Archive for the ‘crisis’ Category

Hurricane Season and Your Records. Huh?

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

It’s hurricane season, and depending on where you live, it’s a cause for preparation, or just another couple of months on the calendar. Well, no matter where you live, hurricane season is a great reason to safeguard all your important papers (and if you have a business, do it for the business too). My friend, CPA, Linda Hamilton offers the following tips:

Create a Backup Set of Records Electronically. Taxpayers should keep a set of backup records in a safe place. The backup should be stored away from the original set.

  • Keeping a backup set of records – including, for example, bank statements, tax returns, insurance policies, etc. – is easier now that many financial institutions provide statements and documents electronically, and much financial information is available on the Internet.
  • You might also want to add copies of your passport, drivers licence, even credit cards.
  • Even if the original records are provided only on paper, they can be scanned, which converts them to a digital format.
  • Once documents are in electronic form, taxpayers can download them to a backup storage device, like an external hard drive, thumb drive, or burn them onto a CD or DVD.
  • Taxpayers should consider online backup, which is the only way to ensure data is fully protected. With online backup, files are stored in another region of the country – so if a hurricane or other natural disaster occurs, documents remain safe (I use Carbonite).
  • Document Valuables. Another step a taxpayer can take to prepare for disaster is to photograph or videotape the contents of his or her home, especially items of higher value. A photographic record can help prove the market value of items for insurance and casualty loss claims. Photos and videos should be stored with a friend or family member who lives outside the area, or can also be stored online. Putting the videos on YouTube, is probably not a great idea…
  • Update Emergency Plans. Emergency plans should be reviewed annually. Personal and business situations change over time, as do preparedness needs.
  • Don’t put it off. The next rainy day, is a good day to do it.

And don’t forget this week’s Blogging Boomers Carnival. Where else can you get info on everything from PSA tests to why you should be on LinkedIn?

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Posted in aging, boomers, business, crisis, people, taxes | 1 Comment »

What’s the 40/70 Rule, and How Does it Affect You?

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Do you know what the 40/70 rule is? If you have aging parents, you should. Here’s what you need to know to protect your family.The rule says when you are 40 or one of your parents are 70, it’s time to start talking about how they see their future, and what their options might be. This is the time to discuss health,  living options, finances, driving ability, or at the very least, open the door to future talks. While we’ll talk about almost anything else. too often we all end up putting these important conversations off until a crisis ensues. You know nothing good ever happens when you’re planning with your back up against the wall.

If you’ve had these conversations, how did you get started? What worked or didn’t?

With my parents, I first started out trying to get them to put together their will, health care proxies, power of attorney etc. What ended up working was that I had taken care of my own directives, and could leverage that (a bit). It took a long time and a lot of cajoling, but they did take action. More recently, I wanted them to start to think about what they would do if it became difficult for them to maneuver in their homes. So I just asked them to think about what they would want to do, if they couldn’t climb stairs.

The irony of this, is that late last week, my husband wrenched his knee playing tennis. Dealing with the stairs in our country house, not to mention the manual transmission on the sports car, is agony. You never know what’s going to happen, so the very best thing is to start the conversations early and often. Otherwise you may need the services of someone like Jane Beddall, of Dovetail Resolutions, a family mediator. When we sat down on Wednesday, she was the one who reminded me of the 40/70 rule, and how often she’s called in because families refuse to talk about their wishes.

Don’t forget to check out springtime in the Rockies, this week’s Blogging Boomers Carnival. Lots of good posts this week!

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Posted in aging, boomers, conversation, crisis, directives, driving, family, health, parents | 1 Comment »

Hike 4 Hope. Will you please support a great event?

Monday, February 8th, 2010

This week’s blog is about a great event, Hike 4 Hope (that unfortunately I cannot attend this year). My friend Leslie wrote this earlier this week, and I think it says it all. Please give what you can to our team.

“My business partner, Eileen Stern, is an amazing can do woman.  Having lost 6 family members in a year (including her Mother) to cancer, she turned her tragedy into triumph by creating Hike 4 Hope, a fundraiser to fund women’s cancer research at City of Hope.   Twelve years later her grass roots idea has blossomed into an annual event & this year will host over 1000 participants hiking in the majestic Indian Canyons of Palm Springs.

When it comes to fund-raising for City of Hope, I have no shame.  My commitment to COH is a personal one.  Given three months to live, I’m alive today because of COH’s collaboration, care & research/development of the drug Rituxan.  COH research has also led to the development of other leading anti-cancer drugs; Herceptin, Avastin and Erbitux, as well as synthetic human insulin –all of which are saving millions of lives worldwide.  Additionally COH has pioneered the use of TOMO Therapy (pin point radiation) & the DaVinci surgical system (prostate cancer).

We are aware of an injured economy.  Unfortunately active cancer cells could care less.  Far too many of us know someone whose life has been impacted by this disease.  This year we’ve formed a team to hike in honor of our dear friend, Marcelle Freides, who is again battling breast cancer after a 5 year remission.  The great news is she is being co-treated at both St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica & City of Hope.

This Valentines Day marks 4 years since my initial cancer diagnoses and a day of sharing gifts from the heart.  Please open your heart and support me by joining Marcelle’s Mighty Marchers through the link.  Your gift of hope will help benefit all the mothers, daughters, friends, and loved ones who deal with the shock of a cancer diagnosis every minute.”

And please don’t forget to check out this week’s Blogging Boomers Carnival.

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Posted in Fathers, boomers, crisis, exercise, family, goals, love, memories | 1 Comment »

Driving and Talking, an Idea About Having “the Conversation”.

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Every week, my husband and I take a 90 minute drive to our country house. It’s turned out to be a really good way to catch up on what’s happened during the week, toss ideas around, and have serious conversations. Since I’ve been working on the website, I’ve become very involved in getting people to plan for their parents’ futures, by planning for their own. One of the serious conversations we had recently was about end of life wishes, and it’s good to know that we’re both clear on what the other wants. It's All About Aging Driving Sign

The importance of this came home this past week, here’s the story:
If you’re in love enough to say “I do” why can’t you say “I don’t”?
We talk to our spouses and loved ones about so much, but often neglect the most important conversation. The one about what your end of life wishes are. Life support? DNR? Organ donation?  A friend of mine lost her husband to pancreatic cancer Sunday. What makes this even sadder is while he had a will, and had provided for his wife of twenty years, they had never had “the Conversation”.

About 2:00 in the morning, she heard him gasping for breathe and called 911.  Paramedics put him on life support and when they found out he had neither a health care proxy or living will, insisted  she call a friend to meet her at the hospital. Tests were run to determine if he was brain dead, and in a state of shock, she alone had to make critical decisions. He was pronounced brain dead, she made the decision to pull the plug, and he passed about an hour later.

Please, if you love someone, talk to them. Here’s a link to Five Wishes, a health care proxy to get you started. It’s not easy, but it’s a lot easier than having to make life or death decisions, all alone in a cold emergency room at 3:00 in the morning.

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Posted in aging, boomers, conversation, crisis, driving, family, parents, people, will | No Comments »

First health insurance, now how about home owner’s? Let’s just reform all insurance.

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Have you ever gotten a letter from an insurance agent to come in and review your policy? You’ve never done it rightIt's All About Aging Insurance needed? My friend and insurance agent, David, used to send them out, and one night over dinner, when I complained about the lack of personalization on these letters, he asked if it would make a difference. “No one” he said, “ever comes in to review their policies.” He then went on to tell me about someone who was under-insured and trying to collect on a claim, unsuccessfully.
“That’s the problem, I said, “we’re all afraid that if we put in a claim it won’t be paid, and then the insurance company will bounce our coverage.” Like many others, I was afraid  a review of my coverage would just end up costing my hundreds of dollars more.  Recently, my policies were reviewed by a different agency, and yes, it was going to cost hundreds of dollars more. We have never put in a claim for either of the homes we own, or the cars we drive, my credit score is excellent. So then we must be really upgrading our coverage, right? Wrong. My husband likes to drive fast, really fast. Five years ago, he got a speeding ticket, a big one, and now, no one wants to insure us for anything.
This is what’s wrong with the insurance system in this country, and especially the health insurance (although home-owners probably comes in a close second). If you use it, you get punished. If you need it, you can’t collect on it. Four years later, look at the victims of Katrina, how many of them have actually collected? If you collect on it, your policy gets canceled, and you pay even more, for even less. When did this become acceptable? The debate about health insurance continues, but the truth of it is, we need an insurance system that works. For everyone, always.

One thing that you can do, the next rainy day, start making a list with photos or videos of your house, and all your valuables. If you have receipts, make them a part of the package. Make several copies, and keep them in safe, accessible places, just in case.

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Posted in Insurance, crisis, family, health insurance, people | 3 Comments »

Won’t you be my neighbor?

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

It's All About Aging Neighbors

Americans no longer live in close proximity to their family members. Even though the recession has brought more families closer together physically, it’s not a strategy one can count on for the foreseeable future. You never know when you’re going to be pulled out of your comfortable existence and thrust into a family emergency.
In his book, “My Mother, Your Mother”, Dr. Dennis McCullough suggests creating a “Circle of Concern”. He suggests that the circle contains friends, neighbors, doctors, family members, people you can call on in case there’s a problem. This is especially important, if you’re not living nearby, or if someone is living on their own. Try to do this before there’s a crisis, that way your family member can give you input. There may be church members, friends from book club, or a neighbor that they’ve become friendly with that you haven’t heard of yet.

With the help of your family members, start a list; names, relationships, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses are important. Don’t forget to include what each member can bring to the table in case there’s a crisis. Maybe they can pick up a prescription, grab a loaf of bread, or just spread the word with family and friends. Don’t overlook the power of the Internet. There are sites like Carepages where you can set up blogs or websites to keep people updated. When my friend was extremely sick a few years ago, I used Outlook to set up a group e-mail list, so I could just send out quick updates. What’s worked for you?

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Posted in crisis, family, lists | 2 Comments »