So Baby Boomer: Life Tips

Don’t Make These Four Medicare Mistakes

By Laura Weber Rossman of Longevity Alliance, an independent national insurance broker who helps seniors compare and find the best Medicare supplemental insurance.

You’re a Baby Boomer so by definition you’re pretty good at dodging anything that smacks of getting older.   But as age 65 creeps up, you’ll find your mailbox filling with information about Medicare. No dodging this decision.

In fact, selecting the right Medicare insurance plan can be a very important decision – both for your quality of health care and your retirement nest egg.

A report from the IRI found that a healthy 65-year-old male can expect a total cost of health care expenses, including premiums, for the rest of his lifetime to top $350,000, and a 65-year-old woman can expect at least $417,000 in health care expenses-a 13% increase compared to her male counterpart.  It also found that the average person on Medicare will have out-of-pocket medical expenses totaling more than $4,300 per year.

So if you are getting ready to switch to Medicare, here are 4 mistakes you want to avoid.

1. Missing Your Initial Enrollment Period (IEP)

You must sign up for Medicare when you are 65. (go to http://www.socialsecurity.gov/ to sign up online).   If you are working you’ll still need to sign up for Part A. The IEP is a 7 month period (3 months before, your birthday month, and three months after your 65^th birthday).  Miss it and you face penalties when you do finally sign up.

2. Staying on COBRA Too Long

Once you leave your employer and 65 or older, you only have 8 months to sign up for Medicare. Wait too long and you’ll have to wait for the General Enrollment Period (Jan. 1 – March 31) for coverage that will go into effect July 1. This is a complex area: get expert advice.

3. Thinking Medicare is Free

Your health care can cost as much as it did when you were employed.  For most people, Medicare Part A (hospital coverage) is free.  But most people pay $99.90 per month for Part B (doctor’s care).   Medicare Part A and B together pay about 80% of your costs. You’ll pay the rest if you don’t have additional coverage.  You will pay a monthly premium for a Medicare Supplement plan or a Medicare Advantage plan.  If you want a Medicare Part D drug plan that averages about $30 per month (unless it is wrapped into your Medicare Advantage plan).

4. Failing to Shop and Compare Medicare Plans

Plans and benefits can vary widely among insurance companies offering Medicare Advantage and Medicare Drug plans.  Medicare supplement plans are standardized (all companies must offer the same benefits) but the prices can vary by hundreds of dollars between companies.  So to find the right plan at the right price you should shop and compare plans.  Always use someone who has knowledge about Medicare and Medicare insurance plans.

Blogging Boomer Carnival #244

Come and visit this week's Blogging Boomer Carnival hosted by Laura Lee Carter, the Midlife Crisis Queen.  You will enjoy what you discover Baby Boomers are about today..including their life challenges!

Boomer Retirement Life Tips explores their personal strategy and saving for retirement to where they will retire, how to handle aging parents and adult children, to health and wellness tips for aging like fine wine and deciding on a phased retirement or encore career. 

Sample for free or purchase for $2.99 this new retirement life tips ebook at: www.smashwords.com/books/view/106452

Sample or purchase Kindle Edition for $2.99    

Sample or purchase Nook/iPad Edition for $2.99

Finding Happiness in Retirement

By John Diehl, CFP^® 

Could it be possible that retirement may be even better than we imagine? 

Consider a recent study by The Hartford and the MIT AgeLab that found retirees are more likely to say, “I am happier now that I am retired” (77 percent) than pre-retirees are to say, “I will be happier after I retire” (64 percent).  Other than wishing retirement could or could have come earlier, most respondents saw few negatives about what the Japanese call their “second life.” 

The October 2011 Age of Opportunity study conducted by GfK Roper measured the opinions and concerns of Americans both in and approaching retirement. The study found that most retirees are pleased with their life, and both pre-retirees and retirees have a positive attitude about retirement overall. 

The study found that mature Americans have definite priorities: health, family and friends first; money and material things a distant second:

• The No. 1 way retirees (44 percent) want to spend their time is spending more time with their spouse, family and friends.
• Four in five pre-retirees and three in four retirees say they want to live as long as their health lasts as opposed to as long as their money lasts (3 percent pre-retirees; 4 percent retirees).
• Retirees would be more willing to live in a more modest home (14 percent), drive a less expensive car (15 percent) or shop less (17 percent) than they would to give up activities that help them to connect to others, including dining out (10 percent), recreating (8 percent) or entertaining (7 percent). 

These are healthy priorities.  After all, it’s not “things” that make us happy in life, it’s relationships with people.  A retirement plan should include time to nurture existing relationships and activities that help build new ones. 

The study showed that most people understand this. One of the few things retirees would change, though, is to be better prepared financially and save more money before retiring. 

Many financial planners recommend that pre-retirees actually “practice” being retired by closely tracking their expenses (especially for leisure and recreational activities) and living within their projected retirement income.  Doing so can help ensure they have the resources to continue those all-important connections and lifestyle choices once they actually do retire.

John Diehl holds the Certified Financial Planner^TM designation and is a senior vice president for The Hartford’s wealth management business.  The views expressed here are those of John Diehl and they should not be construed as investment advice. They are subject to change. John Diehl does not offer any financial planner services on behalf of The Hartford. Clients should contact their own advisors for specific advice. 

“The Hartford” is The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries, including the issuing companies of Hartford Life Insurance Company and Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance Company.  The Hartford is a founding partner of the MIT AgeLab.  The MIT AgeLab is not an affiliate or subsidiary of The Hartford.

 John Agno: Boomer Retirement Life Tips

Super Bowl Ads Cater to Boomers

By Guest Author Kate Forgach

In days of old -- before marketers wised up -- most television advertising was targeted towards the overvalued 18- to 35-year-old demographic. Then statistics revealed Baby Boomers have more discretionary income than any other age group and control 75 percent ($7 trillion) of the total American households' net worth.

Even in a recession, Boomers account for a dramatic 40 percent of total consumer demand, and they're demanding attention be paid.

Marketing clearly needed a makeover, and present ads reflect that change. L'Oreal hired Diane Keaton to talk about how "We're still worth it."  Grey-haired and gorgeous John Slattery of "Mad Men" is hawking the Lincoln MKX.  Disneyland is targeting the demographic that often pays for such expensive vacations by showing three generations enjoying the house that Mickey Mouse built. Then, naturally, there are all the erectile-dysfunction ads featuring virile and happy Baby Boomers leading uncompromising lives.

The trick is to strike the right note in television advertising.  Boomers don't want to be stereotyped or treated with an ageist attitude, according to Brent Green, president of Denver-based marketing consultancy Brent Green & Associates.

"They want validity," said Green. "Few are frivolous or impulsive in their buying choices; rather, they are deliberate with a seasoned sense of themselves. They're set to shatter traditional assumptions about the sixth and seventh decades of life."

The generation born between 1946 and 1955 also appreciates a humorous approach and a harkening back to familiar imagery from a shared history.

Advertisers are already unveiling Super Bowl ads that take these factors into consideration:

• Volkswagen has gone viral with "The Bark Side," featuring dogs giving a "ruff" treatment to Darth Vader's theme song.
• Lipton is digging into the "Star Wars" archive as well, promoting their Brisk soda with a humorous version of the ultimate laser battle between Yoda and Darth Maul.
• Kia's "Drive the Dream" prominently features hair band Motley Crew.  

Considering this year's Super Bowl ads are going for an average of $3.5 million per 30 seconds, marketers are smart to play into this valuable demographic.

"(Boomers) go about fulfilling their needs differently, making their purchasing behavior unique," according to Immersion Interactive's book "Dot Boom: Marketing to Baby Boomers Through Meaningful Online Engagement."

"Dot Boom" also discusses the promise that online marketing to Baby Boomers holds. The recent popularity of Free Shipping Day, evidenced by $1.07 billion in sales, and the website FreeShipping.org, serve as exhibits one and two. Despite their affluence, Boomers value savings over brand loyalty when they shop the Internet.

Despite the over-sexed Super Bowl ads of the online company Go Daddy, other dot-commers are expected to take a more mature viewpoint.

Apple clearly was ahead of the trend with their "1984" ad, aired only once during the Super Bowl game of 1984. The iconic advertisement featured a Baby Boomer athlete shattering an image of Big Brother, referencing the generation's individualistic and athletic tendencies, as well as a book read by millions back in their high school days.

Kate Forgach is a Baby Boomer consumer specialist for Kinoli Inc. She has written about senior issues for 11 years as a Cooperative Extension specialist and for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines.

 David Weigelt: Dot Boom: Marketing to Baby Boomers Through Meaningful Online Engagement

Boomer Retirement Life Tips by John Agno (Nov 19, 2011) - Kindle eBook

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Kindle Edition Auto-delivered wirelessly		$2.99

 

Boomers Approaching Antiquity

By Donald Hall in The New Yorker, January 23, 2012

However alert we are, however much we think we know what will happen, antiquity remains an unknown, unanticipated galaxy.  It is alien, and old people are a separate form of life.  They have green skin, with two heads that sprout antennae.  They can be pleasant, they can be annoying--in the supermarket, these old ladies won't get out of my way--but most important they are permanently other.

When we turn eighty, we understand that we are extraterrestrial.  If we forget for a moment that we are old, we are reminded when we try to stand up, or when we encounter someone young, who appears to observe green skin, extra heads, and protuberances.

People's response to our separateness can be callous, can be good-hearted, and is always condescending.  When a woman writes to the newspaper, approving of something I have done, she calls me "a nice old gentleman."  She intends to praise me, with "nice" and "gentleman."   "Old" is true enough, and she lets us know that I am not a grumpy old fart, but "nice" and "gentleman" put me in a box where she can rub my head and hear me purr.  Or maybe she would prefer to wag my tail, lick her hand, and make ingratiating dog noises. 

At a family dinner, my children and grandchildren pay fond attention to me; I may be peripheral, but I am not invisible.  A grandchild's college roommate, encountered for the first time, pulls a chair to sit with her back directly in front of me, cutting me off from the family circle: I don't exist.

When kindness to the old is condescending, it is aware of itself as benignity while it asserts its power.  However, sometimes, the reaction to antiquity can become a farce.

  John Agno: Boomer Retirement Life Tips

  John Agno: Books for Boomers: Reviews & Coaching Tips

 

Blogging Boomer Carnival #243

 To learn about the joys and challenges of today's Baby Boomer generation, visit Ann Harrison, founder of Contemporary Retirement Coaching and creator of the Retirement Detox Program, who is hosting this week's Blogging Boomer Carnival #243.

Also check out the new paperback version of Women and Time on Amazon.com.    

A Glimpse into the Future Life of Baby Boomers

Rose Marie Meece planned to retire from her job as a tour leader in Honolulu three years ago. The 78-year-old woman decided to stay after losing about half of the $300,000 in her retirement account during the downturn.

"I did some high-risk things," she said of her investments. She has since moved her remaining savings into bonds and other safe but low-yield investments. Social Security and her late husband's Navy pension barely cover her monthly rent of about $1,300, so she keeps working.

Ms. Meece is one of a growing number of elderly people working or seeking work, increasingly with the expectation they will stay on the job for as long as they can. Some failed to plan well or spent their working lives earning paychecks too small to amass much savings. Others suffered financial losses. Many lived longer than they imagined with their savings depleted by everyday bills or chronic illness.

The unemployment rate among Americans ages 75 and older—measuring the number of people seeking work—is relatively low but twice what it was five years ago.

Joblessness among the oldest Americans could be even more widespread: Economist Steven Haider of Michigan State University said older people may be embarrassed to say they are looking for work.  As of December, 1.31 million people ages 75 and older were working, a 25% jump from 1.05 million in 2005, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The numbers offer a glimpse into the future for the 77 million baby boomers, Americans born between 1946 and 1964. This generation began turning 65 last year. By 2018, the government estimates, about 10% of people 75 or older—about two million Americans—will be working or seeking work.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, January 21, 2012

Blogging Boomer Carnival #242

Baby Boomers continue to personally evolve; setting new trends along their wake.  This carnival, the 242 of the BBC series, is just a small piece of the microcosm series that was developed to record the boomer generation's evolution.  Come to the fair and observe interesting segments of trend-setting happenings that seek life's meaning through passionate living: hosted this week by Midlife Musings by Lucie.

Also, receive the new ebook, "Women and Time," for free on January 16 & 17 only at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B006OEFXYO/selfassessmen-20 

Your Investments and the European Debt Crisis

In 1999, 11 European countries surrendered their currencies for the euro and a shared monetary authority. Barely a decade later, the once-celebrated EU is in the midst of a credit crisis and its currency is facing collapse.

Elliott Wave International's analysts have been anticipating and tracking the credit contagion across the European nations for the past two years. EWI subscribers were first alerted to the still-developing European debt crisis back in December 2009.

The following is excerpted from a December 2010 report from The European Debt Crisis, a new report from EWI. This free report provides important analysis from February 2010 through today that helps you understand what the European economic crisis can mean for your investments. Plus, you'll get a unique perspective on what's ahead. Find out how to access this free report below.

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The Credit Crisis Spreads -- December 2010
The credit crisis is escalating as expected. Back in January 2010, when ratings agency Moody's bestowed "investment grade" status on a widely followed index of sovereign bonds, The European Financial Forecast argued that a renewed Primary-degree decline would in fact aim the credit crisis directly at this critical new realm. Our case for the looming sovereign debt debacle rested primarily on two pieces of evidence: (1) Primary wave 3 (circled) had begun in Europe's peripheral markets, and (2) premiums for credit-default swaps on European sovereigns (think of an insurance policy against a national default) were already signaling the next phase of the crisis by surpassing their 2008-09 price extremes. The February 2010 issue of EFF published a chart showing rising Greek, Spanish and Italian swaps and offered this description of how Europe's credit crunch would escalate: "The theme during Primary wave 1 (circled) was default at the individual, corporate and quasi-government level. The theme for Primary wave 3 (circled) will be default at the sovereign level."

Today, the credit crunch is clearly angling itself away from mere corporations and toward whole countries. On November 15, Bloomberg announced the escalation with this headline:

Companies Safer Than Sovereigns as
Crisis Cracks 'Old Order'
-- Bloomberg, November 15, 2010

London credit strategist Greg Venizelos tells Bloomberg that the "old order" was the one where investors believed large sovereign nations to be better credit risks than corporate borrowers. However, debt is being repriced, he says, and today "corporates are now better credit quality than sovereigns in the periphery." Indeed, swaps on Italian government bonds are more expensive than 75% of the Italian companies contained in the iTraxx Europe Index of European corporations. In Spain, traders deem Spanish sovereign debt to be riskier than all six Spanish companies in the index. Even in the supposedly safe core European country of France, 5-year swaps tied to French government bonds climbed to an all-time high of 105 basis points in November. At that level, more than half of the 25 French companies in the iTraxx index trade tighter than the French sovereign, according to Bloomberg.

The chart above shows another way to view the escalation of the credit crisis. By plotting the difference, or "spread," between swaps on European corporations versus those on European sovereigns, the rising line shows derivative traders' increasing fear over sovereign default relative to corporate borrowers. So, yes, the old order of safer sovereigns is over. But notice, too, that the debt crisis began escalating when the continent's peripheral markets started topping way back in October 2009. The billion-euro question is, "Who is next?" The media is clearly focusing on Portugal, as 5-year credit default swaps tied to Portuguese bonds are setting all-time records. But charts show that so too are swaps tied to Spanish and Italian bonds. Five-year swaps on Belgian debt also reached an all-time high last month. Either one of these countries could be next. Maybe they'll all go down together, but in the larger scheme of things, it doesn't matter. The most important thing to observe is that even core European countries like France and Germany exhibit spiking default insurance premiums, too. These countries are the largest contributors to the �440 billion Facility, the same one that backstops the rest of Europe.

The June 2010 European Financial Forecast said unequivocally that before the storm is over, "at least one, but more likely several, G8 nations will capsize." We stand by our forecast.

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The European Debt Crisis is affecting investments across the globe. Gain a valuable perspective on the European debt crisis and get ahead of what is yet to come in this FREE resource from Elliott Wave International. Read Your Free Report Now: The European Debt Crisis and Your Investments.

This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline The European Debt Crisis and Your Investments. EWI is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.

 Robert R. Prechter Jr.: Conquer the Crash: You Can Survive and Prosper in a Deflationary Depression

 John Agno: Boomer Retirement Life Tips

Blogging Boomer Carnival #241

Come to the carnival where approximately a dozen participating blogs focus on Baby Boomer issues from health to midlife crisis to finance and travel. 

As the boomer generation's 60s become the new 40s, this week's boomer-centric articles document newsworthy happenings in their lives.  Be sure to visit SoBabyBoomer's tent at the Accidental Locavore by Anne Maxfield.