I have a similar situation except it is my adult child with the disability, and I was almost ready to retire anyways, just accelerated a bit.Her income is mainly for food and miscellaneous. Her medical expenses are covered through Medicaid. Plus, she gets food stamps, so she is able to live with less income with a "minimalistic" lifestyle.You said, 'I expect to reduce expense to about $24,000 after I retire (assuming mortgage is paid off and having to purchase my own medical insurance.' Is this amount just for you? What about your partner? Can she continue to live on her $500-a-month disability income?
TravelforFun
My suggestion is that you consider that mental health care is very expensive and many treatment options do not take Medicaid (nor other health insurance). So when budgeting expenses you need to budget more than you think for mental healthcare. This year I spent maybe $15k cash to try non covered treatments and providers. One of the providers did in fact seem to have unique expertise that led to some partial relief of symptoms after 4 years of mostly being treated by doctors who did take insurance (most of whom were either young, inexperienced, lesser credentials or older and disinterested).
Also having helped my son with social security, you need to find out why only $500/month. The hard part with mental health issues is getting medically approved, and she got that ! The easy part should be getting the max benefit. Something as simple as having her “pay rent” to her parents can result in getting more SSI payment. Not a life changing difference but could help in your financial planning. There are attorneys and consultants who can help, but a call to SSA to ask for the financial analysis of how they determined $500/month should be something her guardians can do themselves.
I think you are likely too young and not financially secure enough yet to retire, IMO. But if determined, you need to come up with aggressive cost savings and maximize gov benefits. For instance, assuming you want to live near her parents, are there LCOL locations close enough ? Or would her parents consider relocation with you to a LCOL area ?
Statistics: Posted by beyou — Sun Dec 17, 2023 1:11 am