Tag Archives: FI

The Pension Series (Part 6): Valuing Pension Subsidized Healthcare (Updated)

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A Much-Needed Overhaul

Not every blog post I publish stands the test of time. While I always aim to produce “evergreen” articles, meaning they stand on their merits regardless of age, I don’t always succeed. My original pension subsidized healthcare post was a great example of this shortcoming.

When I published the article, the US’s Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, appeared on its way to the scrap heap due to domestic US politics. This made estimating the value of healthcare attached to a US-defined benefit (DB) pension even tougher. It also led me to rant about how overly complex and unfair the system was for those going through their Golden Albatross decision. As a result, I concluded that it was an invaluable benefit for those lucky enough to have healthcare attached to their pension, especially if they intended to retire before Medicare eligibility at age 65. Therefore, it should weigh heavily in their Golden Albatross decision.

That was it. I didn’t develop any complex formulas or provide helpful suggestions on accomplishing the seemingly impossible. Nor did I provide many links to others who had tried. So much for value-added, huh?

Absolutely none of that!

Continue reading →

The Golden Albatross vs. Kiwi Arbitrage

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Long Time Comin’

For more than nine months I’ve promised several readers an article covering the geoarbitrage potential behind Grumpus Familias’ pending move to New Zealand — which I’m calling “Kiwi Arbitrage” in honor of the beloved flightless bird native to New Zealand. Yet, for one reason or another, I kept putting-off that particular task. In other words, I procrastinated. That’s something of an Olympic sport in certain parts of my life.

That said, I had several good reasons for procrastinating this time around. The most legitimate was the lack of approved entry visas. I didn’t want to waste time writing an article on New Zealand only for some reason to appear that would prevent us from moving. If you don’t think that was a realistic possibility, then you obviously haven’t read about my lifetime of Charlie Brown-like luck.

Alas, I can procrastinate no longer. Grumpus Familias’ visas arrived several weeks ago and no major obstacles sprang out of the military retirement process. As a result, flights and movers are booked and Mrs. Grumpus and I are busy selling off or donating a large fraction of our worldly possessions that we can’t or don’t want to take with us. While we haven’t “burnt the boats” just yet, we are close — which means this move is on like the proverbial simian made famous by ColecoVision! Continue reading →

Thankful For My Bronze Medal

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Thankful, Again

Happy Thanksgiving to all my U.S. readers! After a long hiatus, I’m back to writing new blog posts. My return just happens to coincide with my favorite American holiday and is in time for my annual Thanksgiving post. Fittingly, I have a long list of reasons to be thankful this year, some of which I will discuss in this article and some of which I will discuss in future ones. But, first things first. Does anyone know how much work it takes to properly retire from the U.S. military after 20 years of service?

thankful

The Grumpus Maximus household has a lot to be thankful again for this year.

I can reliably report that it takes a lot of effort if you want to do it correctly. Between Veteran’s Administration (VA) medical appointments, retirement paperwork, turnover with my relief, and a plethora of other tasks, my last few months of active duty just flew by! And then like that, it was over. I say that because in the last month I started Terminal Leave and hosted my retirement ceremony. Continue reading →

The Military Retirement Process: Lessons Learned (Part 1)

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For the Military Members in the Audience

When I first announced that I was officially retiring in 2019 via the blog and my Facebook group, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Amidst all those positive responses, Timika Downes, a fellow Financial Independence (FI) blogger, reservist, and FB group member asked me to share lessons I learned throughout the military retirement process. I was non-committal at the time because I had no idea if there would be anything worth sharing. However, now that I’m through the first phase of that process, I realize I have a few nuggets of information worth sharing — especially for military Financially Independent Retire Early (FIRE) seekers like me.

Admittedly some of my lessons are more or less relevant, based on what you want to do after the military. However, any military member contemplating either retirement or transition from Active Duty can take something away from what I’m about to share. Top among those takeaways is this: The Department of Defense (DOD); the Veteran’s Administration (VA); and many state, local, and benevolent organizations have put a lot of effort into ensuring that current active duty military members transition successfully to civilian life.

As a student of history, I’m well aware that the above takeaway was not always true. The VA, and the taxpayers who fund it, have failed to take care of U.S. vets on numerous occasions. As evidence, consider the string of VA scandals outlined by CNN in 2014. Continue reading →

Choices and Thankfulness

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Choices

I’ll have you know that I do most the cooking on Thanksgiving in our house.

Happy Thanksgiving

“What are you thankful for this year?” is a commonly asked Thanksgiving question. It’s usually asked around dinner tables, which is where we Americans typically celebrate this holiday designed to bring us together and reflect on the bounty in our lives. In fact, Mrs. Grumpus and I asked our children the same question tonight as we ate.

Grumpus Minimus #1 (the older one) dutifully answered that he was thankful for his mom, dad, family, and friends. He then proceeded to list every single one of his friends. Grumpus Minimus #2 (the younger one) said he was thankful for Hickam Air Force Base, where he likes to go and watch Hawaiian airline’s planes land (Hickam AFB shares a flight line with the Honolulu airport). I bet no Air Force Base has ever been loved as much as GM#2 loves Hickam.

Continue reading →

Gutting It Out: What’s Worked For Me … So Far

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True Story Time

I was soliciting ideas for blog articles the other day in the Financial Independence (FI) pensioners’ Facebook Group I started called Golden Albatross/Golden Handcuffs. I floated the idea “Coping Strategies For the Last Few Years (i.e. Gutting It Out)” and received the following response from one of my group members:

“I have 6 years. Help me gut it out, and keep my eyes on the prize.”

Six-years eh? That’s probably not an all-to-uncommon time-frame for a person to lose motivation for their job, no matter the reason. I find that pension earners tend to get that “trapped” feeling near the end of their career. That isn’t the same feeling as my self-described Golden Albatross situation. I define the Golden Albatross as the tension a person feels between staying or leaving a pensionable career. In this case, the trapped feeling to which I refer comes after a person decides to stay at a job in order to earn a pension, but before that person can retire with a pension’s full benefits. That’s where I find that “gutting it out” truly comes into play, and it’s the topic I want to concentrate on in today’s post. Continue reading →

The Pension Series (Part 15): The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC)

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Rushin’ Headlong

PBGC

Wrong type of rushin’

It’s time to take on the somewhat controversial topic of the PBGC. I touched upon it already in several previous posts. In fact, I mentioned it as early as Part 1 of the Pension Series, and as recently as Post 14. Yet, I never tackled it head-on; so it feels like I’m overdue for an article on the PBGC specifically. I was half-hoping someone in my Facebook Group had experience with it because primary sources are always best when researching a topic. However, given the typical conditions attached to the PBGC’s intervention in a pension fund, it’s better that no one has.

Now, for those of you who are thinking, “PBGC? WTF is the PBGC?”, I hear you. I departed from my typical pattern with this post. Normally I warm up my audience with a nice long intro that culminates in an explanation of the topic at hand. However, I dispensed with the niceties this time. With that said, it’s probably best if I at least explain what the PBGC is for anyone who doesn’t know or doesn’t remember. Continue reading →

The Pension Series (Part 14): Pension Risk Transfer

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The Prodigal Series Returns

Welcome back to the Pension Series everyone! I hope you didn’t interpret my several month hiatus (from the series) as a lack of interest in the intersection between pensions and Financial Independence (FI). If you did, then let me assure you that I remain committed to the topic. In fact, my Facebook Group members can attest that I typically post one or two articles a week to prompt discussion on the topic of pensions and FI. That said, I must admit after the rush to write and publish parts 11 through 13 of the Pension Series, it took me a while to find more content that met my standards. At this point in the series, I look for topics that I haven’t already addressed; that help my readers navigate the Golden Albatross decision; and/or enable planning for FI using a pension.

The Search Is Over

Luckily, I recently found a few more topics which deserve examination. Several of the latest topics stem from articles I posted in my Facebook Group. In fact, it wasn’t until I posted an article about FedEx transferring a large portion of its pension fund to Met Life in my Facebook Group, that I realized the topic of pension risk transfer deserved an entire article itself.

In the past few months I’ve noted several stories from both the U.S. and U.K. about companies transferring some or all of their pension funds to insurance companies. The FedEx story started a conversation in my Facebook Group about winners and losers in risk transfer scenarios where a pension fund transfers obligations to an insurance company. Between the company who owns the pension fund, the insurance company, and the plan participants; most of the respondents from my group seemed to think the plan participants (i.e. current and future pensioners) lost. I must admit that I agreed.

Continue reading →

The Death Binder!

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I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter. — Winston Churchill

Death Binder

Death and Binders

I did something different this week for work. I deployed to a foreign country for a military exercise. I’m writing this post from that country as a matter of fact. It’s the first time since my Afghanistan tour in 2013 that I’ve deployed abroad with all my gear. It’s also the first time since my financial awakening that I’ve deployed. Granted, I traveled multiple times on official orders since Afghanistan and was also stationed overseas for multiple years. However, except for our Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move from Europe to Hawaii, I consider my travel comparable to business trips. There’s something different about packing up all your combat gear that sharpens the mind. As a result, while not a tour to a combat zone, I used this military exercise as an excuse to build my “Death Binder”.

Just for the record, Mrs. Grumpus hates the term, Death Binder. In fact, she won’t let me call it the Death Binder in the house. Instead, we call it the “Financial Binder” or “Financial Folder”. However, I call it the Death Binder when she’s not around. I do that partly because of my love of heavy metal. There’s something about the term Death Binder that makes me want to throw the devil sign up in the air and bang my head while shouting “DEATH BINDER” in my loudest metal voice.

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Four Golden Albatross Financial Lessons

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A Message to Future You

financial lessons

Four Golden Albatrosses take flight

If you’re reading my articles in chronological order, either in real time or at some undetermined time in the future, you’ll know that my two preceding articles were counter-points to other people’s financial ideas. As much fun as I had writing articles that used macroeconomics to argue against other people’s theories; doing so courts a certain amount of negativity. Granted, the counter-points needed to be made, and I believe I kept the articles congenial, lighthearted, and fact-based. However, at the end of the day, I still argued against someone’s work as opposed to building my own. As a result, I hit the pause button on the Risk Series this week, in order to focus on a more positive message.

Ironically, despite my online negativity I’ve actually been doing some positive stuff in the real world — which just might be the understatement of a lifetime in regards to the internet. Over the past three weeks, I counseled three different military members and/or their spouses on financial issues. Two of those counseling sessions took place face-to-face; while the third took place via email. All of them proved a great experience … for me at least. I learn a lot about myself and other people every time I counsel someone. Whereas I felt like a reluctant financial voyeur during my first counseling session; I actually enjoy them now. Continue reading →