10 tips for end of year planning

We may not be in a position to do #6 (gift up to $30,000 to an individual if married), but we all need to do #10, organize our records for 2019, and shred documents no longer needed for retention.

Also, in 2018, you can contribute up to $18,500 in your employer-sponsored retirement plan (i.e., 401(k), 403(b), most 457 plans, and the Federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan). Employees aged 50 or older who participate in such plans can contribute an additional $6,000 in "catch-up" contributions. #3

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/year-end-estate-and-financial-planning-checklist-make-your-list-and-check-it-twice

Elder abuse high in rural and tribal areas

Office of Justice Programs reports:  "Criminals tend to prey on seniors because of their retirement nest eggs," said Matt M. Dummermuth, OJP's Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, "and because seniors are often socially isolated, may have diminished capacity in handling financial matters and don't always know where to seek guidance when they are defrauded. We hope this summit, and federal and local partnerships, will help stop those who seek to steal from seniors and support those who have been stolen from."

Many rural and tribal areas have small police departments or sheriff's offices that cover large areas with few staff and minimal resources, making it difficult for law enforcement to conduct complicated fraud investigations. These cases often have international connections, which require federal jurisdiction and resources.

The Justice Department estimates that financial exploitation, the most common form of elder abuse, afflicts one in ten seniors. According to the "2018 DOJ Report on Elder Abuse and Financial Exploitation," each year an estimated $3 billion is swindled from America's senior citizens through mass-mailing and "grandparent" scams, fake prizes, fraudulent IRS refunds and extortion.

President Trump signed the bipartisan Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act into law on October 18, 2017. Since then, the Justice Department conducted the largest coordinated sweep of elder fraud cases in history. With help from all levels of government and the private sector, the Department charged more than 250 individuals. These cases resulted in the return of more than $220 million to victims."

https://ojp.gov/ojpblog/blogs-2018/2018-blog-rural-elder-abuse.htm

Exercises for toning legs

https://www.silversneakers.com/blog/6-ways-tone-legs-butt-standing-no-floor/?

#1 Squats
#2 Stationary lunge
#3 Wall sit
#4 Band side step
#5 Step up
#6 Toe raise

Older Americans are healthier and wealthier

"Though you'd never guess it from our youth-centric culture, older Americans are actually happier than younger folks. Americans 55 and older eat more fresh produce, smoke less, and have less worry and stress than their younger counterparts, a Gallup Survey[1] found. They also have a greater sense of purpose and well-being.

Older Americans also do particularly well when it comes to financial well-being, the study found, thriving at a rate of 53%, compared with 33% for younger people. They are happier with their standard of living, worry less about money, and say they have enough money to do what they want — all at significantly higher rates than those under 55."

http://www.businessinsider.com/sc/why-older-americans-are-happier-2017-7?

Are you relocating in retirement?

1. Don't hole up in your house. Get out, mingle and meet people.

2. Get your spouse out, too. If you have kids, even better.

3. Don't make a big deal about your self-importance or what you did previously.

4. Find something in the community that interests you and get involved.

5. If you have a specialty or skill, offer it for free.

6. Get involved with local sports. Games are major social events.

7. Offer to write or report, article or guest editorial for the local paper.

8. Take a class or teach a class.

This advice is from an author whose book I'll receive soon for review. 

"Radical Relocating: A northern big-city executive joyfully reflects on his move to the Virginia countryside" by Tony Vanderwarker.

I'm crispy

Sydney retired at 44 and wrote a blog

I'm retired and I write blogs. Nine blogs. One is about retirement. (I also do other things like volunteer, go out with friends, and travel. For the first 9 years I also painted). I found a really great retirement blog yesterday I'll return to. Here's something she wrote in 2013.

Things you won’t accomplish in retirement:
Sending out Christmas cards,...
Losing five pounds,
Cleaning out your closets,
Reading a ton of books,
Keeping your house and garden in pristine condition,
Watching less TV,
Mastering a new instrument, language, or other field of study,
Becoming Martha Stewart, or
Saving The World.

I do still send real Christmas cards, and I've lost weight twice, 2006 and 2015. I did clean some closets and repack everything about 8 years ago. Also when we remodeled our bathrooms, three closets were reorganized and things tossed.  Three years into retirement I started pitching all the stuff I didn't throw out when I retired. It was amazing to see what I thought was important.  I did join a book club. One of the club's selections actually started my husband on a reading binge--Maisie Dobbs. No garden and not much house cleaning. I do watch more TV--but mostly news and HGTV. Learned blogging. Received as a gift a lot of Martha Stewart cookbooks--and I do more cooking than I did when I worked, but also we go out to eat more. And yes, I am saving the world, one baby at a time at PDHC.

http://retiredsyd.typepad.com/retirement_a_fulltime_job/2013/01/how-to-be-lazy-without-even-trying.html

Christmas card 2015

Leg pain solutions

About two and a half years ago I developed bursitis (inflammation of the bursa) in my right hip. Although it seemed to happen overnight, I recognized it as a pain that I had off and on since childhood. After it seemed to heal in a year, it started in my left hip, probably because so much dependence on it. I did the ice and exercise routine again, but always took a folding cane with me, avoided stairs and any incline if I were walking. Then in June I read several articles on fish oil being an anti-inflammatory, so figuring it couldn't hurt, I tried it. Maybe it's a placebo, but I'll take it and leave the cane at home, because I can now walk miles and even do the stairs in my home without pain (although I would NEVER do stairs for exercise like I used to). No more Advil. Last week I was talking to my daughter about it, and I guess we'd never discussed it. She'd done the same thing, but for auto-immune related problems and she's been able to give up Aleve, and move without pain. She also said her fingernails were strong for the first time in her life, and I looked at mine, and what do you know, mine were too, and I hadn't even noticed.

 Apparently, I have a mild form of peripheral neuropathy--although I haven't really had an exact diagnosis. I have none of the usual indicators--no diabetes, I'm not overweight, and I don't have high blood pressure, kidney disease or thyroid problems. I'm not missing any vitamins, and I'm not an alcoholic. After all the tests and my doctor coming up with nothing, she sent me to a sports doctor (really fancy facility for all the important athletes). I don't recall him saying neuropathy, but I looked up the prescription, gabapentin, and that's what it's used for. I had no relief for 2-3 months, but finally, I can sleep without leg pain waking me up, so I'm crediting gabapentin. There is a side affect I've had to get used to; I feel a little tipsy in the morning, and that goes away by afternoon. In researching this I figure the neuropathy (if that's what it is) may be from falls, which is another underlying cause. I've never broken anything, but I have gone down stairs bumpty bump and fallen off my bike. And of course, my age. It seems a lot of aches and pains come with age.

How healthy do you feel?

. . . the researchers looked at 65 different mortality risk factors as they tracked participants through the later years of their lives. Once the number crunching was finished, the factor that rose to the top was surprisingly simple and straightforward.

The most sensitive measure of longevity was the individual’s own subjective evaluation of how healthy he or she felt. In other words, a person reporting that he or she feels healthy outweighed any other single predictor of a long life, including any medical measures such as cholesterol levels and blood pressure.'

It's hard for someone with diabetic neuropathy or COPD to report "I feel healthy." Unless they lie.  Unless they just haven't been to the doctor in years and don't know better.  Having a positive attitude and a fulfilling life is different.  I have a friend about 80 with a wonderful sense of humor, bright fulfilling volunteer life, and so many ailments she should be in a text book.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/out-the-ooze/201605/the-surprising-factor-can-predict-long-life

Bursitis and Walking Update

Finally, I saw a sunrise. I'm getting 6-7 miles a day in walking at our summer home in Lakeside, Ohio, and mornings are best. All these miles are broken into small segments of one mile or less so I don't risk inflammation.  I use only the flat, east-west streets of Lakeside which indicate where the shore line was about 8-10,000 years ago.  We had a glacier in this area of the U.S. and then that darn climate change and global warming.  It was very hazy today, and promises to be very hot, but those first few moments as the sun pops over the horizon are glorious.

 I've seen several people using hiking poles, and when checking I seek trekking, hiking, walking, shock absorbing, ultralight, women's, cork, rubber, etc. Sure looks better than using a cane. https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/trekking-poles-hiking-staffs.html

One woman I saw with walking poles is getting ready for the 500 mile Camino in Northern Spain where hikers stop at monasteries, villages and churches. She did it several years ago, and is planning another one. She talked about it for a Women's Club program.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2159915/Walk-lifetime-Why-epic-Camino-trail-Spain-route-true-happiness.html

Stretching routines

Lately I've noticed some loss of grip strength and have to have my husband open bottles and jars (I think I need to ask the pharmacist for non-child proof containers, because they've made them older adult-proof).  So I turned to Google, but before I got to hand and finger, I came across this nice stretching routines for seniors web site.  It doesn't start out with finger and hand stretches, that is #11, but begins with shoulders and neck, etc., all while sitting down, and instead of a gorgeous 25 year old in shorts and tiny t-shirt, they have an 80-something woman as the model.  The voice over is quiet and pleasant and there's no obnoxious music. Elder Gym also is printable, so after you watch the videos you can print out the instructions.  Yes, you do have to work around some ads, but that's how these useful educational sites recover their costs. He has DVDs for sale, but I think watching the simple videos and then DOING them, would be helpful.

• Stretching techniques for seniors and the elderly exercisers are designed primarily to improve function in older adults.
• There are minimum ranges that we must use for many of our daily activities.
• For example, you need to raise your arm to at least shoulder height to put on a shirt.
• Your knee must bend at least 90 degrees (like an L shape) in order to go up stairs.
• In other words, good stretching techniques for older adults will stress improving what we call the end range.
• That is the farthest point your joint will go when reaching overhead for example.
• So to get  your shirt on you will have to work on getting your arm to raise to at least your shoulder height.

There are also other tips, like breathing and posture, and how to take it up a notch.

Here's the video for the neck stretch.  Each basic exercise has a separate video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNJNjKfjUyk

Here's a list of all the exercises, upper and lower body are separate.

Instructions for calf strengthening are simple--hold on to the back of a chair and raise up on your toes. 

• Calf exercises strengthen the lower body and are important in maintaining balance and walking ability by improving your ability to push off and accelerate as we walk.
• It is vital to keep these muscles working not only every day but several times a day.
• This is because, as I like to say, they are the "heart" of your legs.
• Calf contractions help pump the great volume of blood up from your legs to your upper body and brain.
• No more fainting or getting light headed when standing still when you raise up on your toes a few times during the day.

Spending patterns of older Americans

This will take a little time to read and study, but I suggest it because you may be in the same boat as we: by 2050, when our children are 80+ there will twice as many seniors as today. So the purpose of the study (BLS) is to figure out how do people over 65 spend money (we’re consumer units). 

The first thing you notice is how income, which peaks in the 50s, drops in the 70s (retirement pensions, savings, investments—which is why we need to elect capitalists). I think the food category is high, but that’s because it probably includes eating out—and we sort of tuck that into entertainment (we don't do much for entertainment). Everyone eats out much more than they need to—food is pretty reasonable, but if you’re paying someone to prepare and serve it, not so much. In 2013, Americans spent 5.6 percent of their disposable personal incomes on food at home and 4.3 percent on food away from home.  

I was surprised that housing costs (as percent of income) were as high as the study shows.

Contributions got lumped into “other” so that’s a pretty sloppy category. I know there are all sorts of categories we could reduce, but really don’t have the will. But I just love shopping for clothes at resale stores and getting brand name jeans for $1.00. I didn’t discover them til after I retired. For nice stuff, I just let my daughter do that for Christmas and birthdays.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-5/spending-patterns-of-older-americans.htm

Have you looked at your pension balance today?

Even though the left, particularly Obama, love to blame Bush for the housing bubble bursting in 2007-2008 which was actually a result of years of government interference in the housing market, I'm NOT going to blame Obama for what is happening in China this week which is making mincemeat of my pension funds.

 China's economy has become so powerful, the only protection is for us is to have a president and Congress who are capitalists instead of socialists in heart and policy. Socialists only know how to tax the workers to spread the wealth. That doesn't grow the economy.  The irony is that China got this strong by kicking out its communist economists and liberalizing its capitalists. Right now, China's economy is in free fall.

I just got my TIAA-CREF December account report.  I withdrew (by law it's required after 70.5 years) about $4,000, but my gains in investment were about $8,000, so I ended the month at a higher balance than I started with.  That's how every retiree hopes it will work out.  However, the top .01% of the population lost billions on paper this week, and it is now trickling down to  those of us who saved and scrimped during our working years to have enough to retire.  I socked away 15% every month from my paycheck (maximum allowed) in addition to the required amount for the state pension. My health care comes out of my pension, and that's about 13%.  If all I had was a pension, I'd be in poverty.

Health and Fitness: Keeping Your Golden Years Golden, guest blogger Helen Hilton

As they approach retirement, many people choose to stop focusing on health and fitness, instead leading increasingly sedentary lifestyles. This is a grave mistake. Exercise and healthy eating can actually help to slow many of the effects of the aging process. As our God-given bodies begin to age many of us choose to accept and embrace this aging process, but many more struggle to accept their changing abilities and those extra aches and pains that they feel at the end of the day. The good news is that you can choose to minimize the effects of the aging process on your body and that it is much easier to achieve than you might think: Staying healthy and feeling your best is important as you age, and the two sure-fire ways to ensure that you remain as active and health as possible are to eat well and to exercise regularly:

Eat Well, Live Well

Healthy home grown fruits and vegetables should be at the heart of every meal you eat (the five a day rule has been in place for a long time and it continues to hold true), but there is more to eating well as a senior than simply maintaining the same healthy diet that you have enjoyed during your younger years. You should begin to opt for low fat dairy products in order to lower your blood pressure and reduce your risk of hypertension. You should also avoid too much red meat, instead opting for plenty of low fat but protein rich chicken and fish instead. Finally, it’s important that you do remember to eat three healthy meals every day: as we age our appetites tend to get smaller, and whilst it is OK to eat smaller portions to suit your appetite, you should avoid skipping meals which can have a massively detrimental effect on your overall health and wellbeing.

Exercise and Repair Your Muscles

Exercise is important at any age, but it becomes increasingly important as we age. As well as benefiting our physical fitness and health levels, exercise can also improve how you feel mentally and emotionally, and generally contribute to your quality of life. As we age our physiology begins to change, leaving us with reduced muscle mass and weaker and more brittle bones. After the age of forty the metabolism also slows down, which can lead to weight gain. All of these factors combined serve to make exercise vital to the aging population. Exercise can improve your core strength, rebuild your muscle mass, and help you feel more supple and revitalized. The more you exercise now, the easier you will find it to continue having good mobility as you age. Despite this all being good, common sense, an incredible 78% of men and women over the age of 40 either don’t get an adequate amount of exercise or simply choose not to exercise at all. You only get one body, and it’s an important responsibility to take care of it to the best of your ability for the full length of your life.

Active Minds Lead to Active Lives

As well as ensuring that you take good care of your body, it is also essential to ensure that you take care of your mind and nourish your mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. Mental health issues and alcohol abuse are common problems that affect women of the baby boomer generation, though these issues are largely unreported by the press. The fact is that as they age their pace of life slows and for many women this can lead to a sadness brought on by an inability to cope with change. Depression also affects one in five seniors living within the United States: many older people are lonely and struggle to cope with their new position in society. It is therefore important to keep your mind as active as your body and remain active within your church and your wider community. As well as protecting your mental wellbeing, this proactivity can also help to keep dementia at bay and ensure you can continue to serve and support those around you.

Lifetime intellectual enrichment delays cognitive impairment

People who maintain high levels of intellectual stimulation throughout life may delay the onset of cognitive impairment by more than 8 years, according to a population-based study of 1718 cognitively normal individuals and 277 individuals with mild cognitive impairment aged 70-89years. The article appeared in the August 2014 issue of JAMA Neurology.

Mid- and late-life cognitive activity like reading, crafts, social activities and games improved cognitive performance.

Six ways to prepare to age well

Well, when I saw that heading, I said, “Too late.”  But these are good reminders published in Health Beat, Harvard Medical School.

1. Adapt your home. Stairs, baths, and kitchens can present hazards for older people. Even if you don't need to make changes now, do an annual safety review so you can make necessary updates if your needs change. [When we remodeled our bathrooms we put in taller base cabinets and “comfort height toilets. Some recent changes in the kitchen, although not sure those will make any difference.]

2. Prevent falls. Falls are a big deal for older people - they often result in fractures that can lead to disability, further health problems, or even death. Safety precautions are important, but so are exercises that can improve balance and strength. [I’m nagging my husband a lot about the ladder and yard work.  We have hired a service for our lake house. We’re both in exercise classes and balance and strength are part of the routine.]

3. Consider your housing options. You might consider investigating naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs). These neighborhoods and housing complexes aren't developed specifically to serve seniors - and, in fact, tend to host a mix of ages - but because they have plenty of coordinated care and support available, they are senior-friendly. [We’ve been living in a NORC since 2002 and love it. We wanted a one floor plan, but have 3, and so far it hasn’t been a problem.  The grounds are gorgeous, and the neighbors the best.]

4. Think ahead about how to get the help you may need. Meal preparation, transportation, home repair, housecleaning, and help with financial tasks such as paying bills might be hired out if you can afford it, or shared among friends and family. Elder services offered in your community might be another option. [I have some friends in their 90s, and am watching carefully. Elder services seem to be quite good in our area. The kitchen repainting was done by professionals this winter.]

5. Plan for emergencies. Who would you call in an emergency? Is there someone who can check in on you regularly? What would you do if you fell and couldn't reach the phone? Keep emergency numbers near each phone or on speed dial. Carry a cellphone (preferably with large buttons and a bright screen), or consider investing in some type of personal alarm system. [We recently got new phones; bigger numbers, but I still like phones with a little heft.  These feel like they’d break if dropped, and the sound quality isn’t that great. We aren’t in the habit of carry cell phones.]

6. Write advance care directives. Advance care directives, such as a living will, durable power of attorney for health care, or health care proxy, allow you to explain the type of medical care you want if you're too sick, confused, or injured to voice your wishes. Every adult should have these documents. [We’ve got the funeral/burial stuff purchased, and wills, and power of attorney, but best of all, our children live close buy.  A family is the best safety net.]

Five Steps to lower risk of Alzhemer's

5 steps to lower Alzheimer’s risk

While there are no surefire ways to prevent Alzheimer’s, by following the five steps below you may lower your risk for this disease — and enhance your overall health as well.

Maintain a healthy weight. Cut back on calories and increase physical activity if you need to shed some pounds.

Check your waistline. To accurately measure your waistline, use a tape measure around the narrowest portion of your waist (usually at the height of the navel and lowest rib). A National Institutes of Health panel recommends waist measurements of no more than 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men.

Eat mindfully. Emphasize colorful, vitamin-packed vegetables and fruits; whole grains; protein sources such as fish, lean poultry, tofu, and beans and other legumes; plus healthy fats. Cut down on unnecessary calories from sweets, sodas, refined grains like white bread or white rice, unhealthy fats, fried and fast foods, and mindless snacking. Keep a close eye on portion sizes, too.

Exercise regularly. This simple step does great things for your body. Regular physical activity helps control weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol. Moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise (walking, swimming, biking, rowing) can also help chip away total body fat and abdominal fat over time. Aim for 2 1/2 to 5 hours weekly of brisk walking (at 4 mph). Or try a vigorous exercise like jogging (at 6 mph) for half that time.

Keep an eye on important health numbers. In addition to watching your weight and waistline, ask your doctor whether your cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and blood sugar are within healthy ranges. Exercise, weight loss if needed, and medications (if necessary) can help keep these numbers on target.

Six things about vitamin D

A number of factors influence a person’s vitamin D levels. Here are six important ones.

1. Where you live. The further away from the Equator you live, the less vitamin D–producing UVB light reaches the earth’s surface during the winter. Residents of Boston, for example, make little if any of the vitamin from November through February. Short days and clothing that covers legs and arms also limit UVB exposure.

2. Air quality. Carbon particles in the air from the burning of fossil fuels, wood, and other materials scatter and absorb UVB rays, diminishing vitamin D production. In contrast, ozone absorbs UVB radiation, so pollution-caused holes in the ozone layer could end up enhancing vitamin D levels.

3. Use of sunscreen. Sunscreen prevents sunburn by blocking UVB light. Theoretically, that means sunscreen use lowers vitamin D levels. But as a practical matter, very few people put on enough sunscreen to block all UVB light, or they use sunscreen irregularly, so sunscreen’s effects on vitamin D might not be that important. An Australian study that’s often cited showed no difference in vitamin D between adults randomly assigned to use sunscreen one summer and those assigned a placebo cream.

4. Skin color. Melanin is the substance in skin that makes it dark. It “competes” for UVB with the substance in the skin that kick-starts the body’s vitamin D production. As a result, dark-skinned people tend to require more UVB exposure than light-skinned people to generate the same amount of vitamin D.

5. Weight. Body fat sops up vitamin D, so it’s been proposed that it might provide a vitamin D rainy-day fund: a source of the vitamin when intake is low or production is reduced. But studies have also shown that being obese is correlated with low vitamin D levels and that being overweight may affect the bioavailability of vitamin D.

6. Age. Compared with younger people, older people have lower levels of the substance in the skin that UVB light converts into the vitamin D precursor. There’s also experimental evidence that older people are less efficient vitamin D producers than younger people.

Don’t see a link, but this is on their e-mail newsletter. http://www.health.harvard.edu/

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/

Alzheimer's research

People genetically prone to Alzheimer’s who went to college, worked in complex fields and stayed engaged intellectually held off the disease almost a decade longer than others, a study found.

Lifelong intellectual activities such as playing music or reading kept the mind fit as people aged and also delayed Alzheimer’s by years for those at risk of the disease who weren’t college educated or worked at challenging jobs, the researchers said in the study published today in JAMA Neurology.

Summary
JAMA Neurology
Among those with an average education and job complexity, brain stimulating pastimes can delay onset of dementia by about 7.3 years compared with people with low levels of mental stimulation in aging. For those who carry the ApoE4 gene, a risk factor for Alzheimer’s found in about 25 percent of the U.S. population, brain stimulating pastimes can delay the onset of the disease by about 3.5 years.

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.