I was reading the other thread about retirement and was going to post there, but didn't want to hijack.
Background:
The way my husband's union works, when your age plus years of employment add up to 80, you can retire. (You don't HAVE to, but you CAN.) For him, that will be in 2015. I'll turn 52 that year, and will have been self-employed for 21 years. My tax guy has had me paying Social Security taxes. I do home-based family childcare.
Ok, so my question is... if I decide to retire with him, can I get SS? At age 52? I don't think so ?? Can I get anything? Or would we just have to live on his pension and his SS? I have no idea how much either of those would be. I think he gets updates projecting how much his retirement would be, but I don't remember right now. I'm thinking I'll probably have to work at least part time for awhile, but I really don't want to. On the other hand, I don't want to live with money worries all the time either.
The other issue is health insurance. I know we have all this uncertainty with the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and I'm not really sure how that will play out, but I'm wondering what our options are for insurance once he retires. I've been on his insurance ever since I became self-employed. I assume we'll have to purchase our insurance through the ACA once he retires?? Do you think it'll be expensive? I have Type 2 Diabetes, and need 3 prescriptions, plus lab work every 3 months. On his good insurance through Teamsters, all of that stuff has been very affordable for us. But won't it be really expensive once we purchase one of these so-called "affordable" plans through Obamacare? Not just the premiums, but the co-pays and deductibles???
He'll probably end up working 2 or 3 more years because of me.
I know those are complex questions, and I don't expect anyone to be an expert in the area. But if you have any light to shed at all, please do so! I really should research all of this. I don't even know where to go or whom to ask. I have no clue. HELP!
Background:
The way my husband's union works, when your age plus years of employment add up to 80, you can retire. (You don't HAVE to, but you CAN.) For him, that will be in 2015. I'll turn 52 that year, and will have been self-employed for 21 years. My tax guy has had me paying Social Security taxes. I do home-based family childcare.
Ok, so my question is... if I decide to retire with him, can I get SS? At age 52? I don't think so ?? Can I get anything? Or would we just have to live on his pension and his SS? I have no idea how much either of those would be. I think he gets updates projecting how much his retirement would be, but I don't remember right now. I'm thinking I'll probably have to work at least part time for awhile, but I really don't want to. On the other hand, I don't want to live with money worries all the time either.
The other issue is health insurance. I know we have all this uncertainty with the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and I'm not really sure how that will play out, but I'm wondering what our options are for insurance once he retires. I've been on his insurance ever since I became self-employed. I assume we'll have to purchase our insurance through the ACA once he retires?? Do you think it'll be expensive? I have Type 2 Diabetes, and need 3 prescriptions, plus lab work every 3 months. On his good insurance through Teamsters, all of that stuff has been very affordable for us. But won't it be really expensive once we purchase one of these so-called "affordable" plans through Obamacare? Not just the premiums, but the co-pays and deductibles???
He'll probably end up working 2 or 3 more years because of me.
I know those are complex questions, and I don't expect anyone to be an expert in the area. But if you have any light to shed at all, please do so! I really should research all of this. I don't even know where to go or whom to ask. I have no clue. HELP!
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