When your computer home page catches your attention with a fleeting headline, you might stop. I did! Why, because I am just contemplating this very question. CBS Money Watch, Nov. 5th, 2012 article by Allan Roth provides some clarity for those Americans approaching retirement age. From Mike Piper, financial expert, read the three key points he feels one needs to consider when considering when to start drawing Social Security. Are you in that boat with me? What are you thinking?
What’s on your calendar for October 15 – December 7, 2012? Halloween & Christmas, sure! Did you remember Medicare Open Enrollment?
Yes, we are now in the annual Open Enrollment period for Medicare. Seniors can switch from Medicare parts A & B (traditional Medicare) to a Medicare Advantage Plan (partC), or go from Medicare Advantage back to a traditional plan. It’s also time to make any changes to the Part D prescription drug plan. Changes will be effective January 1, 2013.
It’s important to make a timely decision. If you’d like more information, I invite you to visit my recent Laird Norton Tyee post here.
Submitted by Susan Talton: a Client Advisor and CFP professional at Norton Laird Tyee, with over 25 years of management experience. Susan enjoys writing about the life transitions that women are very likely to face. She also frequently writes about retirement, a big transition in itself.
What will it take for Americans to age successfully in place? A new book called “Independent for Life: Homes & Neighborhoods for an Aging America” has just been released. It has been authored by over a dozen aging experts & co-edited by the former head of HUD, Henry Cisneros.
With the growing number of baby boomers retiring, the question of aging in place becomes an important one. Policy makers are being urged to make communities & homes accessible so that elders can stay in place longer. Age related home improvement packages could feature such items as installing ramps, raising toilet height & lowering sink levels. Accessorizing neighborhoods might include making transportation available for seniors who can no longer drive. This allows for independence for elders to get to doctors appointments as well as run errands such as grocery shop & picking up prescriptions.
The article sheds light on a future we all should be thinking about! Submitted by Sara in Seattle
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/realestate/2018990649_realestateaginghousingxml.html
Many of us look forward to spending retirement expanding our world — traveling, trying what we never had time to do, taking classes that give us new knowledge and skills. These activities are not only desirable in themselves; they help us to live longer and healthier lives.
But they are not within everyone’s reach. Absent money and a sense of possibilities, retirement can become more time to fill with television. “We see people without money, who had very hard lives, who are not aware of their own potential,” said Maureen Kellen-Taylor, the chief operating officer of EngAGE ,a program in the Los Angeles area that provides arts and other classes for some 5,000 people — the vast majority of them low-income — living in senior apartment communities. “They just had to get through life, taking care of things, and the idea of following a dream was not on their radar screens.”
That’s why the Burbank Senior Artists Colony is remarkable. Opened in 2005, it is a mix of market-rate and low-income apartments. The building looks like an upscale hotel but is built for the arts, with studios, a video editing room, a theater and classrooms. Residents may arrive with no previous artistic experience or skill as an artist — but artists they become. The theater group that Sally Connors participates in is working with a troupe in London, via Skype, to write and perform a soap opera. Walter Hurlburt shows his oil paintings — for sale — at the colony’s periodic art exhibitions. Residents work with students from a nearby alternative high school to do Improv Theater, make films and create art from recycled items.
The Burbank colony is the showpiece of EngAGE, an organization started in 1997 by Tim Carpenter. He was working for a health care company that built primary care centers for senior citizens when he met John Huskey, a Los Angeles developer of affordable housing. Carpenter and Huskey began to talk about how to combine what each of them was doing. They had originally contemplated establishing acute-care health centers in senior apartment buildings, but now had a different idea. “We live in a society that’s very acute-care based — we wait till someone’s sick,” Carpenter said. “We decided to try to get people to take on healthy behaviors without having to go to the doctor.”
EngAGE now brings arts training, wellness programs and computer and classes to 27 senior apartment buildings in the Los Angeles area, and will add another eight over the next year, including two — in North Hollywood and Long Beach — that, like Burbank, will be designed for the arts. The NoHo Senior Artists Colony will open in October with a 77-seat professional theater in the lobby. Burbank and the Piedmont Senior Apartments in North Hollywood have a mix of market rate and subsidized apartments, but the other 25 are all for low-income seniors. Most of the residents are living on less than $15,000 a year. They pay $400 to $800 a month for a one- or two-bedroom apartment.
A recent Cornell study published in Psychology and Aging points to loneliness speeding up the aging process, according to Senior Housing News. Seniors, who choose to stay in the familiar setting of their own residence, should take a second look at moving into a retirement community where the health benefits of social interaction may outweigh that of saving money.
“The social pain of loneliness produces changes in the body that mimic the aging process and increase the risk of heart disease, according to the study, and while heart functions change as a normal aspect of aging, loneliness accelerates the process.”
I see the toll of loneliness in my own parent’s health. They have become reclusive and in doing so, their health seems to have rapidly declined. Within the last four months, my father who prided himself on standing tall and rarely used a cane, has become stooped over and now cannot walk without aid. My mom has become increasingly obsessed with the small annoyances that come with daily living and each becomes a huge, nearly life threatening disaster which she broods about for days. While I visit them twice a week, they obviously need interaction outside of the family.
According to Dr. Dawn Marcus, “researchers in Australia followed senior citizens for 10 years. In people 70 years old and older, the risk of dying decreased by 20 percent when people had a strong network of friends.”
Encouraging seniors to talk to friends and neighbors is crucial, for both good mental and physical health. Moving into a living situation with social activities may far outweigh other perceived benefits and contribute to a longer, healthier and much more fulfilling life. How can I talk my parents into understanding the benefits of social interaction, while lessening the burden on me???
On October 15, 2010, the Elder Law section of the Washington State Bar Association presented an award to Representative Jeannie Darneille (D) of the 27th District for her work to enact legislation to establish the Office of Public Guardianship. The mission of the Office is to make guardianship services available to individuals who need them and are alone (without family members or friends to serve as volunteers) and poor (without the means to pay for needed services). Many of these individuals are elderly and need a surrogate decision maker. A guardian is appointed by the court to make either personal or financial decisions.
If you are a care-giver, you should be aware of The Elder Law section. It focuses on legal issues that are pertinent to elders – including retirement issues, estate planning, powers of attorney, guardianship and other forms of substitute decision making, to private and long-term care, health care financing and elder abuse. Go to www.wsba.org for more information or to find an Elder Law attorney through the public resources directory.
When looking at life for the over-50 boomer generation, take a hard look at the kind of lifestyle you would like and how you will afford it.
In a May 22nd, 2012 article in the Huffington Post blog, Martha Nelson writes about “Retirements ‘Golden Trinity’; Health, Lifestyle, Budget”.
She points out that once one part of “the trinity” goes awry, it can have a devastating effect on the rest of the trio. Your health is a deal breaker. Without it, everything else has very little meaning. Also, with rising care costs, unless you have provided for some type of health care and/or disability insurance, it can totally ravage your savings.
Speaking of finances, with devastated investment portfolios & the global market collapse, Nelson says, “even conscientious retirement savers find themselves knee-deep in mud, trying to stretch the corpus of money to add to social security checks as they look forward to the prospect of a long life”. If you haven’t saved funds for retirement or have lost what you set aside, as millions have, you will need to make careful lifestyle choices.
Simplicity may be the keyword for lifestyle. For some retirement in a gated golf course community may be out of the question. Instead, a condo or small home may be a better option. Some are even looking at co-housing choices.
It’s hard to imagine what will happen to those who, for all the reasons life can hand us, have not solidified what life will look like as they age. Certainly these three issues which make up “The Golden Trinity” are worth your consideration. CAUTION: DON’T BE ONE OF THOSE UNPREPARED BOOMERS? Think ahead, plan now. Share your thoughts &/or your concerns!
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I was watching my local evening news tonight, while eating dinner, when they aired an alarming story in regard to “Baby Boomers”. While alcohol is the most popular addiction for our age group, prescription drug dependence has spiked dramatically: The older we get, the easier it becomes to get a doctor to prescribe medication for aches and pains. With retirement, there are fewer consequences to suffer, as there is not a workplace to hold one accountable for being under the influence. According to the newscast, “Experts predict the number of 50-plus addicts could double in the next eight years.”
My mom is in her 80’s and needs a pill to sleep and an anti-depressant to function. She was prescribed a pain pill when she fractured her rib, which has long since healed, but insists she still needs the pill for residual pain. Mom is definitely an addict and when I have brought up my concerns about this to her physician, he brushes it off.
When I spoke to a close relative about the situation, his response was “If she’s happy, why worry?” Do I need to? And what about the anti-depressant I take because my doctor prescribed it to help me deal with the constant stress of being a caregiver? WHO else out there can relate? Written by Claire in Seattle
http://www.king5.com/health/New-face-of-drug-use—Baby-Boomers-140806613.html
The New York Times recently published an article on the town of Southbury, Connecticut, which has become an “elderly-based community”. Of the less than 20,000 town residents, more than 30 percent are over 60 years old, and that figure is estimated to be about 40 percent by 2020. Traditionally, meccas for the elderly were thought to be warm weather havens such as Florida or Arizona, but with the “graying of America”, the geographic is changing. According to the Census Bureau, the Northeast now has the largest populations over 65.
There were 76 million births in the United States from 1946 to 1964, the 19 years dubbed the “baby boom.” As more and more of us “boomers” reach retirement age, the shifting balance in demographics is also reflected in the economics and focus of community life. As America struggles to keep up with the needs of an enormous aging population, the story of Southbury will become more the norm and less the exception. Go to http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/an-elderly-based-community/?ref=eldercare to read the story and please let us know your thoughts. Sent by Cheryl in Florida
NASAAdotOrg reports: “Have you heard of the terms Sandwich Generation or SandGEN? This generation refers to adults who are responsible for their own needs as well as the care and support of both their dependent children and elderly family members.”
“Investing is an important part of ones financial security. As a member of SandGEN, you can also be affected by the financial security of your children and your parents. Members of this generation face difficult financial considerations when balancing their own economic needs with the needs of their families. For example, did you know that nearly half of those in the Sandwich Generation do not have adequate means to finance their own retirement? At the same time, most consider paying for their childrens college tuition a parental responsibility. On top of that, caring for an elderly family member often involves a significant financial obligation as people are living longer and health costs continue to increase.”
Sandwich Generation – NASA.org
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