Follow the money--or the votes.

Seniors are not hurting.

"Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa) has introduced legislation to increase Social Security benefits and build a government-run supplemental saving plan. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) has so captivated progressives with her demands to raise Social Security payments that she is touted as a potential presidential candidate in 2016."

What this country needs is jobs for young people, not pandering to senior citizens. Today's retirees have been warned since their 30s that Social Security won't be there for them, and most of the couples I know have 5 or 6 streams of income, from a 403-b, or 401-k, or private investments, or annuities, or IRAs, or veterans' pension, or Social Security. There are divorced women living in “committed relationships” still getting financial support from the husband that ran off with his secretary 30 years ago. If they married, they’d lose that.

Politicians know seniors vote. Especially Democrats.

Is it too late to put it in reverse?

Oct. 20, 2013 — Scientists report in Nature they have found a novel and unexpected molecular switch that could become a key to slowing some of the ravages of getting older as it prompts blood stem cells to age.

The study is expected to help in the search for therapeutic strategies to slow or reverse the aging process, and possibly rejuvenate these critically important stem cells (called hematopoietic stem cells, or HSCs), said scientists from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Ulm in Germany who conducted study.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131020160654.htm

Commonly held myths about end of life issues

Some people don’t have a health care power of attorney or living will because they don’t realize how important these documents are. Others worry that such documents mean they are signing their lives away. Not so.

These powerful documents make sure that you get the treatment you would want for yourself if you couldn’t communicate your wishes. Here are a few myths that shouldn’t get in the way of creating a health care power of attorney or living will:

Myth: More care is always better.

Truth: Not necessarily. Sometimes more care prolongs the dying process without respect for quality of life or comfort. It’s important to know what interventions are truly important. It’s often impossible to know that in advance. That’s where the advice of a healthcare team is invaluable.

Myth: Refusing life support invalidates your life insurance, because you are committing suicide.

Truth: Refusing life support does not mean that you are committing suicide. Instead, the underlying medical problem is considered to be the cause of death.

Myth: If medical treatment is started, it cannot be stopped.

Truth: Not starting a medical treatment and stopping a treatment are the same in the eyes of the law. So you or your health care agent can approve a treatment for a trial period that you think may be helpful without fear that you can’t change your mind later. However, be aware that stopping treatment can be more emotionally difficult than not starting it in the first place.

Myth: If you refuse life-extending treatments, you’re refusing all treatments.

Truth: No matter what treatments you refuse, you should still expect to receive any other care you need or want — especially the pain and symptom management sometimes called intensive comfort care.

Myth: Stopping or refusing artificial nutrition and hydration causes pain for someone who is dying.

Actually, what is listed here as TRUTH is not. You can find valid studies that state removing hydration from a dying person increases their pain.

[Truth: Unlike keeping food or water from a healthy person, for someone who is dying, declining artificial nutrition or intravenous hydration does not cause pain.]

Harvard Health Beat, Sept. 26, 2013

Doctors pressured to push Obamacare

"With open enrollment set to begin next week, enrollment groups and medical societies are hoping America's doctors can inform patients about their options for expanded coverage under the 2010 health law." Medpage.

So far, I haven't met a doctor who liked Obamacare or thought it was a good idea, so why ask them to push it? Some plan to by-pass insurance plans all together.

So I asked self, "I wonder what an 'enrollment group' is?" I looked it up, and here is one called "Enroll America."

"Enroll America is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to maximize the number of uninsured Americans who enroll in health coverage made available by the Affordable Care Act. Enroll America is a collaborative organization, working with partners that span the gamut of health coverage stakeholders—health insurers, hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, employers, consumer groups, faith-based organizations, civic organizations, and philanthropies—to engage many different voices in support of an easy, accessible, and widely available enrollment process."

You should see the fancy website. My goodness--one of the best. Clicked all over the page, but not a peep on how it is funded (except the donate button, and I seriously doubt this staff, offices, website, training sessions, etc. are covered by donations). I bet this group didn't wait 3 years for their non-profit tax status.

Do you have a Written Income Plan (WIP) by guest blogger Jeff Gorton

“Age 85 is a bad time to go broke,” says expert retirement planner Jeff Gorton. Personal savings, various investments and, yes, Social Security may prove to be short of what you’d expected.

“Budgeting how you spend money before retirement can often be a misleading measurement of how you’ll actually spend it during retirement,” says Gorton, a veteran Certified Public Accountant and Certified Financial Planner™, and head of Gorton Financial Group (www.gortonfinancialgroup.com).

“Spending 40 hours a week at work not only earns you a paycheck, it also keeps you from spending money on more vacations, matinee screenings at the movie theater, extra trips to the mall or shopping online. You need to be exceedingly realistic in your planning, and the five years before retirement are actually the most crucial in solidifying post-employment stability.”

To prevent a rude awakening during retirement, Gorton makes certain his clients start with a written income plan (WIP). He reviews the benefits and importance of this “living document”:

• A comprehensive list of life expenses paints a clearer picture. For a 65-year-old married couple today, there is a 72 percent chance that at least one spouse will live to age 85; a 45 percent chance that one will live to age 90, and an 18 percent chance that one will reach age 95, according a recent study from the CDC National Center for Health Statistics. You may not think of listing things like pet care, yard maintenance, and regular visits to salons or spas. But if you enjoy those services now, you may want them during retirement, and you might find that you underestimated the real cost of maintaining your desired lifestyle. And, that’s not including gifts to children and grandchildren!

• The forecast of a two-legged stool. A WIP helps you appreciate the reliability of retirement income. What sources of income do you anticipate having? Traditionally, retirement funding has been viewed as a “three-legged stool,” implying a balance between Social Security, retirement plans and savings/investments. As the baby boom generation ages, Social Security benefits may decrease — and the age at which an individual can collect benefits may increase. Changes in employment may affect retirement plans. As a result, the third leg of the stool, savings/investments, may become even more important.

• Who is authoring your WIP? As with all written documents, you must always consider the source. What you may not realize is that a financial planner is liable to have a stake in selling you a financial product. Just like a retailer may have an incentive to move certain brands of products, many planners are incentivized to have you invest in specific financial vehicles from major institutions. What plan works best for you? Seek advice from an expert who isn’t trying to sell you something, such as an independent firm.

“If you don’t have a written income plan, then you’re just hoping things will work out,” Gorton says.

About Jeff Gorton, CPA, CFP®

Jeff Gorton is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Financial Planner™ specializing in individual tax and retirement planning. He is also an Investment Advisor Representative under Alphastar Capital Management, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor, and has a life and health insurance license. Gorton works with individuals and their families to create and protect their financial legacies. He specializes in working with retirees in the areas of tax planning, benefits, retirement planning, estate planning and safe money techniques. He received his BBA in Accounting from the University of Oklahoma. Gorton previously worked for 10 years as the Chief Financial Officer for a large retail organization, overseeing their accounting, benefits and 401(k) retirement plans.

Mild Cognitive Impairment and computer use

Don't complain if your spouse or grandpa or auntie is using the computer too much. Watch for it when they lose interest. It's a study worth looking at. . .

"In a study of 100 older people with mean age of 84 years, there was a significant decline in computer use among the eight participants who developed MCI over 43 months of follow-up, compared with the 92 people whose cognitive skills remained stable (P=0.019), Jeffrey Kaye, MD, of Oregon Health & Science University, and colleagues reported at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Boston."

http://www.medpagetoday.com/TheGuptaGuide/Neurology/40586

Almost, not quite, a blizzard

Central Ohio was under a severe storm warning yesterday, the day after Christmas.  We had about 4" but other counties had more.  In any case, it made me appreciate again moving to a condo in 2002.  I love hearing the trucks show up to clean the street and our driveways, or the snow shovels scraping, knowing my husband won't be bundling up to go out in the cold. But also, we have terrific neighbors, always ready to help in an emergency.

What you probably don't know about Social Security

"Taking Social Security benefits – the right ones at the right time – is one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll ever make, so you need to get it right. Getting it right on your own, however, is neigh impossible." And even checking with the specialists at the local SS office, you can get misinformation. . . the manual has over 2700 separate rules. Add to this what you don't know about Obamacare. . .

Link

College grads, start saving now!

When I graduated from college I was 21 years old and 5 months pregnant. I had other things on my mind than saving for retirement.  .  . like rent, food, graduate school, paying off the hospital and doctor bills (it was a pay as you go baby).  I put it off until I was about 48 and the children were launched.  Then I opened a tax deferred account through TIAA-CREF and started setting aside the maximum allowed.  Since I didn’t go back to work full time until about that same time, I was really behind.  If you’re starting out, don’t do what I did.

Here's how interest compounds over time: If you save $10 a day at age 25, you'll have more than $1 million by age 65, assuming an 8% annual rate of return. If you start at age 35, you'll have $445,000. At age 45, you'll only have $180,000.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304432704577348052844503384.html

Retiree confidence very low compared to 10 years ago

Some people forget that G W Bush also inherited a recession. The percent of retirees in 2001 who felt very confident or somewhat confident that they had saved and invested sufficiently for retirement ranged from 74% in 2001 to 79% in 2007. In 2008, that dropped to 64% and then to 60% in 2011 as the recession ground on despite a massive influx of federal funding. Link to Research. The gloom and doom in the business community is palpable as they are hit by more and more taxes and uncertainty about health care. Expansion is mostly out of the question, unless you're a petroleum driller in North Dakota. This affects those of us who live on retirement incomes whether Social Security, or defined benefit plans or our own savings/investments. Obviously, two things jump out about those years--the current recession that started in 2007 changed the investing mix and caused retirees to reevaluate their retirement plans and spending, and the baby boomers began entering the retirement demographic.

Those of us who were born before or during WWII whose fathers fought in that war and whose parents were teen-agers or young adults during the Great Depression have a different attitude than baby boomers about saving and sufficiency. We also have benefited from stronger family safety nets and we know the difference between “wants vs. needs." The value gap will expand for Gen-Xers who were accustomed to even more “stuff” replacing spiritual and familial values. In the 1940s and 1950s even children whose parents never took them to church heard Biblical admonitions on values and thrift in school before the Supreme Court ended it in the 1960s. "Don't store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.” Matt 6:19-20

Laughing with Mary all the way to the beach

Candidates are visiting The Villages in Florida

It seems the celebrities and political candidates love The Villages, a retirement community of 85,000 residents located 20 miles south of Ocala, Florida on route 441 with a total of 504 holes of golf. Murray recently sent his e-mail list this item about their visitors. "In the past 2 years we've had Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck (twice), Bill O'Rielly, and Sean Hannity visiting us. This week we had Rick Santorum and John McCain with Newt Gingrich tomorrow and Mitt Romney Monday. Also the Tea Party Express bus will be here tomorrow." In fact, he adds, they've even had Occupiers show up to protest.

"One thing you can be sure of and that would be Obama will NOT be coming to The Villages. He already knows that The Villages special interest group is not potential supporters. They consist of the old and wise. He avoids these people plus most of the middle class that he's trying to screw and doing a dam good job of it!"

Is There a Retirement Crisis?

The idea of working until the end—or closer to it—isn’t new. Many of today’s retirees have enjoyed decades of relaxation financed by company pensions and Social Security, but for most of history, voluntary retirement was the exception, not the rule. “Up to the end of the nineteenth century, people generally worked as long as they could,” Munnell writes. “At the end of their lives, they had only about two years of ‘retirement,’ often due to ill health.”

Is There a Retirement Crisis? by Nicole Gelinas, City Journal Autumn 2011

Beginning a new year when you're old

Taken from “Can I Begin Again?” by J. Oswald Sanders:

“When we were younger, most of us who are Christians earnestly sought to discover God’s plan for our lives, especially when we came to the crossroads of career and marriage. Are we equally diligent in seeking his plan for our old age, or are we just drifting along with no definite aim or goal? With more time to review the past, it is not difficult to become discouraged as we recall opportunities missed; a lessening of zeal in God’s service; a mediocre prayer life; or perhaps actual sins of which we have reason to be ashamed. It is at moments of introspection that we need to turn our eyes outward and upward to our loving and understanding Father. What balm a verse like Romans 5:20 can bring! “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” The wonderful thing about God’s abundant grace and favor is that it is never too late to discover and follow God’s plan for the remainder of our lives, never too late to make a new start, even if we have missed his plan till the present time. To his disillusioned compatriots, the prophet Joel brought an inspiring message of hope - the hope of a New Beginning. God delights in giving his failing children a chance to begin again...”I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:25).

Shared from cousin Gayle's weekly newsletter

Generations and the Great Recession

The generations are taking care of each other, according to the Pew Research Center.

Section 5: Generations and the Great Recession | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

It may not be glamorous, but the retirement pay is good

The base pay for a California state prison guard is $73,728, and with overtime many guards earn up to $100,000 annually. Five years ago Los Angeles Times reported that 6,000 guards were earning more than $100,000. One lieutenant raked in $252,570. Besides generous salaries and benefits, prison guards in California can retire as early as age 50. In retirement they are eligible to receive as much as 90 percent of their income: According to the state retirement formula, guards over 50 receive a percentage of their last year’s salary equal to three times the number of years worked. The prison population is growing 3 times faster than the state population--more jobs for union guards?

The price of prison guard unions

Too Much Debt to Retire

Although you can blame the economy, this part of the article makes more sense--what was going on for the now 60 year olds in the mid-decade.

"The combination of easy credit, low interest rates and a consumption-oriented culture helped fuel a spending binge for Americans until the financial crisis. People with problems aren't just those who took subprime loans or spent foolishly on lavish lifestyles. They are people from all backgrounds, including some with six-figure incomes."

Too Much Debt to Retire - SmartMoney.com

Valuing Seniors' Lives - Investors.com

"A commercial showing granny being pushed over a cliff by a person resembling Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was recently put out by the Agenda Project, implying that the Ryan budget will kill old people by changing Medicare.

For the sake of accuracy, granny should have been dispatched by a character resembling Cass Sunstein, President Obama's head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

The Ryan budget attempts to curb the explosive growth of entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security so they are there for granny without burdening the grandchildren with unconscionable debt. Sunstein, as was pointed out during congressional testimony last Friday, literally believes granny should be sacrificed in favor of the kids.

In testimony before the House energy and commerce subcommittees on oversight and investigations, the 56-year-old Sunstein tried to walk back comments he made in a 2003 paper, "Lives, Life-years, and Willingness to Pay," written while he was a professor at Obama's one-time home, the University of Chicago."

Valuing Seniors' Lives - Investors.com

How to travel a lot without being a millionaire | Lifecruiser

You'll find some good tips from a blogger I've followed for many years. She lives cheap at home so they can afford to travel.

How to travel a lot without being a millionaire | Lifecruiser

Your Retirement Checklist for Your 70s and Beyond

Take a look at this check-list, you might need to reevaluate. Includes a link to long term care.