Retirement: Starting the official process

  • 11th Jul 2024
  • 4 min read

My plan is to retire around the end of September, so 9/30 or 10/1. I'm also turning 65 in October, so I'm rolling right into Medicare. (Mike F. advised me not to do these things at the same time, but I'm stupid.)

Corning's "sign up for your pension" website requires that you be within 90 days of your planned retirement date. Medicare also has an initial signup window.

I scheduled a telephone call with a Corning retirement counselor for late June. I believe these are Empower people. I spoke to "John" and he was very good. I expected some kind if 401k management pitch but there was no financial angle mentioned.

My spouse is younger than I am, so I plan to continue her health-care coverage via the Corning PPO. The cost will be higher of course. I was disappointed to hear her dental and vision coverage would end when I retired. There is supposed to be an option to Cobra the dental coverage for some number of months. I don't know those costs yet. I'm not worried about vision. Maybe I'll join Costco for vision care.

I had previously spoken to a Medicare broker that my financial advisor referred me to. The broker seemed knowledgeable. I mentioned that Corning reimbursement for Medicare gap coverage (RRA), and that I needed to be on AARP/United Health-care to get that reimbursement. He assured me that wouldn't be a problem. Turns out it could be a problem. According to the retirement counselor, I need to be signed up with an AARP/United Health-care "Corning Connector Plan" to be eligible for the reimbursement. The counselor didn't think the Medicare broker could sign me up with that plan. I've informed the Medicare broker of this.

I contribute to a FSA each year. We usually consume it within the first 4 or 5 months of the year. I asked the counselor how those contributions would be handled between my retirement date and the rest of the year. I was told they would stop, which is a small bonus, I guess. I will not have fully funded my FSA in my retirement year.

The counselor and I spent quite a bit of time talking about choosing a retirement date - 9/30 or 10/1. Even after the phone call I wasn't sure. This week I spoke to some folks (Dan and Katherine) who helped me understand the ramifications of my choices.

  1. If I retire 9/30: a. Our health-care benefits end on that day. b. My first pension check will arrive around 11/1 and will include both October and November.

  2. If I retire 10/1: a. Our health-care benefits will continue through October. b. I wouldn't need Medicare coverage until November. c. My first pension check will arrive around 11/1, but will be for November only. So I would have to work harder to fund October.

Seems like 10/1 makes things more complicated in my case, so 9/30 it is.

The Corning website where you start this is pretty nice, but you need to be prepared to answer a few questions. I was prepared for the pension split with my spouse question. I was not as prepared to answer questions about taxes and didn't have my banking routing and transit numbers handy for direct deposit. I'm sure there will be more to this because I can't use the Medicare broker to sign me up for the gap plan. More to come.

Next I need to go to the Social Security website and sign up for Medicare. I was told I could do this online but had to be very careful not to also turn on Social Security payments if I intended to wait to collect them.

I spoke to the insurance person at my dentist office this morning.

  1. Plan to spend $400 to $500 per year, per person, for 2 cleanings and x-rays. If you can get a decent plan with premiums that around that same cost, good.
  2. There are low, medium and high cost plans. Be careful when selecting.
  3. Also look carefully at deductibles, what's covered, and what the yearly maximums are.
  4. Some plans change coverage for in-network and out-of-network.
  5. There are waiting periods in some plan.

Her first suggestion was Delta Dental. They have good plans and coverage. They also appear to have an AARP connection.

Others mentioned were:

  1. Liberty (not good)
  2. Manhattan Dental
  3. Dental Blue
  4. Humana Medicare (I didn't pay attention to this one as I assumed it was not going to work with my UHC Medicare choice).

I have to research some plans. My parents paid their dental and vision out-of-pocket after they retired.