Seek and Find!
Caring for your aging parents is something you hope you can handle when the time comes, but it’s the last thing you want to think about. Whether the time is now or somewhere down the road, there are steps that you can take to make your life (and theirs) a little easier. Some people live their entire lives with little or no assistance from family and friends, but today Americans are living longer than ever before. It’s always better to be prepared.
You know how important it is to plan for your retirement, but where do you begin? One of your first steps should be to estimate how much income you’ll need to fund your retirement. That’s not as easy as it sounds, because retirement planning is not an exact science. Your specific needs depend on your goals and many other factors.
Medicare won’t cover all of your healthcare costs during retirement, so you may want to buy a supplemental medical insurance policy known as Medigap. Offered by private insurance companies, Medigap policies are designed to cover costs not paid by Original Medicare, helping you fill the gaps in your Medicare coverage.
Medicare is a federal program that provides health insurance to retired individuals, regardless of their medical condition, and certain younger people with disabilities or end-stage renal disease.
At some point, many of us will need to take on responsibility for an aging loved one. And when that time comes, there is an enormous amount of pressure to consider all factors and make the best decisions regarding his or her health and finances. Where will your mother, father, wife, or husband receive the highest-quality care? Where will he or she be treated like a resident, not just a patient? Where is the cleanest skilled nursing facility with the best food? Where will your loved one feel safe?
For one month each year, Chelsea Brennan, 30, and her husband, Jeremiah, 36, run what they call a financial fire drill. Chelsea, who is usually in charge of family finances, turns all bill paying, budgeting, banking, and investing over to her husband, who is usually fully occupied as a stay-at-home dad to their two young sons. At the same time, Chelsea takes over the tasks Jeremiah usually handles in their Storrs, Connecticut, home.
Over the past year, we have endured a period of massive uncertainty driven by a global healthcare crisis and its economic impacts, compounded by racially charged social tensions and a contentious U.S. election season. No doubt, we will feel 2020’s impact on our lives, families, household finances, and the economy for many years. While the past year has highlighted deeply rooted issues that need addressing, hopefully we are closing in on the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. At the risk of giving the all clear too soon, it might be worth a look in the rearview mirror while our feelings are still fresh.
We are on the cusp of an extraordinary transition in medicine made possible by high-speed Internet, artificial intelligence (AI), and wearables. Medical experts are calling this new frontier precision medicine because advancing technologies are going to make it possible to consider each patient’s unique lifestyle, environment, and gene variations in ways that will make health care as individualized as a tailor-made suit.