Retirement Plans

Before I got diagnosed, I had big plans for when I retired, but that changed in November 2014. Now I wonder what’s going to happen to me when my husband retires and only receives his retirement funds.

Are we going to struggle financially? I know we are not supposed to worry about the future and live in the present, but it’s hard not to.

Retirement options and financial concerns

I had to take out money from my retirement because I needed it at that time. I was thinking, let me use it now because I don’t know how much time I have left, so I took out a big chunk and used it for what we needed and enjoyed some of it as well.

Not knowing that I was going to live a lot longer than five years. If I knew then what I know now, I would have never taken money out. Now I’m here wondering, “Oh my gosh, what now?” I try not to worry so much about it and just trust the process.

I can’t help but wonder what we are going to do when my husband is ready to retire. I have a little left in my retirement, and I won’t see that until I’m 64 or so. I thought about putting some money into it so I can at least get a good chunk every month.

I also thought, what if I don’t make it to 64 or so? Then the heck with it and take it all out and use it for whatever I want. Go on my dream vacation, upgrade my kitchen, use it as a downpayment on another house, buy an RV, or just leave it in my bank account for a rainy day.

Plans for the future

I honestly don’t know what to do. I even thought about going back to work just to start putting more money into my retirement. It’s really hard to go back to work when you have so many doctors and scan appointments and have to constantly request days off.

I really don’t want to deal with the negativity that will come with that. The supervisor or the people at that job can or may become very catty, and I surely don’t want to deal with that.

My husband will retire in less than two years, and we did talk about getting an RV. He wants to be able to take off and go visit different parts of the states.

Managing retirement plans with health issues

I don’t work because of my lung cancer. I haven’t worked since 2015, so you can say I retired early, but with my husband retiring soon, we want to do a lot more traveling and do many things together. He does worry about the medical insurance because I do need it.

He wanted to continue to work as much as he could just for the insurance because he worried about me. I told him we could find a way to keep the insurance and pay it every month.

It’s sad that we can’t even look forward to retirement because we know I need that insurance. When we were younger, we always talked about the things we wanted to do when we reached retirement age.

Now, it looks blurry for us, not knowing what to do exactly. All because I need that insurance for my illness and treatments. Even our retirement plan was turned upside down.

I just hope that when that time comes, we can figure it out and hope for the best.