Have to vent

[don novicki]

I was recently let go from my job and now at 64 y/o find myself with no health insurance. I feel lucky to only have to need 2 new knees but other than that I am healthy. I got the thing for COBRA insurance and it was ridiculous, something like 600+/month for their tier 2 insurance. My wife checked about putting me on her insurance and it was even worse something like 900/mo. As far as the Affordable Care Act goes, is it even viable anymore? I haven't checked but the way it's going it will be done for and probably will be done away with before the years end, if the politicians can come up with something else. My question is this: how does every crum bum junkie get Narcan at thousands per dose but a guy who always had insurance until now, oh well tough tittie, you lose. All the dirt bags can milk, yes milk the system time and again but that's ok. I guess for Joe average, suck it up and pull yourself up by the boot straps you baby cuz there is nothing for you..........................................................

[Deltaman]

Don, sorry to hear about the job, that sucks, especially at 64! You will just need insurance until you turn 65, then it is all medicare, at least the way i understand it. You might be better off paying the $900 and getting on your wife's insurance until you reach 65.
Insurance is the great paradox of the day, as you can't afford it, but you can't afford to be without it either.

[aunt betty]

Once you actually are insured make damn sure you figure out the deductibles because if you're anything like me you'll go "aw fuck" why bother. Am in sort of the same situation but younger than you don. Wife works at a blue collar job at a very large hospital. Our insurance used to be "covers everything". Now it's pick and choose to suit their needs and pay pay pay. Doctor's first language is Chinese. To get an eye appointment takes three or four months so I'm saying "fuck glasses".
This whole obamacare thing is great, just great.

[SpinnerMan]

You will just need insurance until you turn 65, then it is all medicare, at least the way i understand it.

That is my understanding as well, so double check on that. Which means your COBRA will only need to bridge you however many months that is.

This is one of the fatal flaws of you as an individual not having your own individual insurance policy.

I started to write a long rant about what is totally fucked about our entire system, but it is fucked by generations of do-gooder control freaks being manipulated by those that profit from this fucked system. This is what you get when you have people that have never done anything really outside of government.

How we dig out of this mess that is generations in the making? I have no clue. Good people are fucked. I just hope they don't believe those peddling the free lunch that fucked up the system because they will just make it all the worse. They young kids just entering the work force should not pay for the sins of their grandparents and parents generation which is what this is. Of course, those that are too old to work, they can't obviously pay either. And if it falls all on those in the middle, then there becomes no point to working. Lots of pain to go around. The question is what kind of country do we have when that pain really starts to hit? Chicago? Detroit? Venezuela? Worse?

[don novicki]

I have been applying for jobs but no one wants a 64 y/o for anything anymore. What chance do I have against a younger and more educated person than myself? This sucks, basically being discarded at this point in my life. My first job was as an 8 y/o kid peddling papers and I have always had a job that paid the bills and provided for myself and my family. Now as I finally get near retirement I'm thrown on the trash heap, Right now I feel really down..........................

[SpinnerMan]

I have been applying for jobs but no one wants a 64 y/o for anything anymore. What chance do I have against a younger and more educated person than myself? This sucks, basically being discarded at this point in my life.

You are not being discarded. The reality is tough here. Most likely much of the value you provided at 64 was the specific knowledge of how things worked at your company. Most of that is lost. Investing the time and money in you to regain much of that value will not be repaid. It's just the math and it is not on your side as it was decades ago.

My first job was as an 8 y/o kid peddling papers and I have always had a job that paid the bills and provided for myself and my family.

Hopefully you are financially sound. You mentioned your wife working. It's time to work for you and not for others.

Now as I finally get near retirement I'm thrown on the trash heap, Right now I feel really down..........................

Don't look at it like that. It's not personal. It's not a failing of you.

Step back. Do you really need the money? Probably not. Hopefully not at 64 with a working wife. Figure out what you really need to make. My guess is that it is a lot less than you were making and possibly nothing at all. You sound like a good man that has done the right thing since he was a kid. If that is close and not too many financial mishaps have come your way, relax and take advantage of the good you have done for yourself. At 64, it's time to work for yourself and not for others whatever that means to you. Likely at this point it is not the biggest pay check you can earn, but doing something you enjoy doing.

This change in mindset is hard. The first part is really sitting down with your wife and maybe even a financial planner and figuring out where exactly you are financially and where you want to be. Nothing wrong with retiring at 64 and working on the retirement property while your wife earns some cash for the bills or any combination that you all want. Just don't feel you have to rush back into a job when you may not need to. You and your wife are at a different point in your life and it is hard to change what you have done for so many decades. At least give it some thought. You planned on retiring at some point. Maybe now is that point. Maybe a partial where you work part time in a low stress and lower pay(not meaning you are low value) job. Just consider all your options before you rush into something and don't stress about your wife carrying a little more of the load right now. I'm sure she is glad she can.

[don novicki]

I guess I will have to adapt but it won't be easy. We lost almost everything in the crash of 08. Some of what we had has come back a little but not to where it was before. Neither of us has a pension. We were not fortunate enough to work somewhere it was offered,and frankly when I was younger I didn't even know what one was. To be sure we are better off than some people so I feel fortunate about that but the "golden years" don't look all that great with our loss in 08. But we will make do, one way or another. Thanks for all the encouragement guys, it is appreciated...........

[SpinnerMan]

Neither of us has a pension. We were not fortunate enough to work somewhere it was offered

If you had a pension, you would not know for sure where you stand. Losing a job at 64 is tough. Finding out your pension is insolvent at 74 is disastrous. They are far too great a risk for me and they tie you needlessly to a job that you may want to leave. Something I gave serious consideration to over the last couple years. With a pension, this would not be an option for a guy that is closer to 50 than 40. Pensions don't have any secret math for ensuring you get a secure retirement and they invest in the same things that you have available. It's just done by people who you hope are not corrupt or idiots and it needlessly ties you to your employer or your union.

I don't want to veer off, but I suspect you did something that my in-laws did and so many people do.

We lost almost everything in the crash of 08. Some of what we had has come back a little but not to where it was before.

What is the goal of trading? To buy low and sell high. So when stock prices are low, you buy and when they are high then you sell. But what my in-laws did and a huge number of people did was what you must have done. When prices were going high, you bought and when they went low you sold. 180 degrees opposite. You locked in your losses. It is a very common mistake. Everyone knows they should buy when prices are low and sell when prices are high, but people focus on what they could have made (so they buy after the prices have gone high) and focus on what they could have saved (so they sell after the prices are low). They close the barn door after the horses have run away.

Hopefully others can learn from your mistake. It is exceedingly common. I just read a news article that shocked me as to how many millions of people did exactly what you did. Sorry to hear that.

And I think trading is for fools. A nice thing available today that you probably didn't have are target date retirement funds. They adjust the mix of stocks and bonds and things appropriate for your age. You just buy every month and don't have to worry about these ups and downs exactly like people do with pensions if that is your personal preference. That is what everyone that would prefer a pension should do and simply and completely ignore the ups and downs of the markets. You don't get monthly statements telling you about the huge swings in the value of your pension fund. They took a huge hit in '08 as well, but they stayed the course because unless we get like Japan where the price to earning was 100 as opposed to 24 and it should be around 15 to 20, any downs will recover in a few years if the government doesn't "help." And that is what happened in '08 and will probably happen again sometime in the next few years. If it does, do not sell AFTER and lock in losses.

[aunt betty]

The bright side is that conservation goose and teal season is just two and a half months away.
Focus.

[don novicki]

One stinking goose per day for the early season out where I live. Isn't even worth setting up for...........

[SpinnerMan]

One stinking goose per day for the early season out where I live. Isn't even worth setting up for...........

Where do you live?

We get 5 here. Never got 5. Should have. Once could have, but pass because I would have dropped the last two in the nasty buckthorn patch behind the blind and with 3 big geese in the bag, it wasn't worth the hassle. I hunt a strip pit a lot. You learn there are places you don't really want to drop a bird.

[don novicki]

I live 15 miles outside of Erie Pa. in a vast duck deprived wasteland. Twenty years ago we had mallards during the season. Now if you kill a mallard it's a Big F'in Deal. We sit right on lake Erie and do a lot of open water layout shooting on Presque Isle Bay but the diver hunting has been exceptionally poor these last 2 years. The Pa Game commission runs things but to say they do anything for the duck hunter would be a lie. Duck hunters and harvests here are so bad anymore it's barely worth going out. I live in the NW zone and our goose population is very poor. Used to be great but the migration has shifted west so now we are at the point where they are cutting the bag limits in this very small zone.We just got the word that we will only be allowed 1 goose/day here in the NW zone but the other zones the bag limits weren't touched and you can get up to 5/day. At the waterfowl symposium in March they had all the facts and figures and told us that if things in Pa. don't turn around then they may look at closing duck season. Not just bird limits but actual closed season altogether. If that happens watch the classified section because I will be selling all my stuff. If you are a duck hunter in Pa., you need all the help you can get. We have no Sunday hunting, no teal season, and no motorized decoys allowed. I am surprised Pa even lets you use decoys.......,,.

[Rick]

...I am surprised Pa even lets you use decoys.

Shhh...

Hate to see the turn your life has taken and hope things work out.

[SpinnerMan]

I live 15 miles outside of Erie Pa.

I'm a central PA native. Grow up where the two branches of the Suquehanna join to form the main river.

Twenty years ago we had mallards during the season. Now if you kill a mallard it's a Big F'in Deal.

I used to see ducks when I was a kid. Hunting wasn't great, but there was usually something to see. I hardly see a duck now when I go back home.

We sit right on lake Erie and do a lot of open water layout shooting on Presque Isle Bay but the diver hunting has been exceptionally poor these last 2 years.

Sucks to hear that for two reasons. One for you, but that is somewhere I always wanted to go. A buddy of mine wants to hunt all the Great Lakes and I went with him to Michigan (divers in Green Bay) and we are going to Huron this fall for sea ducks in Saginaw Bay and he did Superior last year. I was going to suggest there for Erie, but your not exactly overselling it

At the waterfowl symposium in March they had all the facts and figures and told us that if things in Pa. don't turn around then they may look at closing duck season. Not just bird limits but actual closed season altogether.

Given what I have seen back where I grew up that doesn't shock me. There used to be mallards all over year round and now most times I go home I don't see a single one even if I drive 20 miles of river. The resident geese started to grow and that attracted waterfowl hunter numbers and then season got extended and I think that resulted in the resident mallards getting wiped out. We'd hunt late season geese and see a lot of mallards that were on the river because everything else was frozen, but nothing we could do about it and now the season runs into January. We'd have killed a lot of ducks if that were the case. I don't bother to take my duck gear with me when I'm home over the holidays. I'll go for a walk in the woods after squirrels or grouse, but there is no point in bringing the gear for the river. We used to see a lot of birds and now I see ZERO most days.

[don novicki]

Got fed up and decided to file for Social Security. Looking forward to having many more days afield than I usually get. Now if we would just get some ducks this season I will be alright...........................

[SpinnerMan]

Got fed up and decided to file for Social Security. Looking forward to having many more days afield than I usually get. Now if we would just get some ducks this season I will be alright...........................

Sorry to here that. My primary hunting partner was forced to retire when the housing bubble burst. He was just luck he was old enough to retire. A lot of guys in their mid 40's to 50's got hit a lot harder.

On the plus side, his free time has greatly improved my hunting. We've added two goose fields and a ton of other improvements to our club largely as a result of his effort. He seems to be loving it and gets out a lot more than he did.

Good luck.

Any guides out of your area that you can recommend? Also when is the best time?

[don novicki]

You want to come to NW Pa. to hunt? If this season is like the last 2 I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to when to come. Unfortunately our migration, IF it does hit usually is gone in a couple of days. Now divers on the bay is a little bit different so there might be a possibility and the blue bills used to show up starting right after Halloween and ran until about Thanksgiving. If you want field hunting for honkers, I have a bunch of places I could put you on. PM me and we can talk if you would like.

[SpinnerMan]

My buddy wants to hit all 5 Great Lakes and given that I'm a PA native, I'd like to do Erie in your neck of the woods. It would probably be a diver hunt and that time frame is what we have been hunting.

I might shoot you a PM in the future on the honker hunting if I'm heading back to central PA. Not much of a detour out of my way and some years I do chase the geese back around my parents a little over the holidays.

I'm just looking at options on the lake. Something on the other end will probably work better for us, but for me I'd like to do it in PA.

[don novicki]

Contact me any time...............

[SpinnerMan]

Greatly appreciated.