Cash in, load up, drop out

[Lambda Force]

The Annoyed Man mentioned Enjoy the Decline by Aaron Clarey in another thread. It seems the idea resonates with many, but the devil is in the details. The nuts and bolts also become more complicated as we get older.

For example, what to do about heath care? I have a high deductible plan at work and that's great for me. I'm covered for catastrophies and as a healthy guy I can cover the rest out of pocket. It's completely legal to have a HDHP through work, but if I get one on my own, I'll have to pay the ObamaTax because I'm over 30 now.

Another nuts and bolts question is what to do about ID and vehicle registration & insurance if you don't have a permanent residence?

Does anybody have answers?

Does anybody have other questions?

Let's share what works and what doesn't.

[chasfm11]

The Annoyed Man mentioned Enjoy the Decline by Aaron Clarey in another thread. It seems the idea resonates with many, but the devil is in the details. The nuts and bolts also become more complicated as we get older.

For example, what to do about heath care? I have a high deductible plan at work and that's great for me. I'm covered for catastrophies and as a healthy guy I can cover the rest out of pocket. It's completely legal to have a HDHP through work, but if I get one on my own, I'll have to pay the ObamaTax because I'm over 30 now.

Another nuts and bolts question is what to do about ID and vehicle registration & insurance if you don't have a permanent residence?

Does anybody have answers?

Does anybody have other questions?

Let's share what works and what doesn't.

Check the RV forums. There are many of what are called "full timers". These are people who live in their RVs. In some cases, the RV is stationary, in an RV park. But most move from place to place, often following the weather. They have strategies for dealing with vehicle registration, taxes, mail, etc. We were parked next to one in a Michigan campground recently. There are many similarities to gun laws - you spend time reading and figuring things out and then avoid the places and situations that create problems that you don't want to have. Full timers are in all age ranges from very young to very senior citizens.

[bdgyeah]

All I know is, Insurance rates in Texas are high due to the fact 25% of drivers in Texas are uninsured. How does this happen anyway?

[Liberty]

Another nuts and bolts question is what to do about ID and vehicle registration & insurance if you don't have a permanent residence?

It helps if you have a stable family member that won't mind getting a little extra mail once in a while. The military types usually keep a permanent address at a family member all the time
.

[earlwb]

All I know is, Insurance rates in Texas are high due to the fact 25% of drivers in Texas are uninsured. How does this happen anyway?

There are people who make counterfeit stickers. Thus a scofflaw can buy the fake sticker and put it on their windshield. They only get caught when involved in a traffic accident or pulled over for a traffic infraction. Most of these people tend to be the ones in the lower rungs of society with low incomes or the sovereign person types. Their cars need repairs to get them to pass the state inspection and or they can't afford car insurance. Of course you have the types of people who have been caught DUI more than once and no one will insure them anymore too. it goes on and on.

But Texas has tried all sorts of things to get people to comply, but the counterfeiters always seem to figure out a way to keep on going. I doubt Texas is really the only state with the problem, most other states are likely in the same situation too.

I was thinking that they should impound the car if it has expired registration, wrong license plates, no insurance, as well as a driver without a drivers license, etc. But that doesn't appear to work either.

[earlwb]

The Annoyed Man mentioned Enjoy the Decline by Aaron Clarey in another thread. It seems the idea resonates with many, but the devil is in the details. The nuts and bolts also become more complicated as we get older.

For example, what to do about heath care? I have a high deductible plan at work and that's great for me. I'm covered for catastrophies and as a healthy guy I can cover the rest out of pocket. It's completely legal to have a HDHP through work, but if I get one on my own, I'll have to pay the ObamaTax because I'm over 30 now.

Another nuts and bolts question is what to do about ID and vehicle registration & insurance if you don't have a permanent residence?

Does anybody have answers?

Does anybody have other questions?

Let's share what works and what doesn't.

Yes they have quite a few strategies for dealing with it. When I was a kid, they called them "Snowbirds" as they would go north in the summer and come south in the winter.

Some of them had a home up north so they would stay there part of the time. Others used a post office box. Some used their relatives addresses too. There are some mail forwarding services available too. One could use a private mail box service as well along with forwarding as needed. A professional mail forwarding service works well too. You can basically go to your state's DMV office to renew your vehicles registration, you don't have to have the letter from the DMV to do it with. I just did that recently with my car too. Most states require a state inspection now, but that isn't a big deal either. If you have everything setup for direct deposit, electronic transfers, even auto-pay for bills, one would not have a lot left to deal with manually. There are probably newer ways of doing it now that I don't know about yet too.

The professional mail services look to be most promising as they can even scan and email your letters and documents to you too.

reference http://rvroadtrip.us/library/mail.php

[rbwhatever1]

Sounds like an interesting book. We've been enjoying getting ready for these new United States since 2009 and will take great pleasure in watching it implode from afar while roasting a lamb on a wood fired grill. All those clueless liberal's lined up like Venezuelan's in a bread line wondering how they got there...if a bread line exists to line up in.

[Ike Aramba]

As mentioned already, the RV forums have a lot of good information on the permanent address question. They're also a good source for cheap states to register and insure your vehicle. Some states don't require annual safety inspections for private passenger cars and trucks, if that's a concern.

As far as medical insurance, a lot will depend on your declared income. If you can structure it to stay below the poverty line, on paper, Obamacare can be pretty cheap. I'm not suggesting that anybody break the law. However, the presidential candidates from both major parties use the tax laws to their advantage. We The People should too.

[The Annoyed Man]

As mentioned already, the RV forums have a lot of good information on the permanent address question. They're also a good source for cheap states to register and insure your vehicle. Some states don't require annual safety inspections for private passenger cars and trucks, if that's a concern.

As far as medical insurance, a lot will depend on your declared income. If you can structure it to stay below the poverty line, on paper, Obamacare can be pretty cheap. I'm not suggesting that anybody break the law. However, the presidential candidates from both major parties use the tax laws to their advantage. We The People should too.

Actually, if your taxable income is below the poverty line, you won't qualify for the subsidy, and you'll lose your Obamacare unless you can make up,the difference in the premium. We got kicked off the subsidy back in June, and our premium went from $729/month to just shy of $1,800/month. We're retired and on a more or less fixed income. We actually live quite comfortably (we just bought a brand new travel trailer last week). We're not rich, but we are well above the poverty line. It's just that almost none of it is taxable because the taxes were ALREADY paid on most of that income. The little bit that is still taxable is residual income from our business which we are shutting down, but it is a small percentage of our total income, and nowhere near enough to meet the minimum qualification for Obamacare. If all of it were taxable income, we'd fall right in the middle for getting the subsidy, but it's not, and so we have been effectively bumped off of Obamacare. We got a catastrophic care policy to get us through to the end of the year, in the hope that something would give way by then, and we'd be able to enroll again. But with premiums going up on average 25% for 2017, it doesn't look like that will be happening.

Anyway, putting yourself below the poverty line will actually get you thrown off the subsidy, and then you won't be able to afford an ACA compliant plan at all.

[Liberty]

My insurance was getting pretty expensive earlier quit my job and retired. with lower taxes, cheaper insurance no commuting costs. It turns out that my standard of living hasn't gone done one bit. It's like I was working for nothing. I will be going on the public dole in a couple of weeks, and getting a gooberment SS check ..and I will soon have more money than when I was working. Turns out the government is paying me to be non productive . They don't like it when people work for a living, and will do all they can to get us off the private payrolls

[RPBrown]

When I left my previous company and went into business for myself 5 years ago, I was paying around $400.00 a month for my wife and I. Looked into getting Cobra but that was a joke at around 1000 a month. Then Obamacare was introduced and I looked int that. 1800 a month for a base "bronze" plan. At that point I decided I was relatively healthy and would do with out for a while. Then I started adding employees and looked into a benefit package. It would still cost me well over 1000 a month for just myself (wife had since gone on Medicare). Therefore I have not had health insurance since I have been in business other than all of the GL, WC, and all of the other mandatory coverages I have to carry.
Then, as most of you know, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and started going through radiation treatments. The entire diagnosis, treatment, and follow up care will cost me a total of 35,000.00. That is still a far cry from the 80,000.00+ that Obamacare would have cost me since its introduction even with the fines.
Now, I know there are a LOT of people that could not afford to pay that amount out of pocket, but we started putting some money back each month for just this kind of thing. Now the money we put away for this did not cover all of it due to the short time involved, but it covered over half and we have been blessed enough to have been able to pay the rest out of pocket. However, I will say that some doctors will offer payment plans. Mine offered it to us.
BTW, self pay is usually a lot less expensive than what they charge insurances and in some cases what you would pay out of pocket (20%) with insurance is more expensive than paying for everything out of pocket.