Queercents

Write down three words along the left margin of a piece of paper. You will want to remember these words, as they are the collective key to unlocking a financial debacle that is imprisoning our nation. Simple, easy to remember, yet seemingly impossible for some to internalize:

• Risk
• Cost
• Solution

Risk
The risk to which I am referring affects 60% sixty percent of all Americans, according to the Social Security Administration. The risk is that you will not be able to complete two of these next six Activities of Daily Living (ADL). You should write these down, too. Read the rest of this entry »

“Younger people can feel confident that Social Security will still be around when they need it to cushion their retirement.” – Ronald Reagan, 1982

Around this time of year, I receive my Social Security Statement and typically, I just scan the estimated benefit and toss it in the file with my tax records. This weekend I actually decided to read all four pages and check out the links on the Social Security Administration website… I hope your weekend was a tad more exciting. Jesus enjoyed his hoopla while I caught up on my blogging and social security benefits… which are greatly diminished in our household because we are gay and not legally married. Read the rest of this entry »

“To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.” – Bernard M. Baruch

Learning to Love Growing Old is a dated, but useful article that appeared in Psychology Today back in 1994. Jere Daniel writes, “We fear and deny aging, because we fear and deny death. In our denial of death and the aging of the body, we have rejected the wisdom of the aged, and in doing so have robbed old age of its meaning and youth of its direction.”

“We pretend that old age can be turned into a kind of endless middle age, thereby giving young people a false road map to the future, one that does not show them how to plan for their whole life, gain insight into themselves, or to develop spiritually.” Read the rest of this entry »

“Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.” – Epicurus

With all the talk about how Baby Boomers are ill-equipped for retirement, I find it interesting that at the same time, there’s been a push to get them to think about pre-need funeral planning for either themselves or their aging parents.

Robert Powell at CBS Marketwatch wrote an article called: A Crying Need for Funeral Planners about how death-planning services are an unaddressed market in U.S. I guess this means that many people are still avoiding the issue. Read the rest of this entry »