I had a very long lunch with a church cell group brother. He is a few years younger than me, but we have similar backgrounds: Chinese immigrant and finance/MBA education. However, he is married with one young child, and he started his own business several years ago. I told him a week ago that I was feeling anxious about my upcoming retirement now that the time has arrived.
In summary, he suggested I try to stay on part-time for another year to soften the transition from working full-time to not working at all. I likely overshared a lot, yet he was patient and listened to everything I had to say. I am not convinced that I want to stay any longer than I have to but maintaining a few work relationships longer does sound attractive. I think my boss will have some sort of decision or suggestion on transitioning my current role so maybe I can discuss the part-time idea.
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Lunch was close to four hours. We ate curry first but felt pressured to leave after eating since the restaurant was a bit busy. We then went to a dim sum place that has a bar counter, got tea and a few dim sum dishes, and talked further.
I went into the office today as I typically do on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We had one person quit this afternoon and everyone clapped as he walked out. It is a strange tradition, especially since this employee only worked about a year and was in a clerical position. I said to my boss that I do not want any happy hours, parties, or cake. I just want to walk out and be done. Since I have been at the same company for twelve and a half years, I do not think I can escape that easily.
My cell group at church knows that I have been talking about retiring for years, but the reality hit me today. A few coworkers joked that I could quit now since we received our latest vested stock yesterday. I made the same comment several times too, but it still felt like a normal workday. I will be there for at least another two months so it will become more soon.
I am feeling a lot of anxiety though. Most nights I am home alone trying to pass the time until the next day. This will be much worse if I do not have a job, and regular interaction with coworkers. When my parents retired and spent most of their time at home, my thought was “they are just waiting to die.” I am trying hard to come up with things to do post-retirement, but it is hard not to picture myself in the “waiting to die” mode.
I received a flyer in the mail today advertising a retirement planning class at the local community college. I live very close to Santiago Canyon College, and they have many continuing education classes for adults. The class is six hours long, spread over two Wednesday nights. It is taught by Pure Financial Advisors and costs $49. I believe you will get a textbook and some free consultation time. I am sure they will try to sell you advisory services but hopefully I can learn some concepts. I have worked in finance for almost thirty years, but not really focused on investments and retirement. In addition, I have a couple of investment advisors already, but they do not explain the reasoning behind their decisions very well.
The class size is twenty people, and so far, there are only two people enrolled, including me. They said you can bring your spouse/partner/guest to attend the class as well. I hope they do teach some valuable information instead of just trying to sell services.
I just turned fifty-five about a month ago. When I was young, I thought fifty-five was the retirement age and when you started getting senior discounts. However, it seems that age has been pushed to sixty-five or even sixty-seven. Anyway, due to mostly luck, the equity I was given at my current job is more than enough for me to retire.
At work, I have been dropping hints for the past year about retirement. By now, I feel most of the coworkers I am close to know that I plan to walk away at the beginning of 2024. This includes my manager; we have worked together for about twenty years. Of course, the most obvious question is “What are you going to do after you retire?” The answer right now is “I don’t know.”
I do feel like I need to find a part-time job, pick up a hobby, or volunteer for stuff. Otherwise, I will just lie in bed or sit at home in front of a computer. I usually say that I will travel, but being old and single, I do not know how many trips I can take before the lonliness becomes unbearable. I have already balked at the first travel opportunity. My cousin is getting married in Taipei over Christmas. For many months, I thought I was going to attend, even by myself if no one else from my family was going. Over time, I felt this dread of going to Taiwan by myself until I finally RSVPed that I cannot attend. What if I feel this way before every trip? That will take away a large portion of my post-retirement plans. Sigh…
My sister just found a new job. Since she is mostly working from home (company office is in New York City), they sent her new computer equipment. When you work from home and get fired or quit, usually the company just wants the notebook computer back; they let the ex-employee keep all the other IT stuff. Well, my sister has worked from home in her past three or four jobs, so she has a lot of extra computer peripherals. This time is no different, so I was able to get a USB camera and a headset.
The camera is a Microsoft LifeCam 3000, and in the packaging was a 177-page booklet written in twenty-nine languages. This seems like a huge waste of paper as the information is not even that important. Maybe this is a regulatory requirement? Interestingly, languages include both traditional and simplified Chinese, Korean, and Thai, but no Japanese. Does Microsoft not sell webcams in Japan?
Due to the July 4th holiday, I moved all my Tuesday meetings to today (Thursday). After resolving some last-minute conflicts, I realized I have eleven meetings today. Some are one-on-ones with staff and peers, and some are meetings with potential software vendors.
My neuropathy is acting up again. Left foot started hurting at 2:37 am so I did not sleep much last night/this morning. I wanted to stay home today, but with eleven meetings, I really should be in the office. Hope my foot stops hurting before all my face-to-face meetings.
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Well, I got through all my meetings today. One was postponed until a later date, and one was added so I still ended up with eleven meetings today. My foot did stop hurting sometime during the day so I was not grimacing through all my one-on-one meetings.
I have been getting a lot of text messages from strangers. Some are in English, and some are in Chinese. Here are the last two:
The first one is a bit rude; English is probably not the scammers’ first language. I have been clicking the “Report Junk” link at the bottom, but the volume of these scam texts has not decreased.
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This one is likely a scam account as well. It came as a friend request in Facebook. There were a few mutual friends so maybe the profile is legit, but unlikely.
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A lot of these scam texts lead to fake cryptocurrency trading. I think it is a combination of ignorance about crypto, and about personal finance. At the very least, there are no investments that double your money in a short period of time. As soon as you hear “guaranteed profit” or “100% return each month” you should run away quickly.
I posted awhile ag0 about my “dream” car, and I did go and test drive a Tesla Model Y Performance. For the moment, I am not buying a new car and still driving my seven-year-old Tesla Model S.
At one point several months ago, I was tempted to buy a new Model X Plaid. There were several in local inventory that matched my criteria, but I could not pull the trigger. Even if the money was no object, there are no issues with my current car, and I really do not need two cars.
On Tuesday, one of my coworkers was looking at the Tesla website. I was not paying attention, so I was surprised when she told me Thursday that she and her husband just picked up their new Model X Plaid. I knew they had several other cars and the coworker said they will need to sell their Model 3.
Of course, I do not know how long they have thought about buying this new car, but it sounded like it was an impulsive buy. I am not opposed to spending that much on a car, but it would take me forever to make the decision. I did not grow up poor, but having emigrated to two different countries and knowing we lived paycheck-to-paycheck, I and still frugal on large ticket items. I still think I spent way too much on my 2016 Model S and should have waited for the Model 3.
Sigh. I started browsing Model X Plaid inventory again but will likely do nothing.
When my parents moved out, they took the 65″ TV from the family room. They also brought a 55″ TV with them, leaving me with a 50″ and two 42″ TVs. Yes, we had a lot of flat panel TVs. When I finally cleared out the family room and reconnected the home stereo system, I wanted to get a new TV. After looking at what was available at Costco, I ended up choosing a Samsung 65″ QN85B:
It was the low-end model for Samsung’s new QLED line and being sold for $1,200 at Costco. I even asked my dad to come by after church to help me buy it. However, by the time he got to my house, I changed my mind. I already have three TVs and it seemed like a waste to get another one. Long story short, I shuffled the existing TVs around and ended up putting the 50″ Samsung in the family room. It does look small compared to the 65″ TV that used to be there, but I do not watch TV that much anyway. This means in my bedroom I have a sixteen-year-old Visio VU42L paired with an original FireTV stick from 2015.
I also made several posts about my half-dead MacBook Air. Since the battery status is “normal” but will not charge, I am not sure a new battery will help. After debating for a few hours, I decided to get a new Mac mini with the M2 chip. They were being sold at Costco and on Amazon for $500. I already have several spare 1080p monitors and can set everything up in my old bedroom. I even got as far as putting the Mac in my cart, plus some monitor cables and a keyboard. Just when I was about to click the buy button, I reconsidered. Like the large number of TVs already in the house, I also have several computers already, including a newish MacBook Pro. Instead of setting up a second Mac, I will just put my MacBook Pro in the old bedroom and use it to record audio and mix tracks.
Two decisions not to buy = $1,700. I am fortunate enough that I can afford the money, but neither were necessary purchases. I can definitely understand how people get into consumer debt issues since e-commerce sites make buying on credit cards so easy.
Arg! I totally forgot about some funds I purchased on the Fidelity app and did not download any tax forms. Unfortunately, there were some dividends, and they did provide a 1099-DIV form. It is only $400, but that is about $160 of tax that I owe.
I just sent the form to my tax accountant to see if I need to file an amendment. Both the IRS and California FTB owe me a large refund that I am applying to next year’s taxes so maybe we can just adjust the prepayment credit.
I hate taxes. It is so complicated, even for a finance guy.
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My tax guy said the amount is too small to worry. We will let the IRS and FTB contact me later, probably several months later.
My investment guy at JPMorgan Chase is always trying to get me to invest more. Back in late 2021, I sold some stock and dropped a large amount into two new accounts, one for high-tech stock, and the other for mutual funds. Here is the return since inception for one of the accounts:
After almost a year and a half, I am still down by ~12%. Of course, it was worse last summer, but the market has not recovered back to 2021 levels. Now the fear of a recession is stronger, but I am not sure where else to invest. High-yield savings account? Treasury bills? A church friend is seeing if I am interested in his b0nd fund. It looks interesting and he is a great guy, but the buy-in is $500k.
Seeing as that I am looking into retirement, I should probably divest from stocks and start increasing the % of bonds in my portfolio.
Since I am taking prednisone for anti-rejection, my nephrologist asked me to get a DEXA scan to check my bone density. I read online that taking prednisone long-term has many side effects, including osteoporosis.
The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) recommends obtaining a DEXA if a patient is on prednisone or an equivalent of 5 mg/day or greater for 3 or more months.
So today I called the St. Joseph outpatient pavilion to schedule an appointment. I get most of my scans done in the second-floor radiology department. After being put on hold for five minutes, I was told the diagnosis code provided on the order was not covered by Medicare. The code was Z94.0: kidney transplant status. The scheduler said Medicare needs a code like osteoprosis, high calcium, or something like that. I Just called my nephrologist’s office to let them know and hopefully they can change the order.
I have had many medical procedures and appointments in the past seven years, and I am pretty satisfied overall. The worst part of the experience was insurance. I have both Medicare and Blue Shield. I pay almost $600 per month for Medicare, and it only covers 80% and does not cover medication. My work insurance does not have any premiums and usually pays for most things. By having two insurances, I end up paying more, not counting Medicare premiums. Recently, Medicare rejected a claim due to me not meeting my deductible. Without Medicare, my work insurance would pay for it, but since it is secondary, Medicare gets to decide how much work can pay and it is less than if I did not have Medicare. WTF?
Ugh. So Costco managed to screw up billing my FSA order. First, two of 12 items never showed up. I have a video of the UPS delivery, and he clearly drops off five packages. However, there were only ten items in those boxes/packages, so I filed a claim on Costco’s app. Surprisingly, they immediately shipped out replacements at $0. Did their system show that the items were not shipped? My previous order info still states that everything was shipped and delivered.
Next, Costco billed the entire amount of $300+ to my FSA card. That is fine, but they then charged again as individual items were shipped out. During the billing frenzy, Costco also issued a refund for the original amount. That is great for a credit card with a high limit, but the FSA card has a limited amount of funds that I am trying to deplete. The credit transaction takes much longer to process so I am showing a negative balance for 2022. I just called Health Equity and spoke to a CSR. She said that the credit takes three to five days to clear. However, I have a specialist appointment in about an hour, and additional charges to the FSA card will likely go against the 2023 balance. Well, that sucks because I am trying to spend the remaining $90 from 2022. I can see the $300 credit Costco appear on the account one day before the spend deadline and I will lose the $90. Not a huge deal but I hate bureaucratic bullshit like this.
Also, I had a challenging time speaking with the Health Equity CSR. Right away she said I sounded metallic, like a robot. I was using my cell phone directly (no mic or speakerphone) so there was nothing I could do to improve sound quality. Then I had difficulty getting her to understand my issue. It really sounded like a comprehension issue on her side. In the end, the call was mostly useless, and I would just have to wait until the credit showed up on my card.
While I was on dialysis, I had many medical appointments and out-of-pocket expenses. I decided to put money into a FSA account to get some income tax savings. Up until last year, I was able to use up every dollar in the account because I had to pay the out-of-pocket maximum on my January dialysis bill. That changed when I signed up for Medicare, but I still had a lot of expenses to pay. This past year however, I did not spend as much as I forecasted, and was left with half the account balance, or about $1,300.
What to do? Go shopping of course. I knew that there was a FSA store, specifically set up for people to burn down their FSA account balance. I thought that the prices would be marked up, but when I went to the website, the prices seemed normal. I also looked up items on Amazon and on Costco’s website. Finally, I was running out of insulin pen needles, so it was time to order that as well.
After several hours of shopping, I think I have drained the account down to around $432. There is a bunch of stuff in my Costco cart. I just need to get close to the balance with tax.
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After struggling a bit, I ended up removing some stuff on my Costco cart and only spent ~$300. That means I have about $100 left on the 2022 FSA account that I need to spend by March 15th.
My gas bill cycle ends on January 26th, and I have managed to lower the estimated cost by about half from $335 to $173.
I did this by lowering the thermostat until the interior of my house is freezing and replacing some of the heating with electricity. I am unsure how much more electricity I am using for heating, but I have added three heaters and an electric blanket since the beginning of this year.
Another component of the initial high estimate was the low baseline. Like electricity from Edison, SoCal Gas also predetermines how much gas usage is baseline, and each additional Therm (or kWh) used will cost ~50% more per unit. I assume this is to encourage people to reduce usage, but in a time of super high commodity costs, utilities should suspend this punitive pricing structure. My gas baseline is 47 Therms. With five days left in the billing month, I have already used 40 Therms and incurred $143. Remember, this is after transferring and unknown cost to my electricity bill and freezing my ass of every time I leave the bedroom
Since January 9th, I have been drastically reducing my gas usage. The chart says my average usage is now about 1.06 Therms per day. If you divide 47 Therms by 30 days, that is about 1.37 Therms per day. It is definitely possible, but since I live by myself, I use very little gas for cooking and hot water. If there was a family of four or five living in this house, they would find it very difficult to keep their gas bill under $400 this month.
Here is an updated chart of natural gas commodity pricing. It has dropped further from $3.98 to $3.13 just this month. As I mentioned in the last post, consumers will not see any decreases until six-to-nine-months later due to commodity contract delays. Same reason why we did not see the huge price increase during last summer.
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For about two weeks, I had the thermostat set at 64°F. That turned out to be a bit too cold for me so now I am back to 66°F. Still too cold but it is at least tolerable.
I posted about the high cost of natural gas last year around this time. it’s worse this year. My forecasted bill for January 2023 is currently $334. I thought it was some kind of sick joke, but apparently it is real. Here is the same forecast by day:
How is it possible to use $18 of gas in one day? You can view the same chart by usage, and I used 4.06 therms on January 2nd. Looking at the average rate from the last bill, it was $2.11/therm so the estimate is about twice the actual run rate. Why? Is there another rate hike in January, right after a rate increase in December?
Here is a summary of rates from each bill:
Date
Baseline
Over Baseline
Commodity
Total
Therms
$/Therm
12/28/22
$0.82487
$1.23877
$1.02638
$128.69
61
$2.11
11/28/22
$0.82487
$1.23877
$0.65029
$59.31
33
$1.80
10/26/22
$0.82487
$0.68686
$11.15
4
$2.79
9/27/22
$0.82487
$0.97080
$14.64
5
$2.93
3/30/22
$0.82487
$1.23877
$0.55921
$48.97
29
$1.69
1/28/22
$0.82107
$1.23364
$0.82340
$111.34
59
$1.89
12/29/21
$0.76790
$1.16180
$0.65085
$128.07
75
$1.71
12/28/20
$1.15018*
$1.52500*
N/A
$79.16
58
$1.36
12/28/19
$1.03231*
$1.26600*
N/A
$93.52
72
$1.30
1/28/19
$1.05167*
$1.38412*
N/A
$92.78
71
$1.31
Data from my bill statements
This is about four years of data, and total cost per therm has increased from ~$1.30 to over $2.00 in high usage months. At some point in 2021, SoCalGas split the rate into transportation and commodity. The transportation cost remains steady or increases slightly over time, but the commodity cost component fluctuates wildly. This is likely due to the volatile market price for natural gas.
This is the commodity price of natural gas in USD/MMBtu. I am not sure how that translates into $/therm, but only the shape of the chart matters. We can clearly see that there is a lot of volatility in 2022, likely due to the Russian-Ukranian invasion. It does appear that prices have dropped sharply in the past few months. Perhaps consumers will get a break on that part of our gas bill?
Looking at this, the $334 estimate for my next bill seems ludicrous. It will still be a large bill so I will start turning down the thermostat. I have an old filled electric radiator. It does use quite a bit of power to operate but I should compare (somehow) if the price of natural gas keeps increasing.
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Updated: January 6, 2023 11:30 am
I found out why the January forecast is so high. The commodity component of gas prices is going up from ~$1.00/therm to almost $3.50/therm. SoCalGas has a chart of historical pricing but does not explain the reason for the January increase.
The numbers are slightly different from what I see in my statements but are very similar. Likely their website is showing a blended cost across different customer types. The issue is that the huge increase does not correlate to the commodities market pricing, which is showing a large decrease. I read online that the gas company pricing lags the market by six months due to hedging or something. Accordingly, there was not a matching increase in consumer costs during the summer. However, it is oddly convenient that the huge price increase comes during the winter when usage is 10-20x over summer months.
Personally, I started using a separate heater in my bedroom. It is an oil filled radiator. On the low setting, it draws 630 watts. My lowest electricity cost is $0.295/kWh, which comes out to $0.186 per hour. I do not know how much it costs to run the gas furnace, but from hourly cost data, it appears to be about $0.60 per hour. I have already turned down my thermostat from 71°F to 66°F, and my estimated cost for January decreased from $334 to $296 on the SoCalGas website.
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Updated: January 6th, 2023 12:45 pm
Ugh. 66°F is cold. I can feel the cold air when I breathe in. My parents just stopped by my house and they also commented that it is freezing inside my house. Maybe I have to go up to 68°F.
Manager reviews are due at 11:59 pm tonight. Due to all the org changes in my department, I only have one review to do this cycle. One of my two employees left the company, and all the new hires are too new to require reviews. I only had to complete one review, and that person is my direct report in name only; he does work for several other managers.
I have always hated doing reviews ever since becoming a manager with direct reports. I typically speak to all my staff each day, since my team has always been small, so everyone already knows what I think of their skills and performance. Each time I have to write a review, I feel like I am updating their resume. In addition, my manager always handles raises, bonuses, and promotions by himself. I have not had any compensation input regarding my staff for the 20+ years I have worked for him.
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I was also “given” my staff’s rating before I wrote the review, this making this review process an even greater exercise in futility. Anyway, I did get it done and submitted so I am good until next year.
The trip took an hour and fifteen minutes, which is typical. The car used more energy than usual, likely due to the wet roads. My Model S has averaged about 275 Wh/mile for the past six years.
My previous car was a Nissan Maxima and I got about 24 miles/gallon. My commute that morning was 41.4 miles. If we assume $5/gallon, this drive to work would have cost ~$8.60. Tier 1 electricity is currently $0.29/kWh from SoCal Edison, which means it cost me $3.67 or a bit less than half the cost of gasoline. Since I have solar panels and mostly charge at work, it likely cost me less. Of course, that does not include depreciation on my Model S. I will never make up the extra cost of the car with operating savings.
Life with chronic diseases 