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Welcome to My Thoughts

“Everyone is entitled to my opinion”

Geezer Time

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

I retired late last year.

I must say that it is everything that I hoped for. I find it very liberating to have time to do what I want, even if it means not having money.

I decided to write this blog because I find myself being asked for my opinion or my advice now that I am “old” and have lived more than half a century. This will be a little of everything. I have many interests. My thoughts tend to run like a roller coaster so hang on for Mo’s Wild Ride.

Retirement: What to do about Medical Insurance

Part Deux: Which type of insurance should I use in retirement?

If you haven’t read my previous post that describes the different Medicare plans, please do so. I am going to assume that you know what part of Medicare is which in this post.

Although the decision of what to use for Health Insurance in retirement is a personal one, there are some general guidelines. Let’s get some of the easy decisions out of the way first.

  1. If you or your spouse will have access to private insurance after retirement, go with that. You will be able to be covered for almost anything that your need.
  2. If you will be on a really tight budget after retirement, and have to just go with a cheap Medicare Advantage (MA) plan, don’t fret. Do what you need to do. If your finances are really tight, you may be eligible for SSI, Medicaid or help from your state.
  3. If you have LOTS of savings, just choose what you like.

Okay, those options are out of the way. Now for the rest of us.

If none of the above works for you, you are probably trying to decide between Medicare Advantage, Medicare A&B only, or Medicare A&B plus a Medigap (Medicare C) plan. I can tell you that even though I worked in Healthcare for years, I wanted to rip my hair out when it came time to decide.

For this post, I am going to use my mom as our example of someone who chose Medicare Advantage.

My mom is 88, in relatively good health, and on a very strict budget. She chose Medicare Advantage as her insurance. This is through a private insurance. Her particular plan has no extra premiums (remember, she is still paying the Medicare B premium) and it gives her dental and vision coverage. It also includes coverage for her medications. This works for her because she is healthy, takes very few medications, and does not expect to be hospitalized in the near future. Yes, I know that she is 88, but she has never been in the hospital in all the time I have been alive. So, because her medicines are cheap, and she gets extra coverage, and she has not expectations of hospitalizations, her Medicare Advantage plan works well for her.

Last year, she had cataract surgery and had to pay 20% of the bill, several hundred dollars. The cataract surgery ended up costing her about $280 per eye. Still a bargain when you factor in no extra premiums. This year she had work done on her teeth and got new glasses. The glasses were covered in full. So it was a good deal all around.

Each state has their own set of companies that they contract with for Medicare Advantage. The premiums can range from $0 to over $100 a month. What to look for?

  1. Look at the extra benefits. Each company offers lots of little extras. Dental and Vision might seal the deal for you.
  2. If your doctors mean a lot to you, check that they take that insurance company. Also check if your doctor “Accepts Medicare Assignment” That means that they will not charge you more than the Medicare payment.
  3. Check out your drugs on their Formulary. This can be a deal breaker. The Formulary is the list of drugs that each company covers. Remember: Not every company pays or covers the same drugs. And each list changes every year. There is nothing worse than finding out that your drugs are not covered by the company that you chose.
  4. Check out a company’s rating on Medicare.gov. Medicare is very strict about what a company can and cannot do. Some companies are difficult to work with if there is a problem.
  5. Medicare will give you an estimate of what your out-of-pocket amount might be with each company. Look at this with a grain of salt. Nothing is scarier than looking at $14,000 a year in costs, when your Social Security check is $15,000. Medicare is counting EVERY possible cost. Still, it is something to check.
  6. Check your state’s list of Insurers every year. They change and prices change. Don’t think that you have to stay with the same company year after year.

Recap: Medicare Advantage is good if you have an expectation of little to no hospitalizations, low costs for medicines and can use the extra benefits. Or if you just do not have the extra money for premiums.

Next: What is MediGap and is it right for me?

Retirement: What to do about Medical Insurance

Now that I have been retired for a year and a half, I can say that I am very pleased with the decisions that my husband and I made regarding our insurance. However, it was a long and painful process made even more difficult by the confusing rules regarding Medicare.

If you are about to retire, or re-thinking your current selections, I commiserate. There is a lot of information out there. Unfortunately, most of it is just plain confusing. I am not an expert, but I did work in Healthcare most of my life and I knew some of the ins and outs already. I am going to walk you through the process that I took. This is lengthy so it may take more than one session.

Learn the different types of insurance available and what the rules are. These are the Medicare options:

Medicare A: Covers inpatient hospital charges only. Most people pay no monthly premium. There is a deductible for hospital stays and other charges are based on days in hospital.

Medicare B: Covers outpatient and doctor charges only. Has a monthly premium which changes every year. In 2020, it is $144.60. There is a yearly deductible, which also changes and in 2020 is $198. Medicare B pays 80% of the charges and the other 20% is paid by you.

Medicare A and B will here-after be called “straight Medicare”

Medicare Advantage: These are plans subsidized by private companies who contract with Medicare. Premiums may be from $0 to over $100. Each state has its own list of companies and plans available because each contract is by state. These plans can vary widely but most offer to cover many of the Medicare charges and may also offer additional services such as hearing or eye, etc. Most of these plans also offer drug coverage. If you choose a Medicare Advantage plan, you will do all your business through the private plan and NOT though the Medicare website. You will present your MA plan card and NOT your Medicare card when you go for services. Essentially, this is a substitute for Medicare A and B.

Medicare Part C: This is also known as Medigap or Medicare Supplemental. This is also by a private plan. However, if you have a Medigap plan, you still use straight Medicare. The Medigap plan kicks in AFTER Medicare pays. When you go to the doctor you present your Medicare card and your Medigap card.

Medicare Part D: This is the drug portion of Medicare. This is also administered by private insurance plans. You typically will use this only if you have straight Medicare, or a Medigap plan.

Private Insurance: You may be lucky enough to have private insurance through your spouse’s employment or your own previous employment may cover you after retirement. If so, you probably want to keep this. You will have to participate in Coordination of Benefits. Your private insurance will pay first and Medicare will pay what is leftover if covered.

So what else do you need to know?

  1. There are penalties if you do not take Medicare Part B at age 65. Usually an additional charge on your monthly premium.
  2. There are penalties if you do not participate in some type of drug coverage at age 65. This can be Medicare Advantage or Part D.
  3. If you opt not to use Medigap (Part C) at age 65, the company does not have to cover you at a later time and they may charge a higher premium.
  4. Medigap (Part C) plans are set by federal law so it does not matter which company you select. The benefits and premiums are the same no matter which company you go with.
  5. There is no penalty for choosing a Medicare Advantage plan at a later time.

Okay, so now you have the basic game plan. What to do? Which makes sense for you? Before you decide, here some questions that you should have the answer to:

  • What is your general health like? Do you have any chronic illnesses that may land you in the hospital reasonably regularly?
  • What drugs do you take? Are there any expensive brand name drugs in your cabinet or are they all generic?
  • What about your doctors? Do they all take Medicare? Do they accept Medicare assignment? That means that they will not charge you for the balance of your bill.
  • How much can you afford? Sometimes it doesn’t matter what you need, you just have to take what you can afford.
  • Are you eligible for Medicaid?
  • Are you alone or do you have a spouse?
  • How comfortable are you with checking on bills and navigating the healthcare maze?

Think on these questions. More later.

*These are points are what I understand of the Medicare system. Please verify on your own.

Making the Final Tweaks for Retirement

As we got closer to my chosen retirement date, we saw that our changes to expenses had lowered our month to month output. Now we took a look at big items that were more difficult to change. Our house, car etc.

We had a small 401K that was worth about $11,000. Yeah, I know. Most people now a days think that you need a million dollars to retire. That’s because they expect to just stop working and continue as they always did. As I mentioned in my previous posts, we worked to pay off credit cards and made changes to our monthly bills so that our monthly bills were as low as possible.

We still had a car payment though. That was $360 plus a month. If we planned on living just on Social Security, that was a huge chunk. Our solution was to pay off the car with our 401K. Most of you are saying WHAT? But our thoughts were:

  1. that 11,000 wasn’t going to make much of a dent if something big went wrong.
  2. saving $360 a month off our budget was going to make a big difference.

So that is what we did. NO MORE CAR PAYMENTS! It is a beautiful thing. Our car is 4 years old and has almost 100,000 miles. That baby is going to have to last us.

The other thing that we looked at was our house. The last six months that I worked, we did everything that needed done.

  1. Painted and fixed the outside. If/when we sell the house looks good.
  2. Fixed and cleaned up the landscaping. Now that the yard looks good, it takes little time every few days for upkeep.
  3. Over the years we had put on roof, new AC and windows etc. Now we just touched that up.
  4. We also made a one-time payment on mortgage from tax refund to get enough equity in house to lose the mortgage insurance saving us $100 a month.

The way that we stand now, the house is ready to sell if need be, and the car is paid for.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have complex health issues. Next time, some of what we figured out.

Organizing your Jewelry Supplies- Divide and Conquer

I have been designing jewelry for over 20 years. I primarily design with beads but have dipped my toes into wire-work and bead-weaving over the years. My current obsession is Polymer Clay.

You know what that means. I have supplies everywhere. My jeweler’s bench and desk have expanded and continue to expand.

One of my frustrations with organizing was how much time I lost trying to find what I was looking for. I have a theory about organizing. It must be simple. It can’t take me more time to put items away than to work with them. I have tried so many different systems over the years. But now I finally have settled into one that is simple and works really well for me. So sit back and enjoy.

I say simple because no matter what supply I am working with, the goal is to keep items separate.

Elizabeth Ward Storage Solutions

After years of trying everything, I have found these containers to work the best. It does not have to be this brand. The key factors are:

The containers close tightly.

The container sizes adapt to beads

The containers can be stored for quick access

I have a small case full of “TicTac” type containers. These are perfect for seed beads, jump rings etc.

I think this was originally for scrapbooking, but I use for wire.

For wire I have finally found my best option. This case comes with 16 containers. I store my wire in it. The wire is kept tight so that it does not kink and it keeps down the tarnish. These container’s can be found at craft stores.

Pegboard for tools

My tools are kept on a pegboard right in front of my work-space for easy access.

I have used this type of storage options for about 2 years and have found them to be the best for finding my supplies and cleaning quickly.

I buy containers at the ‘usual suspects’ or wherever I can find them for a good price.

After years of trial and error I have found that separate containers offer the most efficient way to store your supplies.

Let me know what you think.

mo.

Geezer Time – Preparing for Retirement

Last time I wrote about our decision to leave Massachusetts and move to South Carolina after our kids left home. We were lucky that all were able to leave home and we were willing to move.

One of the things that hinders preparing for retirement is that people put stumbling blocks up before they even begin. Money, health, family all are used as reasons. If you really want to retire, start working towards that goal today. It took us about 3 years to reach my goal.

One of our biggest issues was my husband’s health. Soon after moving, he experienced an un-repaired heart attack and issues with arteriosclerosis in legs. He was left unable to work and on full-time disability for the last 14 years. Between his illness and his getting disability, we racked up huge medical bills that caused our debt to mount up instead of going down.

Step 2: Look at your finances and stop the bleeding.

Most people today, believe that there are fixed costs that they must live with. We looked at our costs and made an effort to reduce as many as possible without impacting our lifestyle.

  • We found that we were not enjoying what we watched on cable. We dropped cable and instead use local air antenna, Netflix and Amazon video.
  • We kept our cars after they were paid off and saved hundreds of dollars in car payments, insurance and excise tax.
  • We made a conscious effort to reduce waste in our food budget, freezing more, shopping at multiple markets. Coupons did not work for us since we don’t buy a lot of pre-packaged food.
  • We went with a low-budget cellular service and pay less than $90 a month for 3 phones, and 5 gigs of data, unlimited texting.
  • We shop around for car insurance and internet every time the contracts are up. Doing this we have saved over $1,000 a year.
  • We shop consignment stores for our clothes.
  • We have almost 2 dozen prescriptions. We found that often a prescription service like GoodRX was cheaper than our insurance.

All this was done prior to retirement. With the money that we saved, we were able to start to work on our mountain of debt. More next time……

Geezer Time

I knew that I wanted to retire a while ago. I also knew that it was going to be difficult since my husband and did not have a large 401K.

I listened to others at work with thousands of dollars in their retirement funds talking about how they would need to work forever. Then I would go home and think “Wow, we have almost nothing” “How will I ever be able to do it?”

Well, we did it last year! and I am going to walk you through some of the process that we went through.

First some background: About 14 years ago, my husband and I moved from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Listen, I loved MA, but let’s face it. Unless you make a couple of hundred thousand a year, it is hard to get by there. We both worked in or near Boston but had to buy a house 50 plus miles away just to be able to afford it. We didn’t have money to do much and if we wanted to do something in town, it was a 50 mile drive, ugh. We decided that there had to be more than 12 hour days every week. We didn’t realize it then, but we had made our first step towards retirement.

Step #1- Go live somewhere where the quality of life you are looking for is achievable.

We ended up outside Columbia, SC. A GREAT place to live. Affordable, accessible, lots to do, airports nearby. Right away our life was better. My commute was 80% shorter! I was able to do things after work! We could afford to go places.

It was hard to make a decision to leave family. My husband I have 6 kids between us. But they were grownups with their own families. And over the course of the last 10 years, 3 have moved within half an hour away. So the first question is “will you be able to retire where you are?” If not, decide what is important to you and find a place to settle. Some tips on how to choose, next time.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

  • Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
  • Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

  • Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
  • What topics do you think you’ll write about?
  • Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
  • If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

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