Blog Post: Your Concerns Are Changing, So Should Your Longevity Plan [Best Practices]

Title: Your Concerns Are Changing, So Should Your Longevity Plan 

Keyword: Longevity Plan

Meta Description: A longevity plan is a better strategy for your financial plan than just thinking about traditional retirement planning. As your concerns shift, so should your plan.

Page Title: Longevity Plan, Not Retirement Plan | Financial Planning

_____________________________________________________________________

Your Concerns Are Changing, So Should Your Longevity Plan 

While preparing for retirement, it’s likely that you will have a myriad of retirement concerns. This is normal, and even healthy, as it shows that you’ve put thought into your upcoming lifestyle. But we live in a rapidly evolving society and the concerns of past retirees, or even you, today, might not be the same as they are in the future. 

The Cost of Health Care

While the rising costs of medical care might not worry everyone, to retirees they are very real threats to a placid retirement. With amazing advances in medical technology, doctors have been able to keep people alive longer than ever before, but this is not without expense. At a minimum, the longer you live, the more money you will need to have to sustain your lifestyle. 

Furthermore, as you age, you may require more regular or advanced medical care. Surviving a stroke is a wonderful advancement in medicinal practice, the ongoing financial burden of your survival, however, is something that can turn a peaceful retirement into a fiscal nightmare. Make sure to give thought to living very late in life so that you are at least marginally prepared for it should the time arrive. 

Understanding your own longevity is a crucial part of understanding your own needs in retirement. [link to HALO page]

Having the Tough Conversations

Having tough conversations with your financial planner can be challenging, but having a trusted guide through this time in your life can play a crucial role in setting you up for success. 

We don’t just provide commodities, we are your partner in planning. We can help you think about big, tough life decisions, most of which revolve around family and getting the family involved.

Cognitive Decline and Technological Advances

Keeping up with technology and safeguarding against modern malices are proving to be concerns as well. No one will be able to keep their cognitive function in high-caliber forever and criminals are well aware. This, coupled with new and changing technology for finances, makes retirees a prime target. You should have a plan for determining fraudsters or scammers from people who genuinely want to help. Children, or even grandkids are great resources. Determine if you have a support network of those who can decipher scams before they take you off guard. 

Criminals aren’t the only threat to someone cognitively declining. As the brain ages, you may forget to pay bills or service fees. Similarly you may forget to maintain certain things on your property or your own health that lead to large one-time costs that weren’t expected. Look to identify maintenance issues before they come to a head or plan for a child or friend to keep an eye out for them. 

What Once Worked is Not Enough

Finally, it’s realistic to expect that 401ks and Social Security benefits will not be as useful as they once were. No one can predict the future, but as we enter a new age of economic activity, financial bedrocks like Social Security may change drastically. This particularly applies to women (who tend to live longer) as they will only be able to collect a larger Social Security check of their own or their husband’s check. This will likely not replace the income of two Social Security checks and should be planned for accordingly. 

No one has a crystal ball, but if you are diligent in retirement preparations, you will be more likely to weather the changing world of retirement concerns.