Holiday Survival Guide - Boundaries, Budgets and Your Financial Plan

Holiday Survival Guide - Boundaries, Budgets and Your Financial Plan

🎄🎁 🎄Neighborhood parties and Facebook group gossip. Hectic family event schedules. Holiday travel. Disagreements with your spouse on how early to hang the lights. Christmas gift budgeting and savings. The holiday season comes with a unique set of stresses... emotional and financial. 🎙In this episode, Chip and Jon put a bow on Season 2 of The Retirement Remix show with stories and advice on how to set boundaries and get through the holidays without breaking your financial plan. P.S. The safeword is mistletoe.

High Quality Retirement; 3 Key Questions from MIT

A “high quality retirement” starts with three questions, according to the MIT AgeLab. While these three questions may not directly correlate to the question of healthcare or healthcare costs, they are most certainly related. Rounding out their series on Healthcare in Retirement, Chip and Jon talk about planning the who, what, when, where, and why that will ultimately lead to a long and healthy retirement.

Healthcare: The Retirement Wild Card

According to Johns Hopkins University, 92% of people 80 and over have a chronic condition, and 73% have two or more. As financial advisors, we work to help you understand the true costs of healthcare expenses in retirement. In this episode, Chip and Jon discuss why healthcare can be a wildcard in retirement. They start by asking four key questions: Do you understand the medical expenses associated with existing conditions? Have you thought about when you will start taking Medicare benefits? Are you familiar with what Medicare does and doesn’t cover? Do you have a plan for additional coverage outside of Medicare? Figuring out who will cover costs, how to apply for coverage, and understanding your options can be daunting to do alone. Your advisor can explore your options and come up with a plan that fits your retirement goals.

The Real Cost of Health Care in Retirement

Roughly 15% of the annual retirement budget is actually spent on health care for a lot of families - typically totaling about $12,000. With health care costs climbing, it's critical to have conversations about your health care costs and work with your financial team to have a plan in place for your specific needs. In this episode, John and Chip talk about how to plan for - and pay for - healthcare in retirement. Whether through COBRA, or other means. They discuss the cost of inflation on health care expenses and why saving for these should be as much of a priority as your basic living expenses and retirement savings.

The Choice is Yours, Aging With Independence

Independence is sometimes the one thing seniors feel they can control as certain aspects of their life change with age. The ability to age in place -or stay in your own home - is important to most Americans; therefore, 85% of care is provided at home or with relatives. In this episode, Chip and Jon are joined by Zach Hearne, a Senior Wealth Advisor at Signature Wealth, to recap previous discussions about long-term care. Zach adds to this conversation some myths and misconceptions about long-term care and a personal story about the emotional impact of being the caregiver for aging loved ones.