Greg Nicholaides

February 11, 2021

By Emile Halle

The new world of working from the comfort of home has made employment a touch more tolerable, leading many to stay in their current jobs indefinitely, or accept new offers for part-time or temporary work. And perhaps the biggest motivator to stay employed is that there isn’t much else to do amid a global lockdown that has isolated friends and families for the better part of a year.

“I have had a number of clients postpone retirement due to the pandemic. From their perspective, these are lower stress bonus years. The extra income and savings give them peace of mind, and the work keeps them busy,” said Catherine Gearig, partner at LifePlan Financial Advisory Group, in an email. “They tell me that working from home is significantly less stressful. And, if they did retire, they wouldn’t be able to do much — no travel, limited family get-togethers, etc.”

When the world begins to return to normal and the pandemic subsides, people will likely revisit the idea of retirement, Gearig said.

PRACTICE RUNS

It’s hardly unusual for someone recently retired to go back to work in some capacity. Being financially secure is an important step in retiring, but so too is having regular social connections and a meaningful way to spend one’s time.

Michigan resident Craig Childers, who works in automotive parts sales, came out of retirement for the second time during the pandemic.

“My first retirement was when I turned 65, in 2018,” said Childers, 67, who is Gearig’s client. “I retired, and the summer was great, the fall was great.” He spent much of his time doing what he loves: backpacking, cycling and kayaking. Then winter came. Friends escaped the cold by going to Florida, but that wasn’t for him. Childers was back at work in April 2019, having been retired for 10 months.

“That social aspect of work is really underrated,” he said. “At some point in retirement you’re sick of the to-do list … There’s a little bit of mental pressure to that.”

Some people who were on the fence about retiring have realized that much of what they wanted to be done with was their commute, not necessarily the work itself, said adviser Michael Meehan, vice president at TFC Financial.

One client, a medical doctor in her early 70s, has found an extended career in telemedicine, Meehan said. That has helped her maintain a good income and focus on “doing what she really loves — connecting with patients and helping people, without physically having to be there, risk COVID and deal with office structure,” he said.

In some cases, clients “are going stir-crazy,” said Chris Mellone, an adviser at VLP Financial Advisors. Plans to retire are being put on hold until at least the summer, when people are hopeful that travel will be possible and vaccines will be more widely available, he said. Until then, clients are thinking about what they want “retirement” to look like. For example, does it mean phasing out work, or is it an abrupt cessation?

For those who want a lighter work schedule, the present is a good time to negotiate that, he said. Employers are much more willing to accommodate remote work and consulting arrangements, given the success they’ve seen during the pandemic. “This has almost been like a dry run for a lot of people,” Mellone said.

OPPOSITE EFFECT

Even with remote work capabilities and limited opportunities for travel and leisure, COVID-19 has led some clients to retire early, one adviser said.

“We have some clients who quite frankly, it’s made them think about their own mortality,” Meehan said. “Some younger people like that are starting to think about, ‘How do I get to my number and retire sooner than I had planned to?’”

Business owners are a prime example. In some industries, merger and acquisition activity has been on a tear, making it an opportune time to sell. And potential tax changes on the horizon are prompting deals to move quickly.

A client couple in their early 50s who own a media business is doing just that, Meehan said. “They’ve decided that now is a good time to sell their business. Multiples are high, and valuation was extremely strong,” he said. “They’re using it as an opportunity to almost reboot, and do what they love, focus on something different.”

FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS

There is a financial benefit to delaying retirement, particularly during the pandemic, for those who are fortunate enough to work remotely.

“If they can make working from home enjoyable, I think they would delay retirement a little longer if they have the choice,” Scott Hammel, a financial planner at Apeiron Planning, wrote in an email. “Without the ability for these would-be retirees to travel, there’s a ‘wait and see’ approach to working. Certainly, most are saving more than they would have otherwise with traveling and going out less, combined with working longer.”

Of course, many people who work with advisers are more financially secure than those without their services. And the COVID economy has been brutal, with workers of all ages suddenly out of jobs.

In January, the unemployment rate for people 55 and older fell to 5.3%, down from 6% in December and a high of 13.6% in April, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But many of those who were near traditional retirement age and were laid off last year are struggling to find employment, especially if they worked in industries that were hardest hit by the effects of the pandemic. And for many of those workers, an early, unplanned retirement will necessitate lifestyle changes.

SETTING PRIORITIES

The newfound work flexibility some have found over the past year has led to an “introspective conversation many people have had with themselves … and placing a priority on the things they value most,” wrote Matthew Gaffey, managing partner of Corbett Road Wealth Management, in an email. Even in normal times, recently retired clients go back to work within two years, he said.

“Not always do people take this path because they’re forced to, but many because it gives them a sense of purpose, interaction with others, or they are charitably inclined,” he said.

For Childers, the automotive parts seller, the new retirement date is tentatively in April. Having the extra income has provided a little extra breathing room, in addition to the social benefits of working, he said. “I’m really glad we got a financial planner,” he said. “We’re in good shape. But a little extra money is nice.”

By Kelsey Waddill for Health Payer Intelligence

Although seniors still have concerns around affordability related to their Medigap policies, they appreciate lower out-of-pocket costs on hospital and physician services.

February 26, 2021 – Seniors who choose Medigap policies have high rates of satisfaction with their choice, particularly due to reduced out-of-pocket healthcare spending, according to a survey that America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) commissioned.

“More than 14 million Americans rely on Medicare supplemental insurance, and more than a third of seniors with a traditional Medicare plan choose to enroll in a Medicare supplemental plan because they offer enhanced protection, consistent coverage, and access to high-quality care,” AHIP asserted in a blog post when the organization released its report.

Global Strategy Group conducted an online survey for AHIP from January 14 to January 20, 2021. The survey had 500 American, senior participants who were covered by traditional Medicare and a Medigap policy.

Medigap beneficiaries reported strong satisfaction with their benefits, their Medigap policies customer service, and other aspects of their coverage.

Beneficiaries were slightly more satisfied with their Medigap policies than with their traditional Medicare coverage, with 89 percent expressing extremely high or somewhat high satisfaction with their Medicare supplemental plan while 87 percent were very or somewhat satisfied with their traditional Medicare coverage.

 In 2019, the last time that AHIP conducted this survey, 87 percent of beneficiaries felt very or somewhat satisfied with traditional Medicare, and 86 percent felt the same way about their Medicare supplemental coverage.

Only around two percent of Medigap beneficiaries have characterized the value of their Medigap policy as “poor” in this biennial survey over the course of the past four years. Meanwhile, the percentage that would characterize the value as “excellent” or “good” has hovered around 77 to 79 percent.

More specifically, the seniors appreciate that their Medigap policy covers hospital expenses not covered by traditional Medicare (79 percent) and likewise that it covers physician expenses not covered by traditional Medicare (69 percent).

Beneficiaries were most dissatisfied with the affordability of their Medigap policy. Although almost three-quarters of beneficiaries were extremely, very, or somewhat satisfied and 11 percent had no opinion, 15 percent found their Medigap policy’s affordability was “poor.”

But 94 percent of seniors were “extremely/very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with the services and benefits that their Medigap policies covered and 93 percent were “extremely/very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with the enrollment and renewal processes.

Medigap policy beneficiaries seemed to be ambivalent about their payer’s member engagement. Seventeen percent said that they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their policy’s responsiveness or the communications that they had received from their payer.

More than nine in ten Medigap beneficiaries “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed that Medigap enabled them to see their providers without concerns about out-of-pocket healthcare spending. Positive sentiment around this element of Medigap coverage has grown over the past four years but has not dipped below 92 percent satisfaction in the biennial surveys.

While 15 percent of seniors may not have been completely satisfied with the affordability, 44 percent strongly agreed and 40 percent somewhat agreed with the statement: “it provides good value for my money and peace of mind at an affordable cost” and 53 percent strongly agreed that it saved them thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket healthcare spending. Indeed, separate studies have indicated that seniors choose Medigap policies for budgeting reasons.

Seniors acknowledged that without their Medigap policies they would have financial concerns about covering their healthcare needs. Primarily, they would be worried about covering co-pays and co-insurance, losing their financial security, and covering deductibles. More than half of seniors worried about foregoing routine or preventive care without their Medigap policy.

If they were to lose their Medigap policy, most of the respondents (32 percent) said that they would rely solely on Traditional Medicare to cover their medical expenses, although 26 percent said they would turn to Medicare Advantage. Affordability would be the driving factor in that decision for 34 percent of seniors.

Before they settled on a Medigap policy, 36 percent of seniors somewhat or seriously considered a Medicare Advantage plan, where costs can be more predictable. However, the span of healthcare providers available through a Medigap policy was one of the main factors that drew them to Medigap policies, along with lower out-of-pocket healthcare spending and the affordability of routine care.

“Medicare supplemental coverage brings seniors a very high level of satisfaction because it allows seniors to get the care they need from the doctors they prefer at an out-of-pocket cost they can afford,” Winthrop Cash, executive director of product policy at AHIP, said the blog post that attended the report.  “Seniors value highly the peace of mind that their Medigap coverage provides them.”

Medigap policies have seen stable enrollment from 2015 through 2018, with Medigap Plan G experiencing a surge in recent years.

Jim Greene – Men’s Health

October 21, 2019

A recent study in the journal Neurology is shining the spotlight on your vegetable garden. Researchers were studying lycopene and stumbled upon some remarkable results. Lycopene is found in many different fruits and vegetables and is responsible for the red coloring of your tomatoes.

The study was conducted on over 1000 men over a 12 year period and discovered that the subjects who had higher levels of lycopene in their blood were much less likely to have a stroke in their future. The researchers also looked into other potential causes such as beta-carotene, vitamins A and E. These levels did not seem to have an impact on the reduction in the risk of a stroke.

Besides the increased levels of lycopene tomatoes are filled with things that your body craves. Inside a tomato you will find fibre, vitamin C, select B vitamins, potassium, and a number of antioxidants. A single tomato has almost no fat content, is quite low in sodium, and only possesses about thirty calories.

Lycopene can be found in a number of places in nature including tomatoes, watermelon, grapefruit, and guavas. One of the interesting facts that came out of this research is that the best way to get lycopene is not through supplements but tomatoes in their processed form. Tomato juice, ketchup, sauces and tomato paste are all sources of lycopene. Processed tomatoes are recommended due to the higher level of absorption that is possible.

By Deidre McPhillips – CNN

February 18, 2021

Life expectancy in the US dropped a full year in the first half of 2020, according to a report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Experts say that Covid-19 was a significant factor contributing to the decline. The life expectancy for the entire US population fell to 77.8 years, similar to what it was in 2006, CDC data shows.

Changes to life expectancy also widened racial and ethnic inequities. Compared to 2019, life expectancy for non-Hispanic Black people in the US fell about three times what it did for non-Hispanic White people, by 2.7 years. It fell by twice as much for Hispanic people, by 1.9 years. Covid-19 is sending Black, Latino and Native American people to the hospital at about 4 times the rate of others.

Life-expectancy disparities between Black people and White people had been shrinking in recent years, but these latest figures reverse some of that progress. Over the past 40 years, life expectancy has increased slowly but rarely declined. Between 2014 and 2017 — a peak period of the opioid epidemic — life expectancy declined a third of a year, which itself was significant.

Life-expectancy estimates before 1980 have been measured less consistently, but experts told CNN that estimates for drops in life expectancy after World War II range from less than a year to three years. The pandemic has taken a massive toll on the US population. About 490,000 people have lost their lives to the disease, and the CDC estimates excess deaths in 2020 to be even higher. 

“A year of life expectancy lost doesn’t really give you a true sense of how serious this has been. Millions of life years were actually lost,” Eileen Crimmins, a professor at the University of Southern California who has researched changes in mortality, told CNN. “Covid is on track to cause more deaths than cancer or heart disease, and that’s important.”

Most deaths due to Covid-19 have been among older adults, which would have a small effect on overall life expectancy.  But Theresa Andrasfay, a researcher at the University of Southern California who has published work on the potential impact of Covid-19 on life expectancy, notes that while deaths among younger adults may be less common, the numbers are still substantial. “Those deaths have a significant effect on life expectancy because they contribute to more foregone years of life,” she told CNN.

Disparities in years lost among Black and Hispanic people are in line with the disproportionate effect Covid-19 has had on communities of color. Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black people are both about twice as likely to die of Covid-19 than non-Hispanic White people, according to the latest data from the CDC. 

“At the beginning of the pandemic, we may have thought this was a virus that affected everyone equally,” Andrasfay said. “We were aware of these longstanding health disparities, but this really drives home how the Black and Latino communities were disproportionately affected.”

The new life-expectancy estimates from the CDC mark the first time the agency has published these figures using provisional data that comes from death certificates that were received and processed for the first half of 2020. Because it is based on deaths recorded between January and June, the report notes that the estimates “do not reflect the entirety of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, or other changes in causes of death.” Certain geographic areas were affected more than others earlier in the pandemic, and timely reporting of deaths varies by jurisdiction.

An expert explains how to conquer the emotional minefields that come with tidying up

By Ellen Byron – The Wall Street Journal – Jan. 13, 2021

To conquer the clutter in our homes we must also be ready to deal with the many emotions buried in it, says Jes Marcy, a professional organizer in Poestenkill, N.Y. Ms. Marcy leads online classes on how to get rid of unnecessary items and on social media runs a private support group for people trying to organize their homes, a process that can be fraught with stress, guilt, resentment and grief, she says.

Ms. Marcy tells clients that when they start to unclutter their homes of physical possessions they inevitably will find connections to emotional, financial and relationship issues in their lives, too. “It’s all clutter and it’s all connected,” she says.

Ms. Marcy discussed how to navigate decluttering landmines, why you shouldn’t buy anything to get organized and how to deal with boxes of items that could draw tears. 

How has the pandemic affected people’s relationship with clutter?

For some people it has sparked this idea that we need to stockpile. Others say “I’m going to lose my mind if I have to look at this stuff any longer.” There comes a point where stockpiling is more hazardous than not stockpiling. Physical hazards exist with clutter because you can trip, it creates dust and mold and it can be a fire hazard. Anybody who has lived through a natural disaster or any sort of emergency will attest that skills are more important than stockpiles. We’re also realizing the importance of having functional space. We don’t tend to look at our space, except maybe our kitchen counters, as functional space. For years we’ve been converting space in our house to storage. Then we take away that ability to add a desk when we need to, for example.

Why do people today struggle with clutter in a way that their parents or grandparents didn’t?

Clutter is a modern challenge. Hoarding is an evolutionary advantage that we have relied on as a species to succeed. Even 100 years ago we needed to hoard food and firewood to get through winter. Then, in a millisecond, life completely shifted because there is so much inexpensive stuff in our world now and we have removed every barrier for things coming into our house. We don’t have to produce a credit card or even leave the house: Stuff just shows up on the doorstep. On top of that we’re taught to keep and cherish everything that’s been given to us, that’s the Depression Era mindset. We feel that if we throw something out we’re a bad person. It’s such a dramatically different world now.

What mistakes do you see people make when tackling their clutter?

The biggest mistake is buying things for organization. Decluttering shouldn’t cost you money. Most people have clutter because they have more stuff flowing into their house than flowing out. If you had a clogged toilet, you wouldn’t use that toilet until you’ve cleared the clog. Clutter in your house is a clog. I ask people to commit to not bringing anything into their homes while we’re working together, except for essential items like medication or produce. We have to increase the flow of stuff leaving our homes and decrease the flow coming in until we’re living within our space.

Why is decluttering emotional?

Often when we’re clearing a space we come across a decluttering landmine. That could be a box of papers, a shirt or anything that has a deep emotional tie to an event in our past. Then we get sucked into the emotional journey that this object sparked for us. It either stops us in our tracks and we can’t move forward or it adds emotion to a simple project.

Is that why it’s easy to procrastinate?

That’s part of the reason. Another is that decluttering is delayed decision-making. For example, every single sheet of paper represents a transaction in your life. Mostly it’s a financial transaction, sometimes you gave your time to get this sheet of paper because you went to a conference, or it’s a very emotional transaction like divorce or death. With every single thing that you touch you replay the transaction and the emotion attached to it. All those boxes of divorce papers are reliving and rethinking that decision. You need to decide whether to keep it. If you don’t know where it goes in your house, that’s another decision. The more decisions you have to make the harder it is to make a decision.

What if you don’t know how or where to start?

Start anywhere. Say you walk into a closet and feel overwhelmed. Close your eyes and touch something then make a decision on whether you will deal with this now. Start with anything that is emotionally easy. If it’s not emotionally easy, go to the next thing. Keep going until you find that one thing you can deal with.

How do you suggest tackling sentimental clutter, like photos or inherited items?

Sentimental items should always be left for last because you have to build your decluttering muscle, your skill set, before you get to the really emotional stuff. Put sentimental items into one specific spot, that way you can control your interaction with them. If you know that there’s a box in the back of the closet that will make you cry, and you can’t go into the closet because of that box, take it out. When you have the support that you need, then you can start dealing with that box.

How should people deal with items that are tied up in grief?

Know what support you’re going to need while you declutter these items. If you’re going to need a therapist, schedule that so that it coincides with the project. Tell a friend or your spouse that you’re planning on dealing with these items and will need support. Maybe you need to order dinner, or you need a massage – whatever it is, know what’s going to give you support that you can count on to help you get through this emotional process.