Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Newlyweds Cannot Afford Not To Have The Estate Plan Talk
Getting married is different when you are on the far side of middle age. You have a more realistic vision of what happily ever after will look like, and there is no pressure to keep up with the Joneses with a show stopping wedding. Perhaps the biggest difference is that, once you have passed… Read More »
Listen To Your Conscience When It Comes To Leaving Money To Your Children
Children don’t come with an instruction manual. There is plenty of advice available about how to behave toward your children, but it only serves to make you feel more insecure and confused; therefore, it is the opposite of helpful when it comes to decision making. This is true when you are trying to get… Read More »
Save Money Like You Will Break The World Record For Longevity, But Write Your Will Like You Will Die Young
Estate planning is an act of love. You do it so that you can reduce stress for your family in your old age, accounting for the possibility that your family will make decisions about your care and your finances. You save as much money as you can so that you will not have to… Read More »
Summer Retirement Project: Painless Decluttering
Now that you have recently retired, so much has changed, but so much hasn’t changed. You have decided to stay in the same house where you have lived for decades, so you don’t have to get ready for a move. Finding ways to occupy your time is one of the biggest challenges of adjusting… Read More »
Is It Really Worth It To Buy Long-Term Care Insurance?
People buy insurance hoping that they never have to use it. Most of the time, we do not put very much thought into our insurance buying decisions. You buy car insurance because it is against the law to drive without it. If your employer offers health insurance, you sign up for it when you… Read More »
Protecting Your Elderly Family Members From Romance Scams
Finding a friend or a romantic partner late in life can be a beautiful thing, especially when you consider how detrimental loneliness is to the physical and mental health of seniors. Unfortunately, scammers realize that there are plenty of lonely seniors out there and are willing to give them the illusion of friendship or… Read More »
A Snowbird’s Guide To Getting Your Ducks In A Row
While you were working, you always wished that your vacations to Florida could last longer. Now that you are retired, you have all the time in the world to spend in Florida, but it isn’t quite that simple. The mild winter weather is heavenly, but in the summer, you could do without the daily… Read More »
Health Is More Important Than Money In Determining When You Should Retire
Financial planners are fond of saying that you are ready to retire when your retirement savings balance is such that four percent of it will cover your expenses for a year. Anyone who has seen the price of a dozen eggs since the omicron wave subsided knows that most of us will never reach… Read More »
Beware Of Inheritance Scams
When you receive a letter in the mail that proclaims that “you win” before you even open the envelope, or when an email from a stranger arrives in your inbox with the word “congratulations” in the subject line, you are wise to be skeptical. Telling consumers that they are entitled to an influx of… Read More »
Should You Sell Your Empty Nest Or Rent It Out?
Congratulations on making the decision not to age in place. Indecision is one of the worst estate planning decisions you can make. There is no one size fits all answer about whether you should continue living in the house where you raised your children, but the first step to making actionable plans for retirement… Read More »