Use It or Lose It - Your Brain in Retirement

As you prepare to retire, have you given much thought to how you will spend your time?  Many people look forward to the day they can finally retire, kick back and relax.  However, there is a lot of medical evidence indicating that spending too much time resting our bodies and our minds is not a healthy approach.  Relaxation might be great for a one week vacation, but it is not the ideal way to plan to spend the next twenty years of your life.

According to Dr. Mehmet Oz, in an article he wrote for the May/June, 2011 edition of the AARP Magazine, there are risks in retirement, especially for your brain.  In essence, we must use it or lose it.  It is extremely important that we continue to keep our brains stimulated and it helps to learn something new ... to play an instrument, speak a new language, or learn a challenging new game.

We have always known that this is true when we have talked about our body and our muscles.  If we don’t get up and take frequent walks, we will eventually discover that it becomes harder and harder to maintain our health and stay in good physical shape.  The same principle applies to the brain.

Earlier this year, the RAND Center for the Study of Aging published a study that was done in conjunction with the University of Michigan.  They tested cognitive performance in people from a variety of countries and discovered that cognitive performance was lower in countries that had earlier retirement ages.  In other words, when people stop working and spend too much time in undemanding activities, their mental ability begins to atrophy!

Think about what that means when people strive to give up their careers as soon as possible.  Suddenly, they no longer spend their work days around other people.  They no longer have to read challenging material, or learn new skills.  They are less likely to be engaged with complicated problems that they have to solve.  Their brain begins to lose its edge.

What can you do to prevent this decline?  Many medical researchers suggest that retirement is the perfect time to start a second career, or learn a new language.  Have you always wanted to play a musical instrument?  Retirement may be opportunity you've been waiting for.  You could even get together with your friends and start a garage band.  Why not?  This is the time of your life when you have the time and opportunity to learn anything new that interests you!  Just remember how important it is to keep challenging yourself.

This might also be a fun time to go back to college and advance your education.  Many community colleges offer inexpensive or free classes to senior citizens.  Ask about the Emeritus Program at a college near you.  

You could take up writing, become a yoga teacher, or design jewelry and sell it at craft fairs.  Whatever you do, you should make certain that you are exercising both your mind and your body frequently.  Find activities that are mentally challenging and that force you to interact regularly with other people.  Both the mental stimulation and the social interaction will have a positive effect on the quality of your retirement years.

If you are interested in learning new things that will improve your life after retirement, use the tabs or pull down menu at the top of this page for links to hundreds of additional articles on financial planning, health concerns, where to retire and more!

Photo credit: Morguefile.com

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Women and Social Security

No matter what your age, women need to understand how Social Security works.  For most women, Social Security will play a major role in how much money they will have available once they reach their 60's.  Since you will have some important decisions to make when you begin to collect Social Security, it is very important that you have all the necessary information, so that you make the best possible decisions and maximize your income.  Below are some of the basic facts that you need to know. 

For more personal details about your specific situation, you may want to visit your nearest Social Security office, or read more online at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/.

Facts about Social Security for Women

The first thing you should know is that you can collect your Social Security benefits any time between the ages of 62 and 70 (or even at a younger age, if you are a widow.)  However, the younger you are when you begin to collect, the less money you will receive for the rest of your life.  As a result, many women are smart to postpone collecting their Social Security benefits until they are at least 66.  However, the decision is completely up to you.  If you are ill, cannot work, or desperate for money, you may feel that your situation forces you to collect your benefits sooner.

If you did not earn very much income during your lifetime, you can still collect some Social Security benefits based on your husband's earnings.  This is true even if you are divorced, as long as the two of you were married at least 10 years and you have not remarried.  At your full retirement age (around the age of 66 or 67), you can receive 50% of what your husband receives at his full retirement age.  You will need to compare whether you are better off using your own benefits, based on your own past earnings or whether you would collect more money by receiving half of your husband's benefits.

On the other hand, if you earned more than your husband, then it is possible for him to receive benefits based on your earnings.  The helpful consultants at the Social Security office can help you decide how you can collect the maximum benefits.

You will also be eligible for Medicare once you turn 65, whether your Social Security and Medicare benefits are based on your own earnings or those of your husband.  Medicare will withdraw a premium of about $104 from your Social Security benefits in order to pay for your basic Medicare healthcare.  You may want this used to pay for a Medicare Advantage plans that has more benefits or you may wish to purchase a Medicare Supplement plan in addition to the basic Medicare plan.

If your husband dies, you can collect widow's Social Security benefits.  The amount varies depending on when you begin to collect.  If you wait until your full retirement age, you can collect as much as 100% of what your husband would have collected. 

There are many other factors concerning Social Security that could affect when you decide to collect.  Be sure to check with your local Social Security office as soon as you begin planning your retirement.

It is important for everyone to understand their Social Security benefits, but especially women, because so many American women spend the last few years of their lives in poverty.  You do not want this to happen to you, if you can avoid it.

If you are interested in more retirement information, use the tabs or pull down menu at the top of this article to find links to hundreds of additional articles about financial planning, including Social Security, where to retire, medical issues that could arise, family relationships and more.

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Life Lessons to Teach your Grandkids

Like most Baby Boomers, we went through our early adulthood giving very little thought to the fact that someday we would be grandparents.  However, now that we've reached this point in our lives, we discovered that we enjoy our grandkids enthusiastically.  My Facebook page is alive with photos of the grandkids of all my friends, and I enjoy seeing the things their families do together.  We've posted a a number of photos of our grandchildren, too.

Every Sunday, one of our daughters drops by our house with her two children, and we all prepare a large breakfast of scrambled eggs and chocolate chip pancakes together.  It would be easy if we just made everything ourselves, and had it fully prepared when they arrived.  However, my husband delights in the time he spends letting our 11 year old granddaughter help.  She particularly loves to make the scrambled eggs, and has become quite adept at cracking the eggs on the edge of the skillet all by herself.

After breakfast, my husband often spends a little time teaching our 8 year old grandson how to carve and make things out of wood.  On other occasions, we take the kids out fishing for the day.  We've taught them how to sew on a button, and stitch together a simple seam.  We've taught them how to play some of our favorite games, like Mexican train.  We explore the tidepools at the beach looking for little crabs and starfish.  We watch movies and television shows together.

We have other grandkids, as well, although they do not live close enough to see them every weekend.  However, when they come to visit, we really enjoy spending time with them.  Last summer, I was able to spend a day helping our two teenage granddaughters look at colleges.  When our youngest grandson visits, it is delightful to watch him play at the beach.

When we spend time with our grandkids, we are able to use that quality time with them to do much more than pass on skills that we think they would enjoy.  We are also able to teach them life lessons that we think are important.  When they are rude, we gently tell them that there are better ways to ask for things.  When they fight, we discuss other ways they could handle their disagreements. We try to reassure them when they are worried, and encourage them when they are shy.  We try to attend school events and sporting events whenever possible, because they need to know that they have family support, whether they win or lose.  These are the really valuable lessons that we want to teach our grandkids. 

Our daughters are all wonderful mothers, but I think it helps them to have parents who reinforce their values and the lessons that they are passing on to their children.  We always make sure our grandkids know that their parents are the ones who make the final decision on everything.  We don't let them talk us into treats or activities that we know their parents wouldn't like.

The kids love to tease us and we let them, as long as the teasing is not mean-spirited.  This morning, our 11 year old granddaughter was wearing a "scary" skeleton Halloween costume when they arrived for breakfast.  She sneaked up to the kitchen window and peaked in, trying to "scare" us.  It gave us all a good laugh.  Perhaps being able to laugh at their youthful jokes is the best lesson of all!

If you are looking for more information about grandparenting, retirement planning, where to retire and more, use the tabs or pull down menu at the top of the page for links to hundreds of additional articles.

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Dates for Medicare Enrollment Changes

It can be very difficult to stay up-to-date with all the changes to Medicare and the other programs that are meant to make life a little easier for senior citizens.  We have to constantly be on the alert for changes in programs.  In fact, I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that it is a bit ironic that all these programs that are supposed to make life easier are actually so darn confusing!

Since 2011, the deadline for changing your Medicare coverage has changed.  Open enrollment is now from October 15 to December 7.  In the past, the enrollment period ran from November 15 to December 31.

If you want to switch your Part D prescription drug plan, or switch from traditional Medicare to one of the Medicare Advantage plans, or even switch from one Medicare Advantage plan to a different one, you need to make those changes during this enrollment period that expires on December 7.

It is important to get the word out on this.  Many people may think they have until December 31 to make these important changes.  However, if they don't make the changes by December 7, their current plans will stay in place throughout the following year, according to the September 2011 issue of the AARP Bulletin.

Of course, if you watch television at all, you will start seeing the newest Medicare plans for your area advertised regularly beginning every September.  In addition, if you are in your 60's or older, you are highly likely to receive advertisements for the different types of Medicare policies in the mail.

If you are still trying to compare different types of coverage before deciding which plan will work best for you, you can check out medicare.gov or call 1-800-633-4227.

At the very least, it is important to understand a few basic facts about Medicare.

Type of Medicare Policies Available

Beneficiaries of Medicare have several choices regarding Medicare:

*  If you work and get insurance through your company, you still need to sign up for basic Medicare.  This will keep you from paying extra high premiums when you switch to using Medicare.

*  Take basic Medicare only, which currently means about $104 a month will be taken from your Social Security or will be billed to you, if you do not take Social Security, yet.  Medicare only covers about 80% of your medical expenses, and there are some expenses that it does not cover at all.  As a result, most people choose one of the two following choices.

*  Take basic Medicare, but add a Medicare supplement plan.  Medicare will still charge you the basic $104 a month.  You will also pay an additional premium, depending on the Medicare supplement plan you choose.

*  Sign up for a Medicare Advantage plan.  The $104 a month will be assigned to the private insurance company and they will provide you with medical care which, by law, MUST include everything provided under basic Medicare.  In addition, most Medicare Advantage plans will also offer a variety of other benefits, depending on the plan you choose.  Some Medicare Advantage plans do not charge any extra premiums.  Others have a small additional premium.  Some include dental and vision plans and low co-pays.  You will need to shop around.  If you have a doctor who is in a Medicare Advantage plan, this is often the most affordable and comprehensive Medicare choice.

If you are looking for more information about Medicare, retirement planning, where to retire, financial planning, medical issues and more, use the tabs or pull down menu at the top of this article for links to hundreds of additional helpful articles.

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