I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Enjoyful

Retirement danglies!  Every retired girl needs 'em.  We love your DH.

(Whenever I read that, I think "Designated Hitter.")

BaseballSuz

IllinoisLady

To Retired Libby:

Let the candy eating begin and sleeping late tomorrow is going to be the neatest thing because it won't be a 'treat'.....it will be how you live your life now.

Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy

Jackie

IllinoisLady

juliaanna

Alexandria,

Just got in the door from work.  Listened to the story about your MIL on the way home.  A fitting tribute.  What a wonderful woman, representing nursing at its finest.  Brought tears to my eyes.  

J

suzieq60

Libby - what a lovely hubby.

BTW, if you don't mind my asking - what is the retirement age in the US - it's 65 here. Of course if you have funds you can retire earlier, but at 65 you become eligible to receive the aged pension which is subject to a means test.

RetiredLibby

Thanks, Suzie!

I don't mind at all.  Our retirement age varies with your employer.  Generally speaking, you can retire at 62 and take a reduced Social Security pension.  Full retirement age is 65 and above -- the law changed a couple of years ago and it is phased in to be slightly higher, up to about 67 I think.  But if you work for a municipal, county, state or Federal government, the retirement age can differ.  For example, I worked for our Federal government.  Because I started in 1979 (with service over the summers since 1976), I was under the old retirement system.  I could retire on an unreduced annuity at 55 with 30 years of service.  I retired at nearly 56 with almost 35 years of service (I had the years but not the age).  My husband is in the new retirement system.  His minimum retirement age is 56, but he is law enforcement, which is a stressful job.  He will retire in 6 years at 56 with 30 years of service -- but his retirement is mandatory at 57 because of the physical nature and stressfulness of his job.  He only gets a tiny pension from his government service - the rest is Social Security.  I will only get a pension, no Social Security, because I didn't pay into it.  I will not get a widow's portion either, should he die before me.

So, the answer is - it's complicated and everyone's retirement age can be different.  Oh, and our Social Security is not subject to a means test currently.

Everyone else feel free to chime in!

L

IllinoisLady

It is 65 here if you want full retirement.  You can start @ 62 if you like but it is not full retirement.  I went ahead feeling that as my salary was low, the extra three years  would not net me so much more and as well, I was missing a lot of work at 62 from my just recently discovered cancer diagnosis......though bosses were nice and paid me anyway.  Dh's retirement is far better than mine -- though for now we both still work part time. 

I've worked so long now -- from about age 11 that I don't know if I'd feel 'right' if I wasn't working somewhere, even if only one or two days a week. 

Jackie

IllinoisLady

Anonymous

Jackie - I ADORE THAT FROG 

suzieq60

Thanks Libby - sounds complicated. They are increasing the official age to 67 here too I think. We pay into superannuation through work (is that your 401k?) - between us we don't have enough to retire on. You can take your super at 60 if you retire early, but you have no access to government pension if you do. Because I work in the private sector, there will be no pension for me from my work, only what I have in my superannuation.

9% of our salary goes into our superannuation. I salary sacrifice a further 3%, but being baby boomers, we didn't have this sort of thing in our early work life - they introduced compulsory superannuation late in our work lives. I only have about 190,000 in super and that's from working for the past 22 years.

The bottom line, is that our house is our retirement fund, it's worth about 1 million and we don't have a mortgage, so we would have to downsize to something less than 500K to have enough to retire on.

Athena - great to see you - stay rested and don't overdo it.

QuinnCat

At emergency room presently as only place in town that has the Hep A vaccine. Unbelievable. Wonder if my health insurance will cover?



So I take back everything nice I said about COSTCO today ( though I still like the store) because their Townsend Organic AntiOxident berries have exposéd me to Hepatitis A. One needs the vaccine within 14 days of exposure and I'm either sitting on the crest of that 14 days or only a few days out ( long story on why I don't know), but I've definitely had this brand of berries for the last 5 days in my daily smoothie



May be a west US thing as cases in Colorado, Nevada and California. Warning to others here that may have ingested!



{{{Athena!!!}}}} xxox



HL- what a great hubby you have. I'm so happy for you.

juliaanna

Kam,

Your health insurance should cover it.  If not, send the bill to Costco .

Athena, So good to see you back.

HL, Happy retirement.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

alexandria58

Actually, you could bill Costco for it.  They would be stupid not to pay.  It was their defective product that necessitated it.  If they don't...let me know.  Always looking for a good class action lawsuit. 

QuinnCat

We'll see what happens Alex...finally got the shot waiting to be discharged. The bill will be interesting since in most towns you could get this shot at a walk in clinic after hours.



All of the raw salad for Collard Wraps I prepared for company coming tomorrow can't be served! The doctor said he has a new excuse for not cooking



Amazingly, Costco can go back years, with your member ID number, and tell you exactly what you bought.

Belinda44

Kam, sorry about the Costco berry scare.  Glad you finally got the shot!  (And hopefully you won't be stuck with a large bill).

Athena, good to hear from you.  I hope your recovery continues to progress and hope the tamoxifen is being tolerable for you and that it's doing its job!

Alexandria, thanks for sharing the NPR clip about your amazing mother-in-law.  Truly inspiring!

Retiredlibby, woohoo!!!  Congratulations to you!  Now you'll have more time to chime in here with your unique perspective and political insight.

To all, Happy Saturday and wishing everyone a peaceful, relaxing, pain-free, bug-free weekend!

Sunflowers, you mentioned the lyrics from this song in an earlier post to Libby.  Love it.  It's one of my favs, especially this version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYpcFHtxm60

alexandria58

Happy weekend all.  Going to go check out a car.  Mine has 160,000 miles and is a little scary to drive to Vermont.

Athena - hope you are starting to feel better.

bluedahlia

Happy Saturday!

Belinda44

Some work friends told me about this being shown on PBS the other night.  Bummed I missed it.  I was fortunate to see her and James Taylor in concert a few years ago. 

Well deserved....."first female to win Gershwin prize for popular song"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqrCIetogBw

Off to the gym, errands and then some graduation parties.  Blue skies and the sun is shining in my neck of the woods.  Love the weekends!

bluedahlia

bluedahlia

bluedahlia

bluedahlia

bluedahlia

You MUST watch this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW0NMjD-wtA&feature=youtu.be

River_Rat

Athena, nice to hear from you.

Alexandria, that was such a nice piece about your mother-in-law.

Kam, I read about the Costco/Hep A thing this morning and hoped nobody here had an issue. I'm so sorry to hear that you had those berries and I hope the shot takes care of it. - Also second the idea of asking Costco to pay for the shot.

Blue, I almost forgot all I was going to post above - probably did forget some because I was scrolling along reading the thread and I came to your Trivial Pursuit post. It was a 'tea on the monitor' moment, laughing so hard. Yes, I would love to see that. In a more serious vein, I also watched your MUST watch youtube and it truly is a MUST watch. I think the movie release has been postponed. I'm hoping that we will eventually get to see it.

Anonymous

Belinda - it was FABULOUS - so, so heart warming to see Carole being honored by the President and First Lady - they sang along to most of the songs, well, moved their lips - just LLOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the spirit of the White House - and the warmth of all of them...sure PBS will broad cast again...

KAM - I am SO SO SO sorry you had such a terrifying experience - am sure Costco will PAY - really - call them, I bet they will.

It's summer here - only way to describe it.  Still gardening - whew, feel like it's bee such a long winter, FLUEY, and this feels wonerful.  Yes, hot, humid, and wonderful.  Hope all are safe in Tornado Alley.  Still can't understand why people don't have storm cellars???

crazy4carrots

Sunny -- I watched the Carole King tribute on Monday night, then again VERY late on Tuesday!  Should have taped it, because I could easily watch it again!

A wee story to tell you:  Yesterday I went to a production of "Guys and Dolls" here at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake.  Sat beside a lovely couple from south of Pittsburgh who come up to the Festival every year.  Naturally, we got around to talking healthcare, and then politics!  As registered Repubs for many years, they adore Obama and voted for him twice, along with democrats at the state and municipal level.  They don't change their voter registration, because it allows them to vote in the Repub primaries for candidates that have the the best chance of being beaten by thir Democratic opponent --- although their area is heavily Repub but, they do what they can!  Many of their friends do the same, and the main reason is the extremist Tea Party.  They put up with all the flyers and stuff that comes from the GOP, because "that's what the garbage can is for".

Hot and humid here today -- supposed to be cooler next week.  Kam, so very sorry to hear about the Hep problem but glad you got the vaccine.  

Anonymous

cfc -  what a fun story.  In MA if you are registered as an Independent, you can vote in either party primary, lotsa fun to vote for the candidate you MOST want to defeat in the general election.  That way you don't get the garbage from either party, and it seems to cut down on the robo calls too.

Kam - meant to say, hope no SE's from the vaccine.  Keep track of ANY MEDICAL expense related to it.  Just in case.

Happy June 1 - did everybody remember to say Rabbit 7 times first thing this am

crazy4carrots

I LOVE THIS WOMAN 
An elderly lady was standing at the railing of the cruise ship
holding her hat tight so that it would not blow away in the wind. 
A gentleman approached her and said,
"Pardon me, madam.. I do not intend to be forward but did you know 
that your dress is blowing up in this high wind?" 
  
"Yes, I know," said the lady. "I need both my hands to hold onto this hat." 
  
"But madam, you must know that you are not wearing any panties
and your privates are exposed!" said the gentleman in earnest. 
  
The woman looked down, then back up at the man and replied, 
"Sir, anything you see down there is 75 years old. 
I just bought this hat yesterday!"

  

QuinnCat

I was just laughing for lauding (somewhat) Costco here yesterday, only to get the you-have-been-poisoned phone call from them last night.  I'm fine, other than a lack of sleep from a late night at the emergency room.  The remaining question is did I eat these poisoned berries more than 14 days ago, in which case, the vaccine won't make a difference.  Going to call Costco and get my purchase dates straight.  I know I ate them them over the last week (I buy a bag almost every 2 weeks, but they switched brands several times over last 6 months).   Mostly I wanted to warn any of you who frequent Costco and buy this product.  

What kills me is that one buys "organic" in hopes of getting organic, then I find out the pomegranete seeds come from Turkey (which is the suspected source of the Hep A).  I do not trust anything outside of North America as organic.  I barely trust the "organic" we get within our borders these days. In the olden days, when one bought organic produce, it was small and blemished.  Now that are as big and shiney as the conventional stuff - hmmm.  I know for a fact that Mexican "organic" bananas probably come from sprayed (for marijuana) fields and there is no enforcement of "organic" probably anywhere.  Atleast we have food safety laws here, though gotta wonder if the sequester affected any inspection of these berries!?

AnneW

I have not tried that particular Costco berry mix, and I think it's only because on my last trip there I bought nothing that required refrigeration, as I had other errands to run before I got home. BUT--I'm immunized against Hep A, so I would be okay. Everyone should get that series of vaccines. You may not be drinking the water in Mexico, but you don't know who's been handling your local salad bar or what's in your "supposed" organic products.

Kam, I hope your immunization works and/or you didn't get a tainted bite!!

Bren, I saw a blog somewhere (Pinterest?) that said you can make a mix of 1 part tea tree oil and 2 parts water to spray on you and your animals as a tick deterrent. You sound like you have some resistant strains out there, so be checking regularly!

Cool and cloudy day today, but the wind finally stopped howling. Time to make a little jewelry and read, then maybe I'll feel motivated to dust...