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

Eat A Live Frog Everyday And Be Better For It?

Here at Jones and Kolb, we are moving into "high gear of busy season."  It reminds me of the hours people have to invest to be successful in their jobs and  careers.  Some words to consider:

"Working hard overcomes a whole lot of other obstacles:
• you can have unbelievable intelligence,
• you can have connections,
• you can have opportunities fall out of the sky-
But in the end, hard work is the true, enduring characteristic of successful people." Author: Marsha Evans

I am providing a two-for (2 quotes for the price of 1) today.

"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome." Author: Booker T. Washington

The trick is to not only work hard but work in an efficient and productive manner. The biggest problem I have this time of year is procrastination. There are tasks I do not really want to do albeit I know they need to be done. How do you accomplish your goals?  In Mac Anderson's book, The Nature of Success, he presents an interesting approach.  He talks about an old saying that goes: "If the first thing you do when you get up in the morning is eat a live frog, then nothing worse can happen to you the rest of the day."

Brian Tracy, in his book Eat That Frog, says that your "frog" should be the toughest task of the day, the one you're most likely to procrastinate on. Eating that frog or completing that task, can give you energy and confidence that will provide momentum for the rest of the day. If you keep procrastinating it will sit on the plate and continue to grow.

That is an excellent illustration. I have spent several hours the last couple of days eating frogs. I must admit it is hard to get in the habit of "eating frogs," but I have found it to be very effective. This time of year there are multiple frogs, but I can usually identify the biggest frog without much trouble. If you focus on the task at hand and devote your energy on your most challenging tasks you will be amazed at how satisfying your work can be and much you can accomplish in a day.

Here's to eating your biggest frog. Bon appétit!

~ Colin, Shareholder