Money or Time? Questions & decisions! And BTW - Obama lied!!!

Hubby and I have been talking a lot lately about our retirement years.  He is actually eligible to retire now but at a reduced amount than if he stayed and worked longer to hit the maximum retirement level.  The problem is - who knows where I will be physically in 7 to 10 years.  As I have heard about others' PD progression and asked questions, I have concluded that there seems to be about a 5 - 7 year window (give or take a few years) after starting the Sinemet before one starts to battle the yucky side effects of the drug (mainly dyskinesia) in addition to the yucky symptoms from the progression of the Parkinson's disease.  I told Hubby this but he did not believe me. 

So when I was at my last appointment with my Neurologists, after he told me I was doing really well and responding nicely to the PD meds,  I asked him if he thought that down the road we would rather have more money - or will we wish we had retired earlier so we could use these "better years" to travel and do the things we might not be able to do later in the "rougher years".  At first he jokingly said "Money - of course!  Everyone wishes they had more money."  My Hubby then said - "CM thinks she has this 5 year window before things get worse for her and she may not be able to travel then.  She thinks we need to be traveling all we can now!"  Hubby fully expected the Dr. to refute the 5 year window comment.  His face fell when the Dr. basically said "That's about right! The next several years is a good time for her to be traveling while she is doing well.  There will come a point when it gets harder and harder for her to handle the stress from traveling, because the stress makes the symptoms worse!"  For once I was not happy to be able to say to Hubby, "I told you so!"  :(

We are only in our mid 50's.  My Hubby fully intended to work 7 to 10 more years or at least until he hit the maximum retirement level.   He loves his job and is not in a hurry to leave it.  We live in a high cost area - and we know we will have to move to a lower cost area when we retire - no matter what level we are at!  We have children and grandchildren that live near us and we are not ready to leave them yet.  We could move closer to other children and grandchildren for awhile - however I am not fond of that part of the country!  It's a great place to visit...I just don't want to live there.  I am also not particularly ready to stop working either - although, some days I could be persuaded quite easily!!!  And if we retire early will we even have enough money to travel where we want to go?? Heck - with the economy the way it is - I should probably be wondering if and when we retire, will we still even have any retirement money then?

Another glitch we are facing at the moment is that our health insurance is being messed with - and we may have to go on the Obama exchange to pick our insurance for next year!  The Obama care exchange site is following the typical government bureaucracy pattern and does not exist yet!  No - wait - let me take that back - the site exists - just the exchange list does not!!!   No one even knows what insurance plans will be on that exchange yet or how much they will cost.  Why would we expect them to have that figured out by now -  after all they have only had over 3 years to get it up and running!!!  Heck they are still reading the stinking bill that created the exchanges and are trying to figure out what it says and means!!!  Bottom line - right now it's up in the air if we will be able to stay with our current insurance which is an HMO.  If we can't, I won't be able to stay with my current Neurologists.  I have grown very fond of him!!  Keeping the same doctor has never been an issue to me - I have been too healthy to even get to know them very well, so I have never cared before!  Now I do! 

When Obama said over and over, that we would be able to keep our same health insurance plans with Obama care if we wanted to - he lied!  I worry about what is going to happen to health care - now that government has decided to mess with it more than they have ever done before?  Honestly, I don't have a lot of confidence in the government making it better!  But I do have a sick feeling in my stomach that health insurance will cost me a whole lot more because of government involvement!

So - here we are -  asking questions and thinking about decisions we did not expect to be considering this stage of our life.  To many, I realize I sound like I am whining.  Please understand, I am not complaining... OK I am - a little!  But, I do completely understand that we are blessed to have our jobs and are blessed that we can even talk about retiring!  I know there are many who are not so blessed, many who have lost their retirements and/or investments, and many who face financial hardships in their later years.  I am extremely aware of  and I am very grateful for our many, many blessings, including the ability to have the health care coverage we have had thus far!

I will stop my whining now.  Besides, my boss's wife brought me some pumpkin bars she made - and now I am going to go eat them!!!  YUM YUM!!!