Pre-medicare insurance premium keeps going up

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pre-medicare insurance premium
jrprewitt.com

I just received my new statement of earnings, taxes, and deductions for 2020. While I have received zero increases in my educator’s pension since I retired in 2015, my pre-medicare insurance premium keeps going up. From 6% of my pension in 2015 to over 18% in 2020. Happy new year!

In the May 2019 Fidelity Viewpoint we read, “According to Fidelity’s Decision to Retire research, conducted with the Stanford Center on Longevity,1 people retire an average of 4 years sooner than they had planned. For many who do have gap years between when they actually retired and when they had planned to retire, it can be a mad scramble to find affordable, quality health care coverage until they are eligible for Medicare at age 65.” I hadn’t planned to retire at age 55, but circumstances made it difficult for me to continue being a full time educator. I also felt I could scrape by working part time given my income and expenses at the time.

I receive $2,055.87 a month from the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association and I receive a health care subsidy as part of my retirement benefits. Since retiring, these are my out-of-pocket monthly premiums for identical coverage for one person with a $6,000 deductible:

  • $131.00 beginning August, 2015
  • $131.00 in 2016
  • $170.00 in 2017
  • $210.00 in 2018
  • $334.00 in 2019
  • $384.00 in 2020 ($4,608/year)

Since I am only 60, I have five more years before I can receive Medicare. I already work part time as a substitute teacher but I may have to get another job to keep up with the increase in health care. For instance a recent visit to the dermatologist for minor skin cancer treatment cost me over $800 and they want me to come back in January. I have already decided to cancel this appointment.

What options do we have if we aren’t 65? We could save our premiums and put them in a self-pay fund or maybe look into Medi-Share or Liberty Healthshare. “Medi-Share is a healthcare sharing ministry where members share each other’s medical bills and pray for each other’s medical challenges.” Liberty is similar. The Fidelity Viewpoint article cited above offers other possibilities.

The silver lining is my pension is eligible for a 1.25% cost of living increase in July. Let me see, that comes to an increase of $25.70/month. Wow! I guess it’s better than nothing.

What is your health care situation like? I would love to hear from you about what you are doing to offset this cost. Please leave me a comment and do have a Happy New Year!

Cabin Update: Sherry’s She Shed

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she shed
kaleidoscopicwandering.com

If you have been following this blog for awhile, you know I purchased a small mountain property with an old dilapidated cabin on it. A year ago August upon the advice of my lawyer, I had to break the contract with a structural engineer I just signed due to a lawsuit my ex-husband was threatening. Since that time the lawsuit has not materialized, so I went with Plan B, or was it Plan C?. This new plan called for a she shed to be constructed on the property as a writer’s cabin, much like Thoreau’s . The shed would be somewhere I could stay while working on the property, savoring its solitude and using it as a place to write. It would be aptly named Sherry’s “she shed.”

After doing some research I found out I could build a 10′ x 12′ shed without a county building permit. Electricity would also require a permit so I decided the shed would not have electricity. I contracted Tuff Shed to build my shed once I designed it. On July 10th I ordered it online and the build date was scheduled for August 20th, just two days before my 60th birthday. Perfect. I was excited.

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Nursing home phones keep families connected

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nursing home phone
quotescoffee.com

Alexander Graham Bell’s dream was for there to be a telephone in every major city. My dream is one day there will be nursing home phones or a similar device in every resident’s room so families can stay connected.

Monta Fleming wrote in her blog post, The Importance of the Phone for the Elderly, “Reliable communication is such a common, ordinary thing that we do not even think about it anymore. The invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 revolutionized the way we think about communication. Now, today, we have cell phones and email as well as landlines. But, to many of the elderly, a phone is their only source of communication with the outside world.” This is the case with my Mom who is currently in a nursing home under hospice care.

After Mom entered the nursing home for skilled nursing care on May 17th, I learned she did not have access to a phone in her shared room. Something I did not even consider when I toured the facility and three others. I have since learned that by federal law, nursing home residents have certain rights; one of them is the use of a telephone.

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Living Life Retired website turns three

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Friendship is really not a noun but a verb. Relationships of any kind require attention, energy, and time. If they are not nourished, they lose their value. When we are with our friends, we are always ‘friendshipping.’ That is, we are listening, sharing our own experiences, laughing, comforting each other, and enjoying the present moment. We are telling our friends we love and appreciate them.

–Mary Pipher, Author of Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing as We Age

Thank you for your readership, support, and caring comments over the past three years. I hope and pray you have been “nourished” and inspired. I consider you as friends. The website turns three today and the founder turns 60!

Since this website provides information and inspiration, I want to tell you about a book I just finished reading. It is Mary Pipher’s new book, Women Rowing North and I highly recommend it. Like the quote above, she tells it like it is and provides much food for thought. The Library Journal’s states, “This is bound to become the bible of baby boomer women.” I agree and the book will make a great retirement gift for yourself or someone you know. Or maybe even a nice birthday gift.

The Table of Contents of Women Rowing North includes these major categories:

  1. Challenges of the Journey
  2. Travel Skills
  3. The People on the Boat
  4. The Northern Lights

This next year I encourage you to share your retirement experiences. If you have a unique story, please email me at LivingLifeRetired16@gmail.com for possible posting on this website. Remember, this site is primarily focused on those of us who are solo retirees.

I love and appreciate you. HAPPY “FRIENDSHIPPING!” and thanks for three great years.

Cabin update – waiting

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It’s been awhile since I have written a cabin update on my mountain property. The reason is heartbreaking really. A year ago my son-in-law and I removed the tongue and groove pine and the rodent infested insulation from the cabin’s interior. We stripped it down to the studs. I signed a contract with a structural engineer to begin work on improving the cabin and adding a septic system. I also got a bid on refurbishing the original 1938 stone fireplace. Everything was working according to plan until I received an email from my ex-husband.

It read, “I am retiring in January.  40 years. Per previous communications, I will be filing to terminate maintenance. I am traveling for the next week.  If we can not come to an agreement, I anticipate we will file for maintenance termination in September with a January effective date.”

It could not have been worse timing. I made an appointment with an attorney to discuss options. His advice was to put off improvements until I knew what my income was going to be and whether I would be able to keep the property. So, I cancelled the contract with the structural engineer and put the fireplace work on hold. I was heartbroken. My childhood dream was possibly going to be taken from me. A dream possibly unfilled. I waited to be served court papers.

And waited.

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“If you want to end your isolation,…

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end-your-isolation
riesphotography.net

you must be honest about what you want at a core level and decide to go after it.” —Martha Beck, best-selling author, life coach and speaker

It has been four years since I retired from teaching full time. Even after all this time, I still struggle with the lack of social interaction and isolation, but I’m working on it.

The high school I taught in was populated with 1500 people; more than many Wyoming towns. It was difficult to find alone time as a teacher. Now, in retirement, it’s just the opposite; lots of alone time. I long for something in between and end the isolation.

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Facebook helped find me after Mom’s fall

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Facebook Messenger on May 7th:

2:15 p.m. “Hi sherry. I think your mom is Irene?”

2:19 p.m. J/M tried to call me through Messenger.

4:08 p.m. “Your moms neighbor.”

5:53 p.m. “Please call me at ____________ it’s about your mom.”

6:18 p.m. I called J/M.

This is how Facebook helped find me after Mom’s fall. My Mom’s neighbors sent me the above alarming messages May 7th on Facebook’s Messenger. They tried several times to reach me to tell me my Mom had fallen in her home and an ambulance transported her to the local hospital. She had been down for approximately 16 hours before they found her, but she was not unconscious. My whole life changed after that 39 minute phone conversation at 6:18 p.m.

I called my daughter, a nurse, right away to tell her the heartbreaking news and then I texted my sister in Oregon. She would have the furthest to travel if she wanted to go to see Mom. Since it was getting late, I would contact my other five siblings in the morning once I found out more information. Worried about what happened and how hurt, inside and out, my Mom was, I had difficulty sleeping.

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