Category: June-July 2020

  • Online Resources for Coping With COVID

    When under stay-at-home orders, online resources enable participation in the outside world. Visit the UH Center on Aging Facebook page for a continually updated list.

    JOINING A ZOOM CALL FOR THE FIRST TIME
    See and converse with relatives and friends online. Enjoy virtual happy hours, book discussion groups, music jam sessions, virtual retreats and online meetings. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI32Xk2Va7M

    #CARENOTCOVID
    Send messages of support to nursing home and assisted living residents.
    www.carenotcovid.com

    AARP COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS: NEIGHBORS HELPING NEIGHBORS
    Organize informal volunteer groups to assist neighbors with simple tasks — getting groceries, walking pets. Especially relevant for condo residents looking for ways to help older neighbors.
    www.aarpcommunityconnections.org

    ONLINE VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES: CITIZEN SCIENCE
    Join a scientific research project. SciStarter trains and links nonscientists to research projects that need their help. The site lists over 3,000 global citizen science projects.
    www.scistarter.org

    FREE COURSES
    Learn a new language with Duolingo.
    www.duolingo.com
    Online classes are available on a variety of topics.
    www.coursera.org

    GUIDED MEDITATION
    Mindful offers popular, guided meditations.
    www.mindful.org/mindfuls-top-10-guided-meditations-of-2018

    CENTER ON AGING — University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
    2430 Campus Road, Gartley Hall, 201B, Honolulu, 96822
    808-956-6124 | map3@hawaii.edu
    www.hawaii.edu/aging

    When under stay-at-home orders, online resources enable participation in the outside world. Visit the UH Center on Aging Facebook page for a continually updated list.

  • Lifework Planning Amid COVID-19

    Even in this time of uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic, two simple rules dominate the future of your life’s work and options that are available today:

    1) Full-time, regular 8 to 5 jobs are off the radar as the singular source for employment. Sometimes we will work for others this way, but who needs long commutes if they can be easily avoided?

    2) Even in the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is likely that we will live longer than any previous generation. Do you wonder how you will handle your financial, mental, emotional and physical health? This is the time to consider multiple strategies.

    Before you navigate a future that is totally unlike anything we have experienced in the past, consider these options:

    Invest in your physical, mental and emotional health. A long walk on the beach, yoga, swimming and other activities help ensure balance, good quality of life and longevity. To avoid isolation and loneliness, reach out to others using social media and the latest technologies.

    Limit the intake of news that is likely to cause you stress. Instead, spend 10 or 15 minutes a day discovering what you want to pursue in the future. For example, if you are interested in accounting and finance, search the internet for changes in this field. You’ll be amazed at how a daily peek will open your mind to new possibilities and expand your horizons.

    Imagine. For today, envision some of the new ways to work from home and around the world:

    • Adjuncts and Subject Matter Experts: People who teach, coach, support and use their qualified experience to fill in or augment specific needs as required.
    • Barterers: People who trade goods or services for gainful exchange.
    • Crowdsourcing and Shared Sourcing: People who provide services by soliciting multiple contributions
    • Freelancers: Free agents, temps, piece workers and project workers are the fastest growing segment of the workforce, according to government statistics.
    • Full-Time, Remote Workers: People who are members of the regular, full-time workforce, complete with benefits, but work from home.
    • Global Pros: People who work from here to there and everywhere.
    • Interim Professionals: People engaged contractually during critical stages of business lifecycles, such as during start-up, rapid expansion, turnaround or other transition.
    • Network Marketers: Today’s digital answer to yesterday’s in-store retail sales and more!
    • Portfolio Jugglers: Multitaskers who apply their talent in several areas to develop and ensure a balanced flow of income from multiple sources.
    • Small Business Buccaneers: Those who seize new opportunities in the existing for-profit or not-for-profit marketplaces.

    NEW WORKFORCE HAWAII
    Carleen MacKay
    916-316-0143 | carleenmackayhi@gmail.com
    www.newworkforcehawaii.com
    Contact Carleen via her website and receive New Ways to Work, a free PDF book co-written with Phyllis Horner.

    Even in this time of uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic, two simple rules dominate the future of your life’s work and options that are available today: 1) Full-time, regular 8 to 5 jobs are off the radar as the singular source for employment. Sometimes we will work for others this way, but who needs long…

  • Homeowners’ Real Property Tax Credit

    The annual application filing period for the Real Property Tax Credit for Homeowners to help you reduce your real property taxes is just around the corner — July 1. You may receive a tax credit if you meet the following three requirements:

     You have a home exemption on your property.
     None of the titleholders owns other property anywhere.
     The combined gross income of all titleholders does not exceed $60,000.

    The amount of the credit you will receive, if you qualify, is based on your income along with your current property tax amount.

    Those who applied for this credit last year and are receiving this credit for the 2020–21 tax year should receive an application in early July. New applicants should contact the Tax Relief Office. We will mail you an application or you can download the application from the city website (see below) beginning on July 1, 2020. Click on the “Tax Billing and Collections Forms & Information” tab to find a link to the application and information brochure.

     

    TAX RELIEF OFFICE
    For more information or questions, call 808-768-3205
    www.honolulupropertytax.com
    Information furnished is subject to change without notice.

    The annual application filing period for the Real Property Tax Credit for Homeowners to help you reduce your real property taxes is just around the corner — July 1.

  • Attention: Hawai‘i Votes by Mail!

    Am I registered to vote? When will I receive my ballot? As the 2020 elections approach, more and more Hawai’i voters will prepare to cast their ballot on these dates:

    Primary Election
    Saturday, Aug. 8
    General Election
    Tuesday, Nov. 3

    The 2020 elections will be the first time elections will be conducted entirely by mail, statewide, and no traditional polling places will be established. Instead, all registered voters will automatically receive a ballot in the mail.

    Over the past year, election officials have sent out a series of election mailings to each registered voter. These mailings have served a dual purpose of announcing the transition to elections by mail and confirming every voter’s registration. If there is an issue delivering a voter’s election mailing, the voter must update his or her registration to be mailed a ballot to ensure the security and integrity of the elections.

    To be sure you will receive your ballot in the mail, check your voter registration status by contacting the Office of Elections. By law, ballots cannot be forwarded through the mail to a new address. If you have moved to a new residence, changed your mailing address or your name, you must update your voter registration record by submitting an application to your County Elections Division or using the online voter registration system with a Hawai‘i driver license or state ID. Similarly, if you will be away from the islands for an upcoming election, you can request an absentee ballot be sent to an alternate address.

    Mail Ballot Packet Send-Out Dates:
    July 21: Primary Election
    Oct. 16: General Election

    This mail ballot packet will include a pre-addressed postage-paid return envelope, ballot secrecy sleeve and ballot. Voters mark their ballot, place it in the return envelope and sign the envelope. Voted ballots must be received by the County Elections Division by 7 pm on Election Day. For more details or information, contact the Office of Elections by phone or go online.

    OFFICE OF ELECTIONS
    802 Lehua Ave., Pearl City, HI 96782
    808-453-VOTE (8683) | elections@hawaii.gov
    elections.hawaii.gov
    The Office of Elections’ mission is to provide secure, accessible, and convenient elections to all citizens statewide.

    Am I registered to vote? When will I receive my ballot? As the 2020 elections approach, more and more Hawai’i voters will prepare to cast their ballot on these dates: Primary Election – Saturday, Aug. 8; General Election – Tuesday, Nov. 3.

  • Aging in Hawai‘i – A Moving Experience

    An interview: Author Dan Ihara, Realtor Associate, The Ihara Team — Keller Williams Honolulu
    An interview: Author Dan Ihara, Realtor Associate, The Ihara Team — Keller Williams Honolulu

    With your experience in working with seniors, what have you discovered about their status in terms of being prepared to age in place?

    There are many questions that families have as their parents age. Many adult children have never had to provide care for a senior. When they begin, they soon find it is not an easy task. Assisting your parents as they age in place seems like a good idea until we realize how much time it takes to provide meals, and clean and maintain an additional house, along with continuing our own career and meeting life’s demands. Also, some seniors need assistance with dressing, personal hygiene or even transferring from a bed to a chair or the dinner table. Fortunately, there are home care companies that can come into the home to provide those services. At some point, many seniors are choosing a retirement community, where all of their needs can be taken care of. Many parents today do not want to burden their children and are opting to learn more about retirement communities and care homes.

    What concerns do you hear expressed at your real estate workshops and what solutions are
    available in Hawai‘i?

    Some of the biggest questions we hear are “Where do I go if my home is not the best place for me? How much does it cost? What does life look like if I moved there?” There are many options for our kūpuna who are seeking living alternatives. Services in Hawai‘i are available to help families in transition. It starts with first identifying the next best residence. The next step is to aid them with planning and making the move. Once settled in their new home, they will need help with preparing their property for a successful sale by helping to remove personal belongings and cleaning, repairing items and staging the home. This is instrumental in their journey as the sale of their home is likely going to be used to pay for their care.

    What are some options to enable parents to pass on their wealth, assets and knowledge on to their children?

    Having a clear, written trust document and sharing your wishes with your children will help mitigate possible family disputes when you’re gone. If you have an investment property and would like to help create generational wealth while you’re living, there are specific strategies that can be utilized to reach those goals. This can be done with a strategic approach by executing a 1031 Exchange. A 1031 Exchange, also called a Starker Exchange or Like-Kind Exchange, is a powerful and effective tax-deferment strategy. This strategy allows an investor to “defer” paying capital gains taxes on an investment property when it is sold as long another “like-kind property” is purchased with the profit gained by the sale of the first property. To use this strategy effectively, you must exchange one property for another property of similar value. Using this process, capital gains will be avoided, at least temporarily. An investor will eventually pay taxes, but in the meantime, can trade properties without incurring a sudden tax obligation. (Due to the COVID pandemic, the IRS is allowing anyone with a 180-day exchange period deadline between April 1 and July 15 an automatic extension to July 15.)

    Why is Generations Magazine so important to our kupuna community?

    Generations Magazine is the only real resource for our kūpuna in Hawai‘i.  Time and time again, we have heard from our seniors that learning how to adjust during this phase of life is valuable. The articles and lessons in the magazine have become a priceless resource for our community. Please keep it up!

    There are many questions that families have as their parents age. Many adult children have never had to provide care for a senior. When they begin, they soon find it is not an easy task. Assisting your parents as they age in place seems like a good idea until we realize how much time it…

  • June – July 2020

    June – July 2020

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    The April-May 2020 issue of Generations Magazine, Hawai‘i’s Resource for Life, features an in-depth look at Leslie Wilcox, President and CEO of PBS Hawaii, we look at lifework and planning amid Covid-19, the expansion of telehealth services and a look at solutions for loneliness and housng.