Now what?

[fetch321]

Have been toying around with the idea of cutting back working hours for some time -- spend more time with kids, learn guitar, finish novel I've been messing around with.  48, married with two kids, and have funded retirement funds where standard of living in retirement (if I live that long) will be higher than currently so saving anymore doesn't make much sense.  Kids 529s are funded.  House paid off, 800,000 in 401k/IRA, about 1.2 million net worth.  But all of that's locked up in the house or in retirement funds.

Figured that between now and retirement I'd just get a part-time job that would cover the gap.  With high level of saving out of the equation, looks like we'd only need about 40k to live, 50k/60k would be idea.  My wife has a small side business that makes let's say 20k a year.  So, I really don't need to make all that much.  Maybe 35k to be safe.  Unfortunately, it'd be nice to have insurance as well.  Finding out quickly that the affordable healthcare act isn't as affordable as advertised.

Couple weeks ago my hand was forced with I had to quit my job of 20 years for reasons that aren't important here.  Funny thing is immediately I started scrambling for full-time positions with insurance that'd plug up the hole.  Anything that I thought I might be remotely qualified for got a resume -- technical writing positions, ui design, anything video.  Nothing I'd really want to do, especially the video work which I'm really burnt out on.  Looked around a bit at parttime work, flex jobs, but everything I'm seeing is low pay where correcting for inflation I would've been better off keeping my high school dishwashing job. Little conflicted at this point.

Anyone got any resources, heard of any good telecommuting jobs or flex jobs, or parttime work that I might want to consider?  Fishing for ideas. 

I'll give one if anyone out there is struggling with the same problem.  Through Craigslist my wife started a small business where she helps elderly people in their homes doing just about everything.  She absolutely loves it.  25 dollars an hour.  One problem is it's not constant as it would be if you're working a straight eight hour day.  There's holes in the day, especially when you're taking care of multiple clients per day.

Anyway, any ideas would be great.

[Uturn]

Are you handy around the house?  Piggyback on your wife's gig and see if these people also need a handyman.  Also look for younger folks.  I'm amazed at how 20-30 somethings have no idea how to use a screwdriver and hammer.  (Maybe not the ones this forum, but general population. )

[fetch321]

Pretty handy, but not so much around the house.  More automotive.  However, when I had been daydreaming about quitting I'd toy with doing my own thing.  Maybe doing some side work in legal video or what about real estate video?  Thought it'd be cool to learn how to operate a drone and maybe you could make money splicing together real estate videos for high end property up north.  Could look into these further but at this point they're not looking as lucrative as in my daydreams.  Drones look like they're fraught with legal issues.  Did have an extensive list of ideas that I wanted to try out.  Most of them unrealistic or hackneyed, like some t-shirt designs that I thought would be pretty funny, an idea for kid sandles that I thought was clever, etc.  Maybe in addition to looking for a job I'll work my way through that.

[Retired To Win]

... Couple weeks ago my hand was forced with I had to quit my job of 20 years for reasons that aren't important here.  Funny thing is immediately I started scrambling for full-time positions with insurance that'd plug up the hole.  Anything that I thought I might be remotely qualified for got a resume... Little conflicted at this point....

I'll just give you some thoughts on mindset.

From the above excerpt, it seems that when you left your job you went into some kind of emergency action mode, which you may still be in.  Making long range decisions while in mental emergency action mode is a really bad idea.  In your shoes, I would step back.

I would do that by taking a hard look at my emergency stash, surplus cash and spending patterns -- and then using that information to establish a safe financial time window (x number of months) that I could afford to allocate to making that long range decision and starting to implement it.  Then I would put my mental energy into developing that long range plan, rather than scrambling for some immediate income source to compensate for the sudden lack of a paycheck.

Unless, of course, you've been living paycheck to paycheck.  But that's not what your original post projects.

Good luck.

[UnleashHell]

or you could take money out of the 401k now. There are ways.

[ooeei]

or you could take money out of the 401k now. There are ways.

Here's a pretty good post on it:

http://jlcollinsnh.com/2013/12/05/stocks-part-xx-early-retirement-withdrawal-strategies-and-roth-conversion-ladders-from-a-mad-fientist/

Not every strategy there will apply to OP, but not a bad place to start.

[fetch321]

Retirement to win -- think your assessment was right on.  Firing off resumes to any job that I think I might be eligible for, mainly for the insurance more than anything but you're right, at this point it's unnecessary.  Between our spending habits and what we have in the bank we should have enough to take us to Spring.  It's that damn health insurance that gets you, otherwise this would be real easy.

Interesting about tapping into retirement funds early.  Wasn't aware that was a possibility.  I do happen to have quite a bit of money in roth iras already.

Thanks for the replies.  Most helpful.

[Kimchi Bleu]

Seems to me that your family income is currently at $20K right now.  Wouldn't that level mean that you qualify for healthcare at a significantly reduced rate?  I thought the quotes were based on how much you earn, not what you have in the bank.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[fetch321]

The cost through the affordable healthcare act was about 400 for me and my wife. This was the bronze, lowest coverage you could get.  Does not include my two children who for the time being until I can figure out what's going on are on our local state's program which has a higher cut off rate.

To me 400 a month seems like an aweful lot just for the two of us, and with coverage that I'm not used to.

Thing about Obamacare is that they take the entire year of 2015 and use that to calculate how much you'd pay, which is what's throwing me off.  No longer make 75k but that's what goes into the calculation.  Reason is because it's tied to your taxes next year. Still floundering my way through the insurance maze.  Crazy adventure.  On the phone hours and hours, and people would tell me things that were diametrically opposed where I needed to call back again and get a tie breaker.  You do bring up a very valid point though.  Next year everything resets for me as I'll probably be looking at a lower tax rate, which means I'll probably be looking at a lower monthly cost.

[AZDude]

A part time job with health insurance is probably not going to happen, but if you are looking for that route then its probably going to be in the public sector. Try the local university, community colleges, city government, etc... They usually give benefits to part time employees, unlike the typical McJob.

Working from home is possible if you have a good technical skill set, but in my experience it is 1000 times easier to get a job, prove yourself, and then ask to work from home than to snag one of a handful of 100% remote positions, since those have like 10,000 applicants. Freelancing from home is easier, but no health insurance. I found it fairly easy to get some technical gigs I could do in my spare time, but the hassle is only worth it if you really need the money(seriously, your customers expect you to do $1000 worth of work for $10, so prepare to negotiate hard and justify why you deserve more $$).

[Kimchi Bleu]

fetch321:  Thank you for responding and clearing that up for me.

[Retired To Win]

Retired to win -- think your assessment was right on.  Firing off resumes to any job that I think I might be eligible for, mainly for the insurance more than anything but you're right, at this point it's unnecessary.  Between our spending habits and what we have in the bank we should have enough to take us to Spring.  It's that damn health insurance that gets you, otherwise this would be real easy.

Interesting about tapping into retirement funds early.  Wasn't aware that was a possibility.  I do happen to have quite a bit of money in roth iras already.

Thanks for the replies.  Most helpful.

Glad I could help!

[MrMoogle]

The cost through the affordable healthcare act was about 400 for me and my wife. This was the bronze, lowest coverage you could get.  Does not include my two children who for the time being until I can figure out what's going on are on our local state's program which has a higher cut off rate.

To me 400 a month seems like an aweful lot just for the two of us, and with coverage that I'm not used to.

Thing about Obamacare is that they take the entire year of 2015 and use that to calculate how much you'd pay, which is what's throwing me off.  No longer make 75k but that's what goes into the calculation.  Reason is because it's tied to your taxes next year. Still floundering my way through the insurance maze.  Crazy adventure.  On the phone hours and hours, and people would tell me things that were diametrically opposed where I needed to call back again and get a tie breaker.  You do bring up a very valid point though.  Next year everything resets for me as I'll probably be looking at a lower tax rate, which means I'll probably be looking at a lower monthly cost.

There's only 3 months left in this year.  Do the calculations for next year, and I'd look at Silver, I have heard that's the sweet spot for people with low income.  If you're healthy enough, definitely look into a high deductible plan. 

Using the 4% rule on your 800k, that's 32k/year, which is right around your 35k goal.  You have the funds to retire if you make adjustments, so don't be in a rush to take a job you don't want.  I'd make some cuts now to see how painful they really are.  Run some scenarios on a spreadsheet. 

I'm sure it's a big shock, but you are not in danger, you are in a position of power. 

[fetch321]

Yea, you're right, estimated how much insurance through healthcare gov would be a few different salary levels next year and at 45,000 (between my wife and I) it'd be quite a bit less where it might actually being an option.  We had pretty inexpensive insurance at work and after paying off mortgage I'm not used what I'd consider a large monthly bill, but really silver's not all that bad.

Definitely starting to see possibilities, thanks in a large part to this forum.  The fact that if worse comes to worse I could start withdrawing 401k takes off a lot of the pressure.  Did apply for some parttime work that I actually don't think I'd mind working at .  No response, but still, they're out there. 

All in all I'm glad that I quit and am going through this exercise.  After twenty years working at the same corporation I hadn't realized how much it warped my thinking and pretty much defined my existence.  Very cathartic.   

[HipGnosis]

If you are in a city and have a decent vehicle you could be an Uber driver.  I just read an on-line article saying they average $22/hr.
I'm steadily loosing confidence in the stability of my employment (I got a new boss and he's not sure what to do with me) and Uber is my plan A.  I'd have to get a different mobile plan as I currently mostly use WiFi.
I have a friend that was laid off a while back who had to deal with the ACA cost based on last years taxes... she went without health insurance for a couple years and had to pay the penalty on last years taxes.  It's a pretty bad part of the plan.

[HipGnosis]

If you are in a city and have a decent vehicle you could be an Uber driver.  I just read an on-line article saying they average $22/hr.
I'm steadily loosing confidence in the stability of my employment (I got a new boss and he's not sure what to do with me) and Uber is my plan A.  I'd have to get a different mobile plan as I currently mostly use WiFi.
I have a friend that was laid off a while back who had to deal with the ACA cost based on last years taxes... she went without health insurance for a couple years and had to pay the penalty on last years taxes.  It's a pretty bad part of the plan.

Forgot to add;
You lost your job, so that qualifies you for a hardship exemption for 60 days starting at the period you lost coverage. You need to apply for that exemption at HealthCare.Gov
You may also qualify for ACA hardship exemption 13 for Exemption from the Shared Responsibility
Payment for Individuals who Experience Hardships

[fetch321]

Yea, never heard of ubercar until a few weeks ago, and now see it everywhere.  Thing is I wouldn't call my car descent.  Old Toyota that I've done all my own work on at this point she won't let the children ride in it. 

[MrMoogle]

Is it $22/hr plus like $0.5 per mile, to handle the wear and tear on your car?  If you drive 40 miles, and only make $22, that basically pays for the wear on your car, if you have a newer car.  If you have an older one, there's not much left for it to depreciate, but it's still probably not much better than minimum wage. 

[HipGnosis]

Yea, never heard of ubercar until a few weeks ago, and now see it everywhere.  Thing is I wouldn't call my car descent.  Old Toyota that I've done all my own work on at this point she won't let the children ride in it.

I'm a car guy, and have the nicest car I've ever wanted (though 8 yrs old w/ 80K) and I wouldn't subject it to abuse like that.  I would buy an 8 yr old Accord or Camry.   I figure I would re-coup the investment pretty quickly working 60 hrs a week for awhile.  What else would I do with my time and no income?