Long-term care can dismantle a well planned retirement plan. Many people believe that a federal program such as Medicare or Medicaid will pay for their care, or veterans hope the VA will cover the cost of care. These programs, however, primarily cover medical procedures or rehabilitative care.
Long-term care requires custodial care, which is defined as the assistance or supervision that a person who is physically or cognitively impaired needs in order to get through the day. With few exceptions, no federal or state program will pay for custodial assistance over an extended period of years. The family therefore is forced to pay out of pocket.
While you still may believe that you have enough assets to pay for care, relying on your retirement portfolio to pay for care is a problem. It is problematic because it has likely been committed to generating income to support your family’s lifestyle. If you have to reallocate your retirement assets to pay for care, you reduce the generation of monthly income. It can also cause other consequences such as:
Taxes: What would it cost to sell your qualified funds or taxable investments with a low cost basis?
Market Conditions: What if your investments need to sold in a down market?
Liquidity: Could you sell your assets, and if so, would you incur a loss?
If your illness or condition lasted long enough, it could threaten the financial viability of your surviving spouse and/or those who may depend on an inheritance.
I would like to thank Harley Gordon and his staff at http://www.ltc-cltc.com/ for providing a great deal of the information for this essay. If you want to learn more about extended care planning, go to my website, www.TheDeGeorgeAgency.com, and let’s get a conversation started about how I can help you. You can also become a subscriber to my blog (http://www.degeorgeagency.blogspot.com/). The DeGeorge Agency is a “Family Helping Families.”
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
“The Consequences of Needing Care”
You have likely seen the statistics that talk about the risk of needing long-term care as you age. And like most, you’ve told yourself “It will never happen to me.” You may very well be right. But what if you are not? Rather than focus on the risk of an event happening to you, take a moment to consider the consequences that providing care over an extended period of years would have on the emotional, physical and financial wellbeing of those you have promised to take care of.
When asked, many think long-term care is about nursing homes. The reality is that long-term care is not a place, but a full-scale response to an event or condition. It describes the care you need if you become incapacitated, either physically or cognitively, due to a degenerative disease like diabetes, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s or an incident such as a stroke. By definition these conditions severely compromise your ability to get through the most basic of daily routines. In reality, the need for long-term care is a safety issue that requires 24 hour a day attention.
Since you are no longer safe, those you love are forced to restructure their lives to ensure your safety. The change in lifestyle and the stress of your slow degeneration can have a devastating impact on their emotional and physical wellbeing. You may not want your spouse or children to set aside their lives, but respectfully, what choice would they have? Long-term care doesn’t happen to you. It happens to people you love. Simply put, if you ever need long-term care your life is not going to end, someone else’s life is going to end.
I would like to thank Harley Gordon and his staff at http://www.ltc-cltc.com/ for providing a great deal of the information for this essay. If you want to learn more about extended care planning, go to my website, www.TheDeGeorgeAgency.com, and let’s get a conversation started about how I can help you. You can also become a subscriber to my blog (http://www.degeorgeagency.blogspot.com/). The DeGeorge Agency is a “Family Helping Families.”
When asked, many think long-term care is about nursing homes. The reality is that long-term care is not a place, but a full-scale response to an event or condition. It describes the care you need if you become incapacitated, either physically or cognitively, due to a degenerative disease like diabetes, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s or an incident such as a stroke. By definition these conditions severely compromise your ability to get through the most basic of daily routines. In reality, the need for long-term care is a safety issue that requires 24 hour a day attention.
Since you are no longer safe, those you love are forced to restructure their lives to ensure your safety. The change in lifestyle and the stress of your slow degeneration can have a devastating impact on their emotional and physical wellbeing. You may not want your spouse or children to set aside their lives, but respectfully, what choice would they have? Long-term care doesn’t happen to you. It happens to people you love. Simply put, if you ever need long-term care your life is not going to end, someone else’s life is going to end.
I would like to thank Harley Gordon and his staff at http://www.ltc-cltc.com/ for providing a great deal of the information for this essay. If you want to learn more about extended care planning, go to my website, www.TheDeGeorgeAgency.com, and let’s get a conversation started about how I can help you. You can also become a subscriber to my blog (http://www.degeorgeagency.blogspot.com/). The DeGeorge Agency is a “Family Helping Families.”
Monday, September 13, 2010
Is your Broker Worth the Expense? Part 5: I Teach People How to Make Investment Choices and How to Trade!
In my last blog, I continued with “Is your Broker Worth the Expense? Part 4: Education is the Key to Independence and Success!” (http://www.degeorgeagency.blogspot.com/). Teaching people how to become financially independent was my topic. Today in part 5, I will finish the series by clearly defining the difference between my services and the services provided by a broker.
First and foremost, I want to clearly state that there are some excellent brokers and brokerage houses; I know some very good brokers, and I actually have my father working with one. Secondly, Merrill Lynch, who is considered to be in the top tier of full-service brokers, recently launched its Merrill Edge platform (http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/merrill-edge-latest-discount-broker-free-equity-etf-trades/). Merrill’s progressive move has propelled them into the online discount brokers’ space as well. To my knowledge, their recent launch makes them the first of the full-service brokerage houses to compete in the discount brokerage venue. Merrill is attempting to effectively dominant “new and old money” in the stock market. Their move provides an insight into the future of equity and debt trading. Trading will be cheaper, and Merrill will provide service to those who want a broker, or to those who want to do their own online trading.
My niche is to teach interested parties to determine a means for evaluating their investment choices, and for teaching them the logistics of online trading. I do not provide investment advice; I teach people how to choose investments which are appropriate for their unique situation. After five years of research, I have effectively married Warren Buffet’s undervalued investing strategy with Nassim Nicholas Taleb's out-of-the-money option trading (http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/). For individuals, who have no interest in doing their own trading (i.e. my father), feel free to contact me for suggestions about choosing a broker. If, however, you want to learn a system which is the best I’ve ever seen or used, feel free to contact me regarding your investing education. I Teach People How to Make Investment Choices and how to trade!
If you would like to learn more about my education process, go to my website, www.TheDeGeorgeAgency.com, and let’s get a conversation started about how I can help you. You can also become a subscriber to my blog (http://www.degeorgeagency.blogspot.com/). The DeGeorge Agency is a “Family Helping Families.”
First and foremost, I want to clearly state that there are some excellent brokers and brokerage houses; I know some very good brokers, and I actually have my father working with one. Secondly, Merrill Lynch, who is considered to be in the top tier of full-service brokers, recently launched its Merrill Edge platform (http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/merrill-edge-latest-discount-broker-free-equity-etf-trades/). Merrill’s progressive move has propelled them into the online discount brokers’ space as well. To my knowledge, their recent launch makes them the first of the full-service brokerage houses to compete in the discount brokerage venue. Merrill is attempting to effectively dominant “new and old money” in the stock market. Their move provides an insight into the future of equity and debt trading. Trading will be cheaper, and Merrill will provide service to those who want a broker, or to those who want to do their own online trading.
My niche is to teach interested parties to determine a means for evaluating their investment choices, and for teaching them the logistics of online trading. I do not provide investment advice; I teach people how to choose investments which are appropriate for their unique situation. After five years of research, I have effectively married Warren Buffet’s undervalued investing strategy with Nassim Nicholas Taleb's out-of-the-money option trading (http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/). For individuals, who have no interest in doing their own trading (i.e. my father), feel free to contact me for suggestions about choosing a broker. If, however, you want to learn a system which is the best I’ve ever seen or used, feel free to contact me regarding your investing education. I Teach People How to Make Investment Choices and how to trade!
If you would like to learn more about my education process, go to my website, www.TheDeGeorgeAgency.com, and let’s get a conversation started about how I can help you. You can also become a subscriber to my blog (http://www.degeorgeagency.blogspot.com/). The DeGeorge Agency is a “Family Helping Families.”
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Is your Broker Worth the Expense? Part 4: Education is the Key to Independence and Success!
(Please note that the blog that was submitted earlier today had a typo in it the first word that read 'I' instead of 'IN'. This was an error by the admin person submitting the blog and not intended by the author of the blog.)
In my last blog I continued with Part 3 of “Is your Broker Worth the Expense? Planning Is Important”. I wrote about my experience with so-called financial plans in the brokerage world. Today in part 4, I will write about the importance of education.
My professional background revolves around teaching young adults how “to think” and play competitive games. More specifically, I have taught 18-22 year olds how to develop their thinking skills by improving their reading and writing and have taught the males how to play football. The DeGeorge agency specializes in teaching people how to “Build Personal Equity,” “Plan for Extended Care,” and “Buy Undervalued Stocks and Sell Puts in the Stock Market.”
My clients are interested in learning how to handle their own financial affairs and how to become responsible for their retirement and financial future. I am a teacher and coach. Metaphorically, I believe in teaching a person how to fish so he/she can feed his/her family for a lifetime. Educating you on how to become financially independent is what I do. EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO INDEPENDENCE AND SUCCESS.
If you would like to learn more about my education process, go to my website, www.TheDeGeorgeAgency.com, and let’s get a conversation started about how I can help you. You can also become a subscriber to my blog. The DeGeorge Agency is a “Family Helping Families.”
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