Review of Last Weeks Goals

  DD#3 while out of the hospital is still feeling very weak. Baby Blake needed his Mommy and Mommy needed her baby!!! Kara on the other hand was A-OK once Mommy returned home she was back to her usual full of life self. Hubby and I took on the wild child for the weekend to give Mommy and Daddy a break. With the beautiful fall like weather we have been having we kept her plenty busy during the day helping with outdoor chores which is a favorite of hers. The evenings....what can I say, we were tired :) It's very rare that electronics are my friend but I must admit this "Nabi" came in handy while hubby and I enjoyed some Bama Football. As you can see by Kara's expression I was getting on her nerves taking photo's of her! This kid cracks us all up.

 A friend brought to my attention that one of the spice clean out photo's from last week showed what looked like wine bottles in the background. We both got a kick out of the thought that I might be indulging in the spirits :) Not that I am criticizing anyone who enjoys an adult beverage, it's just not my thing. Never has been.

OK, so here is the scoop on those "Looks Like Wine bottles".

One of the health area's my Dr. has been interested in is the amount of water I drink each day. I shared with her I know I drink between 8-10 bottles a day. Yep, I'm a big drinker. While she was happy with my water intake she had concerns that I was drinking so much bottled water. She suggested that I use bottle water as a convinance but when at home use a "Glass" not plastic :)

I won't go into all the details regarding bottled water, heck you can google that. I started with purchasing a Brita water pitcher. While that worked great I didn't feel like I could track the amount of water I was taking in. Here is where the "Looks like wine bottles" comes in. I now recycle empty Ningxia Red bottles. Each evening I fill two of the bottles to ensure I get at least 52 ounces of water each day. Most days I end up refilling at least one bottle.
I have been drinking "Young Livings" Ningxia Red for 3 month now. I must say I LOVE it!!!

One of last weeks goals was to find the time to work some numbers regarding retirement. I concentrated on health care. Hubby has been knocking around the idea of calling it quits next year. He will be 62 at that point, I will be 60. We would need to provide our own health insurance for both of us for 3 years, and additional 2 years for myself until medicare kicks in.

After speaking to several friends who have retired early the going rate for a couples health insurance policy runs between $1,300.00 - $2,000.00 each month.  That doesn't include the cost of co-pays, and deductibles. We do have a HSA (Health Savings Account) but it is no where near what we would need.
Alright so here is how the math worked out going with what seems to be the average for a couple

$1,500 a month for 12 months - $18,000.00 a year
Drag that ugly number out over 3 years - $54,000.00
The 2 extra years before I would qualify for Medicare - $18,000.00
Grand total $72,000.00
Keep in mind these numbers don't include the cost of meds hubby and I are on now, regular Dr. office visit, or any illnesses we might run into.

If hubby can hold on for just 3 more years here is the math
Health insurance for just me as hubby will qualify for Medicare at that point $18,000.00
If we continue to make the maximum allowed HSA deposits as we are doing now that would bump our account up and additional $22,000.00. With what we have already saved in our HSA our grand total would be $42,000.00

Bottom line - I would much rather have $42,000.00 in the HSA account than pay out $72,000.00.

This is just one of the many steps involved in thinking/planning early retirement. More to come...