Longevity & Aging

No doubt about it: at some point we’re neither semi-retired, findependent or fully retired. We’re out there in a retirement community or retirement home, and maybe for a few years near the end of this incarnation, some time to reflect on it all in a nursing home. Our Longevity & Aging category features our own unique blog posts, as well as blog feeds from Mark Venning’s ChangeRangers.com and other experts.

3 predictions for the future Retirement landscape

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By Sia Hasan

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Retirement should be a time everyone looks forward to embracing. Theoretically, everything becomes easier in time. A retiree doesn’t need to deal with all the pressures of a stressful full-time job. Days can be spent doing more of the things the retiree enjoys. Such imagery, however, may only reflect the most idealized version of retirement years. Relaxation in retirement remains heavily dependent on how much money has been saved for those golden years.

Saving for retirement has to be about more than just putting a set percentage of income away. Careful thinking and planning are required to make sure retirement assets become adequate enough to cover leisure and necessary expenses. The changing future landscape of retirement further necessitates better planning.

Longer Life Spans and Retirement Savings

Increased life spans definitely impact the way people save for retirement. Thanks to insights into healthier living and great strides in healthcare, a larger percentage of people live much longer. Living to the age of 100 may even be possible for a significant number of people. Better retirement planning definitely works to the benefit of someone who lives a very long life.

Working during early Retirement years

Upon retiring at age 70, maybe it would be wise to look for another job. Working a full-time job might not be necessary, but earning a small stream of income from a part-time job could prove very helpful. $10,000 earned from a part-time job covers $10,000 worth of expenses. Working a part-time job until age 75 leads to $50,000 in income. Earning additional money eliminates the need withdrawing an equitable amount of funds from a savings account or social security deposits.

Money saved may draw more interest and be set aside for use during very elder years. After looking at things from this perspective, making plans for a retirement job becomes an important priority.

Examine Annuity Income

Continue Reading…

Blue Monday: Here’s what gives us the financial blues on this saddest day of the year

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Feeling the financial blues a bit today? Little wonder because today, Monday, Jan. 15th, is Blue Monday, dubbed the saddest (most depressing?) day of the year.
 Call me a masochist but I also decided this was the day to download the 2017 online version of TurboTax and at least confront the looming reality of preparing another year’s tax returns. The program said it can be used to print and file your 2017 tax return by mid-January, and that NetFile will be available as of 6 am on February  26th. How depressing is that a mere two weeks after the holidays?

But if the thought of filing your taxes doesn’t make you blue, or even the snow that’s falling as I write this, maybe the thought of credit-card bills from the holidays will do the trick. Credit Canada and the Financial Planning Standards Council today released the results of  a Blue Monday themed Financial Blues survey that revealed that 53% of Canadians are “already feeling financially blue, with the younger generations struggling.”

The Financial Blues Survey was based on a Leger poll that asked Canadians “when it comes to your finances, what makes you blue this time of year?”

Well, bowl me over with a feather: the start of another tax season didn’t make the cut in the poll, or at least the top five “standout” findings. Here’s the top candidates for feeling blue in January:

  • 20% of us have a credit-card balance larger than our savings accounts
  • Younger adults aged 18 to 44 are especially blue about finances right now: 68% of them versus just 41% for adults aged 45 or older
  • 25% of us lack the funds to take a winter vacation in the sun
  • 6% have already broken their financial new year’s resolutions
  • 21% over-spent during the Holidays

Credit Canada CEO Laurie Campbell  says that while “we are seeing a good deal of Canadians stressed out about their financial situation … the takeaway message is that there is hope. Develop a plan, tackle debt, and realize your financial potential. There are professional resources available to you, so don’t feel you need to go it alone.” Continue Reading…

2 powerful New Year’s resolutions for a wealthy and healthy 2018

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This will be a VERY short blog; nonetheless if you take the two resolutions seriously, you might well transform both your Wealth and Health. As Sandy Cardy wrote in a Hub blog, last week, Health IS true Wealth.

Resolution 1: Health

If I haven’t done it already, I will embark on a lifelong program to improve my nutrition and exercise daily, along the lines of the last Hub blog of 2017: Younger Next Year.

Resolution 2: Wealth

As of January 1st (if I have an online discount brokerage account, otherwise January 2nd or later this week), I will top up my Tax-free Savings Account (TFSA) by a further $5,500: the “new” TFSA contribution room that all adult Canadians qualify for as of the new year. This resolution applies to everyone from age 18 to seniors: especially to seniors and those in semi-retirement or approaching full retirement. The Hub’s second last blog of the year explains why: Retired Money — How TFSAs can give seniors more tax-free retirement funds.

That’s it: one short blog, two simple resolutions; yet with the potential to transform almost all aspects of your existence. So to all who read or contribute to the Hub, a very happy, healthy and wealthy new year. See you in 2018!

P.S. New Younger This New Year 2018 Facebook Group

I’d like to spread the word that this weekend’s Younger Next Year blog triggered via Twitter the creation of a new Facebook group called Younger Next Year – 2018. I believe I am member #5: thanks to Vicki Peuckert Cook for taking the initiative to create this. As with the Hub, the group consists (at least initially) of both American and Canadians. Hope to see you there!

 

Younger Next Year (& creation of Younger Next Year – 2018 Facebook group)

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Younger Next Year. How’s that for a New Year’s Resolution?

Seriously, as we head into 2018, who wouldn’t want to be younger in 2018 than they were in 2017?

Impossible, you scoff? Clearly, you haven’t read the New York Times bestselling book, Younger Next Year, or its spinoff titles, including Younger Next Year for Women.

The authors are a vibrant 70-year old (at the time of writing) and ex New York litigator Chris Crowley and his personal physician (25 years his junior), named Henry Lodge (Harry in most of the text; I should clarify that this is the late Henry Lodge, since he passed await at age 58  early in 2017 of prostate cancer. Ironic.)

The subtitle says it all: Live Strong, Fit and Sexy — Until You’re 80 and Beyond. I’m grateful to one of my sources — Hub contributor Doug Dahmer of Emeritus Retirement Strategies — both for twigging me to the book’s existence and to supplying me a copy. (He appears to have laid in a good stash of the book).

Take control of your Longevity

And for good reason. The book is all about taking control of your personal longevity, chiefly  through proper nutrition but first and foremost by engaging in daily exercise: aerobic activity at least four days a week and weight training for another two days a week. Week in and week out, for the rest of your life. And the payoff is what is promised in the subtitle.

Apart from daily exercise and “Quit eating crap” (to use the authors’ phrase, one of Harry’s 7 Rules reproduced below) the authors urge readers to “Connect and Commit,” which means staying engaged even after formal retirement. In fact, as we argue in our own book Victory Lap Retirement, there’s a case to be made for never entirely retiring. Leaving the corporate workplace, probably, but semi-retirement and self-employment from home are certainly viable alternatives.

While Younger Next Year only touches on retirement finances, it certainly reinforces the main theme of this web site (FindependenceHub.com). It’s encapsulated in Harry’s 4th Rule: Spend Less Than You Make.

Harry’s Rules

I can see at this point that it’s best to simply list Harry’s 7 Rules, which formally appear in the book’s appendix (page 305 of my copy): Continue Reading…

Your (last) greatest show on earth

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By Heather Compton

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

What do you envision when it comes to your final wishes? Would there be a formal service? If so, who would officiate? Do you wish to be cremated or buried or donate your remains to science?

I get it, end of life conversations are difficult and even if you are prepared to have the discussion, dollars-to-donuts your kids or responsible family members don’t want to go there.

Regretfully I’ve been involved with funeral planning for a number of relatives, and even some clients, and these are the decisions families find most difficult. When the time comes —  and it will —  the question inevitably asked is some variation of “What do you think mom would have wanted?”

If those closest to you know your personal wishes they don’t have to make it up in the funeral director’s showroom while debating between the grand showcase coffin and the budget version you might have preferred!

Bless Mom — she was very clear — cremation by the most frugal means possible, and a nice lunch for our friends.  My Scottish depression-era mother liked the memorial society option because they negotiate funeral cost discounts.

The Memorial Society Association of Canada’s website identifies contacts across the country. A modest membership fee gets you an information package to help document decisions plus they pre-negotiate cost-conscious plans with funeral homes. You can file your wishes with the funeral home or with a memorial society but keep a copy with your other important documents.

Fire Drill Conversations

Because these are difficult conversations, I suggest you treat them like a fire drill: keep it short, discuss what’s needed, make sure everyone understands, document and call it done.  Have another fire drill if your thoughts or wishes change.

Here goes:

► Style of service Continue Reading…