Successful Retirement in China

I just returned from a two week trip in China where I spent time in some large cities (Beijing, Xi’an, Chongqing, Shanghai) and points in between. While two weeks isn’t enough time to really get to know a country and its people, it is enough to make a few observations:

• The major cities are very clean, safe and colorful but the air quality is marginal at best.
• Traffic in the cities is very challenging. This despite the fact that it can cost as much as $10,000 (U.S.) to obtain a license plate!
• With few exceptions, the Chinese people seemed very polite and welcoming. A number of them posed to have their pictures taken with us and/or asked us to hold their babies for photos.
• English is clearly becoming a second language, both spoken and in signage.
• The food was good and quite varied, but you can’t drink the water (other than bottled). The beer is good.
• The population is getting older on average.
• Most of the retired people I saw or met seemed quite happy.

The population is getting older in large measure due to China’s one birth per couple policy. While it doesn’t apply to everyone, the Chinese claim it has reduced population growth by about 400 million since it was instituted in 1978. Since there are fewer young people and life expectancy has been increasing, the population is on average getting older. There are about 166 million people over the age of 60 in China at the present time or about 12.5% of the population; that number is expected to increase to 360 million by 2030. This leaves China with the problem of getting old before it gets rich enough to support the aging population.

The traditional Confucian ethic was for children take care of and support their elders. The one birth per couple policy has led to what has been called the “4-2-1 problem” – one child might need to support two parents and four grandparents if savings, pensions and charities of the elders are inadequate. The Confucian ethic was pushed aside by the Communist Party, but has not gone out of existence. One of the first questions a Chinese may ask you is how old you are. The older you are, the more you are to be respected.

The Chinese retirement age is 60 for men, 55 for female civil servants and 50 for other women. Life expectancy is about 72 for men, 76 for women.

It is easy to find retired Chinese: go to any park or open public space and you will find them doing Tai Chi or other gentle martial arts, graceful ballroom and solo dancing, singing, playing musical instruments, playing badminton, meditating or simply watching others engaged in these pursuits. And they love to have people join them. We stopped to listen to a group of singers. When their “conductor” noticed us he called out a new song and they serenaded us with Jingle Bells. That was followed with Oh Suzanna during which they took most of our group by the hand and danced in a large circle with much laughter and back-slapping at the end. As we left they sang Auld Lang Syne.

I had a lengthy chat in one park with a retired female accountant (age 57) who was studying English. We discussed the United States, our families, our work before retirement and my impressions of China. She said she was happy in retirement. She apologized several times for her English, which I must note was much better than my Italian (the language I’m studying in retirement).

The parks also contain many happy and proud grandparents caring for their grandchildren. I assume this is because the parents were both working but I didn’t have the opportunity to dig into that.

In the country-side I met a 78 year old woman who lived in house on a small portion of what used to be her farm. The Government had taken most of the farm for expansion of a nearby airport. She lived off small land compensation payments from the government and still grew vegetables in several gardens for her own consumption. Her living room walls proudly displayed portraits of her deceased husband, Mao Zedong and Yao Ming the Chinese basketball star who last played for the Houston Rockets. She too seemed content and happy, consistent with all the other senior Chinese I was able to observe or meet during the trip.

R. Kevin Price

www.successfulretirementguide.com

© 2008-2012 R.K. Price

Freedom in Retirement

Many people think of retirement as an idealized time of freedom to do what they want, to pursue favorite pastimes and investigate new ones. The pressures and structures of the workplace and daily schedules are left behind. We have freedom to enjoy ourselves as we wish.

The concept of having freedom and taking advantage of it probably seems easy to grasp. But consider another point of view from the Bhagavad-Gita.

The Bhagavad-Gita is an ancient Hindu text dating from about 2,000 years ago. It tells the story of a conversation between a Warrior Prince and his Charioteer in a battlefield prior to the commencement of fighting. The Prince is reluctant to fight because many of the fighters on both sides of the battlefield are his relatives. His Charioteer, who is actually the Lord God Krishna, gives him advice on his duty as a warrior.

Basically, Krishna tells the Warrior Prince that since he is a warrior and the essence of his duty as a warrior is to fight, that fight is what he must do. The Prince has a hard time with this because while he knows it is his duty to fight he doesn’t want to fight his relatives.

Krishna talks with the Prince about yoga. Not the yoga of the modern day yoga studio but yoga in its broadest meaning as discipline. Krishna discusses three types of yoga: karma yoga or the discipline of action; jnana yoga or the discipline of knowledge; and bhakti yoga or the discipline of devotion. The Warrior Prince’s place in the universe, his destiny, is that of a warrior and therefore he must fight; he mustn’t let such ephemeral things as the fact he would be fighting his relatives get in the way.

Krishna’s larger point in this allegorical tale is that we all struggle at times with what we should do and what we might want to do based on ephemeral wants and desires. But discipline is what truly makes us free. Freedom from discipline means we are being driven by temporary, external forces. True freedom comes from self-control and discipline in support of what is truly important in life and not allowing ephemeral wants and desires to dictate our actions.

Food for thought…

R. Kevin Price

www.successfulretirementguide.com

© 2008-2012 R.K. Price

Visiting the Chiropractor

For my 65th birthday I turned my body into a letter “S.” How I managed to do this is a matter of some dispute but it is a matter of record that the days prior to my 65th were spent in wall and trim painting. In any case, I could barely move. When I looked in the mirror, my left hip tilted off to the left, my torso tilted to the right and my head and neck went back to the left again. No matter how hard I tried I could not stand up straight.

Having had some back issues in the past (ruptured disc in the early 90s; muscle spasms a number of times), I concluded my “S” shape was not going to rectify itself without intervention. A call to my PCP resulted in a referral to Physical Therapy but I was not able to get an appointment for almost a week. A friend suggested a chiropractor who she visited on a monthly basis. I knew nothing about chiropractic medicine but decided to give it a try since I was quite disabled and I could get an appointment the very next day.

At my appointment, I had to provide a medical history and answer a number of questions in writing and orally about my current condition. A staff assistant also ran a thermal imaging device done my spine. The thermal image of my spine showed several squiggly lines which, I was informed, should ideally be straight.

My treatment consisted of lying on my stomach on a table while the chiropractor used an adjusting tool (looks like a stainless steel hypodermic needle with a rubber tip) to deliver adjusting force to several places on my back. She also applied pressure and horizontal force to various areas of my spine with her hands. There were several cracking and thunking sounds associated with this process. I left not feeling any better than when I arrived but I did notice when I arrived home that I was straighter. After additional visits over the next few days my “S” shape was completely gone. I still had muscle issues and chose to deal with those through PT.

My conclusion: While I don’t fully understand how it works, I believe chiropractic treatment was helpful in “straightening me out.” If I have a similar challenge in the future, I would not hesitate to utilize chiropractic. Retirement is too much fun to be stuck in an “S” shape!

R. Kevin Price

www.successfulretirementguide.com

© 2008-2012 R.K. Price

Applying for Medicare, Part III

In my last post I concluded by noting that I had learned how much I was going to pay for Medicare and the next step would be to receive a letter from the Social Security Administration (SSA) with instructions on the mechanics of paying for it.

I was wrong on both counts.

The next letter I received was from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). It welcomed me to Medicare, told me I was registered to use the MyMedicare.gov website and that I should go there to complete my Initial Enrollment Questionnaire or “IEQ.” This was a bit puzzling since I had filled out a questionnaire during the enrollment process, but I concluded that this must be the first questionnaire since I became enrolled. In any case I went to the website and answered questions about my employment status, my wife’s employment stratus and whether or not I was receiving benefits for Black Lung, Worker’s Compensation or for illness or injury caused by someone else.

I next received a letter telling me again that I needed to pay an Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA). I had received a very similar letter a month earlier providing the same information about the IRMAA.  This second letter referenced the fact that I received the same information a month earlier. I still had no information about how to pay.

A few days later I received two letters on the same day. One letter from SSA in Jamaica, New York (my previous letters had been from my local SSA office) which told me my Medicare premium would be about $100 a month higher than the previous letters I had received. The other letter from CMS in St Louis was essentially a Medicare billing notice to pay yet another amount of money to cover Medicare Medical Insurance for a three month period.

Now I was thoroughly confused: I had three different amounts and a bill for one of those amounts. So I called my local SSA office and asked for help. A very nice person (who I had the sense has been through this a number of times) explained: Medicare charges most people a base amount to which is added the IRMAA. The first and second letters told me told me what my IRMAA would be; the third letter added the base amount and IRMAA together; the billing notice only covered the base amount for a three month period since St Louis was probably not up-to-date on my IRMAA. Her advice to me: pay the CMS billing notice amount and wait for St Louis to catch up on the correct billing.

I thanked her for her help and commented it was interesting that there had been a lot of communication but it still managed to create confusion. She responded: “That’s why we are here: to create confusion!” We both laughed and I thanked her again for alleviating mine.

R. Kevin Price

www.successfulretirementguide.com

© 2008-2012 R.K. Price

Applying for Medicare, Part II

My previous post related my experience in applying for Medicare about three months before my 65th birthday. In short, I applied on-line and received” a “Notice of Award” some 10 days later informing me that I am entitled to Medicare hospital and medical insurance beginning next year. I was left with wondering how much Medicare was going to cost me and what my payment options (if needed) would be since the “Notice of Award” was silent on those topics.

A week or so later I received another letter from Social Security Administration (SSA) focusing on how much I will need to pay each month to receive my Medicare Part B Medical Insurance benefit (as opposed to the Part A Hospital Insurance benefit). These payments will be in addition to the Medicare taxes my employers and I have both paid since the inception of the program, a not insignificant sum in the aggregate for either party. The letter was silent as to whether I would need to pay anything for Part A Hospital Insurance, but I learned from another source that, in consideration of my payments over the years that, like most people, I do not need to pay an additional premium for Part A. (It would be helpful in my view if the SSA included that tidbit in their communication.)

In order to determine my Medicare Part B IRMAA (in the middle of the letter “premium”  becomes the “IRMAA” or Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount), the SSA consulted with the Internal Revenue Service in order to compute my “MAGI” or Modified Adjusted Gross Income from 2010. My MAGI is the sum of my adjusted gross income from my joint tax return with my wife increased by a small amount of tax exempt interest excluded from our taxable income. Based on my MAGI, the SSA consulted a table (included with the letter) and determined my IRMAA.

The letter also lists a variety situations e.g. marriage, divorce, annulment, death, job loss, reduced hours, loss in income-producing property, cancelled pension plan, bankruptcy, that could affect my MAGI and hence my IRMAA. Fortunately, none of these applied in my case.

So I now know how much I will pay. I am still unsure what method I will use to pay my IRMAA but, unlike the first letter I received from SSA which made no reference to further correspondence, the most recent letter said “If you do not contact us within 10 days after you receive this letter, we will send you another letter which will tell you how you will pay the income-related monthly adjustment amount.”

I look forward to that.

R. Kevin Price

www.successfulretirementguide.com

© 2008-2012 R.K. Price

Applying for Medicare

A significant step in most people’s retirement is applying for Medicare.

After spending several days adjusting to the idea that I am actually old enough for Medicare, I decided to take the plunge. Actually, I am three months shy of my 65th birthday but Medicare suggests that one apply three months in advance.

You can apply at a Social Security Office or on-line. Since my blood pressure tends to surge while standing in lines in government offices, I opted for the on-line approach. I am pleased to report it worked well.

The entire process took just a few minutes and was mostly straightforward. The only quirky part was in the section describing what medical coverage I have now, and what I will have after age 65 from my previous employer. None of the boxes provided seemed to provide the opportunity to answer clearly. Fortunately there is a message box included in the on-line form which I was able to use to explain the situation. A push of the button and I was officially an applicant.

Today (about 10 days after applying) I received a “Notice of Award” telling me I am entitled to Medicare hospital and medical insurance beginning next year (I knew that). It also told me that “we will send you a Medicare card” and that “you can enroll in a Medicare prescription drug plan (Part D)” which I won’t do because my former employer’s plan is better.

More ominously, the notice also told me “The benefit in this letter is the only one you can receive from Social Security.” That is wrong since I am also entitled to a retirement benefit (at least until Congress takes it away) but I attribute the errant sentence to poor draftsmanship in the government letter writing department.

More interestingly, the letter then went on at significant length to tell me what to do if I disagreed with the decision to send me a Medicare card including filing an appeal, getting representation, seeking reconsideration, getting a hearing, appealing to the Appeals Council, filing suit in Federal Court and directed me to the enclosed pamphlet which described all of this in greater detail. Whew!

The questions I wanted answered most were how much is this going to cost me and what are my payment options. On these topics there was no information provided. I am assuming all of this will come in due course. Time will tell.

R. Kevin Price

www.successfulretirementguide.com

© 2008-2011 R.K. Price

Brain Exercise in Retirement

A successful retirement is based on staying engaged intellectually, physically and socially. A subset of intellectual engagement is keeping the brain healthy. How can we do that?

Our brains are constantly changing. The brain that began reading this blog entry is not the same brain that will finish reading it. This is due to the brain’s plasticity – its ability to create neurons (cells that process and transmit information) and neural connections throughout our lives. Our brains change throughout our lifetimes and we can help shape those changes. With proper health care and physical and cognitive exercise we can even increase our intelligence levels.

Proper brain care begins with many of the same things that are important for the other parts of our body: healthy diet, appropriate body weight, physical exercise and adequate sleep.

Brain exercise requires using our memory. There are many types of memory, but, at the risk of oversimplification, there are two major categories of memory: short-term or working memory and long-term memory. We put information into our short term memory for use in the near term, e.g. phone numbers, directions, where we put our keys, the name of the person we just met, daily to-do lists, recipes. The more we work with information from our short term memory – use it multiple times, manipulate it, share it with others – the more likely it is to enter into our long-term memory. Long term memory is like a huge storage center full of interconnected information we have sent there as well as sensory and emotional experiences.

Working memory tends to be low in young children, high in middle adulthood and to decline with age. The decline is part of the normal aging process. The good news is that working memory can be improved with a deliberate effort.

We can begin that effort by simply paying attention. If we are not paying attention or maintaining a reasonable level of interest in what is going on around us, not much will be going on in working memory. Similarly, if we try to multitask or let ourselves be easily distracted our working memory will be weaker.

We also need to work with or manipulate our stored memories to strengthen our working memories. We do this naturally as we live our daily lives, setting goals and schedules, solving problems, handling changes in information, setting priorities, organizing etc.

In addition, there are simple exercises and games that can stimulate and enhance our working memories. The key is to manipulate information we already have stored. Some examples:

• Recite the alphabet backwards.
• Spell words backwards. Start with five letter words and work your way up to longer ones.
• Take a brief look at a set of pictures and then try to describe what you saw in as much detail as possible.
• Write down a series of numbers in the morning and try to remember them for the rest of the day.
• Pick a letter of the alphabet and see how many words you can name that begin with that letter in the space of a minute.
• Name the States from east to west, west to east, south to north, north to south
• Play video games that require you to manipulate information.
• Play card games – poker and bridge are particularly good.
• Learn to dance or learn to dance a new step.
• After you see a play or a movie, write down its essential plot line.

There are also books, courses and web sites that can be helpful. The Teaching Company offers a course in Optimizing Brain Fitness. The Lumosity website offers interesting and progressively challenging brain exercises.

R. Kevin Price

www.successfulretirementguide.com

© 2008-2011 R.K. Price

Community Service in Retirement

Membership and active participation in a community service club or organization can benefit you personally as well as your community. Most will provide the opportunity for satisfaction from:

• accomplishing something worthwhile e.g. helping your community or the environment; raising money for scholarships community  parks, playgrounds, senior citizen programs and medical care for those in need,
• meeting new people,
• making friends,
• learning new skills etc.

While there are a variety of national organizations – some are described below – there are also thousands of local or regional organizations. Look in your “yellow pages” or type in your area of interest and location into your web browser.

Some of the clubs that have a significant “fraternal” aspect to them, in addition to their community service activities, may have some membership requirements, e.g. being recommended by a current member, being a US citizen or of a minimum age. These are not usually burdensome.

Ever wonder what the Elks, Kiwanis, Lions, Moose and Rotarians do?

The Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks Of the USA (BPO Elks)

The BPO Elks organization dates its founding to 1868 in New York City. Today its nearly 1.2 million men and women are organized into Lodges in almost 2,200 communities.

The BPO Elks are involved in a wide range of charitable and patriotic activities with particular focus on youth, patriotic and disaster recovery programs. They support scouting, scholarships, 4-H clubs, youth athletics, drug awareness, veterans, flag day and civic pride programs among others.

Learn more at: www.elks.org

Kiwanis International

“Serving the Children of the World” is a major theme of the Kiwanis. Their motto is “We build.”

The name “Kiwanis” was adapted from an Otchipew (Native American) term “Nunc Kee-wanis” meaning: “We make a noise.” Kiwanis Club service projects focus on a wide variety of areas with a particular focus on young children. Children’s program can address needs in pediatric trauma, safety, health care, nutrition, of iodine deficiency disorders, development and other areas. Other Kiwanis programs focus on the broader needs of the community including substance abuse prevention, elder care, youth sports programs, literacy and disaster response among others.

Learn more at www.Kiwanis.org

Lions Clubs International

“We serve” is the stated mission of the Lions Clubs International. There are more than 44,000 clubs. The organization was founded in 1917 in Illinois by a group of business organizations which agreed that community service should be a important part of their activities.

While Lions Clubs have community service programs in a wide variety of areas, they are known in particular for their service to the blind and visually impaired. In 1925, Helen Keller challenged the Lions to be “knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness.” The Lions Clubs have responded with a number of programs to assist the visually challenged including recycling of eyeglasses, financial support for individuals who require cataract surgery and educational programs on diabetic eye disease and glaucoma.

Other Lions Clubs activities include providing assistance to the hearing impaired, diabetes awareness and education materials, environmental projects and youth programs.

Learn more at: www.lionsclubs.org

Moose International

Moose International is composed of two main units: the Loyal Order of Moose (for men) and the Women of the Moose (not for men).
The organization was founded in the late 1800’s and was originally a social institution for men. A women’s organization was added early in the 1900’s. Today the combined organizations have approximately 1.6 million members organized into one of 2,000 Lodges (men) and 1,600 Chapters (women) throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Bermuda.

Moose International owns and operates Mooseheart, a home and school in Illinois for children in need as well as Moosehaven in Florida for Moose men and women of retirement age. While continuing to provide a fraternal environment, Moose International is also involved in a wide variety of community service activities.

Learn more at www.mooseintl.org

Rotary International

“Service Above Self” is the Rotary motto. There are more than 30,000 Rotary Clubs in more than 106 countries world-wide. The name “Rotary” come from the fact that the initial meetings of the organization in the early 1900’s would “rotate” among members’ homes.

Rotarians have been a major force in the elimination of polio world-wide, both through fund-raising and through volunteers who have assisted in immunization efforts. Other Rotary efforts are directed at children’s’ issues, poverty, hunger, improving literacy, reducing violence and promoting world understanding through international humanitarian service programs and educational and cultural exchanges.

Learn more at: www.rotary.org

What if you can’t find an organization that meets your needs? You might consider starting one. This is probably not something you want to do entirely on your own. But if you can find several other folks with a similar interest(s), you could be the catalyst for bringing them together. This could result in an informal ad hoc collaborative effort or perhaps it could into an ongoing organization with bylaws, officers, annual plan, a budget, fund-raising, and maybe even a convention!

Need help in getting your fledgling organization organized? Type “organizing a club” into your browser to see how other folks have done it or visit your local library for a book on the topic.

R. Kevin Price

www.successfulretirementguide.com

© 2008-2011 R.K. Price

Successful Aging in Retirement

“Successful Aging”  is a broader topic than “successful retirement.” We begin to age as soon as we are born and we all age at the same rate – if you and I are born on the same day, after 23,731 days we are both 65 years old.

But we may differ substantially on how much we have aged mentally and physiologically. Some of the difference can be traced to genetics and there isn’t much we can do about that (at least yet). But much of the difference results from the lifestyle choices we have made throughout our lives, and continue to make as we move into the future. Better lifestyle choices can help us age more
successfully and delay senescence.

But how do we define “successful aging”? Long life? No loss of mobility? Freedom from disease? Staying sharp mentally? Avoiding a nursing home? Remaining happy?

Robert Havighurst, writing in the first issue of the journal The Gerontologist in 1961, defined it as “adding life to the years” and “getting satisfaction from life.” R.C. Gibson said it entailed “reaching one’s potential” and achieving a level of physical, social and psychological well-being” that is pleasing both to yourself and others.

John Rowe and Robert Kahn in their book Successful Aging (Pantheon, 1998) define successful aging as the ability to maintain three key behaviors or characteristics:

1. low risk of disease and disease-related disability;
2. high mental and physical function;
3. active engagement with life.

Another way of putting it is that there are three essential components over which you have some control: physical, mental and social.

There is a plethora of research which demonstrates that to maintain physical well-being we need to exercise and live healthy life styles. We can also become informed about the physical aging process – what is normal and what isn’t. It is surprising how little most of us know about what to expect as we age and what we can do to offset age-related declines.

To maintain mental/cognitive well-being we need to exercise our brains in new and challenging ways. Ball-room dancing, solving challenging puzzles, learning a foreign language are all excellent activities. And it is important to note that recent research proves that you can continue to learn and develop at any age and stage of life. Don’t believe the old adage “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”
because you can.

The third component of Rowe & Kahn’s model is that of remaining actively engaged with life. Remaining socially engaged or meaningfully connected can be harder if you are no longer in the workforce and your built-in social circle of co-workers is no longer available. There are many ways to fill that gap, ranging from joining clubs to spending more time with family, taking classes or
volunteering. Many individuals find that in retirement there is now the time for creativity, exploration, continued learning and for giving back.

So while successful aging and successful retirement are different topics, they are clearly related. Focusing on both aspects of growing older can help us fill our senior years with a sense of satisfaction, meaning, achievement,  fulfillment and well-being. That’s my definition of successful aging.

R. Kevin Price

www.successfulretirementguide.com

© 2008-2011 R.K. Price

Retirement Metrics

Quick question: what do the USA, Myanmar and Liberia have in common?

Answer: The British Imperial System of weights and measures.

While we continue with ounces (of the dry kind), pounds, tons, inches, feet, yards, acres, ounces (of the wet kind), pints, quarts and gallons, tablespoons, teaspoons, cups, fractional portions of all of them, volumetric versions of some and Fahrenheit temperatures, the rest of the world (excepting Myanmar and Liberia) has gone metric including the British.

Why did they do that?

The metric system is simpler, easier and more logical: it uses fewer measures, e.g. meters for distance, grams for weight; it is scalable using standard prefixes across measures, e.g. “kilo” for 1,000, “milli” for 1,000th; it uses decimals which are a lot easier to work with in making calculations than are fractions.

The US Congress legalized the metric system for use in the US in 1866 (yes, 1866). In 1988, Congress declared the metric system was the preferred system for use in the US. What is holding us up? In large measure, it is probably the inertia of the familiar. But the vast majority of the industrialized world has gone/is going metric. The US will need to also if we wish to remain competitive. How can you help? Learn and use metric; remember it is simpler and easier than the British Imperial system we use now which has its roots in the Middle Ages.

Learn more here.

R. Kevin Price

www.successfulretirementguide.com

© 2008-2011 R.K. Price