SafeMoney 7-13-24

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good Saturday morning to all. Onthis second Saturday in July. Dick Shelick
here and this is safe Money.We are here every Saturday. We've been
here for a long time now talkingabout keeping money, especially valuable retirement money,
keeping this money safe from the risksin life, and those risks have

(00:23):
become more real as we age.Before I go on, I want to
remind you all that Labor Day isin only fifty one days, and Labor
Day brings the thirtieth anniversary of theRun with Carl on September second, So

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check the Facebook for the nice,nice pictures and display of the Run with
Carl, and don't forget to getthat special thirtieth anniversary T shirt as well,
so check into with Carl dot com. I want to remind you that
your online Social Security Statement is nowavailable. I got a letter in mail

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the other day or online. Ithink I got the notification as a stream
and it's an announcement that the SocialSecurity Statement is more streamlined and more easier
to read than ever before. Thisis because Social Security has redesigned the statement
to provide you the most useful informationfrom and easy to read as well.

(01:38):
So I encourage you to check yourstatement and do this at least once a
year. You should do this,so to go to wwwsoi Security dot gov
forward slash review your statement. Thatis www. Social Security dot gov forward
slash review your statement. Okay,the market report. First thing this morning.

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The market is very, very volatilethis morning. It's all over the
place. So it could be agood thing, could be a bad thing.
I don't know. But what Ido know is that my clients who've
invested in the security of those annuitieshave not suffered any risk or any losses

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on the market. So let's goto that annuity website to get some more
additional information. Go to my website. Go to www. Dickshillig dot com
and scroll over to the contact iconfor my email address and for a market

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report that is there as well.You know, last week we began talking
about the risk our assets face,our retirement assets face, and especially we
begin talking about the risk that thoseretirement assets face with long term care costs.

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So I'd like to pick up onthat topic this morning and continue talking
about the risk of long term carecosts to our assets. Now, first
of all, I want to remindyou next week is an important week because
Craig presents his virtual communities focusing onMedicare and the choices we have with the

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original Medicare or the choice of anadvantage plan. So next Tuesday, July
sixteenth, Craig will discuss the basicsof Medicare and then concentrate on the Medicare
supplement plans and the prescription drug plansavailable in this Medicare region. Two days

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later, on Thursday, July eighteenth, Craig will again review the basics of
Medicare and then focus on the alternativechoice you have with Medicare, and that
alternative choice is Medicare Part C.That's the advantage plan, and what we
believe is the more competitive of theadvantage plans, and that plan is the

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AAARP Medicare Advantage Plan offered by UnitedHealthcare. Don't forget, these meetings are
next week. So if you haveaging into so if you are aging,
inosings are next week. So ifyou're turning sixty five sometime this year,
sometime in twenty twenty four yet andbecoming eligible for Medicare, I know you're

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receiving lots of solicitation requests from lotsof different insurance companies. Gosh, there
are ten Medicare supplement plans and youget to pick one of those ten blans.
There are eighteen prescription drug plans,you get to pick one of those
eighteen plans. And further, thereare eight Medicare advantage plans available and you

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get to pick one of these.So how do you make sense of all
these choices? Well, these meetingsnext week will help you understand the choices
we have. So if you areaging into Medicare, or if you would
like to review the choices we have, these meetings will be most beneficial for
you. Remember, meetings are heldvirtually, so you remain in the privacy

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of your own home. You useyour own computer equipment to tune into these
meetings. That's what we'll be doingnext week. So give us a call
call me at five six three threethree two twenty two hundred, or go
to my website. Go to Wwwdikshilligdot com and when that website opens,

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scroll over to the contact icon formy email address. So, in addition
to Medicare, one of the exclusionsthe exclusions of Medicare is the cost of
long term care. So we begantalking about long term care last week and

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I'd like to continue talking about thisrisk to our retirement assets. And this
risk is there for all retirees andpre retires, but especially to persons as
we age. One of the exclusionsexclusions for Medicare is the cost of long

(06:42):
term care. Costs of long termcare is an exclusion for Medicare, and
an exclusion for Medicare advantage plans andan exclusion for Medicare. So we've discussed
long term care costs over the pastseveral safe money programs here and I like
to continue that discussion this morning.Costs of long term care are excluded from

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Medicare, and as a result ofthis exclusion, I often recommend clients acquire
a long term care insurance policy.Now, what is a long term care
What is long term care insurance?Long term care insurance is one way you
may pay for long term care costs. This type of insurance will pay or

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reimburse you for some of your longterm care costs. It was introduced originally
in the nineteen eighties as nursing homeinsurance, but now often cover services in
other facilities like assistant living facilities andhome healthcare. Now I am a shopper's

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guide for long term care, andthat Shopper's Guide gives you information about long
term care. If you'd like tohave a copy of that long term care
Shopper's Guide, please give me acall. Call me at five six three
three three two twenty two hundred andwe'll be happy to get that Shopper's Guide

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to you. A federal law,which is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act of nineteen ninety six, givesome federal income tax advantages to people who
buy certain long term care insurance policies. These policies are called tax qualified,

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tax qualified long term care insurance policies, or simply qualified policies. The tax
advantage of these policies are outlined foryou. If you'd like to have that
information, please call me. I'llbe happy to get you to that Page

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ten of the Shopper's Guide outlines specificallyfor you. There may be other tax
advantages too, and that is outlinedin the Shopper's Guide, so you should
you should check with your insurance companythat you're dealing with to determine the tax
advantages of that long term care policy, especially for tax qualified policies. Now,

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do I need to buy long termcare insurance. Whether you should buy
long term care insurance policy depends upona lot of things. It depends upon
your age, It depends upon yourhealth, It depends upon your overall retirement
goals, income and assets. Pleasereview the personal Assessment and Tax care policy

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checklist starting on page thirty six ofthis shopper's guide to help you German whether
buying long term care insurance is rightfor your decision. However, carefully consider
whether buying a policy makes financial sense, because if you can't afford the premium

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or aren't sure, you can paythe premium, including any increases, for
the rest of your life. Soif you already have health problems that could
lead to long term care, forexample, if you have Alzheimer's disease or
Parkinson's disease, you probably won't beable to buy a policy. Insurance companies

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have medical underwriting standards which keeps thecost of long term care insurance affordable.
So if companies don't have these standards, most people won't buy long term care
insurance until they need long term care. In some states, a regulation requires

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the insurance coming and the agent togo through a personal worksheet with you,
so the long term care personal worksheetis contained in this shopper's Guide for long
Term Care to help you decide iflong term care insurance is right for you.
It also asks you questions about yourincome and your savings and investments to

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help with your decision. Some statesrequire you to fill out the worksheet and
send it to the insurance company.Even if you aren't required to fill out
the worksheet, it might help youdetermine if long term care insurance is right
for you. Remember, not everyoneshould buy long term care insurance, nor

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rely solely on long term care insuranceto pay for the costs of long term
care. For some a policy isaffordable and worth the cost. For others,
it may be unaffordable, and itshould be not worth the cost to
you. So if the only wayyou can afford to pay for it is

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not to pay other insurance bills,then look closely at your needs and resources.
Talk with family members, too,a friend, or a trusted and
knowledgeable financial professional to decide if longterm care insurance is right for you.
Is long term care insurance right foryou? You should not consider buying long

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term care insurance first of all,if you can't afford to pay the premium
Secondly, if you don't have manyassets, you should not buy long term
care insurance policy. Third if youronly source of income is a social Security
benefit or supplement of security income,then you should not buy a long term

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care policy. You often have troublepaying for utilities, food, medicine,
or other important needs, you shouldnot not buy long term care insurance policies
if you are on If you arealready on Medicaid, you should not buy
long term care insurance policies. Now, you may want to consider buying long

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term care insurance. If you havemany assets and a good income source,
you may want to consider buying longterm care insurance. If you want to
use most of your assets and incometo pay for long term care, you
may want to buy long term careinsurance if you can afford to pay the

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insurance premium, including possible premium increases, and boy, that's a big item,
premium increases over their years. Youdon't want to burden family or friends
with the cost of your care,so that may be a reason for buying

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long term care insurance. If aftercareful thought, you decide that long term
care insurance is right for you,check out the company, check out the
agent if one is involved. Beforeyou buy a policy, you may have
questions about licensing, contact your stateinsurance department and you can acquire that state

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insurance department simply by going online andtrying to access the h I have a
department of Insurance or the Illinois Departmentof Insurance, and the wealth of information
that is given there on that websiteis just very very helpful. So if
I can help you with that,please feel free to give me a call

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at I six three three three twotwenty two hundred, or give me a
email, drop me an email andget my email addressed by going to my
website and pick that email address up. What types of policies or contracts can
I provide that provide long term carebenefits or coverages? Boy, there's many

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many different kinds now. Private insurancecompanies sell long term care insurance policies.
You can buy an individual policy froman agent through the mail or by telephone,
or you can buy long term carecoverage under a group land, through
an employer, or through membership inan association. The federal government and several

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state governments offer long term care insurancecoverage to their employees, retirees, and
to their family members. These programsare voluntarily are voluntary and participants pay the
premium. You also can get longterm care benefits through some life insurance policies

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now individual life insurance policies. Manyindividual life insurance policies that are acquired today
have a benefit for long term carepurposes, and you may want to consider
that type of a policy. Itis a life insurance policy that provides both

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life insurance coverage or and or itprovides long term care insurance policies. You
can also acquire an individual policy.Individual policies are available through insurance agents or
through a long term care insurance company, so you can acquire individual long term

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care insurance policies. You can acquirelong term care insurance sometimes through an employer
or sometimes through a retire benefit.The larger the employer the sometimes the more
benefits that they offer that that employeroffers for their retirees for long term care

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purposes. Oftentimes annuities. Some longterm care annuities provides long term care costs
within their annuity arrangement, so youcan consider those if you find out to
be helpful for you. If Ican help you with that, please call

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me Call me at five sixty threethree three two twenty two hundred or email
me Email me at at my emailaddress. Go to www Ticshillick dot com
and scroll over to the contact iconand drop that icon down for my email
address. Send me information about yourself. But I encourage you don't overlook long

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term care costs. Remember those costsare an exclusion. They're not paid by
Medicare, they're not paid by Medicaid, they're not paid by Medicare supplement insurance.
They are paid by a special longterm care insurance policy. And the
time to look for those long termcare insurance policies are now that the younger

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you are, the more affordable thosecosts will be. And we have to
look at long term care as beinga realistic, a realistic threat, and
a realistic risk to our financial resources. Long term care costs are especially a

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risk for married couples. So ifone partner in a marriage is long term
care disabled and spends money of theirassets for the costs of that care,
then what is left for the survivingspouse after that? So that's the benefit
of long term care insurance. Longterm care insurance is especially affordable and especially

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reasonable for married couples. To consider. Long term care costs are a real
risk, a risk to our retirementassets, and so I encourage you to
really really consider long term care costsin your planning for retirement, in your
planning in retirement as well. Iencourage you to go to that website,

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go to long term Care costs dotcom and get an idea of what the
costs of care are in your region. Because there is a list of facilities
that provide for long term care,facilities for nursing home costs, facilities for

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assisted living costs, facilities that providehome healthcare as well. So look at
the costs of all those. Ohmy gosh, there's a tremendous cost those
long term care and that is areal risk to our retirement assets. So
I encourage you to take a look, take a look at that and give

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me a call. If I canhelp, call me at five sixty three
three three two twenty two hundred andgive me a call. BE happy to
talk with you about your situation.You know, listeners, I always talk
with you about those barograph charts thatwe construct from the Yahoo dot com website,

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and we have those as of thosethose market performance arts are available,
and I track that market from thebeginning of the latter part of the decade
of the nineteen nineties. I dothat from the latter part of the decade

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of the nineteen nineties because it wasabout that time that I was introduced to
these index annuities and indexinuities and indexinuityshares. In the growth of the market
shares in the gains of the stockmarket, it does not share name the
losses of the market. So ifyou take a look at these charts,

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and when I go over these chartswith clients, I have my office where
they can relate to the years ofthe latter part of the decade of the
nineteen nineties, ninety seven, ninetyeight, ninety nine, when the market
was doing very very well, atan average of about twenty or twenty two
percent gain each of those years.Then in the turn of the century,

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in the year two and boy,what happened. We had three consecutive years
of market downturns and big time downturnsin two thousand and one, two thousand
and two, two thousand and three. Those three consecutive years, the Dow
Jones Industrial lost close to a thirtypercent loss. During those three years,

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time. Boy, If we lookat the Nasdaq and the Nasdaq one hundred
indexes, we're looking at it closeto a eighty or a ninety percent loss
during those three years. If welook at the S and P five hundred,
we're looking at still a forty tofifty percent loss during those three years

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of the decade of the nineteen nineties. Now and the following year in two
thousand and three, we had somegains. We had some nice gains,
nice gains in the Nasdaq, nicegains on the s P five hundred,
and nice gains on the Dow.But when we have those losses that we've

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incurred, those gains in one yeardo not replace those losses that are consistent.
And I'd like to talk about myclients that they did not lose money
during those three years of the latterpart of the decade of the nineteen nineties
because they were invested in our indexannuities. And remember, our index annuities

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do not share in the losses inthe market. The indexinuities shares in the
gains of the market only. Furthermore, we have an index annuity today that
is paying a thirty five percent thirtyfive percent bonus on money that you invest
in that annuity. Now, there'spros and cons to any investment plan.

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There's pros and cons of course,to the indexinuities. The biggest advantage,
of course, says that bonus thirtyfive percent bonus is a nice syke.
It's a nice bonus. But thereis disadvantages too, And the biggest disadvantage
is the holding period on the annuity. That annuity has a ten year required

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holding period, so that is importantto consider now. Within that holding period,
though, some indexinuities allow you towithdraw after the first year up to
ten percent of the account value,so that's important, and you can do
that every year. You can withdrawup to ten percent of the account value

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every year. Now, if themoney is qualified money in that indexinuity,
then of course that's one hundred percenttaxable. That withdraw as one hundred percent
taxable. If it's a non qualifiedindexinuity, then there is a good portion
of that money which is not taxable. So I'd like to talk with you

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about the difference between qualified money andnon qualified money and that makes a big,
big, huge difference on your rateof tax that you have. So
give me a call call me afive' sixty three three three two twenty two
hundred and ask for a copy ofthose paragraph charts. I'll be happy to
send those to you. Send thoseto you via mail or via email,

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but I prefer that we sit downand we talk about your situation and talk
about the market downturns that we've hadand the risk that your retirement assets have
with the market. So that's aboutall I have for you this morning.
I look forward to hearing from you, so please call me anytime and then

(25:55):
we'll talk to you again next week. Have a good, good weekend,
good day.