Is it just me or does it seem like people are trying to eat better and exercise more these days? I see more people jogging up and down my street. I’ve noticed more “healthy” snack options at the grocery store. Continue reading “The Benefits of Healthy Living”
Most of the employees that I work with are in a fortunate position to work for large companies that provide health insurance to their employees. But many of the people that I talk with have friends and extended family members that are not covered by an employer-provided plan. One area of confusion these days is what happens when you cannot afford health insurance. Unfortunately, the answer to that question is a little complicated and it depends on a few important factors. Continue reading “What Happens Now If You Cannot Afford Health Insurance?”
My husband Dave recently broke up with our family dentist, and it wasn’t his idea. He felt jilted when he got a letter in the mail a few months ago notifying him that Dr. Muller was no longer going to participate as an in-network provider through his employer’s group dental insurance. In the letter, Dr. Muller encouraged patients to continue to see him, just not with the advantage of the negotiated rates. Would it really make that much of a difference? Continue reading “The Importance of Staying In-Network”
Fall has arrived, and that means open enrollment is just right around the corner. For many employees, this provides the window of opportunity to sign up for either an HSA or FSA in order to set aside pre-tax dollars for your out-of-pocket healthcare costs. Not quite sure what the difference is between these 2 types of accounts? Well, you are not alone. In a recent Fidelity survey, two-thirds of those surveyed said they simply do not understand how an HSA works and “a full 73 percent of respondents said an HSA is pretty much the same thing as a health FSA or were unsure, and the ‘use it or lose it’ provision of FSAs was one of the most commonly misunderstood differences between the account types.” Continue reading “Do You Know the Difference Between an HSA and an FSA?”
I recently saw this clip of the Today Show that discussed one man’s goal of retiring before 40, a topic I’ve written about before. He’s 30 years old, earns $50k a year, and has accumulated $100k of savings over the last 3 years. His goal is to save 60-70% of his net income to retire at age 35 with a $400k nest egg to cover his $15k of annual expenses. To do that, he’s moved to Florida to avoid state income taxes and be able to live without a car (he points out that waiting for the bus is much easier in warmer weather) and has decided not to have children. Is his plan feasible? Continue reading “When to Retire? How About 40?”
Retiring before 65 can be a challenge even for the folks that have their financial ducks in a row. Last week, an employee called into our financial helpline and asked me what he should be considering to retire early. He was 62 and wanted to retire in a year but he didn’t know of anyone in his professional or social circles that was retiring early and could give him advice. No one he knew was retiring before 65. Continue reading “Retire Before 65: It May Pay To Wait”
One of the most difficult financial challenges people often face is trying to decide how to balance competing goals. A typical situation might be someone who wants to pay off student loans and credit card debt, save for emergencies and a home purchase, start putting something away for retirement, open a college account for their newborn, and purchase disability and life insurance. Yet, they only have a limited amount of money they can save each month. Continue reading “Do You Have These Essential Financial Protections in Place?”
Last week we took our daughter, Rachel, to the dentist for her bi-annual cleaning. Originally, she was scheduled to go in last April, but Rachel had a conflict with a soccer game so her mom decided to cancel it. Rachel’s name was added to the cancellation list, and for the last five months, the dentist’s office has been calling whenever there has been a cancellation to try and get her in. Normally, we would try to get Rachel in as soon as possible, but each time they called to schedule the appointment they would give us a time during school hours, and Susan and I saw no reason to remove her from class just to have her teeth cleaned. Continue reading “Get Them In Before They Age Them Out”
When I was growing up, I was surrounded by numbers and I actually liked that. (Yes, I’m admitting that I’m a geek from way back.) My friends and I could tell you the batting average of almost any member of baseball’s Hall Of Fame and the stats of major NFL players, compute a pitcher’s ERA in our heads or talk about the winning percentage of various great teams throughout history. Numbers were fun! Numbers were cool! (To us, at least…) Numbers were all that was right with the world back then…Last week, I read an article about the cost of healthcare during retirement and those numbers scared me! Continue reading “What’s Scarier Than Monsters??? Numbers…!”
Recently, I took a trip to the urgent care center. I think someone should sue them for false advertising because there was nothing “urgent” about it. I’d been warned that wait times to see a doctor could get lengthy, but when I pulled into a vacant parking lot and walked into an empty waiting room I was beginning to feel optimistic. I was even more hopeful when I was called into the examination room after spending just 15 – 20 minutes in the waiting area. Sadly, I discovered the rumors were true; I sat in examination room #2 for over 75 minutes before being seen. Continue reading “Take Three of These and Call Me in the Morning”
My most popular blog post (and the most popular one on our whole blog) called “How to Be Financially Independent in 5 Years (No Matter What Age You Are)” was about a concept called “Early Retirement Extreme” in which people save very large percentages of their income to be financially independent before they even turn 40. For example, if you save 75% of your take-home pay and earn a 5% real rate of return, you would have enough savings in just 5 years to maintain that standard of living for the rest of your life (assuming a standard 4% safe withdrawal rate of your initial savings amount and adjusted each year for inflation). While this would probably not be realistic for most people, the more you can save, the sooner you can be financially independent to use your time as you see fit. (The author of the blog that inspired my post actually ended up going back to work but out of enjoyment rather than financial necessity.) But in addition to the challenge of living on much less income than we’re used to, there are some other considerations facing anyone looking to retire extremely early: Continue reading “How to Plan for an Extreme Early Retirement”
Last week’s mail started the avalanche of end of year statements and one of the first to arrive was my HSA statement. I am lucky to be in pretty good health so I don’t mind having a high-deductible health plan. As a result, I also get to watch my HSA continue to build up year after year so this is one statement I usually look forward to opening. Continue reading “Re-Evaluating Your HSA for Your Workforce”
I recently talked to a co-worker who wasn’t very happy about our health insurance plan. I was surprised because I love it. It turns out that she just didn’t understand how it worked. We have a high-deductible plan with a health savings account (HSA), a relatively new type of plan that’s likely to become more common as traditional insurance premiums continue increasing. Continue reading “Why I Love My HSA (and You Should Too)”
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been on a roadshow of workshops across the country, talking to groups of pre-retirees about health insurance coverage in retirement. These particular employees are very fortunate, since their company sponsors a group retiree medical plan, and actually still subsidizes a majority of the cost.
Even so, many of these employees still experienced sticker shock when they found out the cost of the medical coverage and had not even considered the impact on their retirement income. We also spent some time reviewing how much Medicare will cost, what it covers, and how their retiree health plan will coordinate with Medicare once they reach age 65. Continue reading “Benefits Communications: Understanding Retiree Medical and Medicare Coverage”
A school district in Minnesota recently announced an early retirement incentive program to entice their most senior (and highly paid) teachers to retire in order to replace them with less experienced teachers with lower salaries. The program has an interesting twist – if at least 10 teachers take the buyout, each will receive $15,000 but if at least 15 accept, then they will each receive $20,000. I can imagine a bit of peer pressure will be felt by those teachers who are on the fence about taking the bait.
How do I know these details? One of the teachers eligible for this early retirement incentive attended a workshop I was facilitating at her husband’s place of employment, where I happened to be discussing details on Retiree Medical and Medicare coverage (which happens to be next week’s subject I’ll cover). Continue reading “Early Retirement Buyouts: A Good Idea for Who?”
