Can you talk a little about your actuarials? That is, what's
your life expectancy?

If, even with your bad health, your life expectancy is long,
then I think factoring inflation into your planning is
extremely important. You need $30k a year now, but figuring
an annual inflation rate of 3% (roughly the average for the
last ten years), you'll need over $40k per year a decade
from now. Putting all your funds into bonds is highly
unlikely to meet your needs as inflation takes its toll. The
one exception is if you have so much money to put into bonds
that your income is much more than $30k today and so will
meet your needs, with inflation factored in, for decades.

If your life expectancy is long, I would start thinking
about an annuity and/or a mix of the following:
-- a bond ladder with maturities no greater than two years,
but not bond mutual funds at this moment. That could change
next year.
-- some REITs (older, with records of dividend growth and
share price growth)
-- some blue chip stocks with records of dividend growth

If and when interest rates get higher, adding a mix of
preferred (or more generally, hybrid) stocks should be
considered. They behave like bonds to a large extent.

I am not an annuity fan, generally speaking, but there are
instances where an annuity can fit like a glove. This may be
one of them, ISTM as a 20+ year Do-It-Yourself invester.

But really, there are a lot of unknowns. What Rich posted is
a starting point, but I would propose sharing more
information about your timeframe, the odds of your savings
being wiped out by an operation or two, so putting you on
Medicaid, etc.

Take care.

the_sarp[at]yahoo.com writes:

- quote -

Well, intermediate-term muni bonds are yielding around 3.7% right
now. That means that for every $10,000 of income, you would have to
have $10,000/0.037 = $270,270 of principal to generate it. So if
you required $100,000 of income, you'd need $2,702,700 of principal.

Since that is in the context of muni bonds, no federal taxes would
be due on it. State taxes would still be due, unless the bonds
were issued by your state or a political subdivision thereof.

--
Rich Carreiro rlcarr[at]animato.arlington.ma.us

I plan to collect an amount from an invested fund.

The money needs to be secure so I would prefer not using stocks.

I would prefer a triple-tax-free bond fund or an instrument just as
good.

I plan to live on the interest, so the principle does not decline.

- quote -


Since I have pre-existing conditions, the health care plan would be
very expensive, and I may not even be able to get health insurance.

This means I will have to pay all health care from my own assets. A
single major operation can cost $200,000, not including nursing and
after-care.

Other than health care, I do not need more than 30,000 a year tax free
to live.

I am asking how much cash I would need at first, how much would be
taken out by taxes, and what the best safest fund or investment would
be to accomplish this plan.

suggestions welcome

the sarp