Boomer Woman Blog

04 September 2008

Job Searching After Retirement

I'm reviewing a number of employment web sites that promise a focus on "seniors," retirees, and boomers in general. I'll detail more in future posts, but wanted to share this one not so much from the job angle as the information angle.

Retired Brains
http://www.retiredbrains.com/

I found myself reading the short informational pages. Yes, even the one on Arthritis Pain. But to stay focused on the work issue, check out Start Your Own Business for a nice set of web links.

On my searches of employment web sites so far, I'm finding few listings for telecommuting except for the typically spammy "work from home and earn $11,000/month" opportunities.

© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

03 September 2008

Insurance Gap: Retirement to Medicare

Complexity of reading material that the Bolds tackled this week to understand an option for health insurance. For more detail, see bottom of this entry.

Early retirement need for health insurance: For most of us, leaving employment means leaving affordable group health insurance and searching for a replacement policy to span the years to Medicare eligibility (age 65). With Americans favoring early retirement of 62 or even 55, that leaves a big gap in years for health coverage.

Continued employer insurance: The best deal has always been thought to extend coverage with the employer's group policy. So, we were pretty darn excited to receive news that Tom's employer, a large semiconductor company, would start offering "retiree insurance" for those not yet Medicare age. With a start date of October 1, Tom's prospect for affordable coverage looked bright. Even shining.

Groups change, premiums change: For Tom, the best deal may not come with this new offer. With numbers rounded up, his monthly premium would be $1000/month (with $500 annual deductible) or $800/month (with $3700 deductible). Cost for a spouse: additional $750/month.

Comparison shopping: The one plus from learning the figures is that Tom finally has a starting point for comparison shopping. He's still using COBRA from the employer, so there's a window of some months for comparison shopping and final decisions. Cost of understanding this baseline for comparison:
Reading time = 1+ hour
Complexity level = 4
(on scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being mind-boggling).

02 September 2008

Personal Heatlh Record: A PHR at Google

Boomers will live long enough to see the Internet transform most aspects of our lives. That includes our health care or, pertinent to this blog, our health care records. The 2008 launch of an online personal health record (PHR—that's a standard bit of nomenclature that's been around since the late 1970s) will spur that transformation. It's from Google, of course.

Google Health requires a log-in with a Google account (which is handy for all Google apps, anyway). The site carries the designation of BETA, indicating that some parts are still being developed. Google's history of taking web sites through a beta phase is strong—don't mistake the disclaimer for a warning of shaky software. Nothing shaky here in terms of the technology itself.

But on the subject of disclaimers, you will note that accessing Google Health requires acceptance of policies. We've all become accustomed to checkmarking "I Agree" clauses for web sites but the terms of service should remind users to enter data cautiously. The purpose of this site is data recording, with expectation that users will upload personal and health-related data. The site may suit your purpose along these lines, but we don't have any real sense of how successful this site will be in managing information. I see the data collection aspect as a harbinger for consumer relations with medical providers but, frankly, I'm still looking for a doctor's office that simply will let me make appointments online. Placing my medical records on the web is not yet my priority.

The efficiency of web-based personal records is unquestioned. Just as we have become comfortable with online banking, we'll probably soon become comfortable with online health tracking. If you've thought of the HIPAA consideration, good thinking! As the Google Health site says, HIPAA does not mandate how patients handle their own records. Google conscientiously puts the user in charge of every aspect of the data entered and that includes the user's power to limit access by others. So, if you elect to link your online profile with a pharmacy partner, you will decide if the pharmacy has "write-only" access (pharmacy can add information for you to read, but cannot see any information you have stored in your profile) or "read/write" access (pharmacy can both read your profile and also add to it).

Google Health is not the first online PHR but it certainly could be the biggest (soon). Its growth will depend on how many and what partners emerge from the health community. The number is small enough now that there's plenty of room on screen to display corporate logos. Maybe our indicator of progress past Gen 1 will be when the interface reduces partner listings to text only.

On a personal note: I liked seeing Walgreens and QuestDiagnostics on the Google Health partner list. Those are two outfits that I sometimes use. Yes, I'll track Google Health's progress in signing partners, especially hospitals and doctors and insurance providers. ~ Lida

01 September 2008

Boomers Going to Class at the Apple Store

In July I went to a west coast Apple store for iPhone class (San Francisco), and in August I went east coast (D.C. environs). The fact that I am drawn to Apple's free product trainings is no surprise. I'm a boomer.

And so are the other people showing up for class. My weekend class was at the Tysons Corner Center in Virgina where 14 other people had gathered for the training. Four couples, 60-ish to 70-ish, were there, with half of every couple taking notes. Everyone else was at least 40, by my estimation. The instructor was also a boomer and very obviously the oldest employee on site: graying hair. Is this Apple?

The web example in the training was similarly generation-typical: cnn.com. And the top tip was the "double-tap" whereby users can make the tiny type of the Safari browser big enough to read. You can't tell me a younger generation would stand for that example (or that tip). But no younger generation is attending, of course.

31 August 2008

Boomers and Their Bikes

OHM (ohmcycles.com) brings us the electric bike. Can you see its motor? At 50 pounds, the power assist is a disadvantage on a steep uphill but an advantage on whole. How quickly can resorts stock up for boomers like me? (Please add a great seat, by the way.)

Power can be generated through use of brakes (think Prius) but most users will need to re-charge the battery with an electric plug-in, too. How quickly can park systems install charging stations on long bike trails? Will my city offer free electric outlets on streets?

A boomer woman friend rides a scooter to work and I admire her (and her $4/month gasoline bill). And the last couple of deans I had (also boomer women) rode motorcycles to work. Clearly, our generation is open to bikes of all sorts. I predict we'll adopt the electric bicycle, too.

30 August 2008

Post-employment Keys

Leaving an institution means turning in keys. Both my daughter and I turned in keys this month—to different institutions of higher learning—after 7 years (me) and 5 years (her). You can think briefly about which post-employment keychain is whose.

Keys to the kingdom. Access to buildings and offices carries a penalty: you can always go to work. That invites working on weekends and nights. Not necessarily healthy but it sure works for the institution. The electronic version of such after-hours work is VPN, virtual private network. That's the access key to an organization's computer system for working from afar. VPN typically requires special permission from the IT department. Increasingly, institutions put certain parts of the system on the web for wide access to anyone with a password. But VPN actually logs into a computer that is on-site (and with ability to remote-control peripherals such as a printer as long as its power is on). Its the ultimate opportunity to over-work.

When workaholism feels good: I don't criticize over-work over much (colloquialism of the south). There are times when I have enjoyed being a workaholic. When an opportunity presents itself, the sane response very well may be to dedicate all of one's time to the enterprise. When I've been in that mode, I've used keys to the office on Saturdays and Sundays, and VPN from travel locations.

And then there's the time to appreciate turning in the keys: But right now, I'm enjoying my lack of keys. In photo above, set A represents my life after turning in university keys. Set B represents Katy's life after turning in university keys.

29 August 2008

Impact of Boomers on the Air Travel Industry

My usual observation around air travel is the changing pace at airports. Not just the slow-down that comes with security lines—but the slow-down in the concourse that comes with an aging population. The conveyance system within terminals is as complex as the one outside on the tarmac. Airports design for our needs today and also for our needs 20 years from now. So, there's vertical conveyance (escalators and elevators) and also the horizontal type: moving walkways. The purpose is two-fold: reduce the distance that aging travelers must walk and also maximize flow throughout a terminal. Airport design also supports increased use of assistive motorized carts as well as the personnel to manage them. The demographics of air travel is clear, regardless of the rising energy costs: more older people will be traveling.

This trip, I noticed another change: increased belt length. That's on the airplane. Yes, the seat belt.

28 August 2008

Kangaroom: Travel Pouch for Technology

Smaller than a make-up case but big enough to hold a power strip. For those of us who would never pack a make-up case, anyway, the Kangaroom is the preferred travel accessory.

Since I started traveling with this pouch, I haven't forgotten my airport (wireless Internet) nor the back-up CAT6 cable. Until wireless connection is universal, they are necessary in about a third of the hotels I frequent.

I try to remain amused, instead of irritated, that the collection of gadgets requires permanent marker notations to keep the accessories straight.

27 August 2008

Will Baby Boomers Wreck American Society?

Really wreck society or just Social Security? Forecasting appears dire. If boomers insist on retiring early (or even on time), they will create a shortage of funds for Social Security benefits. Presumably, a nation can fund anything it chooses to, so the U.S. may continue to support retirees even if one fund runs short.

But there's another wreck coming. But it's not just the funding for retirement benefits that boomers will influence. The retirement years of note (2008 and 2011 being most discussed now but there will be more dire years ahead) are those that will deplete specific work forces. On campuses, that's called the graying professoriate. Look around a faculty meeting and count the gray hairs. A new dean may see opportunity to grow a new college; a more experienced dean may dread the upcoming upheaval.

A national treasure: I'm not one to call any generation a national treasure, but the Treasury Department has identified the baby boom generation as crucial to their work force. They hope that as current employees exit (with their federal retirement benefits), other retirees or near-retirees will enter. Through the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, the Treasury Department hopes to recruit retiring IBM workers for encore careers with the government.

Other graying areas: It's not only Treasury that faces a gap in their work force. (Treasury is just one of the smarter entities to develop a strategy to meet their need.) Across all levels of government, we now hear predictions that the most experienced workers will soon be leaving. What will happen then? I can imagine longer lines in government offices, delays in permits and applications for everything, and a general decline in services. Think DMV on its busiest day—every day.

Will government offices make good encore careers? Would you sign on? I can think of some inducements that would lure me for an extra 5 or 10 years of employment: health benefits, flex schedule, option to telecommute half the time, and a cap on total hours of, what, 20 or 25 a week? We'll see what develops.

26 August 2008

Applying for Jobs through the Web

Job applications have changed. In the past 6 months I have run across exactly one print form that resembled employment applications of my youth. As I have applied for jobs in the education sphere, I have used online forms and portals to submit my requests. Some have covered a lot of the same items as a traditional application, but some have been markedly different. When the hiring process went to the next step (approved for hire), I had to fill out and submit paper forms for IRS, payroll, and background checks. But notice that employers wait until the hiring decision has been made to process all that paperwork.

New tasks for boomers. I maintain that we boomers are ill-prepared for these new hiring processes. I didn't say we cannot learn them—just that we are caught by surprise. In fact, I found myself repeatedly caught by surprise and stumbling over these new ways until I developed my heuristic, my 75¢ word for "a way to do this."

1 - Preview the application page: When possible (and it isn't, always) I open the online application page and capture what is needed. Methods: copy/paste the page, take a screenshot, write or type a list of the headings. I then close the page and prepare my materials before re-opening for the submission.

2 - Read instructions: As we speed-read web pages, it's easy to skip over anything that looks like an instruction. But many web sites do spell out what is needed in order to make a valid application. They may even specify the type of file required—definitely worth reading. I print out instructions and use a highlighter to check off the requirements as I complete them.

3 - Create a folder on my hard-drive for every potential employer: When I create notes for transfer to an application form, I save the file along with the resume or C.V. that I submit. This means I have multiple folders with the same or nearly the same resume in them. That's OK. Some employers require multiple applications (in my field, maybe not in yours) and I need this historical record of what I've already said.

4 - Update or tailor my resume: Before every application I review my C.V. (curriculum vitae or academic resume) and update it. I keep it current to the month; usually that means I enter a date that a work was published or presented and remove the item from the "accepted" category. In my field, a C.V. is a pretty standard thing but occasionally I do tailor it for a specific job. That might be flipping the order of teaching experience and research supervision. Yep, pretty dry stuff.

5 - Prep resume in multiple file formats: I save the file as both a .doc and a .pdf (file extensions after a sound filename, like Mary-Bold-CV). I intentionally do not use the newer Word extension of .docx because I know that many, many receiving computers won't have the newer version of the software. So, I save the file in the older format and, in fact, I keep my software in "Compatibility Mode" most of the time. I also convert the Word doc to PDF because that's my preferred file type for submission and I like to have it ready in case it will be welcomed. My computer has a PDF distiller built in and I access it by selecting Printer > PDF in Microsoft Office applications. (There are also free web services for this; google "PDF file conversion" for options.)

6 - Prep text for a cover letter: Using Notepad on my PC, I create a plain vanilla text file (carries the extension .txt) with typical phrases that I would use in a cover letter. Some online application pages offer a text field for a cover letter or "message." Having a file ready for every application has a bonus: they serve as a pool of statements that I can re-use and re-fashion for different employers. A .txt file is ideal for copy/pasting to an online form because there is no formatting code being transferred with the characters. For cleanest copy/paste: even if I type in Word Wrap format in Notepad, I turn off that function before I copy/paste the text to another location. (Use the pull-down menu for Format and check/uncheck Word Wrap.)

7 - Prep text for a list of qualifications: On about half of applications I have had opportunity to answer a question such as "What qualifications do you have for this position?" I choose to reply with a list, not a cover letter, in order to provide a highly readable set of factoids. (A paragraph is not necessarily well-read. Anywhere. Which we all know from blog life.)

I entitle the list Summary of Qualifications and avoid writing an introduction.
I use short phrases that will appear on a single line.
If I must use longer phrases, I number the list and hit [Enter] after each entry. (I do not try to create bullets and I definitely do not copy/paste bullets from Word because they often transform into unintended characters.)

8 - Prep frequent entries to avoid typos: Again, using a .txt file with Word Wrap turned off, I create a list of address, phone, email contact, etc., that can be copy/pasted. Thus, I don't have to spend much time proof-reading a submission page.

9 - Prep URL links to my web pages: Using full addresses (starting with http://), I provide links to pertinent web-published materials. I prefer to use only the URLs that I maintain myself so that I know they will remain active. Sometimes I provide a link to a publication or presentation on a journal or organization site—but only if I am confident that the link will be alive for a long time.

10 - And what I would do if I didn't have a URL to share: I would make one. In today's world, job applicants are checked out on the web. You can conduct your own "vanity google search" of your name to see how/if you are represented on the web. You can create a web presence pretty easily, either with a profile page on LinkedIn or a web page of your own making. You don't have to enter personal contact information and, in fact, I don't recommend it. (Your purpose would be to provide samples or representation of your work with the URL you provide in the job application—so you will have already provided contact information on the employer's web form.)

User-friendly web page creation: Google Sites accessed with a free Google account. You can create a one- or multi-page website in just a few minutes. Before you share it with a potential employer, ask a friend or colleague to test the link and also proofread the text. While you may feel an impulse to populate it with graphics, resist that urge. Think staid and formal. Treat the web page as a business document that looks a bit like a resume but without the personal data.

25 August 2008

Retirement Planning: A Deficit Model

If you are feeling deficit right about now, that's probably because the conventional wisdom maintains that boomers haven't earned enough, saved enough, or planned enough for retirement. That's a common trend for humans: assume the worst. And the trend is actually a good survival instinct.

The pragmatics of retirement planning are correct: advisers plan for extremes because no one can predict the future. So, the standard assumptions are for high medical costs over a long life span with a need for 80% of your pre-retirement income. Hence, the dire calculator results of You may run out of money at age 78... or 89... or 94.

In order to moderate these predictions, resist the standard expectation that you will need 80% of your income in retirement. (Granted, health costs may be dramatic in the future but even in those terms, don't awfulize.) Instead, try building your retirement budget from the ground up.

My favorite retirement calculator is at Bloomberg.com because I can try out multiple scenarios, including setting "percent of income at retirement" at anywhere between 50% and 150% of current household income. Boomer women should also play with the checkboxes for "If you are married" and "To include Social Security."

On a personal note: Using the Bloomberg calculator, I like to play with predictions of pre-retirement household income that are below my current salary. I also check on what will happen if I make no more contributions to retirement savings...and no salary increases. ~ Lida

24 August 2008

Grocery Budget: The Cart Approach

The dual-basket shopping cart used to irritate me. I avoided it whenever possible. But now the compact model is my friend—it is my budgeting strategy. If I purchase only what's on sale, and use my loyalty card besides, I can fill the baskets for a mere $61. And since I go to the store only once a month, that's a great budget technique.

I cannot pretend that this single cart feeds the household. Tom Bold makes a weekly trek to Walmart for his preferences and the household staples.

One more comment: The photo above displays my favorite style of parking lot cart storage (at Tom Thumb in my town). It's low profile and maintenance free. Kind of what I'd like my whole life to be....

23 August 2008

Affordable Travel in Retirement

The boomer advantage in travel is that either we're approaching retirement and have a generous number of vacation days, or we're already retired and can claim any day as a vacation day. That flexibility is key to making travel affordable.

Travel in the off-seasons, or at least enter "dates flexible" when booking your flight or hotel online. This Fall, I'm using this strategy for a beach resort and "off" doesn't even involve hurricanes.
Especially at resort and city center hotels, you'll see different rates for prime days, so check rates by date, not just an average for the nights you specify. I look for Sunday or Monday check-in's that are post-weekend rates.
Some cities are on sale over the winter holidays. If there's a hotel that typically serves the convention market, there's a good chance it will have affordable rates when conventions are not scheduled. This has been the case for us in San Francisco during Christmas week. But we've never found discounted lodging at Tahoe over Christmas or New Year's, and I don't care to divulge what we've spent on Thanksgiving in New York.
Check for extended stay hotels, often the best buy in metropolitan areas. For New York stays of 2 weeks at a time, I have cut lodging costs by 65% and enjoyed a one-bedroom apartment with full kitchen and in-unit laundry.
If you are near a state line, check on differences in taxes that can impact your hotel bill.
Camp in a national or state park: buy a senior pass or travel with someone who can.
Learn to love the motels on the Interstate
Stay at a hostel or Y. OK, granted, I've never gone this route.
Swap homes through an exchange service. Something else I haven't tried but The Holiday certainly made Los Angeles and the UK look promising....
Couch surf on craigslist. (If you don't know what this is, you absolutely must not do it.)
Look for a "package" from a timeshare resort (ask your friends to "refer" you). My friend The Artist is trying this out...right now.
Rent a house with other families (related or not) and split the cost. We've done this for stays at a lake in Oklahoma as well as trips to the Colorado mountains. It is important to select co-families with complementary talents. I only did this when there were good cooks on board. I cannot imagine what they thought I was contributing.

22 August 2008

Portable Home Theatre

High tech homes may come with home theatre, but most of us put the pieces together one at a time, to our benefit. A data projector that is portable can display movies on the living room wall but also travel to vacation locations. (One holiday at a resort, we projected the image of a Christmas tree on the wall.)

A serviceable projector costs $600. Professional quality display will more likely be more than $1000. The sort that is highly visible in a day-lit room will be more than $2000. (Compare lumens.) I have a preference among current technology, for DLP projectors, but I remind myself that we will see these products continuously improve and it's not smart to marry any one variety.

Replacement lamps are expensive. Mine cost almost $400 and still hasn't been used in 4 years. (It does provide great peace of mind but if you don't have a concern about quick replacement, this is a purchase than can be pushed off.) The cost you won't be able to avoid is the computer to provide images for the projector. I have a particular laptop I like for this purpose because it has easy-to-set-up speakers.

Before you buy a projection screen, take the projector home and try it out on various walls. (I actually prefer display on a white or off-white wall, even with the occasional light switch as part of the movie.) Even if you later decide to purchase a screen, you can use the try-out period to determine what dimensions will suit you best. Then, you can shop on the Internet for great prices.

I had help from my friend The Artist in locating a widescreen version through a supplier specializing in sales to churches. The supplier didn't mind a bit that I wasn't a church. I use that screen only outside my home (presenting seminars) because I really do prefer to watch home movies on my home wall.

Little appreciated factoid about data projectors: In winter, they warm the room for you.

21 August 2008

Emu Oil: Not Medical Advice

Not medical advice. Would I give medical advice to anyone? Of course not. I have no medical training and I only suffer from maladies. And yet I feel compelled to mention one more time my fascination with emu oil.

Doctor's nonchalance. I was prepared to do whatever was necessary about my painful knees. Physical therapy, surgery, medication. Write me up, Doc, I'm ready. The doctor was not impressed. He assured that the knees felt and sounded normal for my age—and would only get worse. He suggested over-the-counter analgesics.

Boomers demand better. Baby boomers, as a generation, demand a lot more than OTC meds. We want improvement, preferably the transformational kind. What we don't like hearing is that something is "only going to get worse."

Emu oil: As I have mentioned before on this blog, it was a masseuse who told me about emu oil in the form of Blue Emu. (I don't own stock.) And about 2 weeks later, my friend The Sociologist told me that a woman on a treadmill next to her talked about the same product. This means that so far I have heard only boomer women talk about emu oil. (No doctors.)

So, not medical advice: I'm not saying emu oil will help your creaky knees. And I'll acknowledge that it did nothing for The Sociologist's elbow. But I use it twice a day and I felt a difference when I stopped. (I now stock up and travel with it, too.) ~ Lida

20 August 2008

Personalized Social Security Statement

In yesterday's mail, I received my annual "Your Social Security Statement" from the Social Security Administration (SSA). I decided it would be the year to understand the formula by which our Social benefits are figured. Of course, I was not able to achieve that. On a positive note, our government does not hide the formula—you can track it down on SSA websites. The important conclusion is that the formula protects citizens with lowest incomes and progressively decreases the benefit reward for citizens with highest incomes. (That's proportionate, of course. Maximum contributors to the system still have higher benefits in dollars.)

What I was able to achieve was a comparison of projected benefits according to different income levels. In other words, I was able to estimate benefits in case my income drops, stays the same, or increases over the next few years. (The estimate in my Paper Statement is based on my "current earnings rate" and does not consider other possibilities.) I also made age comparisons using 62 for early retirement, 65 for retirement in my Medicare eligibility year, 66 for "full" retirement, and 70 for delayed retirement. I did all this through the website that my Paper Statement directed me to (www.socialsecurity.gov/mystatement). I had used the online calculators before but today I took time to record all the steps.

Go to http://www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator
Look for the page titles alongside the SSA logo.

Page title: About the Retirement Estimator
Click red button, Estimate Your Retirement Benefits, or at bottom of page, click Continue button.

Page title: Acknowledgement For Online Services
Click on the I Agree button.

Page title: Information We Need
Enter identification factoids (including your Social Security Number).
Click Continue button.

Page title: Verify Your Information
Click Confirm button.

Page title: Create Your Retirement Benefit Estimator
Enter a number for last year's income. (Don't fret about an exact figure—this page just gets you into the estimator. Suggestion: round your current salary to a user-friendly figure such as 40,000.)
Click Create Estimate button.

Page title: Your Retirement Benefit Estimate
The information probably looks a lot like the usual estimate in your Paper Statement from SSA. Now, for the powerful part of this online tool, look to bottom right of screen for the next step.
Click Create Additional Scenarios button.

Page title: Retirement Estimator
Step One: Select an age (to get started, use 62 or 66).
Step Two: Enter an average salary; to get started, use the same salary as before (such as 40,000).
Click the Create Scenarios button.

Page title: Your Additional Retirement Scenarios
Finally, you reach the best of the estimator! Mid-page, enter figures for additional scenarios—change the age, change the average salary.
To get started, add a lot of contrast:
.....Age 62 at average salary $20,000
.....Age 62 at average salary $40,000
Click Create Scenarios button.

You will then see all 3 scenarios listed at bottom of page. You may need to scroll down, depending on the width of your screen.

You can continue entering new figures in the mid-page section called Create Additional Scenarios. Each time you make a change, click Create Scenarios button.

(You can also back up to the Scenario 1 page by clicking on the Previous button at bottom of page and re-setting the first estimate. Then proceed as before with Create Scenarios.)

© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

19 August 2008

Boomers and Their Finance Advisers

What our financial adviser said (continued from yesterday's blog). When I disclosed that I was retiring from a public university and not seeking a similar position anywhere, our adviser said, "You'll never make it!" She knew that my early-retiring husband's salary would end in 2008, and that the expected course was to rely on my income for the next 11 years. (That means pushing off any withdrawals from 401K and IRAs in order to protect them for the long term, that span of retirement that will be 25 to 30 years.)

Who is this nervy adviser? Well, it's a family member. The professional advisers at the investment companies were quietly respectful and merely said, "What accounts do you want to move where?" The in-family adviser fretted a little and fumed a little and finally started to make the projections I needed to justify this change in career. (I'll still be in education, just not on a campus.)

How many advisers does a boomer woman need? Obviously, I need more than one. (Itemization is below.) What I've determined from this recent round of career decision-making is that I like having one in the family. An in-family adviser knows my real habits, not the ones I posture for the outside-adviser. She also knows when I'm serious ("I can stop buying clothes") and when I'm not ("I can give up travel"). Most important, she is my most-motivated adviser. If my career and investments fail, she'll have to support me. Fidelity hasn't made that promise to me.

Advisers of everything. Under one big umbrella of "finance adviser," we variously mean financial planner, investment adviser, stock broker, and maybe even retirement counselor. The terms become crucial if we intend to talk to an adviser who is certified, registered, or somehow regulated. A good online resource to check is the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards; the site has a concise list of descriptions of Financial Professionals.

Being assigned an adviser. Most of us don't select an adviser. We are assigned one by the firm we contract with. I've had two personal bankers, two personal stock brokers (before switching to discount brokers), and three investment advisers. Of that number, three have visited my home and a fourth even visited my classroom (to give a lecture, not to consult with me). That's a lot of personal contact, so you would think that I would put more effort into the choice of adviser. But my association with them has been accidental. Of course, the in-family adviser might make the same argument.

18 August 2008

Choosing a Retirement Year

Boomer investments not booming. While not necessarily the best year to retire (market wise), some boomers "on the cusp" will make the move in 2008 or 2009, anyway. That's because they are 62-ish. The first of the baby boomers were born in 1946 and this is their year to qualify for early Social Security benefits. Depending on how you like to "do the math," you may decide that the best pay-out comes with early retirement. But here's an assumption: you have some investments to draw from. (If you retire with only Social Security benefits as income, you are likely to do some serious budgeting in order to survive.) But what if your investments are not in great shape?

Bearing with bear markets: You may decide to continue working for another year or two (until the bad times pass). This means pushing off Social Security, too. It is the safest strategy. It may also be the most frustrating. To make bearing with bear markets more bearable, you re-frame the delay as an "adjustment period" during which you intentionally change your pace, days off, travel, and spending/saving to approximate what you expect to do after you retire.

Risk outliving your investments: Or you may decide to bite the bullet and start drawing from investments, anyway (in addition to starting Social Security benefits). This is the risky strategy, of course. You start drawing from your 401K when it can least support that. The eventual consequence (20 or 30 years hence) is that the money is gone before you are.

Rely on younger spouse: The middle ground is the cusp boomer who takes early Social at 62 and relies on a younger spouse for income, pushing off the day to start drawing from investments. For the couple, this scenario means lower income, of course, and the household budget must adjust. The goal becomes to delay drawing on 401K/IRA as long as possible.

On a personal note: Oh, that's us. Does anyone see the inherent risk of my retiring this summer at the same time my cusp-boomer husband retires? Only a woman of the boomer generation would just assume that things will work out. Tomorrow: what our investment adviser said to us. ~ Lida

17 August 2008

When Travel Is Measured In Trash Days

I don't expect everyone to relate to this.

After several decades of marriage... there comes a time that a partner's absence is measured not in days of travel but in number of trash days.

The other side of the coin... is that when you rely on that same partner to fill the car with gasoline, you're ready for the return even if you could use another trash day.

Luckily, the Prius is holding at 51+mpg, so I tolerated Tom's east coast trip very well. Still, 2 weeks is 2 weeks and I did have to fill the tank once. He'll get home tonight and be back on the job.

16 August 2008

Frozen Blueberries

So, frozen is more affordable. These 16 ounces cost $4.59, which puts boomer health at a better price point. (I wouldn't care to debate the quality issue per my last blueberry post.)

Eat slightly frozen. Even the plastic pouch advises that you thaw the berries only a little before eating them. I think it was our generation that figured out the superiority of frozen fruit. Grapes in childhood were room temperature. By my early adulthood (in the '70s), we were freezing them for best snacking. A real chef reads this blog. She'll know.