I have a confession. I am overweight.
Like many Americans, I indulge a little more than I should when it comes to eating and nice cocktails. I exercise regularly (which is why I look more like a bouncer than Fat Albert), but I know deep down that if I really want to change the way I look and feel, I need to address my diet and fitness with more attention and seriousness.
One of the skills that I credit from my mom is that I am a pretty good cook, so I am not a slave to fast food and casual dining establishments. Here are a couple of my creations:
- Asian-Styled Short Ribs
- “Rif-Daddy” Wings
- Slow-Cooker Turkey Chili
- Kale Salad with a Tomato medley and Thumbelina Carrots
So, preparing meals is not an issue. Preparing the right ones in the right portions is the challenge. I have dabbled in going meatless (but not strict vegan or vegetarian), juicing and hitting the gym like a mad man. My typical results are a 20-pound drop here, a 30-pound drop there, and then I would shoot back up in weight when I stop the new routine.
My current journey has me incorporating a “lifestyle change”, where I look at everything that I do well (regarding living healthier) and find a way to do things that work in my everyday lifestyle. This includes (1) keeping eating out to a minimum (it was a remote occurrence when I was kid, so I am trying to get back to that paradigm), (2) increase water intake, (3) more FRESH fruits and vegetables incorporated into my daily diet, (4) keep processed foods to a minimum, (5) take a break on the bottle and (6) doing more cardiovascular exercise on a daily basis. The key is to try to find the combination of healthy behaviors that I can make into an overall healthier lifestyle, and do it before a doctor makes me do it. I’ll keep you posted on my progress, but if you have any ideas or success stories to add/share, please reach out to me and share the information. I would be eternally grateful.
Now on to the personal finance side to this post. What does weight and living a healthier lifestyle have to do with finances? Well, not be a buzzkill, while Americans today have better medical care and technologies, we are living more unhealthier lives (i.e., sedentary lifestyles and poor diets) vs. generations of the past. With current medical advances, people are living longer in the US, but not necessarily healthier. The costs associated with such unhealthy lives can be substantial, especially in retirement. When planning for retirement, one should take care to take stock of their health, their family’s hereditary history and factor this information into their planning to ensure that their assets can handle the potential impact of rising health care costs.
Health and Retirement … What’s the Connection?
Per a white paper produced by Fidelity Investments titled “America’s Lifetime Income Challenge”, many retirees who venture into retirement face the challenge of dealing with “rising health care costs”. These costs come to light for many, as they become solely responsible for their health care costs (vs. paying a fraction of the costs under an Employer Healthcare insurance plan or paying little to nothing under an Employer-provided Retirement Healthcare benefit). Therefore, many retirees who retire at Medicare-eligible ages find themselves paying for Medicare Part B (medical insurance), Medicare Part D (for prescriptions), and Medicare Part F (Supplemental Coverage) (or Medicare Part C/Advantage Plans, which A&B coverage and other benefits under a private insurance company) can find themselves facing health care costs in excess of $15,000 – 20,000/ year (medical care costs be as high as a third of a retiree’s household budget) . Per the report, “over a 30-year retirement, a couple may need $351,960 simply to cover maximum out-of pocket medical expenses not covered by Medicare”. And that’s for healthy retirees.
See the attached article on the topic here.
Poor health not only causes medical costs to be higher (from a prescription and out-of-pocket medical cost perspective), the chances other catastrophic expenditures such as Long-Term Care Costs become very real as the risk of stroke, diabetes, or dementia become magnified. Without Long-Term Care insurance, such an occurrence can decimate a family’s retirement nest egg and potentially place them at the mercy of state government programs such as Medicaid.
Helpful Hints
I am not a health professional, but I will do my best to provide some pointers to help you protect your retirement while making your life potentially more healthy in your golden years. Here it goes.
- Take a DNA test – With take-home tests that can map out your hereditary makeup, you can now get insight into sicknesses or diseases that you may be susceptible to and prepare accordingly.
- Change your lifestyle NOW – Start today. Seriously. Start walking to local destinations vs. driving. Crowd out your meals with fresh fruits and vegetables. Eat a healthy meal before going out for drinks with friends. Watch your alcohol intake (no more than 14 drinks a week spread out over the week) and keep fatty meats and seafood to a minimum. Moderation is the name of the game, so make small changes every day until you create the habits needed to change your life.
- Do a Retirement Financial Plan – Work with a financial advisor or financial planning software to estimate your planned income and expenses in retirement. You may want to run different scenarios that show spikes in medical care costs and the potential mitigation of such costs with insurances such as Long-Term Care Insurance. In any event, you should plan out the numbers and have a plan in place to deal with the outcome of such scenarios.
Thanks so much for tuning in. I really appreciate it.
SAM