Keen On Retirement

It's that time again! Every year, during the open enrollment period from October 15th through December 7th, we recommend that all seniors review their Medicare coverage and see what new options might be available to them. It's also extremely important that new retirees who are signing up for Medicare for the first time get a handle on the ABCDs of Medicare, as well as the things that Medicare does and doesn't cover.

Now that the presidential election is nearly over, I hope that folks will start to focus a little bit more attention on their financial planning to-do lists as we close out 2020. I know it’s tempting to get caught up in speculating what Congress and the Federal Reserve will or won’t do with regards to the economy, the markets, and health care. But those are unknown variables right now that none of us can control.

Any time there’s a lot of data moving from A to B, folks have to be extra vigilant about protecting themselves from hacks and scams. Back in 2018, when approximately 59 million Americans started receiving new Medicare and Medicaid cards, fraudsters pounced, claiming they were calling on behalf of the government to “confirm” those new ID numbers.

There’s a good reason why many fiduciary advisors have replaced the outdated phrase “retirement planning” with terms like “life-centered planning” when describing what we do.

When we ask our clients to describe their ideal retirement, two of the most common responses are “healthy” and “stable.” In our experience, most successful retirees find ways to align these two goals … and throw in a little fun as well. In fact, it seems that there may be a psychological connection between how we plan for our money and how we plan for our health.

On today’s show, we tackle four of the most common Medicare questions we’re fielding from clients at Keen Wealth right now. Hopefully this conversation will help you sort out the important notices about your health care coverage from the junk mail that belongs in your shred pile.