Retirement: What a Novel Idea!

Until recently, I never gave much thought to retirement. That was something for old people, right? My father, who lived until the ripe old age of 85 and worked until a few months before his passing, didn’t want to have anything to do with retirement. Maybe it had something to do with being part of the “Greatest Generation” and having lived through the Great Depression. But that was his choice, not mine.

Although I know financial considerations are forcing millions of Baby Boomers to remain part of the workforce, I’ve decided to retire at the still young age of 59. As empty nesters, my wife and I may move to the coast. The good life. No worries. Well, as I’ve discovered, don’t grab the fishing gear and sunscreen so fast.

The path to easy street is filled with some tough decisions. Some of them are downright frightening. Starting with healthcare. If you’re like me and you’ve always been covered under an employers’ group policy, prepare to be shocked. Searching for individual coverage in the present insurance environment is, to say the least, an eye-opening experience. After wrestling with the healthcare issue for a few days, I called our firm’s insurance broker for help. She’s now helping me consider the options and shop for the best deal.

So that’s my first piece of advice: Consult a professional. Looking through the Yellow Pages (my age is showing) and searching the Internet may not be the best way to go unless you want to sort through about 43,900,000 (yes, I really Googled it) Web sites and bits of information.

If you’re currently covered under a company group plan, start there, and ask for advice from the company’s healthcare administrator or the broker who helped your employer shop for the group plan. That’s how I discovered that if I form a corporation or limited liability company owned by my wife and me, we might be considered a small group and qualify for coverage through the corporation. This may work for us since we plan on providing accounting services on a contract basis after retirement; we’ll simply use the new company for that activity. As I understand it, even a small group plan may be more affordable than an individual policy. Also, apparently the insurance industry isn’t overly eager to issue individual coverage, no matter how healthy the individuals. A small group seems more attractive in their eyes.

Then there’s the Medicare question. (There is another one of those words I didn’t think applied to me.) Even though I won’t be eligible for Medicare for another six years, I’m trying to learn more about how it works and the steps I should be taking now to plan for Uncle Sam becoming my group plan. When my father-in-law was sick in the 1990s, I remember that his supplemental private insurance was a reassuring way to fill the gap. Great planning on his part and another lesson learned from “The Greatest Generation.”

If you find yourself thinking about retirement – and let me tell you, the anticipation is great – I encourage you to give some thought to the health insurance coverage issues. A little planning on the front end may help you rest a lot easier about your decision. I mean, who wants to be worrying about health insurance when there are fish to be caught?

~Doug, Shareholder