I’ve notified my ownership that I’m retiring, this is a privately owned company based in Ohio, I work in a branch office in Pa.

The ownership has asked me to consider staying on part time, 2 days a week. I plan to work through April this year at which point I’d retire and get insurance through the Penne program.

Has anyone had experience in this situation? Were you able to work with your employer to work out insurance? I don’t want to work and end up now carrying the entire burden of insurance, otherwise I’ll just retire 100%. With the Penne program, the more that I earn, the more I’d have to pay.

Retiring then allows the company to no longer pay my benefits. I’ll lose insurance, car allowance, vacation, cell phone allowance, and a gas card. I am only 63.5 and I like the company and its management. I’ve been treated very well and I feel a sense of dedication to the company. I’m trying to find a solution that would work for both of us.

Does anyone have experience that they can share?

 

What's the deal the company is offering for you to stay? Sounds like you have some leverage in this situation.

 

It’s early, we’re in the deal phase now, some leverage there for sure. I’m just looking to be fair.

So far I’ve been told that I can work from home or office, I can shift my days any way that I want as long as it totals 2/week at the end of the year, I can create my own position and off load any large projects to another branch.

Currently I’m the Regional Manager of my state, I do 100% of all of the estimating, proposals, sub buy outs, and maintain all of the relationships with subs, mechanicals, and engineers. I’m also involved in customer relations, although only 50% of that.

For sure my exit will leave a hole. I’m 1 1/2 years from Medicare so 2 days a week could allow me to live a little more while helping the company at the same time and getting me closer to Medicare age.

 

Your on your own for health insurance until you reach 65 with medicare, so one way or the other your going to pick up the cost for the next 18 months. Family needing insurance, it's almost worth the cost of working for free if you need to provide, last time we looked for wife and 2 kids it was around $2500 a month?

I've got a young family, we didn't have our kids till early 40's so retirement for me is going to be costly but it's a situation I'm good with since I have no real desire to retire for some time, I just cant imagine not having something to do!

 

Oh for sure, insurance can cost me $2,000/month for my wife and I. If it came down to that, I’ll just retire.

We have it figured out as insurance cost vs wages. If I 100% retire in April, it will cost me $440/month. I can’t see me working and paying all my own insurance if there’s no incentive to do so. One of the brokers that I spoke with said “I’ve seen it all, companies can do whatever they want”. That “whatever” is what I’m trying to identify.

As far as not imagining not having anything to do, that doesn’t concern me at all. I’ve been working since I was 12. In the last 43 years, I’ve only been laid off for 3 months total. I’ve got home projects, I’ve always got side jobs, and my fishing boat was only in the water once last year.

 

I found easing into retirement better than just cutting the cord. I can't contribute much with the insurance question, I was able to jump unto my wife's insurance and I already had some coverage from the military, but when I retired (at 55 (by choice) I continued working part time for the same company (20 hrs/wk) at home for 2 years. It was sort of a decompression period. I went from a fairly high stress environment to writing tech manuals in my skivvies. I had lots of projects to keep me busy but the part time allowed me to maintain contact with people that I had worked with for years and every now and then I would be offered a "consulting" gig. The money was good but the stress free gradual transition was what I needed.

Leaving a fishing boat unused is reason enough to retire.

 

The “easing in” is attractive to me as well, this also helps keep the honey do list at bay. My wife retired this past August and she was always been on my insurance, so that’s not an option for us.

I enjoy what I do and who I do it for… which says a lot looking back on the other company where I worked for 25 years. Lowering the stress is the goal and retirement is what we’ve been planning for from way back. If I it works out that I’m done, so be it, but I’d like to figure something out.

 

Can't help on the retirement side, but I've "fought" with insurance enough to have some options.

For a few years, my company's insurance plans were awful cost-wise, so I ended up getting coverage privately through the Marketplace (Obamacare) and had some of the cost reimbursed by the company. It was about half the cost to me, and the company covered the portion of the cost that they would have paid anyway. So it was pretty much a wash to the company.
I believe I expensed it and it was considered an expense to them - which helped both of us as it wasn't taxed as pay. (But I'm not 100% on it and the tax legality of it)

As a part-time employee (less than 30 hours a week), the company can provide you insurance - but unless it's a small company, they may not want to open up the can of worms offering you insurance and not offering it to others.

 

It is a small company of 100 people stretching over 3 states, Pa, Ohio, Michigan.

I had Obama care for 3 months in 2016, it was horrible and covered nothing, I was glad to get off of it. I guess this Penne program is Obamacare by a different name and there are good options now. Unfortunately the more I earn, the more they tighten the screws.

Indications so far sound like willingness to figure something out, we’ll see how it shakes out.

 

Update: I was told that I have to have an average of 3 days per week over the course of the year to be eligible for insurance. Lucky for me I will have worked 4 1/2 months prior to semi retiring, which then allows me to work 2 days a week for the rest of the year. Doing that qualifies my for company paid insurance as I have now! 👏🏼 Come 12/31/23 I’ll retire 100%.!

 

Sounds like a win to me. Thanks for posting the outcome.