You have planned for months and even years for that day when you will walk out the door of your employer’s place of business for the last time. Things seem to line up and your path is clear, sleep late and goof off. Are you finished dreaming now? You neglected to sign up for Medicare Part B “before” you retired. Your thoughts were probably that you would call up the Medicare folks after you left the job and just sign up.
My first day off the job but not retired, yet! Wow, no medical coverage a great way to start my life.
Do not do what I did, leave my employer and find that I was without health insurance
That’s not how things work in the real world. I am speaking of those of you who delayed retirement past age 65 and signed up for Part A on your 65th birthday. Of course, if you failed to do that, this article will just add a bit more pain to your life. Do not do what I did, leave my employer, and find that I was without health insurance. Oh, you say what about COBRA, I say what about the $1,240 per month for two that it will cost. At least a month before you leave your job, apply to Social Security for Part B, that’s the doctor visits and other things that Part A does not cover.
Well, I did not realize that I had to sign up for Part B so I left and spent days on the phone working on COBRA and stopping by Social Security to apply. So almost four weeks later I found that I was covered by COBRA since I received no follow-up after I signed up on the internet. Then Social Security came through much faster than I thought, about two weeks. I canceled COBRA and enrolled in a Medicare program with a third party.
At the same time the grass was getting longer
All of this administrative stuff took a toll and shortened my life a bit. At the same time, the grass was getting longer and I was thinking that my neighbors would probably do an intervention by strapping me to the back of one of their mowers as they as a group descended on my one acre of grass. That did not happen of course but I did finally get the lawn mowed.
Did I mention that I had also just moved into my home in Ocean Springs, MS from Southern California? We had a patch of grass at my house, in CA, where they paid you to remove grass but not enough to resort to rocks. How did I know that while I was working on phase two of the Medicare issue, the grass required mowing again? In CA during the summer you mowed once a month if you had lawn or you had to groom your rocks. Back to my first day off the job.
The alarm was magically set for 6:00 AM
Well, that was also an experience, the first day. What was the first day? Monday of course, no one leaves their job in the middle of the week. I had taken some vacation the previous week so I was working from home when the first day of the rest of my life happened. The alarm was magically set for 6:00 AM, I guess anticipating the one hour and fifteen-minute drive to the office.
When Alexa attempted to wake me at the rude hour of Six AM, I realized that I had no place to go so I went back to sleep. I was however up after my 20-minute shower at 7:00 AM (just kidding about the 20 minutes, still getting used to the fact that I have water). I made my cappuccino with my new fancy coffee maker and relaxed for a while on my deck reading the news on my phone. I was tempted to check the traffic report but passed.
About the cappuccino machine
About the cappuccino machine. I know that this is the South and real men do not generally drink cappuccino (well that’s what I have been told). I believe (real men) go to the local Dunkin Donuts shop or make coffee in a can on their engines. That’s one of the first things I noticed about the area, the stereotypes, they do not compute. I found a couple of Starbucks in the area so I know that some real men do in fact drink expresso. Sorry for the detour from my first day but everyone knows how important a cup of cappuccino is in the morning.
So, to the computer, start the process as I mentioned above to get insured. But wait, I have no bank account in the local area where I can get say $10,000 in cash if I need it. Perhaps the cost of expresso beans will require a large influx of cash. So, I worked at opening an account at a credit union that services the area with actual physical branches. I went to one, wow, nice people, friendly, they apologized for the two-minute wait. The last time I was in a bank branch in California, I waited twenty minutes.
One reason for moving to the Mississippi Gulf Coast is the food
After the credit union, I had to go to, well you guessed it, Lowes (which seems to be a daily pilgrimage now). There is always something that is needed at the hardware store when you move to a new house. I needed to get filters for the air conditioning units. By this time, my wife and I are thinking about eating.
One reason we moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast area is for the food so we had to eat some of the local fares. We drove past the hamburger places and settled on some healthy fried shrimp at Mikey’s a local place with great seafood from the local fleets. We sat on the patio and watched the boats and birds pass by. Good food, good company, and a good setting. Food came promptly so no need to linger.
Back to the ranch as some say in the West, I have to find a local saying to replace it. That reminds me, one of my goals in retirement was to travel so I spent a while with the contractor who was widening my side gate so that I could store my fifth wheel in the yard. We do not like fences or gates in this environment but we had to get one on one side of the house due to our association rule about parking your boats etc. in the yard rather than in the street or driveway.
Saw a few fish jump out of the water
That done, back to the computer and work on transitional stuff e.g. address changes, ordering stuff from Amazon (new house and not available from Lowes). After a while, I had to walk down to the boat and make sure that the battery was being trickle-charged. Saw a few fish jump out of the water and thought about that fishing rod in the garage.
Back to the house, made a few phone calls about the Medicare thing and it was time to think about dinner. It’s nice being in the Central time zone. You can call businesses who have to stay open until 5:00 PM Pacific time to accommodate those folks on the left coast. We decided to go out to eat since all we had in the house was popcorn and nuts. I decided to check the traffic report in case we would be tied up in traffic going the seven miles to the restaurant.
I remembered, there was no traffic report since there is no traffic helicopter and there is no traffic. Wow, what an end to the first day as a person on the “dole” as the British call someone who receives government assistance (Social Security). We had a great meal and received a discount for being former military (I was in the Air Force).
I accomplished nothing
To summarize the first day off the job. I accomplished almost nothing. Failed to watch Fox news, made no money, closed no deals, did not hire or fire an employee, did not become involved in a traffic accident, did not wait in line at the burger place for a quick lunch, and oh, did not miss it a bit! (well maybe a little).
Update a few years later
This was written in late 2018. It’s now January 2022. What have I learned? I am not retired. What has changed is that I work at my own pace, I am responsible for my family as always but not many employees and a corporation. I became a real estate agent and then a broker. I have started my own Real Estate Brokerage with two partners who have decades of experience along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
My itch to continue investing in residential rental real estate came out big time. We now own several properties, some are vacation rentals and some are rental properties. I started the property management company with partners who do most of the work.
Except for showing clients houses and a few appointments, I have time to spend with my wife and enjoy working around our 2 acre home on the bayou. Working on rental properties is also satisfying on occasion. I finally turned over mowing all of the yards to someone else because my passion for blogging has overtaken my available time for mowing lawns.
Start now, plan your lifestyle change
Retirement is not for everyone. What I mean by retirement is sitting by the beach with an umbrella drink. You should read my article “Start now, plan your lifestyle change”. You will see what I mean about making a lifestyle change rather than calling it retirement, there is a difference.
The most popular articles on this blog site are “Why I decided to retire in Ocean Springs, Mississippi” and “Why you need to retire on the Mississippi Gulf Coast?.
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