Retirement: Some investment articles and a status update

I attached a couple of recent articles I thought were interesting. (The articles are not linked yet)

I thought "Investing at Every Stage of Life" was a good primer for younger folks. A investing path forward. A good "here's what you should be doing" guide.

I established my Roth IRA too late in my career. When I did finally do it, I wanted a conservative investment. There are so many choices. I chose SCHD (Schwab US Dividend Equity) ETF. The "Favorite ETFs" article is a good guide to some ETFs, in case there's someone else like me who's not sure where they should invest their retirement savings. I also thought the example portfolios were good, because they're simple.

It's been about a month of retirement for me. I thought I'd pass along a few things about my retirement transition.

My change to Medicare has gone pretty smoothly. It wasn't a quick process, but it happened and I have the Medicare card, the gap insurance card, and the drug plan card. I don't think I've received any dental insurance card yet, but I have some time there.

Before I retired, I noticed a new "floater" in one of my eyes, and thought I better have it looked at while I had vision insurance. Nothing to worry about as it turns out. My co-pay was $30 or so, and I just paid another $20 for that visit. The follow-up appointment was scheduled for after my retirement. During the appointment checkout, I explained my insurance situation and expected to pay out-of-pocket. Instead I was asked for my Medicare card, and my gap insurance card. I was also asked if I had already paid my Medicare deductible for the year, which of course I had not. I ended up paying about $120 for that visit. I thought it was interesting that I could use Medicare at all for this visit. We'll see what they do.

My wife's transition to "Corning Pre-65 Retirement" health-care insurance has not gone well. I wish I could tell you why. I suspect it has something to do with the annual enrollment that we do as employees every Fall. I've fielded online messages, emails, text messages and phone calls because of some confusion between Corning Benefits and United Health-care. I was told they cannot talk to one another and make any decisions without me also on the phone. Fortunately I have time to work through phone menus. As I write this, my wife's coverage is supposed to start 11/1, even though I had it set to start on 10/1 way back in August. If my wife needs health-care before 11/1 I suppose there will be more phone calls. Maybe this is a reason to avoid retiring around October?

My wife and I had planned for a week in the NC mountains in October. Hurricane Helene changed those plans. Still working through the travel insurance claim. They seem to be hung up on whether the cabin was structurally sound and available or not. We decided to check out Beaufort NC for a couple nights. Stayed at the "Inn on Turner" and had a great stay. I parked my truck and didn't see it again until we were leaving. We walked everywhere, but it wasn't too far anywhere. My wife thought the walking was much easier than a place like Charleston SC. Good food. A little shopping. Great sunsets. Highly recommended.

Attended a funeral and a wedding. Sort of like bookends for me.

I've knocked out several to-do items, but nothing that was "all day painful" yet. I've founds things to do every day and have enjoyed most of them. I'm still up pretty early most days.

I've had to remind myself several times that I don't have to wait till the weekend to do some things. This weird, simple thing has happened over and over again. Example: I don't need to be back on Sunday to mow, because I can mow anytime.

While I was working, I didn't pay close attention to my wife's part-time work schedule. It changes every week. Now that I'm retired I'm trying to keep better track of her schedule so we can enjoy her days off more. For example, one Friday my wife and son were both off, so we decided to go to the Cape Fear Museum. This is something I would have probably never taken the time to do while I was working. Today my wife and I went to a movie. Tuesdays are the cheap movie days at The Point, and there appeared to be several retired people there. Of course I also have to be careful because my wife could lose all her "home alone" time if we're not careful.

We had some money saved and I'm glad we did because I'm still waiting on the first pension check. Having some cushion for that first month is well advised. My financial advisor freed up some money too, so I could transfer what I needed at any time if there was an issue. There hasn't been an issue, but just having the funds available eased my mind during this first month.

Mark.