How Seniors Can Financially Prep for Healthcare Essentials

If you are a senior citizen, then you must prepare for health problems to avoid additional expenses. Today, people are living longer lives, but they are also living with an assortment of physical and mental health issues. It is especially important to prepare financially for daily or emergency medical problems.

Have Savings to Pay for Your Medical Bills

Make sure to have a saving account that has enough money to pay for medical appointments and medications. You may need to reduce your other expenses such as having cable television or taking vacations in order to have enough money saved for your health care needs. 

Watch for sales on over-the-counter medications such as pain relievers, cough syrup and antihistamines. You can find some of these medications on sale, or you can use coupons to save money. 


Check the expiration dates on medications to buy products that will remain fresh for several months or years.

Do You Qualify for Government-sponsored Medical Programs?

It is possible that you are eligible for government-sponsored insurance or medical programs. Some of these programs are operated at the federal, state or local level, so you should complete the necessary forms to determine if you qualify for any health care assistance. 

Not only should you have a last will and testament that is legally binding in your geographic region, but also, you should have a living will along with a health care proxy. 

You can choose a relative, friend or attorney to oversee your finances and health care when you are unable to make decisions on your own.

Reduce Your Other Debts

To avoid other expenses that will prevent you from paying medical bills, make sure to reduce your debts. Pay your credit card bills so that you aren’t paying high interest rates, and make sure to keep your mortgage payments up-to-date. 

As you get older, you may need in-home health care, so you should verify that your medical insurance includes this type of coverage. 

With in-home health care coverage, like that available from Baywood Home Care, you can hire a professional caregiver so that you can remain in your home while you are recovering from an injury or illness.

Look for a senior care advocate in your city. This professional can provide advice concerning the actions that you should take to protect you financially when you have a health problem that requires medical care.

Portfolio Progress: What You Should Do to Expand Your Wealth

Whether you’re a young person just starting off in your career or someone older who hasn’t yet become financially independent, wealth building is one of the most important things you can possibly do. 

Building your net worth will help you reach financial independence and give you stability for your retirement years. Here are four of the best ways to build your wealth and improve your personal finances.

Increase Your Income

To build serious wealth, you need to have extra money to put into productive investments. If you’re only breaking even between your income and your expenses, you’ll likely never be able to set aside enough to become truly financially independent. 

The first step in building wealth, therefore, should be trying to increase your income. In some cases, this may mean continuing your education so that you can get a higher-paying job. 

In others, you may be able to seek advancement in your company or consider offers from other firms that may pay you more. Whatever your situation is, you should focus on maximizing your income to give yourself the free capital you’ll need for your wealth-building efforts.

Talk to a Financial Advisor

Building wealth isn’t easy, and you’ll probably need some expert advice along the way. This is where a financial advisor comes in. Financial advisors can help with everything from investment advice to estate planning, depending on exactly where you are in the course of your financial life. 

A good advisor will help you understand the implications and benefits of different financial decisions while guiding you along the path to financial independence.

Stop Renting

Over a long period of time, few things are as needlessly expensive as renting the home in which you live. If at all possible, you should buy a home of your own. Some companies, like UBS – The Burish Group, know how important of a decision this can be. 

Not only will this save you money over the long haul, but it will also allow you to build equity in the property. Once it is paid off, your home is an asset that will retain a considerable amount of value. 

If you’re still renting, on the other hand, you’re just putting money into paying off a similar asset for someone else without building any equity in the process.

Create a Diverse Investment Portfolio

Though increasing your income and buying your home will help create the basic framework you need for financial independence, the activity that will produce the best results in the building of wealth is investment. 

You’ll need to create a diversified portfolio of investments that will produce stable returns over many years. If you need help constructing such a portfolio, talk to your financial advisor, as discussed above.

These steps, though seemingly simple, will help you get from where you are now to the realization of your personal financial goals. Remember that time is one of the most important concepts in finance. 

The more time you give yourself, the better off you’ll be. Start the process of building wealth as soon as you can to maximize your personal results.

Why More and More Retailers are Filing for Bankruptcy

From family-owned businesses to national chain stores, more and more retailers are filing for bankruptcy. Statistics show that retail bankruptcy filings were up more than 30 percent in 2017 from the year prior. 

So, what’s driving this change in the retail landscape, and what can retail business owners do to protect themselves?

The Transition from Offline to Online Shopping

Several factors play a role in the increasing number of retail closings, one of which is the trend of online shopping. It turns out that 51 percent of US Consumers prefer to shop online. Buying goods over the internet is often easier, more convenient and even cheaper. 

As a result, consumers have shifted their shopping habits from local shopping centers and malls to the internet.

Another issue is that supply, in many cases, outweighs demand. Retailers continue to open new stores in hopes of increasing revenue. With consumer demand stagnant, however, this doesn’t happen. 



Instead, retailers are left with a surplus of goods and high overhead costs. Retail business owners who want to survive must learn to adapt to market changes while providing a valuable service for consumers.

Major Retailers Filing for Bankruptcy

Even major retailers aren’t immune from these market changes. In September 2017, just months away from the holiday shopping season, Toys ‘R’ Us filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This prompted the national kids’ toy retailer to close some 200 stores.

Payless ShoeSource also fell into hard times last year. In April, the shoe store filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, announcing the closure of approximately 800 stores.

Other retailers that have filed for bankruptcy protection in recent months include HHGregg, RadioShack, Eastern Outfitters, Gander Mountain, Gormans, Wet Seal and Aéropostale.

How Bankruptcy Protection Can Help

Filing bankruptcy doesn’t necessarily mean the retail business will close. On the contrary, many retailers file it to keep their business alive during periods of financial hardship. 

When a retail business owner cannot pay his or her bills, bankruptcy offers a second change. As a business owner, you can keep a bankruptcy lawyer like the Law Office of Barbara B. Braziel on call.

There are several different types of bankruptcy, including Chapter 7, Chapter 11 and Chapter 13. With Chapter 7, the business’s assets are handed over to a trustee who oversees its liquidation for the purpose of paying off debts. 

Chapter 11 and Chapter 13, however, typically provide retailers with an opportunity to continue their business. The retailer may arrange a reorganize their business structure, liquidating assets and closing stores, and he or she may agree to a repayment plan with creditors.

There’s an undeniable change happening in the retail landscape. However, retailers can overcome financial hardship by consolidating their operations and filing for bankruptcy protection.

Feeling Frugal? 4 Tips to Save Money on Home Repairs

Being a homeowner certainly has its benefits, but one downside of owning compared to renting is that you’ll be responsible for any repairs your home needs. That’s why financial experts recommend that homeowners leave room in their budgets for repair costs each year. 

Still, it’s natural to want the best deal on home repairs, especially when you have several repairs to do. Here are four helpful tips on how you can save some cash on home repairs.

See What You Can Do Yourself

The best way to cut your home repair costs is to do everything you can yourself. Now, whether this is worthwhile for you will depend on how handy you are and how much time it takes you to do the repairs. 

You don’t want to spend days on a simple repair or end up making your problem worse. But with all the tutorial videos out there, you can absolutely learn how to do some basic repairs online.

Find Deals on Materials

Even if you hire contractors for repairs, that doesn’t mean you need them buying the materials. You’re typically better off doing this yourself, because then you can shop for deals. 



Try visiting home improvement stores during their sales or looking for salvage materials. With a little luck and a good eye, you can get materials for much less than they’d usually cost.

Shop around for Contractors

When you know what you need done, it’s easy to call around and get estimates from different contractors like AAA Garage Door, Inc. and similar companies. Then you can compare them all to see who’s offering the best price. 

Just make sure that you look at their reviews, as well. You don’t want to go with the cheapest contractor if they have a bad reputation.

Look up What Labor Should Cost

It’s good to have an idea of how much labor would typically cost on the repair jobs you have, even if you looked around to get the best price on a contractor. 

You want to be knowledgeable of repair costs in case your contractor tells you that it’s actually going to cost more or if they determine that more work needs to be done. 

Understanding what everything should cost helps you avoid getting hustled. It’s smart to anticipate potential home repair costs by setting some money aside whenever you can. But when you do need repairs done, you should also do what you can to get the best bargain.

What are the Best Ways to Maximize Your Insurance Choices?

Auto insurance is more than just a legal requirement. It is your saving grace if you cause an accident. Here are some tips for making the most of it.

Choose the Coverage Amount that Is Right for Your Financial Situation

Every state has a required minimum coverage level. While the minimum level keeps you in legal compliance, it may leave you on the hook if you are at fault in an accident where damages exceed your limits. 

Many states have coverage limits which can easily be exceeded, such as a $5,000 property damage limit and a $20,000 per person bodily injury limit. It’s not hard to imagine one somewhat serious auto accident exceeding these amounts.

In that situation, you can be found personally liable for all damages above what your insurance pays. 

For example, if your insurance paid $5,000 in property damage to another driver and their car was worth $20,000, you could receive a judgement against you for $15,000.

One of the main points of auto insurance is to prevent you from having to pay ruinous sums out of pocket. 

If you have assets, such as a house or cash savings, always protect them by carrying enough insurance to cover the full cost of an accident.

Carry the Coverages You Need

Though you never want to be caught short, it is also important to avoid over insuring property. For example, if you have a paid off vehicle, the law only requires you to have liability insurance. 

Collision and comprehensive insurance are optional. Collision insurance covers your car in and accident and comprehensive covers your car if it is stolen.

It is important to consider how much you would receive in reimbursement after your deductible if your car was totaled or stolen. 

If you would only get $800, it may not be worth the premium costs to carry collision and comprehensive coverage, though if you would get $10,000, it certainly would be worth covering.

Protect Yourself from the Uninsured

For very little additional cost, you can opt for uninsured and underinsured motorist protection. 

This coverage means that if you are hit by someone without insurance and they are at fault, your insurance company steps in to cover your losses. They also pay you for any shortfall if the other driver’s insurance policy limits are inadequate.

Though the other driver is legally responsible, chances are good that if they have no insurance, they have no ability to pay.

Calculate What You Need

LA Insurance of Denver, Colorado recommends calculating your insurance needs based on your existing assets, the value of your vehicle, and your willingness to risk paying out-of-pocket expenses. Each individual has different insurance needs and budgets, so a good financial workup is needed before selecting coverage.

With the right coverages in place, you can drive the roads of Colorado with piece of mind.

Tops Tips for The Over-50s Buying Their Retirement Property

Over the course of your life you will have bought, sold and rented properties, which means you’ll know your way around the process. Where this differs, however, is that when it comes to your retirement home or your final home you’ll buy, you need to get it right.

As much as the current family home offers in cherished memories, the sentiment doesn’t pay the bills and sometimes a large family property simply becomes hard to for the occupants to keep up with as they get older. 

As you may have guessed, there is a whole host of reasons why the over 50s homeowners may want to move house so there is never a typical last time buyer. Some want to move to be closer to family, some want to downsize, some want to upgrade to their dream home, others may want to move to a quieter location. 

Many downsize to release equity to help fund retirement, while others are motivated by the lower running costs of a smaller home. For older homeowners with mobility issues, bungalows become attractive as do small retirement flats in buildings with lifts.

Of course, it is situation dependent but for whatever reason you may want to re-locate, make sure you consider all of your options first. 

Below we’ve outlined some of the top things to take into consideration, but remember to take independent and professional advice if you want to be clear how your home could affect your inheritance, cost of care and eligibility for State benefits.

1. Don’t Get Above Your Means

A simple enough sounding point but one that often gets overlooked. Many over 50s overstretch themselves on their final purchase cause they may want that final, really special retreat and just go for it. 

Whilst you shouldn’t ever back down from your dream home, at this time you need to be practical and cost effective. Ill health sadly becomes more common after 60 so whilst you may plan to work well into your 70s, your body might have other ideas. 



A well-paid job you may have now, may be lost and if you struggle to find another, it could leave you vulnerable financially if you’ve just bought a big home. 

Mortgage lenders will also restrict your ability to borrow into your old age, with most limiting mortgage terms to finish by your 75th birthday, and of course you must prove that your income stacks up. 

But it's up to you to be cautious too, because if you get it wrong you may have to sell your dream home, and there are no guarantees that you will get the price you want for it.

2. Consider Downsizing

If you’re in your 50s or 60s you may not feel like you’re ready for this, as most empty nesters don’t. However, you need to be practical and think of the bigger picture. Say you have a large house that was filled with your children before they all moved out. 

Now gone, you must upkeep this large home, when in reality most of the space is unneeded. You could downsize, cash in and find a smaller place that meets your needs. By doing this is gives you a greater nest egg to treat yourself or your children. 

A step often dismissed, this in fact is one of the best moves you can make as an over 50’s adult. If you want to use your retire time to travel, this gives you the freedom to do so. 

We all know how poor pensions are these days so why not consider it as it could give you that money you need now! Furthermore, retirement is a great time to invest in property as a whole, you could put some of the gained money into rentable properties that give you consistent income whilst you enjoy your retirement. 

The bonus is that there are loads of properties to invest in, whether they are commercial or residential. If you don’t know where to start, it may be best to seek professional help from local estate agents or commercial property agents.

3. It’s All About Location

You may picture yourself spending your later years in an idyllic rural retreat, and that's ideal for some. No doubt you currently drive a car and can easily get to where you need to be. 

There is no reason you can't drive a car until the day you die, but in practice, many people do stop driving in their later years or cut down the number of longer journeys they need to make. 

Because of this, it's important to consider access to public transport when you think about the location of your last-time buy.

4. Get Advice

If you’re considering your last property purchase, then don’t forget to think about your inheritance. Maybe you’re considering the release of equity to gift your loved ones now or maybe you want to buy a bigger family home to pass on in the future. 

Whatever it is, you need to consider your position financially, legally and from a tax viewpoint. Not only are there issues surrounding Inheritance Tax, but increasingly people are beginning to think about the possible cost of long-term care and your property's value comes into play here, along with your other assets. 

It is key that you know the rules and regulations of gifting money or property to your children. Seek professional advice from tax professionals as they’ll be able to explain your best options available.