Return To The Yellow Brick Road
Retirement Planning Tools Exist, Do You Know How To Use?
Elton John Re-Ups With The ALI
Best line: “The first step is to decide what’s on your bucket list.” It’s not my bucket list, not my thoughts on what you should do with your money. I frequently say “I don’t get a vote, I don’t want a vote.” We start there.
MA Open Enrollment Period | Ends March 31
For Existing Medicare Advantage Members Only
For most Medicare Advantage members, you can change once but that ends on March 31.
If you have received healthcare services, your ‘progress’ towards the annual out of pocket maximum would be set back to zero.
There might still be reason to change. For example, you discover that a physician is out of network, or you decide that a PPO is better for you. A carrier / plan may have enhanced benefits that may fit your specific needs.
You can cancel your membership and return to Original Medicare. I do not believe this is a great idea, without securing Medigap coverage first. If you do not, then you risk not having a maximum out of pocket limit, if your Medigap application is refused. You cannot rejoin any Medicare Advantage plan after March 31st, unless you separately qualify for a Special Election Period which allows an enrollment into a Medicare Advantage plan.
Important note: Agents / brokers are not allowed to reach out in order to encourage you to change plans.
In Case You Missed It
Portfolio Analyzer | My Explanation
You Need To Know How To Use It
There are tools that tell you how likely it is that your money will last.
Western & Southern (click here).
Milliman’s RISE (click here).
I am not doubting the accuracy of the calculations themselves. The issue is similar to when Google search and now, ChatGPT, work. Remember that your friends could get the info from Google and you failed? It was because your friend knew what to type in the Search bar.
A similar thing exists when it comes to these tools. My issue with almost all tools is that we get a summary answer, without seeing their work, at different points in time. That’s ok, but 2022 was very far away from what models presumed to be inputs. The result is that there can be both false confidence and false fear, when the results are received.
PortfolioVisualizer.com does show how your portfolio might perform, but even then, you do need to examine the answers along the way. That’s explained in the video.
