Starting Your Estate Planning Journey

The first steps in your estate planning journey are learning 1) how to stay in control of your stuff while you are able to be in control and 2) how to make sure your wishes are carried out when incapacity or the grim reaper catch up with you. Sorry to rub it in, but there is a 100% probability that at least one of these things is going to happen to you and a 70% probability that both of them will.

Work After Work: Our new age of life and the moral necessity for “returnment”

At the turn of the 20th century, the average life expectancy was only 47. Today, it is rapidly approaching 80. Our fastest growing age group is folks over the age of 85, with someone in this country turning 50 every eight seconds. More importantly, older adults are healthier than previous generations and this has created an unprecedented average lifespan.

Encore.org: Utilizing the Over-50 Resource

A Greek proverb says, “A society grows great when old people plant trees under whose shade they will never sit.” This is the basis for an expanding network that is harnessing the power of the over-50 age group. The demographic landscape has changed over time, requiring a paradigm shift regarding what we think and how we feel about people over 50 — including how they work and contribute to society.

Financial Planning for Non-parents

Those who do not have children tend to have more financial flexibility to pursue their goals throughout life and retirement. This makes sense when you consider that the cost of raising a child from birth to adulthood is currently estimated at $233,610 (before you factor in college). However, childless singles and couples still need to manage their future financial needs.

Center Helps Seniors Get Back to Work

Meaningful employment is one of the best ways to keep fit in every way as we age — socially, mentally and even physically. But some of Waikīkī Community Center’s clients had difficulty finding employment. Retirees also found that the way people look for work has changed significantly. Others felt employers didn’t want to hire them due to their age. Many wanted to change career paths entirely. Therefore, WCC started Back-to-Work Force, a free service employment program focused on adults 50 and over.

The Journey Continues

Yes, the journey of life continues even after we retire!

How long our journey on Earth will be is one of the unknowns we must live with. In my earlier article, entitled, “I’ve Never Been Old Before,” I wrote about how lost I was when I retired from my career in the federal government. It took me quite a while to find purpose and meaning during the empty days that kept coming at me. Thankfully, I realized how rewarding it is to give back in whatever way you can.

‘I’ve Never Been Old Before’

I’ve never been old before so this is a new experience for me. After retiring from a 37-year career, I found myself adrift. What should I do now? The days seemed very long as I pondered what I should fill them with. Life looks very different when you remove yourself from the “working world.” You feel as though you are invisible when you are with other people.

WORK: A New Proposition for Boomers

For most mature employed people, work was considered having a job with one or two companies in a working lifetime. Now retired, many may still have debt; few have the savings to take them through their remaining years. Countless mature workers believe that just one more job, perhaps much like the one they just left, is all they need to secure their futures. Unfortunately, those jobs may no longer exist or they may have been completely re-framed so that they are no longer a possibility for most mature workers.

The Plaza at Kaneohe Opens This Summer

The Plaza at Kaneohe, The Plaza Assisted Living’s sixth location, is undergoing construction with an anticipated opening in Summer 2019. In line with its other locations, The Plaza at Kaneohe embraces the concept of familiar faces in familiar neighborhoods, believing that people want to reside in a community that they grew up in, raised their kids, or where their adult children currently live.

5 Retirement Planning Mistakes to Avoid

The most important goal for many of my clients is to retire on their terms – which often means planning a long, secure retirement that enables them to check off items on their ultimate bucket list. Retirement requires careful planning in addition to avoiding financial missteps along the way. Here are five common mistakes, and strategies to avoid them…

Making the Most of Retirement

When I moved from Moloka‘i to Kapolei earlier this year, my goals for retirement were to spend time with my granddaughter, become involved
in my new community by volunteering at the library and local school, and to continue what I enjoy doing — walking daily, reading, acrylic painting, gardening, cooking healthy meals, attending art shows and educational workshops, and hosting new students from Southeast Asian countries who are currently pursuing their degrees at UH-Mānoa.

What I’ve Learned… Thus Far

What I’ve learned is about just that: What I’ve learned these past 16+ years since I entered this field called “aging.” I was 42 years old and didn’t know a whole lot about retirement planning, Social Security or health issues, let alone caregiving and Alzheimer’s. Most people in that age range don’t think about this stuff; however, it is important to think ahead to when we get older and/or about our parents own aging and health issues.

Tension over Intention

It is not just families who disagree about the interpretation of legal documents. There seems to be tension among estate planning attorneys in regard to recommending that clients write down their heartfelt intentions to accompany those documents. Many lawyers believe that it is the form that is most important — that the written legal language will communicate their client’s heartfelt wishes. Others believe that, no matter how carefully written, the form alone cannot transfer intention.

Educating Adult Children About Saving

Many parents, in addition to planning for their own future, care deeply about helping their children find their financial footing as they enter adulthood. Having spent decades building up their nest eggs for retirement, they recognize the power of long-term financial planning and hope their children will capture the same benefits by starting to invest while they are young. Convincing someone just starting off in their careers to set aside money for retirement — which to them, may seem like light years away — can be a tough sell.

Workplace Insurance and Medicare

One question that is frequently asked by people about to turn 65 who have health insurance through an employer is: “Do I need to enroll in Medicare?” Good question! If you or your spouse are still working when you turn age 65 and have insurance through your employer you may consider delaying Medicare Part A and Part B until you retire if you have Creditable Coverage, which means coverage as good as Medicare. Or you can choose to elect your Part A, which is premium-free, and delay Part B until retirement. Depending on the size of the group, one plan would be primary while the other would be secondary.

Is Assisted Living a Negative?

Despite the great advancements in retirement community resident care in recent years — some through government involvement, but most through business owners seeking to create a better quality of life for seniors — one of the challenges faced when discussing senior living options is the negative stigma that immediately comes to mind about “assisted living.”