Twila Van Leer

Avoid Retirement Glitches

June 3, 2015 By Twila Van Leer

When it comes to retirement, there are as many “don’ts”as there are “do’s.” Avoiding common mistakes in your retirement planning could help ease you into a happy situation.

Here are suggestions that will help you skirt the pitfalls:

When you consider retirement, don’t be in a hurry to start collecting Social Security. If you request that the monthly benefit start at age 62, the amount will be 76 percent less than if you wait until you are 70. Some people can’t afford to do that, but if you start planning well ahead of your expected retirement, you may be able to delay the initiation of Social Security payments at least for awhile. To determine how much benefit you can expect, visit aarp.org/social security benefits.

Don’t just quit working precipitously. Find a part-time job that you can enjoy and let it help fund your retirement years. It will help in the transition from the daily grind to more leisure and the less you have to dip into your savings, the longer they will last.

Don’t just expect that your lifespan will end shortly after you retire. More than half of Americans underestimate how long they will live. One way to ensure financial security if you live longer than you expect is to invest in a deferred-income annuity. You pay an insurance company a lump sum and then when you need it, you can draw an income from it. You can transfer up to $125,000 from an IRA or 401(k) to purchase an annuity and the amount is not included in mandatory withdrawals after you reach age 70.

It is likely your medical costs will increase with aging. Even when Medicare kicks in at age 65, there will be deductibles and other costs. Many of the elderly purchase a supplemental health care policy to cover the charges not covered by Medicare. To learn the expected costs for health care, visit aarp.org/hccc.

As retirement looms, be careful about making major financial expenditures. Think twice before spending large sums for your children’s education needs or getting them started in life. Large purchases such as a second home or expensive automobiles, etc. can make a large dent in retirement income.

Be aware that Medicare does not pay for long-term care. You might want to consider long-term care insurance if you don’t have family able to accommodate you in case you become ill.

Be wary of scams that target the elderly. After retirement, you don’t have the flexibility in your finances to recoup from a costly scam. Seek advice if you have questions about a proposal someone makes to you. Don’t act quickly. Ask credit reporting companies to put a freeze on your reports so unscrupulous thieves can’t open lines of credit in your name. Check your financial records frequently to spot any unauthorized transactions.

Work at simplifying your finances. Try to consolidate retirement accounts. Be careful not to multiply fees while you consolidate. Some financial firms lower fees for larger accounts.

Be certain that you have accounted for all of your possible retirement pensions. Start with the human relations department of the company from which you retired. If the company no longer exists, check with the Pension Guaranty Corp., which insures private pensions. That agency currently is holding some $280 million in unclaimed pensions owed to almost 40,000 individuals. Search for unclaimed pensions at pbgc.gov. Or contact the federal Employee Benefits Security Administration.

Pay attention to Medicare deadlines. A seven-month period, beginning three months before you turn 65, is allowed for you to sign on to the federal program. Late penalties and delayed coverage can result from failure to meet that deadline. Unless you have post-retirement coverage from your employer, you could find yourself with no health care coverage.

Don’t Be Scared of Retirement

3-D Printing Coming Into Its Own

May 24, 2015 By Twila Van Leer

As manufacturers catch on to the technology as faster and less expensive, 3-D printing is making significant inroads in the arena, applying it to high-volume manufacturing.

The updated methods are being used to produce a five-centimeter tall model of the Eiffel Tower, among a growing number of applications. A new additive manufacturing technology is 25 to 100 times faster than conventional 3-D printing, producing items such as parts that are stronger and less expensive to make.

Carbon3D, a start-up company founded in 2013, developed the method.

Continuous Liquid Interface Production — is a breakthrough technology that grows parts instead of printing them layer by layer. CLIP allows businesses to produce commercial quality parts at game-changing speeds, creating a clear path to 3D manufacturing.

3-D printing creates an object by depositing sequential layers of material. It isn’t as fast or as low-cost as conventional processes, but it lends itself to complex objects. Companies such as Carbon3D say it is fast enough to compete with usual mass manufacturing.

Watching a complex object rise, such as a geodesic ball, seemingly miraculously out of a layer of liquid, is convincing. The object appears continuously, rather than in discrete layers, so a finished item emerges faster. The materials are engineered to solidify when exposed to light. Under earlier 3-D processes, the laser must be turned off after each layer so more liquid can be spread out. This process slows the time to finished product and the interfaces between layers may be weak points in the finished product.

The newer technology is related to stereolithography, with a laser tracing a pattern on liquid. The Carbon 3D researchers, who are affiliated with North Carolina State University, figured out a way to make the process continuous, with no interfaces between layers, eliminating weak spots. Key is a modification in the liquid that prevents immediate solidification when exposed to light. A thin layer of oxygen temporarily stalls the chemical reactions leading to a solid.

Accelerated 3D printing crafts objects from a pool of material.

The process has been proven to work with a variety of commercial plastics and the research continues on different liquids. The North Carolina group has raised more than $41 million in venture funding to continue the work.

Predictions that 3-D printing would replace conventional manufacturing in the near future seem to be materializing faster than many would have predicted.

Effective Blood Tests For Cancer Coming

May 21, 2015 By Twila Van Leer

New, fast DNA sequencing technology may lead the way to what the medical world has long hoped for: a simple blood test that would detect cancer in its earliest, most treatable stages.

Confidence in the eventual widespread availability of such tests is being voiced in the medical community. For instance, Dr. Eric Topol, professor of genomics at the Scripps Research Institute, predicts that the DNA technology will become “the stethoscope for the next 200 years.”

Research labs around the world are studying the possibilities. The potential is based on the fact that dying cancer cells shed DNA into an individual’s blood. The amount is miniscule and is obscured by healthy DNA in the blood, so measuring is difficult. But the science holds promise for large-scale screening in the future.

Finding cancer early is the best indicator of successful treatment. In the United States, screenings such as mammograms and colonoscopies have marked clear success in curbing the death rates from breast and colon cancers.

The prospect of “liquid biopsies” would significantly increase the ability to find cancers early. The science also has prospects eventually to aid in treatment, since doctors would be able to pick a therapeutic drug based on the specific DNA mutation driving a cancer. That eventuality would make it possible to base treatment on simple blood tests rather than invasive biopsies.

Companies that produce fast gene-sequencing equipment already are anticipating a huge market ($40 billion is a figure bandied about) for their products..

But there is a lot of research ahead before valid claims can be made for the cancer-detection properties of the science. Because there are many types of cancer, the ability to detect the most common types will have to be proven. The researchers argue that if they can demonstrate success with common cancer types, the technology will go mainstream.

One Chinese physician deeply involved in the research has conducted a project with 20,000 middle-aged men in Hong Kong. The targeted form of cancer is nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a common type among Chinese men. Among the first 10,000 screened, the researchers found 17 cases of the cancer, 13 of them in the earliest, most treatable phase. Nearly all of those identified have been successfully treated with radiation. The typical survival rate is less than 70 percent when patients seek medical help based on advanced symptoms.

Such evidence of successful research gives hope to the eventual application worldwide. In the not-too-distant future, a blood test for cancer may be on the list of annual checkup items.

Adult Children Living At Home

May 20, 2015 By Twila Van Leer

People who expected to be empty-nesters when the last child became an adult are finding their children flocking back home. The younger generation is finding that living on their own costs more than they had anticipated. In 2012, surveys by the Pew Research Center showed that 36 percent of those 18 to 31 were living in their parents’ homes.

Parents seem to be willing. A poll of 2,000 adults indicated that 85 percent of them said they would welcome adult children back home if the situation called for it.

Given the current realities, financial experts are advising the parents not to move too quickly to downsize after the youngest child is in college.

When it happens, the trick is to be up front and firm about what you expect the back-home child to contribute to the new arrangement. Discuss things such as rent, help with food and/or utilities, cellphone charges, etc. etc. Be clear on how long you expect the arrangement to last. Many children grow up having little understanding of their parents’ financial realities. Now’s the time to share that information.

Don’t make the mistake of putting the child’s needs ahead of your own. That works when children are small, not so well when they are grown and have resources of their own. Their personal needs are their responsibility.

Of course, the multi-generational thing can work in both directions. It also is becoming more common for elderly individuals to move in with middle-age children. Again, careful assessment is key to a happy situation. Look at options and determine if having a parent or parents in your home is preferable to opting for senior or nursing home care. These services run the gamut to accommodate the ability of the elderly person to care for himself or herself.

Assisted living and health care facilities can be pricey. Look at options. If the parents own a home, it may be wise to sell it to finance living arrangements for their older years. Social Security and/or pensions should be drawn on to help with the costs. If the resources fall short of paid care expenses, you may have no choice but to open your home to elderly family members.

Don’t move too quickly. Look realistically at how having an older person in your home could affect your family’s usual activities. And plan accordingly so the older person can be made a contributing and happy member of the household. If there are siblings, the responsibility for aging parents should be shared.

Retirement Coming? Be Sure You’re Ready

May 19, 2015 By Twila Van Leer

For many workers, retirement seems an ethereal, distant eventuality that doesn’t require much thought. Don’t you believe it. It comes and it comes sooner than most Americans are ready for it.

According to a USA Today article, about a third of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings and investments to fund their retirement, aside from a home and defined benefit plans such as pensions. Fifty-seven percent say they have less then $25,000 set aside for retirement, a survey taken by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald and Associations noted. Their research results match those generated by other researchers.

Many pin their hopes for a financially secure retirement on working beyond the usual retirement age. But, again, the research shows that isn’t realistic. Some 50 percent of workers leave the workplace before retirement age, 60 percent of that number because of health problems and 27 percent because the nature of their work conditions has changed. Their company has downsized or closed entirely in many instances. Only 23 percent of retirees actually report having continued to work for pay.

Things don’t always work out. It’s better to save now than to rely on nebulous chances to work longer later, the experts advise. How many years you are eligible for a retirement plan through your work is one of the best indictors of how well you will fare financially after retirement.

In the EBRI survey, only 14 percent of those questioned said they felt secure about retirement. They had retirement plans. Conversely, 44 percent who had no retirement plans were concerned about the ability to adequately prepare for retirement.

Many workers simply fail to think about retirement at all. Fewer than half of those surveyed said they and/or their spouses had tried to calculate how much money they would have at retirement. The greatest excuses for failing to save is the cost of living and day-to-day expenses. Debt also is a factor, with 51 percent indicating they had a problem with the level of debt they had incurred. Almost 70 percent of those surveyed said they thought they could save an additional $25 per week more than they currently are doing, but they would have to sacrifice something, such as meals out, to do it. They were advised that the additional savings would amount to some $1,300 a year. But you can’t wait until retirement is imminent to do it.

Bottom line, the experts advise, is living within your means and starting to save early. Ignoring the potential problems until it’s too late serves no purpose. Many financial institutions offer help in calculating what your saving should be to assure a comfortable retirement. The alternative is to plan on spending much less than you earned on the job, live largely on Social Security and seeing savings dwindle quickly after you retire.

Twila Van Leer

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