Each generation loses some skills

“Young people in Britain have become a lost generation who can no longer mend gadgets and appliances because they have grown up in a disposable world, the professor giving this year’s Royal Institution Christmas lectures has warned. “

It happens. I didn't know the simplest skills like plucking a chicken or cleaning the wick on a kerosene lamp or putting the bit in the draft horse's mouth that my blind grandmother could do with ease.  There was a time (in my teen years) when I knew how to change a flat tire.  I used to know how to thread a 55 year old sewing machine. And in my 50s, I could code html for a web page. I hope I don't lose my ability to make an apple sour cream pie--I've never written down the instructions. A German immigrant housekeeper who worked for my grandparents would make that for an after school snack for the children (my mom and her sibs) after the long cold walk from the country school, Pineview,  uphill both ways, carrying a cello (or so the story went).

 

My mom, second from left, front row, and her brother Clare, second from right, back row.

God has been faithful and Aunt Mary is dancing on the streets of gold, guest blogger Adrienne Ross

Aunt Mary--my aunt who helped raised me--passed away 2 years ago. In fact, it was 2 years ago last Sunday. When she went into cardiac arrest a year before that and ended up on life support, doctors tried to get us to take her off life support rather than do a tracheotomy. We opted to do the trache surgery, which then meant she had to live in a nursing home--unable to talk, eat, or even move on her own. It also meant that because she had assets--2 houses in her name--and because the nursing home, doctors, etc., would have to be paid, we would be forced legally to sell at least one house, as insurance won't pay until you exhaust all assets. (Those of you with elderly parents might want to keep this in mind. Get stuff out of their names or they'll take it.)

This was the house where I grew up. Not only had we lost the aunt we knew, but we lost our inheritance, but she was worth it. It was difficult all around, and for a year, I traveled the 3 hours one way down to Long Island each Saturday and returned Sunday, sitting by Aunt Mary's side and giving ‪‎my Aunt Alma‬ a break from spending every day--practically all day--there.

After Aunt Mary passed away, there was even more pressure to sell the house. It had to be sold, and the longer it took, the more stress Aunt Alma had. Dealing with lawyers and realtors and the nursing home people and doctors was hard enough after losing her sister, but then there was the cost of heating the house--which was very expensive, along with other costs. Every time it seemed we had a buyer and a contract, it all fell through--time after time. It was a few years of struggle and stress, and then the thought that they would try to make us sell the other house, too--the one Aunt Alma lives in--was added stress. It's not easy to sell a house in the county that has the highest property taxes in the nation! We just kept praying in the midst of the frustration and, admittedly, nervousness.

Now the good news: Finally...I said, FINALLY...we have sold the house! Aunt Alma closed on it and handed the keys over yesterday! Praise GOD! What a journey! And though we have lost so much in the process, we are so glad God has, once again, shown Himself to be faithful, and we have no regrets for making the decisions we did. In that time that Aunt Mary lived after her trache surgery, we saw her begin to move her body, reach for items, squeeze our hands, and attempt to speak. We saw God at work--and we're so glad we chose life. Aunt Mary is now dancing on the streets of gold, and it's all good. As for us, we're moving on!

Ms. Ross is a former high school teacher of English and now owns Adrienne Ross Communications and is a motivational speaker and writer.

Are you walking and eating healthy?

Airport employee sits for 10 years and reaches 370 lb. Starts walking the halls of the airport--loses 200 lb. and her diabetes. Plus she was an overweight child.

 http://www.kcci.com/news/she-walked-off-more-than-200-pounds-at-the-airport/29295568

Saying good-bye, guest blogger Richard Johnson

Retirement is nice a lot of the time, but sometimes it comes up to slap you in the face. When I first retired, I went back to the department (Georgia Southern Communication Arts) frequently, went to plays, visited with old friends, etc. As time went on and the body begins to flag, these visits become less frequent, and some times not at all. It has reached the stage where we only attend a movie once or twice a month, we sit at home, go to the doctors (note the plural), go to church, go to water aerobics, play with the dogs etc. Friends who were once very close evaporate into occasional glances.

Then one day you pick up the paper, glance at the obituaries (in the late seventies, reading the obituaries is an involuntary constant) and you see that a friend with whom you worked closely for almost twenty years, who is fifteen years your junior, has passed away and the funeral is at two o'clock this afternoon. It is hard to explain the reaction. One has a full day scheduled, (for a change) and suddenly getting to the funeral home on time becomes crucial and as an old coot, I get to the wrong funeral home on time, break a few traffic laws reversing directions and finally reaching the place in time to sit in the foyer, watching the funeral through a big window and listening to the sermon and quietly leaving at the end. So long, Kent, I have only seen you a dozen times in the fifteen or sixteen years since you took over my office when I retired, but suddenly there is a hole, and I will miss you. Rest well my friend.

Gait speed and dismobility

A Diagnosis of Dismobility—Giving Mobility Clinical Visibility: A Mobility Working Group Recommendation

Steven R. Cummings, MD; Stephanie Studenski, MD, MPH; Luigi Ferrucci, MD, PhD
JAMA. 2014;311(20):2061-2062. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.3033.

Slow gait limits independence, decreases quality of life and is associated with an increased risk of disability, hospitalization, placement in long-term care, and accelerated clinical progression of many chronic diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, congestive heart failure, and dementia. Slow gait speed is also a predictor of all-cause mortality.


http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/geriatrics/gait_disorders_in_the_elderly/gait_disorders_in_the_elderly.html

At age 75, slow walkers die ≥ 6 yr earlier than normal velocity walkers and ≥ 10 yr earlier than fast velocity walkers. Gait velocity slows because elderly people take shorter steps at the same rate (cadence). The most likely reason for shortened step length (the distance from one heel strike to the next) is weakness of the calf muscles, which propel the body forward; calf muscle strength is substantially decreased in elderly people. However, elderly people seem to compensate for decreased lower calf power by using their hip flexor and extensor muscles more than young adults.

I wonder if strengthening calf muscles makes any difference. Couldn't hurt.

Strengthening your calves

Tips for your pre-retirement years

• Life tips for my friends and readers who are 45-ish.
• Put away about 15% in your retirement account, above what your employer or government is contributing.
• Take good care of your relationships--they are like gold.
• Ignore all the food fads and scares; eat all the colors, eat less and move more. Just like mom said.
• Everything in moderation; especially alcohol and coffee and just pitch the cigarettes. They've never been found to benefit anything in your body.
• Don't be a pot head even if it is legal--you need every brain cell you have working at full capacity.
• Take care of your ears--turn down the music--and your teeth. Don't become a deaf senior citizen with ugly teeth--it's not pleasant. Take out the ear buds and see a dentist twice a year.
• Go to church. There are thousands of denominations as a result of squabbles that happened years ago. One should meet your needs. The world is actually more religious now than ever before--don't lose out on the benefits.
• Enjoy the many pleasures of owning a pet, but they are not family--don't kid yourself.
• Think about the benefits and responsibilities of being a citizen of the United States. It's not perfect, but it's the only one ever created with idea that the state/monarch/king/president doesn't own the people.

Music and aging

"Music, the most-studied art reviewed, has been shown to have a number of benefits [for older people]. One landmark study compared older adults who were invited to join a choir to those not invited. Twelve months after the study began, choir members showed decreases in doctor visits, falls, and over-the-counter medication use. Improvements were seen in overall health rating and number of activities performed. In a larger study that randomly assigned individuals to a choir program or a control group, the choir partisans had lower scores on a depression/anxiety scale, and higher scores on a quality of life scale. A survey of older amateur singers before and after joining a musical group showed increases in emotional well-being, social life, quality of life, and self-confidence." http://aginginaction.com/2014/01/can-music-dance-and-other-arts-programs-enhance-healthy-aging/

Inspiring, isn't it? 91 year old runs marathons

91-year-old Harriette Thompson set a new world record Sunday after she ran a marathon in San Diego in little over seven hours! Her feat, which also made her the second-oldest woman to complete a marathon in US history, is especially remarkable given that Thompson only completed her last radiation treatment for skin cancer one month ago. The grandmother of ten from Charlotte, North Carolina beat... the previous marathon record for women 90 and up by two hours and 45 minutes.

Thompson ran her first marathon at age 76 and tells people that "it's never too late" to start exercising. She has run in 15 out of the past 16 Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathons and raised over $90,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in the process. A classically trained pianist, Thompson told WFAE that she replays pieces in her head to keep pace while running: "I usually think of Chopin etudes, the ones that are technically difficult, because usually they're pretty fast, and it stimulates me to go a little faster, and also helps pass the time."

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/06/harriette-thompson-marathon

http://www.people.com/article/harriette-thompson-91-finishes-marathon-in-san-diego

http://running.competitor.com/2014/06/news/record-setting-day-harriette-thompson-san-diego_104482

Guest blogger Sarah on retirement

Illness forced Sarah to retire; so she's reevaluating her life.
* * *
It's an interesting thing to retire. We all dream of it, we work for it we know that someday we will enter into that time frame of our lives when everything is supposed to be amazing. Kind of like the ultimate carrot at the end of the stick idea. However, some of us (like me) arrive at that point unexpectedly and find that we don't know how to respond to questions from loving, caring friends about, "How are you adjusting to retirement?" In the interest of reminding myself of how things are progressing, I am going to keep a journal of sorts to list out things that I am finding that I can adapt to very quickly. If that in anyway helps some of my friends as they also make this transition, all the better.

There are certainly things that are different and I'm finding that it's OK, that it's different because life was never meant to remain the same. For me, right now in this first month of official retirement, it's all about perspective. I can bemoan those changes sometimes considered losses or...I can rejoice in the changes that I consider major gains.

The first of these gains is what I am considering to be the throwing out the rulebook about time. Having to go to bed by a certain time because you HAVE to get up by a certain time because you HAVE a major responsibility to others and yourself to show up and do your job. If you are someone that doesn't necessarily sleep on a regular schedule and the pressure of HAVING to do so only makes it worse, consider this a major gain. I think in time I will figure out what my "routine" will be, for instance I just started to cook at 9 pm on a Sunday night and it doesn't matter because...it just doesn't matter. If I am up until 3 am (as I often am) then so be it. Unless I have an appointment (which I don't have very many of these days), it just doesn't matter. So the rulebook for me about going to bed and getting up and doing it over and over again until I've reached the point that it took me 2 days to recover from doing that 5 days is a row - is now over and I will be making my own rules from this point out. It is an amazing feeling of freedom which reduces the stress in my life greatly, which in turn improves the quality of my life and so it all is a process...but a process that I will be defining and making fit this new period in my life.

Stay tuned!

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