Free Stuff! Do you Know? – 2022

As I meet with folks every week, they commonly ask how their health insurance plan covers a particular medical service or medical equipment.

But I am surprised that many folks miss their plan's extras or free benefits, and they don't know they have them because they don't read their plan's Summary
of Benefits.

For instance, does your Medicare Advantage plan offer dental coverage? How much coverage? Is it a copay or a reimbursement benefit? Is the benefit limited to a certain amount of dental work per year or unlimited as long as you pay a copay? Can you use any dentist, or does it have to be a dentist in the plan network? Some plans only cover a yearly cleaning, while others cover preventative comprehensive coverage. Do you know?

What about free "over-the-counter" (OTC) drug store items? Some plans give you $40, $50, or even $75 per quarter to get OTC items like vitamins, bandaids,
shaving cream, toothpaste, and even medical equipment like walkers, canes, knee or elbow braces. Does your plan offer this benefit? You better "use it or lose it" each quarter, unless your plan lets the quarterly OTC benefit accumulate and spend it before the year's end. Do you know?

Many Medicare Advantage plans provide an allowance for a pair of glasses or hearing aids. Do you know?

Are you using all the benefits your plan offers… and are the benefits what you expected? Do you, know?

If you're not sure what's in your plan or you can't find your Summary of Benefits, call us! We'll be happy to send you a link to your Medicare Advantage plan. So you will know!

Crazy things! – 2022

I’m sure just like most folks that you’ve done something crazy or had something crazy happen to you during your lifetime. Either a freak accident, a surprise, or something that was just plain bizarre. And whatever it was made you…you!

During my life, I’ve had several weird or goofy incidents and I can probably tick off five or six without working too hard. I don’t know that any one of these are a standout as the craziest thing, but I’m sure something flashed into your mind as soon as you started reading this article.

You remember what it was, don’t you? Well, there was this one incident for me. While on the road some 20 years ago I was performing audits of branches for the financial services company I worked for. After landing and getting my rental car, a lady hit me in the parking lot as I was getting into the car and injured my arm to the extent that I had to go to the emergency room. The good news was that it was just a bruised bone and not broken. Nonetheless, I had to wear a removable cast and an arm sling for a few weeks for my arm to heal. I was also in a great deal of pain. The emergency room doctor gave me a bottle of pain pills for relief. Next, I received a pager notice to call the corporate office (yes, no cell phones yet). My CEO heard of my accident and instructed me to just get on a plane and go home and he would send someone else to perform the audit.

I got to the airport and after checking in I sat down and took a pain pill the doctor had given me and thought “I’ll sleep on the flight home.” A few minutes later the loudspeaker announced the boarding of two flights, the boarding gates were side by side….. You guessed it! I boarded the wrong flight! You would have thought that one of the boarding agents would have caught the mistake when they checked me in at the door, but this was before computer scanning. I got on board, found my assigned seat, and fell asleep. I woke up in Maine! The airline had already discovered the mistake and had an agent waiting on me when I got off the plane and took me to another gate to get me home where I arrived safely.

So, what was your crazy thing? Who was with you, and when did it happen? Whatever it was…
it made you…you!

To gym or not to gym? – 2022

That is the question!
We all agree that exercise is one of the most important factors in keeping healthy. However, with the Covid situation, some people may not want to go to the gym and
wonder what is available instead.

Most Medicare Advantage plans offer “no-cost” gym memberships as a value-added benefit. But for those who do not want to go to a gym, insurance carriers provide health incentives as an option to exercise. These incentives could include a no-cost home fitness kit, online workout videos, or live-streaming fitness classes. For example, when looking at what was available online, I found a live-streaming class offering European Folk dances one day. With the internet, your choices
are almost limitless.

There was a program on PBS entitled “Sit and Be Fit.” It was created in the mid-1980s by Mary Wilson, a nurse specializing in geriatric medicine. In these episodes, you could follow along if you were ambulatory or if in a wheelchair, engage while seated. There were almost 400 recordings of the show. You can still purchase them online or view them on YouTube. These gentle movement exercises can benefit almost anyone.

To find out what exercise options are available on your Medicare plan, simply call the Member Service number on the back of your ID card.

Information sourced from: Mayo Clinic/Healthline

Yeah Spring! – 2022

Ah, springtime! In some parts of the country, folks are getting their annual springtime showers with trees and plants starting to turn green. Here in Arizona, it’s time for our desert flowers to do their thing! If you haven’t taken a hike during this time of the year now’s the time before it gets too hot!

What’s really unique about Arizona is that it has the most varied plants and wildflowers out of all 50 states in the US. Some could make an argument that California holds that title, but we’ll let the intellectual botanist argue about that.

Arizona’s climate, desert, mountains, and foliage make it distinct in the USA’s 50 states. There are many climate zones to pick from mountains to deserts, rivers, and lakes. They all have varying ecosystems. I’m always amazed when hiking, I can start at the bottom of a mountain and literally pass through 3-4 ecosystems while hiking to the top. Trees and plants that will grow at desert sea level disappear and are replaced by totally different foliage as we head up. Cactus graduates to scrub brush, then to actual trees.

Then there are the many different plants that have medicinal uses and can cure everything from an upset stomach to a headache. Next, there are the culinary applications where many of the plants are edible either as a raw plants (think salad) or cooked to perfection steamed or roasted. Yum!

Point is …. it’s Spring! It’s time to shake off those winter doldrums and get out into some sunshine for some much-needed Vitamin D! So, what are you waiting for? Get outside!

What can we do? – 2022

There is a lot to be thinking about these days, and probably like me, inflation is what comes to mind first. Recently, I was in the store and noticed the price of 35 lbs. of chlorine. I usually don't look too closely at the costs of my regular maintenance supplies, but this one really smacked me in the face. Last year, a few issues contributed to the chlorine supply shortage we experienced. Back then, I immediately went online and sourced a years' worth of chlorine for my pool. Now needing chlorine again, it's inflation's turn for feeding wild pricing! You can't have a green pool, ya know. So back to stockpiling, I go.

As a young lad, I was a cub scout, and as an adult, I was a boy scout leader. The motto, "BE PREPARED," is not just a motto. It's a life skill that promotes readiness to respond. As a kid growing up near the water and a member of the power squadron, a boat safety organization, we learned to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. As an adult, we unconsciously and consciously live this skill daily. We keep groceries in the pantry, manage our savings, and even chlorinate our pools for health safety. We vary in our levels of preparation, but it's a valuable skill.

So, what can we do in our current scenario? Consciously prepare.

As costs go up and product availability is impacted, just buy a little more. If you buy one giant paper towel package every month, just get one more. I hear you already asking where to put all this stuff. Tackle a closet and donate that stuff you haven't worn for the year to Goodwill. Folks will put it to good use, I promise.

As far as the pantry... are you a Costco canned organic diced tomato fanatic like my wife? Stock up, because you surely know many ways to use those delicious tomatoes. Speaking of veggies, I have gone the way of gluten-free eating (yep and lost 4 inches in my waist) over the past couple of months. Kudos to my wife, who is
eating and cooking super healthy, so I figured I would reduce my bread consumption too. Wow, what a difference. Good thing my suits are all held up with suspenders!

When on a journey, we will all experience many common things and see things differently. For me, right now, preparing just
We can help in all 50 states! makes good sense. We can make the best of things and do what we can for ourselves, our families, and our communities.

We ask our clients about their needs, dreams, and wishes when focusing on their retirement journey. We want them to feel confident and prepared financially. While facing our current economic situation, it just makes sense to extend some of our preparation practices. Someone once said, "Your attitude determines your altitude." I choose to soar. I feel lighter when I am prepared. If you need a little help, call our office. We can help make your retirement planning 123 Easy. That's what
we do!

Planning your Investments – 2022

Hello all, last year was a lesson in real-world economics. What happens when an unstoppable force of huge, unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus strikes the immovable object of supply shortages? Inflation!

When rising inflation started taking a bite out of everyone's budget earlier in the year, many predicted the demise of tech stocks. In some cases, we've seen technology stocks underperform relative to the market, such as the formerly high flying but not yet profitable names contained in some funds. But in many other cases, we've seen tech stocks soar.

We are trying to take advantage of uptrends in the market when it is safe to do so. Our custom-designed model portfolios are ever-changing. Our investment team runs thousands of algorithms daily to determine the best possible mix of investment choices. Yes, our investment team. Your plan starts with your advisor, then our plan designer, processors, and portfolio manager. The portfolio manager meets weekly with our advisory team and a built-in compliance officer to maintain the fiduciary standards. Our process goes like this:

Financial meeting one: You meet with your advisor to discuss your wants, goals, dreams, and ambitions. Then take a few minutes reviewing your assets and what you've been investing into this point. Your advisor will then hand the information off to one of our team members to build your plan to the specifications that meets your goals. They will then generate a binder containing all the recommendations in an easy-to-understand format.

Financial meeting two: You will be presented with your plan in this meeting. You may also meet your portfolio manager. We will go over your recommendations in detail. Once you feel comfortable with our suggestions, we will give you your binder to take home.

Financial meeting three: Now, after digesting the binder for a week or so, you can bring back any questions you didn't consider at our last meeting. By the end of this meeting, you can tell us how confident you feel about moving forward with some, all, or none of what we've presented. No worries if you choose not to move forward with any of what we've presented. You will not be charged for any of our meetings or the building of your plan. The plan is yours to keep. If you choose to move forward with some or all of the plan, then we will schedule meeting number 4.

Do Over !! – 2022

Randy switched his Medicare Advantage plan on Dec. 7, 2021, during Medicare’s Annual Election Period (AEP) from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7, 2021. He called the 800-phone number from one of the TV commercials touting all the great benefits of a particular plan, including dental, vision, hearing aids, and free over-the-counter stuff. His welcome kit arrived with his new card, and the new plan was effective 1-1-2022. Great, he thought proudly, after selecting a plan all by himself!

His issues surfaced when he tried using his “New” plan with added benefits. He soon found out that the benefits he thought he was getting were not all they had claimed to be. Almost everything had limits and restrictions that he wasn’t informed about when he talked to the salesperson on the phone.

After realizing he didn’t get the benefits he was sold, he called our office in a panic for help. We reminded him why he should not switch plans in the future without talking to us first! As fiduciaries, we will assist him in researching all available plans in his geographic area each and every AEP. In addition, we will point out the “Gotcha’s” in every single plan before deciding to switch.

At American Retirement Advisors, our advisors take the time to get certified with nearly every Medicare insurance carrier every single year. This process takes each of us no less than 150 hours of testing annually! We do this so that when we discuss and research changing plans or even guide with plan selections for first-time enrollees, we help you find the most appropriate plan for you.

But all was not lost for Randy. He was in luck that he called us in time to use the “Open Enrollment Period” or OEP, Jan. 1 through Mar. 31. This period allows for a do-over for folks who signed up for a Medicare Advantage plan during the AEP but found out the new plan wasn’t the right one. Maybe the new plan was missing their doctor or hospital they wanted or, like in Randy’s case, didn’t have the extra benefits he thought he was getting.

So, if you are on a Medicare Advantage plan and that 2022 plan isn’t what you expected or the benefits weren’t what they promised, you have a second chance to get it right! We can help before Mar. 31!

Determination – 2022

You showed determination to get something you wanted at some time in your life. And no matter when, where, or what that thing was you wanted, that experience made you...you!

How many times in your life did you need to make the extra effort and not give up? A few times, or literally dozens of times toward making the extra effort or sacrifice to accomplish a certain goal or achievement?

Were there times when you just wanted to quit? Maybe in your thought process, the goal became just too difficult to reach? But something down deep in you propelled you to simply not give up! What was that motivating factor for you?

Was it a personal task, or maybe it was team-oriented? If you were the leader at the office where you worked, perhaps your determination spurred creativity, hope, and motivation to have your team stay focused and driven.

In my earlier years working at an international financial institution, a few management people underestimated me. But I always had a secret weapon, determination, which proved them wrong! I took on projects that no one else wanted and became the subject matter expert in those areas until, at some point, I made myself invaluable to the organization.
You might encounter coworkers who do not like you- whether jealous or simply don't like the competition you create for them, thinking you might take something they feel is theirs. Whatever the reason, your gumption created a threat.

The bottom line is that you must believe that your future is in your hands. And remember, determination can take on different aspects or applications. Maybe you work longer hours; perhaps you are creative and can come up with unique solutions. Don't allow your actions to affect what others think of you. Always set your sights toward a future of positive outcomes!

As you look over your life's achievements, only you can identify what it took to succeed in each endeavor. That's what made you...you!

Hand Jive??? – 2022

Does anyone remember that song we did with our hands? Well, our hands and fingers need exercise as we age. Why? We lose cartilage and elasticity as we grow older. Plus, we may experience some arthritis in various parts of our bodies. So, here are some hand and finger exercises to help our mobility, increase our range of motion and give some pain or stiffness relief.

Make a fist with your thumb wrapped across your fingers, hold 30-60 seconds then release and spread the fingers wide open.
Gently lay your hand facedown on a flat surface. Stretch out your fingers and gently press down so your hand is flat. Hold for 30-60 seconds and release.

To strengthen your grip, use a softball (not a baseball) Play-Doh® or clay, Squeeze in the palm of your hand and hold for 30-60 seconds. Do not do this if your thumb or other fingers are damaged. I personally like the Play-Doh®, because I can roll it around to further strengthen not only my fingers but my wrist as well.
Thumb Touch. With your thumb, touch the tip of each finger separately. This helps with things like picking up items or writing.
When my hands may feel stiff, I run warm water over them or use a heating pad. This really can help before you start your hand/finger exercises.

Information sourced from:  Mayo Clinic/Healthline/ Web MD/Academic.oup.com

March On! – 2022

As we slug our way through the beginning of yet another year of navigating subsequent versions of the pandemic, I say, “March On!”
Whether you are staying at home and having everything delivered, or you’re bravely going out to complete your chores in person, do what’s most appropriate for you!
There is no ignoring that Covid continues to be newsworthy. However, so much negativity in the media is doing nothing for our mental health! What we need is more positive news - to balance out the gloom. Inspire us with messages of positivity! Tell us about the good around us! Give us more success stories, heartwarming and uplifting moments happening everywhere around us!

For example, I caught these positive moments recently. It would be nice for them to share the same center stage with the other news:
1. A teen who is only 19 years old became the youngest person to fly solo around the world!

2. Last month, the “Betty White Challenge” raised over $13 Million for animal shelters!

3. After a terrible snowstorm, several neighbors who were snowed in were surprised to see someone had taken their trashcans, through the deep snow, to the curb for pickup.

4. The mystery man turned out to be their 75-year-old neighbor!

5. A Coach had to cancel the wrestling team’s workout due to the school being closed from a snowstorm in Western Pennsylvania. Instead, he emailed all the players instructing them to get their workout by shoveling snow for an elderly or disabled neighbor and accepting no payments. Results? The entire team did exactly that! Some of the teens emailed photos of their work to the coach while expressing how many neighbors they had already helped!

If you can’t hear about it in the news… you can create your own happiness! You control what you can and cannot do! Only you have the power to create the life you want! March On!