Fiinancial Inventory

 Thinking of having someone act for you with a Power of Attorney now or in the future? If so before you act, you should complete your financial inventory or save it in a file along with your inventory, here is some of the information you will need:

•         Checking, savings, and credit card accounts including your online accounts and passwords

•         Regular monthly bills for the mortgage, rent, utilities, insurance, and subscription services (for example, newspapers, TV, internet, cell phone, and data storage)

•         Other bills for property taxes, homeowners insurance, car insurance

•         Income tax returns

•         Insurance policies (life, health, home, car, long term care, and other property)

•         Investment and retirement accounts such as Individual Retirement Accounts

•         Other sources of retirement income such as Social Security, pensions, and annuities

•         Debts such as your mortgage, home equity or personal loans, credit cards, and any medical debt

•         Safe deposit boxes or in-home safes

•         Valuable personal belongings such as cars, jewelry, art, antiques

•         Real estate deeds, including rental properties or vacation homes and titles to all vehicles

•         Address, email and phone numbers for professionals who handle your money, such as an accountant, financial advisor, or attorney, and other service providers and close contacts

•         Your last will and testament and any pre-paid funeral arrangements

•         Any trust documents you have in place

Where should you store all this private information?

Save or store your financial inventory and other important documents in a secure place. If you keep an electronic copy, make it a password-protected document. If you print out your inventory, store it in a locked file cabinet, home safe, or a safe deposit box.

More people choose to store their financial information online using tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud. This method is often called cloud storage. Saving your information in the cloud makes it accessible anytime, anywhere as long as you have a laptop, tablet or smartphone with internet access. Most online cloud providers use security features, such as passwords or two-step verification, to keep your documents secure. Spend time to learn how these important features work.

 

What can a person who has Power of Attorney do?

 As we get older many of us may consider getting someone, we trust to help us look after our financial affairs. In BC this is done through an Enduring Power of Attorney, in other jurisdictions, there are other names and requirements.

When you give someone your Power of Attorney make sure it is someone you would trust to step in for you if you cannot manage your money down the road. They might be your spouse, adult child, grandchild, nephew or niece, a long-time friend, or someone else you really trust.

An Enduring power of attorney is a document in which an adult authorizes another person (called their attorney) to make decisions in relation to your financial affairs, business, and property. The person (attorney) is authorized to act when you become incapable, or to continue to act while you remain incapable. Attorneys may not make health care treatment decisions. A Power of Attorney is drawn up by a lawyer, both to protect your rights and to protect the attorney’s rights.

A person who has your Power of attorney can act on your behalf in the following four areas. These areas are the most common, but the attorney can act in any other financial areas that you define in the legal agreement. If you are considering giving someone the Power of Attorney over you, check with a lawyer before you do this.

1. Manage daily finances

2. Manage investments and sources of retirement income

3. Manage your home and other property

Let’s go over these categories in more detail.

1 MANAGE DAILY FINANCES

•        Make sure your bills are paid on time. This includes mortgage, rent, credit cards, insurance premiums, and basic services such as utilities and subscriptions (cell phone, TV, newspapers, etc.). They can also set up automated bill payments.

•        Monitor your checking and credit card accounts, including making sure automatic payments are appropriate.

•        Look for unusual purchases, donations to charity, and payments that may signal that someone is stealing money from your account or that you are being targeted by a scam.

•        Make sure your tax forms are filed correctly and on time, such as income taxes and property taxes.

•        Hire and monitor professionals like tax preparers, financial advisers, and attorneys.

•        Securely store your passwords, financial records, bills, checkbooks, credit cards, tax returns, and other important documents.

•        If needed, pay home health aides and other care providers.

The goal here is to make sure all your expenses are accounted for and that your bills are paid on time, thereby avoiding late fees, penalties, and loss of service or coverage due to missed payments. This helpful monitoring will also protect you from inappropriate purchases and repairs, overzealous solicitors for charitable causes, and many forms of scams, fraud, and identity theft.

2. MANAGE INVESTMENTS AND SOURCES OF RETIREMENT INCOME

To keep you financially secure, your attorney might help with the following tasks:

•        Determine if you’re eligible for financial support or other government programs.

•        Initiate pension payments and appropriate withdrawals from retirement accounts

•        Periodically monitor and evaluate your investments and insurance to make sure they are still appropriate for your situation and meet your goals.

•        Review that your income from retirement accounts is properly transferred into checking and savings accounts.

•        Work with you to develop and manage sources of retirement income and an investment strategy. If needed, your attorney can help find the appropriate financial professional.

Ultimately, your attorney will keep your retirement savings safe by making sure you aren’t sold investments and insurance products that are inappropriate for your circumstances and goals. They can also prevent high charges for professional services from brokers and advisers, and potentially catastrophic losses due to fraud or mistakes. Last, they can make sure you receive public assistance if you meet eligibility requirements.

3. MANAGE YOUR HOME AND OTHER PROPERTY

If you own your home, your attorney can:

•        Work with you to identify what repairs and maintenance are needed.

•        Screen, hire, and monitor work done by service providers like contractors, housekeepers, exterminators, plumbers, electricians, and other repair people.

If you own rental properties, your attorney can:

•        Hire people for maintenance and repairs.

•        Collect and deposit rental payments.

•        Communicate with current tenants.

•        Interview and evaluate prospective tenants.

If your attorney is not comfortable with this role or lives far away, you or your attorney can investigate hiring a professional property manager for rental properties. The goal here is to prevent substantial costs due to neglected repairs and untrustworthy helpers.

In the case of rental properties, you want to avoid losing income due to turnover with tenants and other issues that can come up.

IT’S A PRETTY BIG ROLE

It’s quite remarkable how many tasks you do to manage your money and keep it safe. Your attorney might also spend a lot of time with these tasks. Be sure to thank them for their time!

 

How not to be bored in retirement

 Here are some ways to solving the problems identified in yesterdays post:

1. Plan before you retire

Many people think it is a good idea that you don’t retire until you have a plan for your time.

2. Get a dog

Dogs definitely keep you busy. And it's nice to go on walks with them.

3. Have a purpose

Your purpose can be having fun relaxing or saving mankind from peril. It doesn’t really matter what it is.

4. Make lists or rules

For those who are list makers make a list of rules. Here are some to start: 1. Stay busy. 2. Do good. 3. Keep moving.

5. Make new friends

Get familiar with web site www.meetup.com. It’s free and you will quickly find others with similar interests and hobbies.

6. Forget routines: Explore the luxury of free and unstructured time

There is zero need for a routine. Let go of the of the work paradigm and embrace the luxury of time. There is no ‘wasting’ time in retirement. You do what you want to do when you want to do it. There are no agendas, no timelines, etc.… Your entire retired life is free time now. Explore that luxury.

7. Have hobbies, not routines

Hobbies are important some people need routines and I respect that so if you need to follow a routine

8. Keep to a routine

While many experts endorse the benefits of unstructured time, much research suggests that having a routine can help you stay mentally, physically and emotionally healthy.

Another reason for having a routine is that if you are following a routine, your family will not be able to find things for you to do.

9. Read Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals is a book by Oliver Burkeman. The book’s title refers to the finite number of years you’ll live, assuming you make it to 80.

He addresses the struggle of how to best use your 4,000 weeks. “Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern fixation on ‘getting everything done,’ Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing how many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society ― and that we could do things differently.”

10. Make a to-do jar

Write down things you want to do, like 100 of them, and put them in a jar. Pull one out a week and DO it. Also, find one NEW thing to do in each of these categories: physical, spiritual, creative, intellectual, social, relationship and community. That gives you a well-rounded life to keep you busy and fulfilled.

11. Use a calendar

 If you put it on the calendar, it will happen, if not you may spend way too much time on Facebook and other time wasters.”

12. Make screen time limits

Technology can be a time suck. And, with nothing but time in retirement, you want to be careful not to use up your time on the boob tube, phone or other mindless screens. So. give yourself time limits on the screen.

13. Go back to work

Yep. Many retirees find happiness by going back to work but those who do, work part-time and usually control their schedule of when they work.

14. Be accountable to someone

Tell others what you want to do, and ask them to follow up with you so you can be accountable for your action. Being accountable is a strong motivator.

Boredom and retirement

Retirement at the beginning is not easy for some of us, we are so used to doing it at work, at home at leisure. But after a few adjustments, we find our rhythm and I have heard so many say something like “I am so busy; I don’t remember how I did it all when I was working.”  Once you are retired you may need to make adjustments that ensure that you can enjoy your retirement.

After years of living mostly separate lives on most days, spouses sometimes find that retirement affords too much together time.

I have heard some women friends state that the hardest part of retirement at first was having their husbands around all of the time. While some of my men friends make resent the idea that because they are at home, they are expected to contribute and because they are not cognizant of what needs to be done, they may be given a list of chores which they call the “honey-do” list.

Once retired your time is your own, and some people miss the routine that work imposes. When you are retired, one does not see as may people and so others miss colleagues. There are a few people who genuinely enjoyed their work more once they are retired.

However, there are some retirees who are so worn out, used up, exhausted, and burnt out from their careers, that they don’t have the energy to make the most of their time in retirement.

As we get older, we cannot do what we used to do with the same energy and some of us resent the challenges that ageing brings. But as one of my friends pointed out, “Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative.”

We are a sandwich generation; we are living longer and all of us have older relatives that are living longer as well. While many people consider care giving to be a privilege, there is no way around the fact that giving care to older relatives is incredibly difficult. The time and energy it takes can be a burden for some.

One of the hardest parts of retirement is saying goodbye to family and friends that pass away. Loss is very hard. However, it can also serve as a poignant reminder to live the life you want.

Many retirees can relate to the quote from Bill Watterson, author and illustrator of Calvin and Hobbes, “There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.”

When you first retire, the hardest parts of retirement are retirement boredom, feeling that there is nothing to Do, and Feeling Irrelevant.