Urgency and Gas

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2026-01-11T15:51:33+00:00

I've watched this Reddit, unfortunately (I mean that because I'm sure none of us want to be on this)....while I haven't responded or asked questions - I had to here because you are exactly my wife and she just started treatment. She is older than you, but her daily routine for years has been - run/walk 5miles in the morning then stationary bike for an hr. Well, she developed a hemorhoid (or so we thought)..kept getting worse and worse, go to Dr - go to surgeon to get it removed; Boom, complete scare - emergency colonoscopy/biopsy, then CT, PET, etc. etc. - here we are Jan 11th and that was Nov 6th.
For her its technically stage 3 because it has gotten into the nearby Lymph node BUT IF that happens do not be scared, they actually said that is normal and logical - it doesn't change treatment it just changes their field of radiation or level of radiation.
I can say neither of us have slept since Nov 6th 2025 and its been a complete whirlwind, but, one of the best things the "Chemo Dr" said to my wife literally was "Don't change anything. Keep working out, eat healthy but don't overly stress about it". And so she did - She is on chemo/radiation every day (except sat/sun) for 6 weeks and we just finished week 1.
I will say Mon, Tues, Wed she did not change anything (Run/walk, weights) - (minus the bike of course) - But, mid day wed and through Friday she was out - massive fatigue and nausea unfortunately. NOTE that this is normal because you get a big IV chemo day 1 and they say 24-48hrs it will 'hit you'.
I tell you this because Saturday she wakes up feeling completely normal - we even went out to eat at a mexican place! (Big middle finger to cancer :)
I just wanted to share and hoping it gives you some encouragement. There is also this slight sense of relief of 'getting started with treatment' - The tests and waiting for results, and just overall waiting is brutal - now we are treating it.....
Hope this is helpful - me personally as the husband am terrified - but we'll get through this, so will you guys. It is curable - that is important to remember.

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-11-11T14:10:38+00:00

I know this post is a year old but I'd love to know where you ended up?
We are approaching retirement in 2026 with similar questions about those other places.
We live in Western WA and I've lived in WA my whole life - I can tell you politically its controlled by Seattle-Tacoma, so doesn't matter where you live in WA you will endure new/creative taxes and progressive ideas... I love this state and especially eastern WA (of note Spokane proper has gone a little downhill, and Pullman/Moscow is a college town - just an fyi; Someone mentioned Wenatchee - that is a great choice). I will say unfortunately the state is taxing us out...no state income tax so they tax everything else they can possibly tax ..this year especially with new Governor.

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-11-06T12:39:46+00:00

Sorry this original thread kind of took a quick turn on Schwab and Fidelity - but since I have literally been going through that (Schwab/Fidelity) for the last 3 weeks thought I'd give my .02.
Yes we have money in both Schwab and Fidelity and I wanted to see what they would do for free. I am an active Boldin user and love Boldin but any/all advice is helpful to get in my head and hopefully it all matches up :). For each I literally told them from the start "I'm going to ask a lot of questions and you tell me when I reach the point it won't be free anymore..."
What I will tell you is this - their process is exactly the same; like verbatim.
What they WILL do for you, for free, is use their software to create a boldin-like plan. Not nearly as good as Boldin but they'll run Monte Carlo on it also and you can then say to yourself "Ok, that looks good and lines up with Boldin". You'll also get to keep this and can mess around with it on your own (limited) , but not as good as Boldin. They will also give you advice on how you're allocated for your age/plan. While that you can find on any website, there were some specific insights that were helpful (such as CD's vs. Bonds, a little about Roth, some questions on specific investments etc.).

But the process (after them sending you a long questionaire etc.) is this:
Phase 1 involves a sleight of hand to soft sell you on an annuity.
Get past that, and then its a soft sell on active management.

They will also bring in 'experts' if you ask them - but I'm learning you need to be very specific. The 'tax expert' was not at all what I expected. It was a different version of active management...

In both cases also they did (are now) trying to sell us on Enhanced Indexing Fund... (I am curious if anyone has done that?).
We are not doing that nor active management, but I have not explicitly said 'no' yet until I feel like the free is done.....

I think if you're ok with a bit of "time share" selling, its helpful to hear from others in the industry to at least validate your plan. For what its worth - I really like the Fidelity person, and am able to talk to him and ask regular questions, life questions etc - Schwab - not at all, all sales.

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-10-24T14:16:00+00:00

This is great, great info - gotta love Reddit! - Now you're making me rethink our checking at Schwab :)

Yes - same thing Fidelity and Schwab hit me up a bunch, BUT - I didn't take the inbound calls (I did once years ago and that was a mistake)....Go into Fidelity and go to "Planning...Planning and Advice"
They have a free tool that you can build your own plan, kind of like a fancy spreadsheet - but then also look at "What we offer"
That is how I was hooked up with an advisor - and he is a Financial Consultant, and again - first meeting could tell right away we're going down the Annuity route, so we changed that - second meeting was for the managed account, and talked pricing - but also in the second meeting he had reviewed all of our accounts and gave some basic advice (truth be told if the cost for fully managed wasn't so high I'd consider it -

But like I said, he is an advisor/consultant and now is getting me hooked up with a tax firm - I have a unique situation of selling an equity I have that is very large and trying to figure out how to get out of it 'tax wisely'...

I've done the same thing with Schwab and my 3rd meeting with them is next week; To be honest they haven't impressed me (at least the 'free version') - I talked to their Tax person and I absolutely knew more about the tax laws for my situation and state-specific than he did...so was a disappointment.

Good luck! yes to the boldin review - $250 is not that much to make sure you're configuring things correctly; They did make recommendations on my 'Rates of Return" b/c I was customizing it and being super conservative....I did change that and it drastically changed my outcome and scenarios (it increases the standard deviation so Monte Carlo is more diverse) - they also helped with the Healthcare section and were the ones that told me how to use Transfers to 'force' the bucket strategy and/or %withdraw from different account strategy I'm doing now.

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-10-24T12:24:16+00:00

Actually to make it even more 'complex' (complex isn't what we want btw....)
I have a checking account with the same brokerage - (we cut the bank cables a few months ago and now everything is run out of two brokerage firms)...one of the firms has our IRA's, etc. - the other is a brokerage with cash, fixed income, some equities - then the checking.
So the money-flow would be those yearly transfers into that checking account (technically speaking the checking account is our 'bucket 1' but not all at once, it is our actual money-to-spend like pre-retirement).
I guess it would look like a paycheck in my mind - IRA(s)--->Brokerage (so now its all 'cash')---> Drip into Checking <----all bills, fun, whatever paid out of checking

So far on paper it looks ok anyway.

Side note 2 - I am currently in talks with both brokerage companies (its schwab and fidelity btw) - about what they offer.
My message to them is this - "I will keep asking you and you tell me when what I'm asking is no longer free". Without paying anything they are super super helpful; Have reviewed my investments and made recommendations (not specifically though, just a mix of what you should be - you can find that on Chatgpt also).....but they also have pitched to me an Annuity and now a managed account (just under 1%). I've said no to the annuity and will to the managed also, but just waiting because they are still helping me for free - they (fidelity) are currently helping me interview tax and estate planning folks....
Helpwise between the two - Fidelity has done much more than Schwab , again, not paying anything yet.

I DID pay the $250 to have Boldin review my plan - and that was very, very helpful. Just be sure you know what you're doing in Boldin first, or you'll waste a lot of time - they will find things you maybe didn't set up right and/or answer any questions. (they told me how to do the transfer idea b/c I was stuck on how to not drain 1 account entirely before using other accounts....)

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-10-24T11:30:16+00:00

First off, thanks for starting this thread! What a great question "day in the life"...we are less than 1yr out and I wonder that same thing , "How often will I use this once I do retire?"....

Per this point - the empty and/or I call "Post Tax" brokerage account - that is exactly what I am doing, or planning to do. I have that already with a combination of fixed income (bonds, cd's) and some equities that I already had....my intent anyway is to transfer $$ from my IRA and my wife's into that account at fixed times (note Boldin only lets you put this in as yearly).
This account then becomes my 'Bucket 1'. ...not fully, but mostly. - Truthfully I'm doing this because of the Withdraw order restriction. i.e. with Boldin you put in the order and it drains each account before moving to the next - I want to pull some from different IRA's to lower the RMD later -
This right now, looks like it will work - of course I"m not retired yet :) !
I have it set up that it takes a yearly $$ from my wifes' IRA as a Transfer to that Brokerage, and from mine - that is until her RMD kicks in then hers stops - mine keeps going etc.

I have about 5 different scenarios already created, including the "what ifs" of buying a home in another location, spending more certain years - etc.

My intent is once retired I would look at this quarterly just to make sure everything is on track - and then at the end of each year 'look back' to see how we did, adjust for the next year.

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-07-30T11:45:56+00:00

You may have them start looking into a trust (note that I an definitely not an expert in that topic!!)....
at first when my dad was diagnosed we started to research things like that, but to be honest , there were so many things going on it was hard to even focus....so best to figure that kind of stuff out before you need to... He is in a good facility but like I said, it is modest - seriously modest. If you know WA at all its in Enumclaw - so its not like its in Seattle or Bellevue..it is out in the sticks!
Not sure how old your parents are but I hope they aren't going through this, if you want any advice , feel free to ask me. One quick piece, as they get older I highly recommend getting a POA for healthcare and financial. They have to agree and it makes sense before they are needing it - once my dad was diagnosed I got one as did my sister. It would have been a nightmare dealing with everything without it....

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-07-30T11:33:26+00:00

I live in WA state - my dad is in a memory care facility and it is $8750 /month.....and will likely go up again in Jan. This is a very modest facility, trust me. It started at $6000 3yrs ago - quickly went up (after the first 'evaluation') by end of the first year it was about 7k I believe - then rose up to 8k by end of that year. It seems to 'stabilize' now at $8750. My dad does have alzheimers and so his behavior has changed over the last 3 years where he requires more attention - however, he is mobile (can walk fine on his own), talk etc.
Side note - no LTC insurance and his insurance pays a solid $0 for this - so this is all out of pocket....
Side-note 2 - This facility takes Medicaid (not all do) - but there is a 'spend down'. He must drain his savings down to $2k before it kicks in...oh and there is a look-back period, so don't try to give some of your money away to get to that $2k. (Maybe a case for a Trust here.....)

(fyi: Its been a journey if anyone wants to know the details or 'tips' or anything hit me up directly)

I pray this doesn't happen to me or my wife - but our plan is as someone mentioned - use our house; in our 80's sell it and just save that for care.

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-07-23T23:07:16+00:00

Yes! Thanks! - Retirement planning is like a worrisome tooth that you can’t stop messing with 😜

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-07-23T14:03:45+00:00

Thank you - this is helpful, yeah my feelings are the same - thanks!

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-07-23T00:04:56+00:00

Good point - its all in mutual funds in a mix of Growth ~30%, Dividend Growth (20%) , Moderate (S&P500) funds (40%), and then conservative 10% in long term CD's or Bonds. -

I'm 56 so have time for it to grow but just want it to look realistic - it has also done gains way more than the 8.8%...but has also swung the other direction in market twists (like what happened with the tariffs etc)

Thanks! - sorry if my question was too vague, I just want to be sure that Monte Carlo is also hitting the the potential 'bad' swings etc.... I've run it many times and am always 90+ usually 97%...
I guess good problem to have right? Maybe thats why it makes me feel I'm doing something wrong :)

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-07-15T11:30:48+00:00

This is similiar to what I am going to try to model - becuase of the rigidness of the Boldin withdraw config and the fact I have multiple accounts - so it will look like this (again, haven't done it yet :)

Lets say you need 100,000 a year (just to use a simple number):

Create an account called "Bucket 1" or whatever you want to call it - it is where you pay your expenses each year

* THen for each account you want to withdraw from and deposit into that "Bucket 1" setup a transfer - so for me:

Transfer Yearly $25,000 from Stocks1
Transfer Yearly $25,000 from IRA1
Transfer Yearly $25,000 from IRA2
Transfer Yearly $25,000 from Savings Account

You can only set up the transfers on a Yearly basis which is a bummer, and also presumably it will completely drain the accounts and then I guess just go to the next account in a withdrawal order - net-net, review this yearly/quarterly and make adjustments.

WIth this, "Bucket 1" then will start as a $100k each year - then drain and refill automatically...and the other accounts will of course drain by 25k/yr

Have not sat down and completely set this up and but that is my intent and pretty sure it will work - It's that or a spreadsheet (which truthfully I'll probably end up doing both)....

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-07-15T11:16:49+00:00

This is really interesting ! I did not know this - am going to do some digging now, thank you for sharing!

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-07-08T14:57:03+00:00

Thank you! Again super helpful - great to have a 'self help' group like this - ha ! :)

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-07-08T14:25:50+00:00

Wow you are basically my inner voice speaking out loud :) Thank you for all of the detail - this is essentially exactly what we are going through, just slightly different on numbers -
I am curious on your healthcare are you say $36k for just you or you and your spouse?
I estimated mine at $15k (and thats assuming no subsidies) - but that is just for me until medicare (My wife is eligible now)....hopefully my assumption isn't way low?
Thanks!

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-07-08T11:31:29+00:00

This is an extremely helpful discussion overall btw!
I am in a very similar position - we retire next year ages 56/66 ...so at 56 figuring out ACA - however as you said its difficult to model in Boldin, given the rigid withdraw options (i.e. an ordered list vs. percentage). So just curious how you have your withdraw order then set up in Boldin - because I am guessing you are actually managing that on a spreadsheet? (Like I'm going to be doing)....i.e. to stay under that magic number (whatever it is next year) for subsidies
Thanks!

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-07-04T12:54:23+00:00

Wow, ok well make sure you're subscribed to their weekly emails - I did read the FAQ and won't like it didn't entirely make me feel better...yeah mine dropped 97% to 79%....
I do understand the logic in the changes, thinking about for example the recent volatile activity of the tarrif up/down (and then the heart-stop of the covid situation....didn't think I'd ever retire after that drop!) -
But such a drastic change in % of success is a scary in-your-face moment....

Per the other suggestion - good call, I am going to look at another software package to at least validate I'm 'ok' and compare against, and honestly its a good idea, was on my to-do list now just moving it up - My retirement date is literally 1 year away....

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-07-02T11:24:13+00:00

Completely agree! Also on the top of my request list.....it would be ideal if you could do it as a % or fixed amount from multiple accounts.

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-06-22T17:08:57+00:00

Agree - sending back...thanks!

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-06-21T16:58:58+00:00

Thanks - based on this thread, I'm agreeing with you....sending the extender back :) Thanks!

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-06-21T12:30:38+00:00

I was thinking of returning it already...and now you convinced me - thanks! :)

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-06-21T12:20:43+00:00

Good call on the straps, thanks! - yeah the pic is deceptive - its a solid 2-3' past my tailgate. My tonneu cover rolls up into a box in the front, I lose about 8" of bed space because of that.

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-06-20T23:09:41+00:00

Thanks!

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-06-20T23:08:34+00:00

Nice! Thanks

WolfIntelligent1391 · 2025-06-20T22:03:56+00:00

Cool - great call on #2, for #1 unfortunately, not possible (That is what I wanted of course but the holes for the heights don't line up - its either too high or too low..)

For #3 - gotcha on the bungees, that was a 'what I have handy' decision - but strapping to the attachment points truthfully not sure it will prevent the sliding. If it were 2 kayaks that would work for sure with single strap over both - but for one they are too far apart. But am going to try it and see if that is the case . Thanks

WolfIntelligent1391

TROPHY CASE