Hidden Secrets for a Successful Retirement!

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 11:54 am

You have done your homework and determined that with some careful budgeting and a exiguous luck you can afford to retire. Not only have you read books on financially preparing for retirement but you’ve also attended numerous free seminars on the topic which also had the fringe benefit of some free meals included. If you’re not yet 65 you have scoped out the health care issues and with the help of COBRA or perhaps a company plan. If you’re officially a Senior Citizen welcome to the world of Part A, Portion B, Part D, perhaps Medicaid and, of course, the numerous Medicare supplement plans. You’re ready to kick back and enjoy the good life with that Senior discount on your morning cup of coffee at the nearest hastily food establishment. Sound like a plan? It’s a great start but there is a little more to it then meets the eye.

It is not surprising that a majority of the books on retirement focus on both being prepared financially as well as providing for health care. While these are usually the critical first issues to research there are other facets to retirement that you should think. These hidden factors may not apply to everyone but nonetheless, if they do, you should keep them in mind as you enter this new phase in life.

Paychecks and Feedback: Since you’re ready to retire you’ve covered the paycheck, or lack thereof, part of it. Financially you’re good to go. But besides the obvious, which is money that isn’t coming in from your paycheck, consider some other aspects. First you have to become comfortable with the feeling that some have that they are leaving ‘money on the table’. This can occur whether you’re retiring early or even leaving a job at the age of 70 or older. In so many words you have to convince yourself that enough is enough. If you want to make some money part time once you retire, go for it, but don’t do it just to partially replace the money you are leaving behind. Do it because it’s some activity you enjoy and fetch rewarding in some way such as giving back to the community. Once you retire you will quickly find that your paycheck served as a means of feedback from your employer that you were doing something worthwhile and of value to someone else. While in some jobs you have regular reviews, hopefully with warm fuzzy feedback, the bottom line is that the paycheck and the amount provides a very strong input your judgement of your self-worth. In preparing for retirement think about this and consider ways that you will replace this feedback with similar feedback. Spending part of your free time volunteering is an trustworthy way of getting this feedback and reinforcing your self worth and feeling good about it. Don’t underestimate this role that the paycheck plays in many or our lives. It’s not something you normally judge about but when the paycheck isn’t there on a regular basis it can have a strong psychological effect.

A Spouse in the House? In planning your retirement you should also consider if you have a spouse whether it is wise for both of you to retire at the same time if you both presently work. It may be tempting for both to retire together and devour your newfound freedom as a couple. Depending on the couple this may work fine but be aware that with some couples this can produce a immense deal of anxiety and disagreement. Certainly not a good procedure to open a long awaited retirement! In most cases you have spent 40 or more hours apart from your spouse each week during the many years you have been working. When you suddenly have that time together, while the concept seems nice, it may in practice lead to some disagreements. When one person retires first they can adapt to the time off, collect their own interests and settle in to this new way of life with a comfortable routine. At that point the spouse can retire and have their bear time to adjust rather then both trying to do it simultaneously. Having gone through the adjustment the person retiring first should be sensitive to the adjustment their spouse is going through.

For Better or Worse: In the case where only one of the couple has worked outside the home there may be some additional challenges to consider. For example if the husband works and the wife is at home and typically eats lunch out with friends several times a week the husband might not understand when the wife isn’t there to prepare a noontime meal if he happens to expect that once he retires. Similarly if the wife works and the husband has been at home and typically goes off and plays golf the wife, now that she is home, may resent being left alone. These are typically not major issues but are among the things to consider prior to retirement rather then waiting for resentment to build.

Imagine This: Many people will tell you that once you retire you can now pursue your main interest with a passion. While it is nice when you have that hobby or activity to immerse yourself into you should recognize that not everyone has such an interest and that it is OK not to have this and you shouldn’t consider yourself abnormal. This does not mean you should become a couch potato but rather use your time to explore many areas and recognize that there are numerous ways to use this time to learn about things, places and people. Many activities won’t float your boat however in the process of learning and exploring you may just find something you want to pursue in depth.Retirement isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor. It means different things to different people, which is the method it should be. Obviously you need to belief the financial aspects of retirement with great care but don’t think the job is done then. Considering the more intangible parts of retirement ahead of time, such as those discussed here, will make retirement a much more pleasant and meaningful experience.

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Demystifying Life Insurance

Sunday, April 4th, 2010 at 1:42 am

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While life insurance can definitely be an important tool in financial planning, the fact is many people do not understand what part it plays. Many people who should own life insurance do not and many who do not need life insurance have it. The purpose of this article is to explain the role life insurance plays in personal financial planning and to help you understand whether you need it or whether owning it is an unnecessary expense.

A very simple way to grasp the concept behind life insurance is to assume of it as “income replacement” insurance. In other words, if you have a family who depends on your earnings, you should have adequate life insurance to continue providing for them in the event of premature death. A good example is a young married couple with small children. If your family would be hard pressed to maintain their standard of living should you die prematurely then life insurance is certainly a necessary part of wise financial planning.

Many people who should own life insurance do not simply because none of us really like thinking about our own mortality and so procrastinate. This is the primary reason that people who should have life insurance don’t. It is rarely the case that they don’t have it because they can’t afford the expense. Hopefully we will all live a full life but unfortunately that doesn’t always hold proper. One of the best things you can do to guard your family and their standard of living is to purchase adequate life insurance. The interrogate isn’t whether you need life insurance, but how much.

Figuring out how much life insurance you need is actually a very simple matter. The last thing your family would need in the event of your premature death is being left with a colossal debt load. So first, you should deem how much would be needed to pay off all of the family debts. Next recall into consideration the annual income your family would need to maintain their current standard of living. We will use the sum of $50,000. While according to Morningstar, Inc. the average return on large company stocks (as measured by the S&P 500 Index) from 1926 to 2008 was 9.6%, your surviving spouse would need to invest the proceeds from your life insurance policy very conservatively to guard against loss of principal, so to be conservative let’s use a figure of 8 percent annual return which is relatively easy to achieve with low risk. To generate $50,000 of income at 8 percent would require $625,000 (P x R x T; 625,000 x .08 x 1= 50,000). Based on figures from MSN Money, the average American family owes about $8,000 on credit cards and carries an average mortgage balance of $69,277 for a total of $77,227 in debt. So for our purposes we will exercise this figure and add it to the $625,000 figure calculated previously which indicates that as a minimum you should have about $700,000 in life insurance if your debt situation is around the average and you wish to provide your family with $50,000 a year in income. Both spouses frequently work today so this advice is applicable to both when both work and contribute a paycheck to the family finances.

The monthly premiums for life insurance vary based on a number of different factors life age, health, sex, term, type of insurance, etc. But to illustrate the relatively gross cost of insuring your family’s future, the Met Life web site advertises a $500,000 10-Year Level Term policy for as low as $20 per month for a 30 year old-fashioned male and $17 per month for a 30 year primitive female. This brings up the point that life insurance companies offer a variety of different types of life insurance products: term life, whole life, universal life. Whole life and variable life policies have an “investment” component while term life pays off only in the event of the death of the insured. Term life is the kind of life insurance that should be selected to provide income replacement for your family. There are grand better places for investing money than through an insurance policy. Life insurance should only be a temporary means of assuring financial security for your family until you have the time to acquire sufficient assets so that your estate will be tall enough so that life insurance is no longer necessary. Term fits this criteria perfectly and can be canceled without penalty whenever you no longer need it.

Now let’s turn our attention to those who do not need life insurance no matter what your insurance salesperson might have told you. First, children should never have life insurance purchased for them. Children are not wage earners and no one is dependent upon them for befriend. Sure we fancy them but in a strictly financial sense the fact is children are not assets but liabilities and so they don’t need to be insured. Most singles do not need life insurance. Without a family no one is dependent upon them for financial relieve and frequently singles have sufficient assets to satisfy the debts that would be left behind in the event of premature death. The insurance industry often has all kinds of “beneficial” reasons why singles should purchase life insurance policies but none of them hold water when given serious consideration. Paying monthly premiums for life insurance you don’t really need makes about as distinguished sense as paying car insurance premiums when you don’t own a car.

Hopefully you have now joined the ranks of the informed when it comes to life insurance and are ready to make informed decisions about whether you should have it and if so, in what amounts.

Sources:

“Historical Rates of Return“. CUNA Mutual Group. June 30, 2009

“How Does Your Debt Compare? ” MSN Money. June 30, 2009 http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/SavingandDebt/P70741.asp

“Need an Insurance Quote? ” Met Life Insurance Company. June 30, 2009 http://www.metlife.com/campaign/search/life-insurance-quote/index.html? WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=cs000359&pagefrom=MLPS_LIS

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Becoming Heart Healthy

Friday, March 26th, 2010 at 12:47 pm

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In 2006, Michael Yedziniak was 32 and stressed out. He and his wife were selling their house and attempting to close on another one in Southington, Conn., but it went anything but smoothly. “Stress was already high particularly since the buyers of our existing house were nowhere to be found, leaving us high and dry on the purchase of our modern home,” he said.
One day, Yedziniak began experiencing chest and back pain while sawing a downed tree. A couple weeks later, he felt similar pains while mowing the lawn. The next day he went to the emergency room at MidState Medical Center in Meriden, Conn., where he was tested and diagnosed with muscular skeletal inflammation and released with a high dose of ibuprophin and instructions from the doctor to rest.

Over the next couple weeks, he could barely walk from the parking lot to his desk at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, where he works as manager of professional provider relations.

“Walking to meetings became increasingly difficult, and I really started to doubt the hospital’s diagnosis,” Yedziniak said.

During one of these episodes, his boss told him to go to the ER again. The ER came to the same conclusion and increased the dose of ibuprophin. This time, however, the doctor referred him to a cardiologist on the “slim” chance that he could be experiencing heart problems, and the next day the doctor recommended he go to Hartford Hospital.

It was then that he found out he had coronary artery blockages and was given an angiogram. They found two blockages in the LAD and an 80 percent blockage in a lesser artery. Doctors placed drug-eluding stents to reopen the blockages in the LAD and left the 80 percent blockage alone to be managed by lifestyle changes and medication.

“The next several months were filled with fear of death, of the 80 percent blocked artery acting up, of the wound returning, of needing to have the arrangement repeated and of not being there for my wife and mother who need me. I made myself stressed by reading information on the Internet including medication side effects and potential complications with coronary artery disease and the drug eluding stents. I read and reread medical case studies which, since I have no medical background, interpreted in my own way with my own negative angle. Instead of taking the positive I was looking for the negative. Even happy events or buying something nice for myself depressed me,” Yedziniak said.

But with time came healing. “As they say, time heals, and over those months I began to take encourage my life and rebuild my confidence. Feeling good about my dieting and expend progress, I slowly became stronger–mentally and physically,” he said.

Now, Yedziniak weighs less, is healthier, both mentally and physically, and happier with his faith. “I have confidence that I have control over the coronary artery disease–that by following my doctor’s instructions, taking my medications and making good lifestyle choices that the odds will be stacked in my favor as remarkable as I can possibly influence with the rest in God’s hands,” he said.

This is the prescription Yedziniak followed to become healthy again:

1) Increased physical activity: One half to three quarters of a mile walks three days per week for the first several weeks. He gradually increased the walking distance to 1.5 miles four times per week, then 3 miles four times per week and then 3 to 4.5 miles five times per week. He also used the fitness center at his job to push his cardio development, using treadmills, bikes and elliptical machines.

Likely Page Break2) Healthier eating habits: He went from eating snappily food and diner food for lunch and restaurant food for dinner to eating sensibly six days and allowing one “tubby day” per week. On the six healthy days, he tried to eat a balanced diet with 10 to 15 percent of calories from fat and under 5 percent of the calories from saturated fat.

3) Managing heart-related risk factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol: He followed the doctor’s instructions regarding diet, exercise, weight loss, lifestyle changes and taking prescribed medications as directed daily.

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Children’s Health Insurance Programs

Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 5:31 pm

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It is recommended that families should consider
children’s health insurance programs as a way to cloak the expenses should any of the children get ill or require any form of surgery or other medical expenditure.

Most children’s health insurance programs are relatively affordable and they can save the family from a lot of stress and worry caused by the financial burden of medical expenditure should it ever be required.

There are a wide range of children’s health insurance programs to choose from with most insurance companies and you really need to determine what level of mask best suits your needs and then carefully read all the terms of the children’s health insurance program to determine whether a particular program sufficient for you.

With increasing medical expenditure occurring all the time it is well worth considering investing some money in a children’s health insurance program as it is generally not until something happens that you realize how indispensable such an investment is.

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How to Obtain Health Insurance for Self-Employed

Sunday, February 14th, 2010 at 7:15 am

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Health care expenses are continuously on the rise, and so is the cost of health insurance. To salvage health insurance is in itself a jam, more so when you are self-employed and cannot regain insurance under a group idea. In spite of the difficulties, there are ways by which a self-employed person can accept or gash down the expenses of health insurance.

In case your self-employed business happens to be a one-man note, or a husband and wife venture, an individual policy or a family health insurance understanding will suit you best if you do not belong to a relevant organization. If you have plans of expanding your business in the future, it is better for you to launch with a short-term policy and then resolve on the type of coverage depending on the changes in area. If you opt for a short term policy, it will ensure you some sort of coverage and provide you an affordable premium.

In normal practice, a temporary policy hardly exceeds $100 per month. The premiums of self-employed health insurance hide are tax deductible. Self-employed persons can employ their health insurance payments as a deduction on savings, which might give enough of a cost savings or refund to back pay another premium or two.

In case your self-employed venture employs two or more people, it is treated as a combination of self-employed and tiny business, which can qualify you for group insurance. This health insurance draw would veil you and your employees, and the premium could be 100% tax deductible. Under this insurance, your staff could also set aside on pay-roll taxes.

It makes superior sense for self employed people to gawk associates while looking for health insurance. There are many professional associations which offer group coverage for self employed people. The schemes may not be exactly what you would have liked them to be, but they are enough to peep you through an emergency.

If you are self-employed, you can retract the serve of the National Association for the Self-employed for sound advice. The association will also formulate a obliging health coverage thought to insurance companies, agents and members of their organization. Depending on their specific requirements, employees could grasp supplementary coverage if they decide to. It is not mandatory for the staff to join, but there must be a minimum of two participating to be eligible for group insurance. Group plans will be cheaper for you and by joining an association of self-employed, you can acquire advantage of this. It is always wise to check if the main policy covers your requirements before you determine to add any additional health coverage. Remember that group plans are cheaper. By joining an association of self-employed, you can prefer advantage of this. Before adding additional health coverage, check whether the main policy covers what you need.

You will near across a number of websites that enable you to compare the terms offered by different providers of health insurance for the self employed. A self employed person can also launch a health savings sage that will provide tax-free savings and also status aside some money for medical emergencies. A health savings narrative will enable you to consume a health thought with a higher deductible reducing the cost of your premium.

Health care expenses are continuously on the rise, and so is the cost of health insurance. To get health insurance is in itself a plight, more so when you are self-employed and cannot glean insurance under a group view. In spite of the difficulties, there are ways by which a self-employed person can procure or reduce down the expenses of health insurance.

In case your self-employed business happens to be a one-man prove, or a husband and wife venture, an individual policy or a family health insurance opinion will suit you best if you do not belong to a relevant organization. If you have plans of expanding your business in the future, it is better for you to launch with a short-term policy and then choose on the type of coverage depending on the changes in status. If you opt for a short term policy, it will ensure you some sort of coverage and provide you an affordable premium.

In normal practice, a temporary policy hardly exceeds $100 per month. The premiums of self-employed health insurance veil are tax deductible. Self-employed persons can utilize their health insurance payments as a deduction on savings, which might give enough of a cost savings or refund to assist pay another premium or two.

In case your self-employed venture employs two or more people, it is treated as a combination of self-employed and miniature business, which can qualify you for group insurance. This health insurance device would camouflage you and your employees, and the premium could be 100% tax deductible. Under this insurance, your staff could also attach on pay-roll taxes.

It makes agreeable sense for self employed people to glimpse associates while looking for health insurance. There are many professional associations which offer group coverage for self employed people. The schemes may not be exactly what you would have liked them to be, but they are enough to leer you through an emergency.

If you are self-employed, you can grasp the back of the National Association for the Self-employed for sound advice. The association will also formulate a worthy health coverage thought to insurance companies, agents and members of their organization. Depending on their specific requirements, employees could rob supplementary coverage if they decide to. It is not mandatory for the staff to join, but there must be a minimum of two participating to be eligible for group insurance. Group plans will be cheaper for you and by joining an association of self-employed, you can lift advantage of this. It is always wise to check if the main policy covers your requirements before you determine to add any additional health coverage. Remember that group plans are cheaper. By joining an association of self-employed, you can prefer advantage of this. Before adding additional health coverage, check whether the main policy covers what you need.

You will near across a number of websites that enable you to compare the terms offered by different providers of health insurance for the self employed. A self employed person can also launch a health savings yarn that will provide tax-free savings and also status aside some money for medical emergencies. A health savings legend will enable you to acquire a health concept with a higher deductible reducing the cost of your premium.

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Supplemental Dental

Hidden Secrets for a Successful Retirement!

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Demystifying Life Insurance

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Becoming Heart Healthy

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Children’s Health Insurance Programs

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How to Obtain Health Insurance for Self-Employed

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Supplemental Dental

Hidden Secrets for a Successful Retirement!

Related Blogs

Demystifying Life Insurance

Related Blogs

Becoming Heart Healthy

Related Blogs

Children’s Health Insurance Programs

Related Blogs

How to Obtain Health Insurance for Self-Employed

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