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Important Birthdays Over 50


Photo by Jorge Ibanez on Unsplash

My family has a lot of summer birthdays. My wife and I, both our kids, my dad, two of our siblings, a few aunts and uncles and several cousins all have birthdays within a few weeks of each other.

When my kids were little, they thought everyone had a summer birthday.

This summer my oldest will reach the first of many milestone birthdays: 16! And you know what that means: Vroom, Vroom and Cha Ching!

When you are older, milestone birthdays continue to roll on and eventually even “and-a-half” birthdays start to make a comeback.

In fact, starting at age 50, several birthdays and “half-birthdays” are critical to understand because they have implications regarding your retirement income.

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Retiree Health Care Coverage Overseas

Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada

One of my favorite topics to discuss with clients are their travel plans. The answers I get range from China to Europe and all across the U.S. One couple I know is visiting Norway right now and another will be traveling to Africa later this month.

Apparently, they are not alone. According to AARP, 47% of baby boomers expected to travel internationally in 2018.

Overseas travel may be one of the more popular aspirations in retirement, but it does raise an important question: “Will my health insurance coverage travel with me?”

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Take the 30-Day Brain Health Challenge


Photo by amoon ra on Unsplash

Over 5.7 million American’s live with Alzheimer’s or related dementia. Two thirds of them are women.

Although there is no known cure for the disease or specific, medical treatment for the prevention of Alzheimer’s, there may be steps you can take now to make brain health a priority.

Start by taking the 30-Day Brain Health Challenge sponsored by BeBrainPowerful.org.

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What’s On Your Summer Bucket List?

Photo taken in Banff, Alberta, Canada by Mike Branch

Financial planning isn’t about maximizing investment returns, minimizing taxes, or developing strategies to pay less for college or beef up your Social Security check.

It’s really about structuring your personal and financial resources so you can get more joy and happiness from life. That means making the most of the next 90 days, even if it’s not always very summerlike outside.

Start a list.

As a planner, I am fond of lists. I love to create them and attach them to walls, refrigerators and computer monitors. Sometimes I even get to experience the sweet satisfaction of crossing things off them.

I find that a good list not only helps me define and prioritize my goals, it helps me remember what I wanted to do in the first place.

Without a good list, I am likely to find myself at the MN State Fair wondering how I managed to let another summer slip through my fingers.