Outliving your Money: Retiring with HIV
@ 5:52 am“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.” – Rabindranath Tagore
Here’s a “savings” stat to scare us as we head off to work on a Monday morning. According to Money magazine, “57% of workers age 45-50 have saved less than $50,000.” Earlier this year, I wrote a post about The Longevity Risk and outliving our money. While this is a valid concern for healthy people, how does it change when you’re living with an illness?
I recall a colleague telling me ten years ago in a very matter-of-fact way that he was HIV positive. Although the Grim Reaper wasn’t hanging out on his stoop, I remember him saying that he didn’t expect to live past fifty. We both recently turned forty and have remained friends. He’s been living a healthy life for over decade and I suspect he could live another two decades. He believes this too because at some point in his late thirties, he quit the circuit parties, saved money and bought a condo in Los Angeles. He started living and planning like someone with a future… a future where he didn’t want to be poor. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve always found the topic of net worth to be scary and frustrating, mostly because of the “worth” part in the term. It’s frightening to connect my knowledge and handling of money to any sort of measure of my worth as a person. If I were to base my worth solely on my assets, I probably wouldn’t feel too good about myself. I imagine that the shadowy meaning of “worth” is one of the many reasons why many people under 30 don’t want to look at their net worth.
they touched on a myriad of topics about preparing financially for the move from employee to entrepreneur. I highly recommend you listen to the complete interview if you even have an inkling about escaping from the land of cubicle dwelling.
Oddly, the topic of inheritance has come up in my conversations lately. One friend emailed this about her wish to buy a house. She said, “I will inherit my mother’s house one day but as you can imagine, I’m in no hurry for that day to come! I want to start building something myself.”
In 1969, the Stonewall Riots saw Manhattan’s West Village engulfed in brutality”and many historians mark the events as the beginning of the gay rights movement in the United States. And it was in November of 1978 that Harvey Milk, the San Francisco gay rights advocate, was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone. The ensuing White Night Riots were also a marker of the changes taking place as members of the gay community made their voices heard. Many of the men and women who marched and fought in these demonstrations are now seeing silver hairs on their heads and wondering where they will be spending their retirement years. And, it seems these seniors are carving out a niche for themselves in retirement the same way they had to in society decades ago”by building communities in which to support and nurture each other. 
On Monday, I 
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 
She lives on the east coast and works for one of the big investment banks as an account manager for their high net worth clients. She has a great gig and dashes around wealthy sections of LA and Orange County dishing out portfolio advice to an impressive list of business and entertainment executives.
This is a good question.
A few years back Jeanine started using my financial planner. Our advisor is a SmithBarney Certified Financial Planner that I met during a gay business seminar while living in Atlanta ten years ago. She’s not gay, but gay-friendly which is important to me and I’ve been very satisfied with her services over the years. Jeanine has been a bit more skeptical.
