Fear Number 3 and 4
Leaving a Legacy for the Kids
Affordable Healthcare
As we continue this journey in looking at the top 10 Fears of baby boomers, we are ready to take a deeper dive into Fear Number 3: Fear of Not Leaving a Legacy for our Family and Number 4: Fear of Not Having Affordable Healthcare.
A recent study has shown that a fear of not leaving a legacy is common among baby boomers. This fear can manifest in several ways, but often leads to anxiety about the future. Another common fear among this group is the cost of healthcare. It’s important to remember that these fears don’t have to control your life – there are plenty of things you can do to make sure your legacy lives on. There are steps you can take to ensure that you’re able to afford quality healthcare when you need it. Don’t let your fears hold you back – find out more in today’s blog post!
Fear number Three: Fear of Leaving a Legacy for Your Family:
Often during the years of raising our children, we ran into difficulties in being able to afford college or support the kids financially in other ways. For me, I was in this category as a single mom of four kids. This led to tremendous feelings of guilt. As the kids grew up and had their own children, I was bound and determined to do more to support the grandkids than I was able to do for their parents. It was a huge fear of mine. I started some college funds for the grandkids and was just putting in 25.00 per month but it grew and grew. It didn’t may for college, but it was a nice chunk of money to put towards college.
As I get older, now in my early 60s I feel a bigger sense of urgency to leave a legacy for the family. We have a log home on over 100 acres now and I want this place to stay in the family for everyone to enjoy. My dream is to have a trust with enough money to pay for the upkeep and taxes for years to come.
Another school of thought is to spend the money now on the kids and grandkids and when it’s gone it’s gone. I can see both sides of this coin but for me, I am fearing not leaving the legacy.
A recent study showed that 51% of baby boomers do not have a will or estate planning completed. So much wealth can be lost if you don’t take the time and effort to get your estate planning done. This past December, when we sit down together and plan our goals for the year Estate Planning was on the list to complete this year. This has become a must for us. Should it be a must for you? What a lot of people don’t realize is that many states have years of wait time before your assets are protected depending on the type of trust you do. Please seek out the advice from an Estate Planning Attorney.
There are other ways to leave a legacy and feel you have contributed to society, community, or family beside financial. You can leave a legacy at work. What accomplishments are you proud of? Did you set a standard or come up with a new idea your business or employer implemented? What will people think of you after you retire? What will they remember about you? This can also be a legacy worth leaving.
Baby boomers are leaving a lot of their wealth to charities vs. their family. This is another way you can have an impact on the greater good.
Lastly, maybe your knowledge is the legacy you are leaving. Your great wisdom that we have accumulated over the years is a legacy. Just think about all the things we have seen. I can remember as a child watching us put man on the moon and seeing it on T.V. We have seen cell phones and computers evolve at lightening speed. I can remember so many “dadisms” from my father. Words of wisdom I will never forget. He was not able to leave me wealth in the sense of money, but he left me a lot of great wisdom. He taught me the value of family. He always said, “Friends come and go but your family is for life”. We have a very close family and I believe it has a great deal to do with our father’s values on family. We certainly have a lot of wisdom we can pass on as our legacy!
Don’t let the fear of not leaving a legacy get the best of you. You have contributed more than you think!!
Let’s move on to fear number four.
Fear Number Four: The Fear of Not Having Affordable Healthcare
I can also relate to this fear. My husband has been self-employed for many years now. As a nurse I have always work in a healthcare setting and carried the medical insurance. As I am slowing down now and getting closer to retirement, I am thinking more about how we will pay for healthcare and what will that look like.
I started my businesses later in life to create an income beyond my retirement. A business where I can “work anywhere”. I was afraid we would have to change our lifestyle if we relied on social security. I won’t go into that topic as you might have guessed that will come up as another one of the 10 Fears of Baby Boomers. We will talk about that topic in an upcoming blog post. Let’s get back on track. One of the things that keeps me working part-time at the hospital as I grow my businesses is the health insurance. My husband is a couple year older than I am and he is now of Medicare age, so it is just me we have to worry about now. We tried the marketplace before, but it was so expensive and such a high deductible we couldn’t justify it for our income bracket.
This is a real fear. Health insurance is expensive no doubt about that. This is the main reason baby boomers delay retirement is that they fear they can’t afford health care insurance until they reach Medicare age.
This fear is real for many reasons. We are living longer and are now the 2nd largest generation. We as baby boomers also have the highest rate of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and the list goes on. With rising health care costs, baby boomers are using the greatest portion of the resources while healthcare costs keep climbing.
Do we have any other options? Going without is risky. One serious illness or injury can ruin you financially. Feeling forced to work longer than desired for health insurance just doesn’t feel right. There are health sharing companies out there. This is not insurance but kind of like a coop where everyone pools their money and helps to pay each other’s medical bills. They have come along way. In many ways they “feel” like insurance, but they are not. Some have pre-existing condition requirements and BMI or weight clauses, if you smoke you may pay higher premiums. Each one is a bit different. Many of these health sharing companies require a recommendation from your spiritual leader from your church. Others do not such as Impact Health Sharing. You do not have to have a religious affiliation to join this health sharing company. The rates are much more affordable. This may be a viable option but you must do your due diligence to make sure you understand all the ins and outs. Some of these companies will pay for wellness checkups and other preventative doctor visits or tests.
We have covered another two fears of baby boomers in this blog post. Next, we will tackle numbers 5 and 6. The fear of losing our independence and the fear of getting dementia or Alzheimer’s. We will get into these next two fears next week.
So, what can you do to help baby boomers? Fear of leaving a legacy for our family is a big one. You could share articles or stories about how others have found meaning and purpose in their later years. As far as the fear of not having affordable healthcare goes, there are plenty of resources out there to help people understand their options and make informed decisions. Consider joining our “Stay in Touch” list to stay informed of what we are sharing on this topic – we’ll keep you up to date on the latest information that can help baby boomers live life with less fear. For getting on our list, we will send you our checklist on 11 Signs That Your Elder Parent May Need Help in the Home. You can grab it HERE.
Thanks for stopping by and spending some of your valuable time with us. Don’t forget to check out our YouTube channel for more topics related to healthcare and healthy living. We have lots of checklists and materials to help you be your best version of you!
Take care and we’ll talk soon,
Pam and Linda
Resources:
https://www.legacyplanninglawgroup.com/will-baby-boomers-have-anything-left-to-pass-down/
