Author Topic: Health insurance for the single Mustachian  (Read 3164 times)

GW

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Health insurance for the single Mustachian
« on: June 20, 2012, 01:18:30 PM »
Hello! Ok, I think I have the courage to ask my first question on this forum. (takes deep breath)

I'm in my early 40s and single, and I'm almost ready to cut the day job cord and ramp up my fiction writing. I sold three novellas and two short stories to publishers in the last twelve months, so I don't think I'm being a poseur. ;) I'm fully aware of the huge financial risk I'm taking, which is why I saved a nest egg of, as of right now, about 22x my monthly expenses. Unfortunately, I'm not at 25X+ expenses yet, but I truly can't stand my day job career anymore. Yes, I've made some adjustments over the years, which ended up being only short-term fixes that kept me from quitting outright. My expenses include a mortgage, and I plan to refinance that to knock off $400/month to create some budgeting margin.

The big issue for me is health insurance. I'm thinking of hunting for a much lower stress, lower-paying job to get the insurance. Ideally, it would also cover my living expenses so I can leave my nest egg untouched.

Are there any other strategies I should consider? Thanks to everyone for your advice!
« Last Edit: June 20, 2012, 01:50:47 PM by GW »

arebelspy

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Re: Health insurance for the single Mustachian
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2012, 02:17:13 PM »
22x monthly expenses or annual?  If annual, you're very close to FI and any story writing should be more than enough to close that gap.

If monthly, then you only have a year or two cushion, and your writing will be a full time job, needing to replace your day job income.  You mentioned you've sold 5 things in the past year, but not the price.  Can you make what you are making at your day job if writing full time?

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GW

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Re: Health insurance for the single Mustachian
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2012, 02:18:35 PM »
Whoops, sorry for the confusion -- I meant 22x annual expenses. Geez, you'd think I'd be better at proofreading.

Unfortunately, the income from my writing is nowhere close to my day job income right now. For budgeting purposes, I prefer to  assume I'll make nothing from the writing because the income is not guaranteed in any given year. If I do make money, it's gravy.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2012, 02:21:40 PM by GW »

arebelspy

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Re: Health insurance for the single Mustachian
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2012, 02:44:39 PM »
Okay, that helps quite a bit.

22x annual expenses, at a 4% SWR, will cover 88% of your annual expenses.

So you need to cover 12% with writing.

How much will the refi save you on your expenses (you say 400/mo, but that's a meaningless number without knowing what your expenses are)?  That alone might put you up to 25x your (new) monthly expenses.

Have you looked into health insurance quotes?  You may not need another job, you may be close enough to be able to cover it.  Or just do a part time job at a place that has health benefits (Starbucks, Home Depot, IIRC, a few others).
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

GW

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Re: Health insurance for the single Mustachian
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2012, 02:47:23 PM »
Looks like I'll need to do more research and number crunching. When you say it's 88% of my annual expenses, that makes it sound more doable. I didn't even consider the part-time job angle. Thanks for the leads!

 

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