Category: Medicare

  • Does Retirement Cost Less As We Age?

    There are two prevalent assumptions about the cost of living in retirement. One is that most retirees can live on 70% to 90% of their pre-retirement income. Another is that that percentage will decrease (net of inflation) as we grow older. Both offer some comfort when we look at the cost of a long retirement.…

  • Choosing a Medicare Plan

    In my last article, I discussed using a “regret minimization” strategy to help with making critical retirement planning decisions. I illustrated how you might apply it to your Social Security claiming and retirement account investing choices. Deciding when to claim your Social Security benefits may be the most important decision you’ll make when you choose to…

  • Medicare Commercials – Be Wise as Serpents and Innocent as Doves

    I decided to interrupt my series on “the Bucket Strategy” to look at something that concerns me: potentially misleading Medicare ads. Every time I see them on TV, I complain to my wife, so I thought I’d get it “off my chest” by writing an article about them. I have to confess that this kind…

  • Announcing My New Book: “The Minister’s Retirement”

    I am very excited to announce that my new book, The Minister’s Retirement, has been released and is now available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. The following is from the introductory material in the book: “This is a book about planning for retirement targeted specifically at ministers. Granted, most ministers I know would…

  • The ‘Stewardship of Life’ (Part Four)—Long-Term Care Insurance

    This article is the fourth and final one in a series about long-term care (LTC). In the last article, I alluded to long-term care insurance (LTCI) as one of the ways to fund long-term care. In this article, we’ll look at LTCI in more detail—what it covers, what it costs, and whether you should buy…

  • The ‘Stewardship of Life’ (Part Three)—Paying for Long-Term Care

    The potential need for an extended time in long-term care (LTC) is a crucial retirement stewardship concern because of its significant financial implications. We have looked at the types of care, how Medicare and Medicaid, and some other programs fit, and in this third article in a 4-part series, we will look at LTC costs…

  • The ‘Stewardship of Life’ (Part Two)—Medicare and Medicaid

    This article is the second in a 4-part series about long-term care. In the first, we looked at the various types of care, why and when they might be needed, and how to decide. In this article, we’ll discuss the part that Medicare and, most importantly, Medicaid play in the long-term care (LTC) planning and…

  • The ‘Stewardship of Life’ (Part One)—Long-Term Care

    We now know that older people are most susceptible to COVID-19 disease. We are also hearing about large numbers of deaths from COVID-19 in “nursing homes.” That is because the infection and mortality rate in such facilities is disproportionally high. My wife and I were discussing this, how tragic and sad that so many have died…

  • Some Thoughts on “Key Retirement Planning Birthday Milestones”

    A friend recently sent me this link to a chart on PNC Bank’s website titled “A Timeline for Achievement” that provided a helpful list of age-based retirement planning milestones. (Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement for PNC, although I am sure they are a good bank, I just found the chart interesting. This kind of…

  • New Year Retirement Stewardship 10-Point Check-Up

    Happy New Year! Planning is a wise part of retirement stewardship. But no matter how well we plan, we must always remember that “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Prov. 16:9). And now that we are closing out 2018 and looking out ahead to 2019, I thought I would share some thoughts…