A hospital waiting room is a lousy place to discover that Mom and Dad are broke. Unfortunately, a parent’s health crisis often provides the first warning sign that the folks have made a major financial blunder by dropping or downgrading their Medicare supplement health insurance to save money. “In a lot of cases, this comes up at the la...Read More
Planning for health care in retirement can help you be better prepared to handle the expected and unexpected costs. Medicare is a significant part of that planning. Your advisor will provide personalized advice based on your financial goals and personal situation. Here are five key aspects of Medicare to consider in those conversations. There’s a s...Read More
Yes, we’re entering the holiday season and under “normal” circumstances, list-making would be an essential part of adding joy (and order) to the season. But this is the year when things absolutely WILL be different. But let’s not throw out the baby with the “list-making” bathwater. List-making itself can be a m...Read More
Retirement today is not that of a generation ago, we are living longer these days, and retirement is not what it used to be. Today, 60 (and beyond) is the new 50. Retirement is no longer a time to just garden and visit the grandkids, and healthier retirees want to stay engaged and stimulated. According to a recent survey about two-thirds of worker...Read More
NOTE: AFL acknowledges and gives thanks to Jeanette Marantos for this great article which first appeared in the LA Times (Aug 14, 2020). Hey boomers, it’s not your imagination. Finding a job in today’s COVID economy is harder than ever, especially for “older Americans,” i.e. workers 55 and older. Let’s start with the grim statistics (just to get t...Read More
Retirement from a 20-year teaching career lasted five months for Joan Breen. She didn’t return to the classroom, however. Since last year, Breen, 56, has worked as a teller for a credit union. “It’s just a fun job and I really wasn’t ready to quit working,” she said. “A lot of my friends were still working and so...Read More
The grandma check, filled out in careful handwriting and mailed well in advance to ensure timely delivery, is a treasured part of many Americans’ birthday or holiday traditions. But while the concept is simple, the art of grandma check-giving can be pretty complicated. Send too much, and you risk setting a precedent that will drain your bank ...Read More
Seniors lose $36.4 billion each year to financial abuse — $16.8 billion of which comes from deceptive investing tactics designed specifically to take advantage of older Americans.¹ Also known as “financial exploitation,” this type of investment fraud is defined by the use of misleading language to obtain account information and permission to access...Read More
The perfect time for retirement doesn’t exist. This is what we have learned in our almost three decades of financial independence. Things change, and sometimes radically. There simply are no guarantees. From our point of view, a full and rich retirement is still possible for many people right now. Sometimes it takes personal flexibility in ho...Read More
The way that the media portrays our leading entrepreneurs, you’d be inclined to believe that entrepreneurship is only made for the younger generation, willing to eat ramen noodles and couch surf until their startup “makes it”, if it ever does. What you don’t see is the boom in 50+ entrepreneurs entering into the equation. For those dreaming of turn...Read More
You may dream of retiring long before a traditional 60-something retirement age, but be careful about making that leap too soon. If you're not emotionally ready to quit working, you may not be ready to retire.
Key Points Recent volatility exemplifies the value of diversification and a personalized, long-term investment strategy. It’s important to put the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak and near-term financial implications into perspective. Consider with your advisor how proven solutions such as dollar-cost averaging benefit you across a range of market c...Read More