to purchase a place, and after quite a bit of thinking we realized that we should start thinking of getting a place paid for in the next 15 years. Like MAN ... big adjustment here! Mainly there is just no way we’re going to afford rent on this apartment after we retire. BUT, we’re still going to need a place over our head. There are two ways of looking at the expense of our own place. To get it down to numbers that are reasonable for us, we’re going to have to be able to survive on an SS income (if SS is still there) of $2,550 a month. That’s about 60% of what our income is or project it to be in 15 years. So far so good. Next, is to block in our mortgage amount. On a $120,000 house which is reasonable enough for our status in life ... with 20% down ($24,000) at a fixed rate ...the estimated payment for 30 years (until we’re age 75) would be $580. That's like 33% less than we're paying now.  Shoot taxes ... ok that's then like $730 a month or 16% less than were paying now, but at least it wouldn't go up! 

Whimpering ... then there is insurance and maintenance and utilities.  We'll skip all that for now that's what the other income covers, right?  If we were to go 15 years, the estimated payment would be (age 60) $780 ($930 w/taxes). So at 15 years or 60 years of age we would have 0 payments and be able to maintain all of our SS $2,550 per month. Or, at 30 years or 75 of age, the estimated amount would be 21-29% of my income up on ‘til 75. From then on I would be clear of housing expense. Here’s the thing though ... the 15 year option wouldn’t allow me to be putting $350 a yearaside. The 30 year option would allow me to put $350 aside. The difference being I would NEED toput $350 aside by inflationary standards to maintain my present living AT LEAST to the age of 76. After 75 I would decrease my expense by $730 per month. Which would be necessary if I didn’t have any more savings at 78 to depend on.

One thing I would have at 76 is a house that would be worth well over $120,000. That would save me some stress because of something I read about last night called a reverse mortgage. I think that’s what its called. It is like an equity loan (or I could get an equity loan) by taking out monthly amounts up to the resale value of my home. It’s a nice old age quirk the governments set up. If I took a 15 year option, I would decrease my expense by $780 ($930) meaning I’d be living on only the amount of my SS $2,550  without the inflated income, cuz I wouldn't have nothing set aside in savings.  Hmm, Think you can put aside $3,000 a year in IRA, but more in a 401K plan ... should help with taxes along with interest on house ... hmm, I should be putting aside yearly tax return for either car or retirement AND there is always the part of working a few more years.  Be pretty used to it at that point.  Damn, I wish I could write books!

Ok, ok ... that got confusing ... we went back to the retirement calculator. It says at our present income we would collect from SS $27,172 ($2,550) at age 65. If we saved 10% of our income now til age 65, we would be putting away $350-600 ($350 a month this year/$600 last year of work). Let's see ... that's an additional $17 a month more each of the 15 years of saving.  Including 3% raises and 3.5% inflation ... and living 80% of our current income/expenses, we would have enough money until the age of 76. At the age though of 75 our expenses will go down $580 per month plus we’ll have $580 more income. This "extra" money would buy us almost 3 more years if saved.

Let’s say that didn’t happen ... and things are status quo and we’re still worrying about age 76. We still had $580 less expenses, but now our big money of $2550 extra savings income per month stops. The difference being at 76 years of age, we will have no house payment, but we will be living at 53% of our 65 year old income Is that right? Shoot, no car that month! There’s that reverse dealie, but that means we’d be taken away principle on our house at 24,000 a year. That’s only going to extend our life 5 years getting us up to 81 years of age at the current resale value of house, PLUS we will have no house! Maybe we’ll buy a few years though in that the house is brick! Hehehe I think we’ll have to be eating like a bird!

So ... what happens if I want to live past 81 WITH a house. And, what happened to that 15 year deal? Obviously, the thought looked better before than now. Now it seems just that we’ll only have then social security at 65, so we drop to 43% of our income at that age. Pretty damn uncool. Ok, rule out that plan.

What happens if we saved 15% instead of 10% of our present income... Shoot, lost the calculator and can’t find her! From the records though it would mean putting away $515 a month now and $10,800 later which would bring us an 80% income to the age of 85. Seemsgood, but reality? We’re starting to lose concentration with the numbers, especially without playing fun new games on the calculator. Shoot, she sure was a nice toy. There’s some things that make this whole thing very problematic. 1) I don’t have an income to save a lot of money (but we can try), 2) we’re still going to need to buy a car in the next two - three years which gets first savings priority (plus I gotta quit the damn smoking habit!), and 3) To do any of this (secure regular 30 years fixed), I’m going to have to beg, borrow, or steal $24,000-30,000 down payment or do some financing that's a lot more creative.

Well you can’t blame me for trying. I know a lot more now than I did 24 hours ago. Feel motivated to try. And, in the process we’ve read 6 months of Chicago Trib articles on buying real estate. See! Good foot forward! Major thing is ... I gotta keep doing well at work, AND I’ve got to stop smoking and save moola! Sure would help to get the services of a financial counselor. Hmm, there was that lady I met at the ARC convention. I think she works with people and disabilities. Maybe there’s something I’ll need to know for the sake of all that. I don’t know how SSI and regular SS benefits work. Might be worth checking into. Shoot ... might as well throw in here too that I might have more opportunity for a longer life if I could diet and exercise from both view points of arthritis and diabetes. Man ... starting to feel disappointed.

Hmm, before I get off this thread ... do you want to see the place that got me to be thinking? Hehehe Here she is! Sure is a beaut ... simple and sweet! PLEASE NOTE: FIREPLACE!!!

Property Information  
$119,900

Bolingbrook, Illinois  60440

Bedrooms: 3 Full Bathrooms: 1 Half Bathrooms: 2 Townhouse/Townhome Sq. Ft. (approx.):  1,429

Description :  Expanded upgraded ranch-newer plush carpet throughout- white trim, doors & updated cabinets-white-on-white appliances- 4 ceiling fans-mirrored closet doors-surprising 2nd floor can be third bedroom or in home office-huge walk-in closet-2nd powder room upstairs-full bath on main level-powder room in bsmt-rec rm w/ fp-endless storage-end unit-large yard-great!    

Features:  

Basement

Community Pool

Year Built: 1966

Fireplace

Living room: 17x13

Kitchen: 13x10

Family Room: 22x20

Master bedroom: 14x10

Bedroom 2: 13x10

Bedroom 3: 13x10

SWEET!