My fatehr retired as a 15/ 10 IG and had the same decison. First thing is to point out that your missed the mark by not looking into this 10 or 15 years ago when you could have run the numbers to purchase a life insurance contract which would have allowed you to take the higher payout and would have covered you in the event of her death. I say this becaue if you ahve children and they elect to follow in mom’s footsteps they may wnat this information.

The next thing is to look at the age disparity. If you are equal in ages the likelihood of you outliving her is statistically small unless you have family histories that would suggest otherwise.

The safe play is to simply accept the death benefit. The opportunist in me says that if you know that financially you can weather a storm in the event of her unforseen death then go for the higher payout. The difference is only going to effect how much wealth you leave to your children.

If you want a hedge find out what the difference would be between the full payout and the reduced payout and see how much whole life insurance that would buy you. If you die before her than she can reassign the policy to your children. In this scenario you wouldn’t have wasted the reduced payout. Value of the poicy might also offset the higher cost of medical insurance for you.

My fatehr retired as a 15/ 10 IG and had the same decison. First thing is to point out that your missed the mark by not looking into this 10 or 15 years ago when you could have run the numbers to purchase a life insurance contract which would have allowed you to take the higher payout and would have covered you in the event of her death. I say this becaue if you ahve children and they elect to follow in mom’s footsteps they may wnat this information.

The next thing is to look at the age disparity. If you are equal in ages the likelihood of you outliving her is statistically small unless you have family histories that would suggest otherwise.

The safe play is to simply accept the death benefit. The opportunist in me says that if you know that financially you can weather a storm in the event of her unforseen death then go for the higher payout. The difference is only going to effect how much wealth you leave to your children.

If you want a hedge find out what the difference would be between the full payout and the reduced payout and see how much whole life insurance that would buy you. If you die before her than she can reassign the policy to your children. In this scenario you wouldn’t have wasted the reduced payout. Value of the poicy might also offset the higher cost of medical insurance for you.

Unless you’re worth millions, take the full pension and move to Canada ASAP. Any middle-class retiree who stays in the US hasn’t been paying attention. Medicaid/SS are on the way out. They’re going to be slashed to pay for more corporate welfare. The scam drug benefit was step 1. Next because of the huge drug payouts to big pharma, medicaid is gonna be in trouble and they’ll have to “fix” it which of course means privatization. And of course that means your insurance “provider” is gonna deny any claims you make while cheerfully cashing your premium checks. These will likely be at least $1000 a month because you’re getting up there in years. And that’s if you’re in perfect health! If you have diabetes, heart conditions, etc… forget it. No one will cover you at a price you can afford.

If you don’t want to go to Canada, you could just get into holistic/alternative medicine and forget about ever going to the doctor again.

Sorry to be so harsh but it really is that bad.

Coming from a different angle, does she like her job? I see merits with both plans so it would come down to whether or not she still wants to work for me. If she can retire now and do something that she loves, you can’t put a price on that. But if she really enjoys her work that’s a different story.

Coming from a different angle, does she like her job? I see merits with both plans so it would come down to whether or not she still wants to work for me. If she can retire now and do something that she loves, you can’t put a price on that. But if she really enjoys her work that’s a different story.

Just because you are ineligible for insurance under her plan doesn’t mean you can’t get insurance or a long-term care plan and just pay monthly for it.