Posts Tagged "widow"
Unexpected Retirement Costs Can be Big
Resourceful retirees usually weather the financial surprises that come their way. But a handful of unexpected health events can really hurt.
The death of a spouse is at the top of the list. Net worth drops by more than $30,000 over a couple of years as retirees pay for the extraordinary medical and other expenses surrounding a spouse's death.
Two serious health conditions also deplete retirees' assets: strokes and lung disease, which strike about one in five older Americans during their lifetimes, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research study funded by the U.S. Social Security Administration that tracked changes in the finances of people 65 and over.
Despite the presence of Medicare, a first-time stroke reduces a retired household's average wealth by more than $25,000 – or 6 percent – and lung disease reduces it by about $29,000.
Net worth in this study includes financial assets and home equity minus debts.
These estimates of the cost of various events provide new information about a few of the many unknowns that go into retirement planning. Workers who may think they are saving enough to cover their routine retirement expenses don't necessarily factor in medical and related costs that are difficult or impossible to predict.
Taken together, single and married retirees will use anywhere from 3 percent to 14 percent of their wealth to pay these unpredictable expenses. But wealthy retirees, who can afford first-rate care, spend much more than the average, while poor people, who have Medicaid to supplement their Medicare, spend very little. …Learn More
tags arthritis|​diabetes|​health care costs|​heart attack|​high blood pressure|​net worth|​retirement|​stroke|​widow|​widower
Boomers Want to Make Retirement Work
The articles that our readers gravitated to over the course of this year provide a window into baby boomers' biggest concerns about retirement.
Judging by the most popular blogs of 2019, they were very interested in the critical decision of when to claim Social Security and whether the money they have saved will be enough to last into old age.
Nearly half of U.S. workers in their 50s could potentially fall short of the income they'll need to live comfortably in retirement. So people are also reading articles about whether to extend their careers and about other ways they might fill the financial gap.
Here is a list of 10 of our most popular blogs in 2019. Please take a look!
Half of Retirees Afraid to Use Savings
How Long Will Retirement Savings Last?
The Art of Persuasion and Social Security
Social Security: the 'Break-even' Debate
Books: Where the Elderly Find Happiness
Second Careers Late in Life Extend Work …Learn More
tags 401k|​baby boomers|​career|​happiness|​psychology|​retirement|​savings|​Social Security|​widow
Boomers at 80: Housing Issues to Grow
The baby boom generation is continuing to work its way up the age ladder. The number of Americans over 80 will more than double to nearly 18 million over the next two decades.
And that's partly because baby boomers are healthier and are living longer – they are also enjoying more of their retirement years free of disability than previous generations. But unfortunately, boomers can't avoid the inevitability of their growing vulnerabilities and the impact this will have on their day-to-day lives. A new report by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies makes some sobering predictions about the issues the oldest retirees can expect to face in the future, from widening income inequality to more people living alone and in isolation.
The findings, taken together, point to a range of potential trouble spots revolving around housing our aging population.
As people get old, their spouses die, their bank accounts dwindle, and their rents keep rising. For these and other reasons, housing creates more of a cost burden at 80 than at 65. The Harvard housing center defines someone as cost-burdened if they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing. Today, nearly 60 percent of households over 80 fit this definition, and their absolute numbers will increase as more baby boomers reach that age. One place the financial strain shows up is food budgets: retirees who spend disproportionate amounts on housing spend half as much on food as people whose housing costs are under control. …
tags African-American|​disability|​Hispanic|​Housing|​HUD|​low income|​mortgage|​retirement|​Social Security|​widow
Readers Debate Retirement Issues
It's always interesting to see which Squared Away blogs get the strongest reaction from our readers. The June blog, "Husbands Ignore Future Widows' Needs," was one of them.
Some readers felt that the results of the study described in the article don't match up with their experiences. The researchers determined that husbands often are not sensitive to the fact that if they sign up for Social Security in their early 60s, they could be locking in a smaller survivor benefit one day for their widows.
"The elderly couples with whom I do retirement planning are typically very conscious of each other's needs," said a critic named Jerry.
But financial planner Kathleen Rehl has the opposite experience when working with couples. "Most couples hadn't previously known their options and ramifications of those choices," she said. "Such an important planning concept."
The blog was based on a study conducted for the Retirement and Disability Research Consortium – consortium studies by researchers around the country are featured regularly on Squared Away.
Here are other 2019 articles about the consortium's research on various retirement and labor market issues that readers weighed in on: …Learn More
tags labor force|​marriage|​retirement|​retirement policy|​Social Security|​widow|​work
Prevent Life Insurance Surprises
Angela Mahany was completely in the dark about how complicated her late husband's finances had become.
Dick Mahany, in a loving effort years ago to make sure she would be set financially when he died, had borrowed money from a whole life insurance policy that had built up a cash balance to buy a term life insurance policy payable at his death. But when he used up the whole life policy's value, he had to come up with enough cash to pay the premiums for both policies.
Angela discovered her husband had been doing this just a few months before he passed away in February 2017. By then, he was suffering the effects of Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War and could not help her figure out how to pay the premiums.
"When I was all of a sudden responsible for the finances, it blew my mind," Angela Mahany, 73, said.
Her finances were far more complicated than the circumstances most people can expect to face when they become widowed. But being uninformed about the life insurance is not unusual.
"A husband wants to be in control, and he'll take care of things," said Paul Brustowicz, a former insurance agent and a grief counselor at his church. "The problems occur when he does not tell his wife about everything or what's been done. Of course, this can also happen to a widower, if his wife handles the finances."
Brustowicz recalled one woman who walked into the insurance company where he used to work and informed the receptionist that she could no longer afford the premiums on her deceased husband's life insurance. The clerk looked up her policy number and confirmed her suspicion about the widow: rather than owe any money, she had $25,000 in death benefits coming to her. "The wife had no idea," Brustowicz said. …Learn More
tags life insurance|​personal finance|​widow|​widower
About Squared Away
Learn more about our blog and its writer, Kimberly Blanton, a former Boston Globe reporter.
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