Clearly, the drug companies and food industry jumped on the “control your cholesterol” bandwagon many years ago. Now, it appears, neither big food nor big pharma wants the wagon to stop rolling. Billions of revenues and profits are at stake, fed by equally staggering amounts of direct to consumer advertising.

But to what end?

Now some scientists believe that for most of us, statins are unhealthy and that conventional cholesterol management strategies are incorrect and counterproductive.

If you are worried about your cholesterol but have become somewhat skeptical of how health care is managed in the U.S., I recommend you watch a newly released documentary called “Statin Nation.” For a week or so, the documentary can be streamed online, for free. I watched it this past weekend. It made me feel much better about my decision to stop taking statins and to manage my nutritional and cardiovascular health with exercise and proper eating, not medication.

Here is the link to the Statin Nation documentary.

Before or after you watch the video, I recommend you read this cholesterol cover-up commentary by Dr. Mercola.

The post Is there a Cholesterol Cover-Up? appeared first on Go To Retirement.

BAREFOOTERS are a shoe that are intended to simulate and provide the benefits of walking barefoot. Remember when we were kids and going barefoot was much more common than it is today? The concept of returning to the barefoot experience appealed to me but not just for nostalgic reasons.

First, the human foot and body were designed to operate bare. There is plenty of science supporting the benefits of shoeless mobility for both injury reduction and general good health. In recent years, several manufacturers have introduced quasi-shoes/foot coverings that allow for a barefoot experience while still keeping the feet covered. My younger brother is a fan of these.

The BAREFOOTERS product takes a somewhat different approach to the barefoot movement and one that, in my opinion, is more closely aligned with the needs of baby boomers.

First, this is a shoe that is easy to wear because they slip on and off with ease, like a pair of comfy slippers.  There is a single snap strap that can be removed and changed for aesthetic or other reasons but in regular use, the strap just stays in place.

The shoes are made from a  blend of cork and silicone that is flexible, strong and washable. I have worn these shoes in the house, in the yard, and just walking about – basically everywhere. They have held up well and show no visible signs of wear.

The shoes are COMFORTABLE and rejuvenating! They conform to your feet with a seamless construction but are not constricting. They provide protection yet let your feet engage and move through your environment in an invigorating manner.

BAREFOOTERS come with a removable foot bed but trust me, you won’t want to remove them. The foot bed uses reflexology principles to message your feet as you move.

When I first put these shoes on, my initial reaction was “there is something wrong with either the bottom of my feet or these shoes.” The sensations of having a sculptured, three dimensional foot bed were different. I quickly remembered that this what it felt like to go barefoot in the grass. A few hours later, those strange sensations became both comforting and stress reducing. My feet enjoyed being massaged as I moved around. Now, weeks later, I am aware that I am wearing my BAREFOOTERS but only because they feel better than my conventional shoes. If you have problem or aching feet, I have to think that BAREFOOTERS can be part of the solution.

Now some of you may be thinking “I can’t wear shoes that look weird.” You need to let go of that idea.

First, they don’t look weird on your feet, particularly compared to some of the other footwear being worn around these days. I even asked my young adult son if I looked strange wearing them. He said they looked fine (and he would not want his old man looking strange). Second, at our age, health and comfort trump style, don’t you agree?

By the way, you can wear BAREFOOTERS with and without socks so no worries there. They even include an anti-microbial for odor control but I haven’t experienced any problems in that area.

If you want to try a pair of BAREFOOTERS, you may have to buy them online. Based on my experience, standard sizing should work for most folks.

In summary, I recommend BAREFOOTERS shoes. Yes, I received mine for free but no one forced me to wear them or write a positive review. This is my feet speaking!

The post This Boomer is Barefootin’ for Good Health appeared first on Go To Retirement.

I started on this path a little more than a year ago, when I sought professional help to deal with some life circumstances that were tremendously stressful to me. I had trouble sleeping and focusing. I had trouble dealing with the anger that would arise in me from being subjected to these stressful circumstances.

I chose a therapist who (a) had experience with some of the specific issues I was facing and (b) who proclaimed herself to be an “in your face” sort of therapist. This second criterion was important to me because I didn’t want to spend hours talking to someone who would not directly and aggressively challenge me. If I had messed up ideas in my head, I wanted to know about them and fix them – now.

I knew at our second session that I had chosen the right therapist. When I complained about a certain family member’s behavior “wasting my time” she stopped me immediately and asked me “what do you mean by ‘wasting your time’?” When I feebly tried to explain my statement, she asked: “Are you saying that some time is more valuable than other time?”

I thought hard about that question. The rational, scientific person in me had to answer “no.” In fact, all time is equally valuable. She smiled knowingly. Baby step 1 had been taken.

In that one Q&A, my whole idea of “wasting time” melted away. No one else can “waste” my time. Only I can waste my time either by not establishing and maintaining appropriate boundaries or by not being mentally present to experience each moment as it comes.

That may sound trivial to you, but this brief Q&A exchange launched me on a new path of discovery. I learned that my therapist was not only a clinical psychologist but also a Zen practitioner. She subtly and wisely integrated Zen principles as she counseled me on various issues, including managing my anger. She introduced me to the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh, starting with his book Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames.

My work in therapy challenged me to reconsider and reevaluate many of my beliefs on spirituality, ego, death, happiness, and relationships with others. I became a prolific reader and listener on these topics. I took up yoga and meditation. I could go on and on about how my mental health tune-up was a significant catalytic life event for me. But I will spare you from possible boredom.

Many people fear being stigmatized by others if they seek help for their mental health. (Not in Argentina, however, where it seems most of the population has a therapist.) So I will end this post by suggesting that you put aside that fear. Your life is more important than what others may say about you. If you are not emotionally and mentally healthy, it will be that much harder to maintain your physical health. You do not want to spend your retirement years dealing with health problems and their associated costs. Just call it “life coaching” if others ask.

Here is a link to the New York Times article. Therapy Can Still Help.

The post Have You Had a Mental Health Tune-Up? appeared first on Go To Retirement.

This Memorial Day weekend I am meeting up with five other guys from my high school class of  ’69 (Boom! Don’t you wish you could say you were in the Class of ’69?)

We are meeting in Atlantic City for three four days and three nights of  …. craziness? Actually, we have a few things sort of planned. Frankie Valli and Chicago are both playing concerts that weekend plus Dana Carvey and other SNL comedians are in town. So, assuming that we can stay awake long enough, we should have plenty to do.

It doesn’t matter a whole lot what we have planned. Getting together as long time friends is what I enjoy. The older we get, the more we seem to have to talk about. Some of us have undergone (or are currently experiencing) life transitions, positive and negative. We can also talk about retirement because one of us is already there (not me) but all of us are surely thinking about it.  I learn a lot from what each of these guys has to say about their lives. High school reunions are fun but these more frequent mini-reunions are …. shall I say invigorating and rejuvenating?

We were able to rent a large apartment for the weekend so that all of us will be sharing the same living quarters. Could this be a scaled down version of the movie Old School?  Probably not as none of us could effectively play Will Ferrell’s role of Frank the Tank. However, one of my friends made it clear that he would come only if we agreed that “what happens in AC, stays in AC.”  Fair enough, Kevin.

I have been to Las Vegas many times but I have never stayed in Atlantic City. I hear it is now the town that Trump built. Whatever. Our gathering will the star that weekend, at least in our own minds.

I suppose the reason I am sharing this information is to encourage everyone to reach out to those special people who are separated from you by time and distance. Make something happen. Then share it here to inspire others.

I expect to have interesting things to write about after that weekend, some of which may be safe to share here. So stay tuned!

The post How Much Trouble Can Six 62 Year Old Guys Get Into? appeared first on Go To Retirement.

During the first quarter of this year, our total net worth increased 2.2%.  Compared to the end of the first quarter a year ago, we are up 9.9%.  These numbers are not fantastic by any means but satisfactory given our low risk investment profile. We did not capture much of the first quarter gains in the stock market because our equity allocations are quite low. I did increase them somewhat by purchasing shares of VTI (Vanguard’s all-U.S stock market index ETF) using funds from a matured CD. During the first quarter we also bought shares in PONDX, a Pimco income fund, also using funds from a matured CD.

I am still not happy with the state of the world economy and see no reason to make a big move back into the equity markets. We can retire securely with what we have allocated now.

I am curious about what will happen with i-Bond fixed interest rates next month. I am anxious to buy more i-Bonds but would like to have at least a little positive interest paid above the inflation rate.

We are still maximizing our 401(k) and HSA contributions and not spending any HSA money on medical bills. That will come later.

I have some more CDs maturing soon and will be considering whether to buy more or allocate the cash elsewhere.

I received some interesting expert commentary recently from other readers about bond investing which I will be sharing with you soon.

Thoughts?

The post First Quarter Performance Review appeared first on Go To Retirement.

Over the past month, I have consumed on average approximately 1300 calories each day. This effort has become easier over time because my appetite for food has declined generally and particularly in my desire to eat wheat and other grains.  I attribute this to staying true to my Paleo eating plan, from which I have not cheated at all. OK, I do drink a glass of red wine most evenings with dinner but to most Paleo eaters, red wine is barely a cheat.   Further, consuming red wine in moderation carries its own health benefits, particularly my recent favorite Pinot Noir.

My remaining issue is that I still have what I affectionately call “blubber” around my waist - not much but enough that I can see it and grab it. It is unlikely that it will all disappear at my age because at least some of it is loose skin caused by too many years of transporting too much fat around my middle.  I want to be  certain, though, that if any of my residual blubber is actual fat, I do my best to get rid of it. So I will stay on my eating plan a little longer to see what happens.  At the point where I lose weight but not blubber, I will change my eating goal from “weight loss” to “weight maintenance.”

I will continue to eat Paleo because each time I have stayed true to the Paleo plan, my overall health seems to improve.

Last month I found a new favorite online resource for tracking eating and weight loss progress. The site is loseit.com. I started using it on March 13 and continued to use FitDay in parallel to compare. These are the reasons I now prefer Lose It.

• Lose It has apps for both android and iOs whereas FitDay has never developed an android app.
• The Lose It user interface is more user friendly with fewer ads and easier presentation of your daily calorie consumption vs. goal.
• Lose It instantly updates your daily calorie limit based on any exercises you engage in that day.
• Although not particularly relevant to me because I rarely eat out, Lose It appears to have more restaurant menu foods in its database.

Fit Day has one advantage over Lose It in that it gives you more portioning options for its basic foods.

Anyway, if and when you decide to try what I have done, I suggest you look first to Lose It to set up and track your goal.

Another step I believe I will take: I will stop one morning at Walgreens and have them draw blood and run a complete lipid profile. For several years I took statins for cholesterol control but I stopped. I had read too many negative things about the long term risks associated with taking statins. Some experts now believe that anti-inflammatory action is what provides the real health benefit from statins. If that is the case, I would rather eliminate the inflammation through optimal nutrition than take a drug to fight inflammation caused by poor nutrition.  I am not sure what the lipid profile will tell me but I am curious about the data anyway.

You can probably tell that my distrust of “big food” and “big pharma” continues to grow. The food industry is a significant player in our nationwide epidemics of obesity and diabetes while big pharma profits from selling us fat control and diabetes drugs.

The most expensive part of my weight loss plan is that I have to buy some new clothes. I have a second goal for these new clothes: single carry-on bag traveling. I will write more about that later.

Your thoughts?

The post At the Boomer Weight Loss Finish Line appeared first on Go To Retirement.

We bought long term care policies several years ago. So far, we have not experienced a rate increase but I expect that to change. Our policies are with MetLife. MetLife no longer sells long term care insurance. I am concerned that MetLife will try to kill its existing LTC business with draconian rate increases. We shall see.

Some experts are so concerned about the future of long term care insurance that they are recommending that no one buy it. Instead, some suggest that baby boomers purchase some “longevity insurance.”  The technical term for longevity insurance is a deferred annuity. The principle is simple: You pay a lump sum premium now for the right to collect annuity payments for life, beginning at some date in the future. For example, a 60 year old man could spend $100,000 today for the right to collect $3,240/month when he turns 80. That’s a hefty return of 39% if you ignore the intervening time value of money.

Why would this be preferred over long term care insurance? There are several reasons. First, assuming that you live to age 80, you are guaranteed to receive some benefit from your payment, even if you never need long term care. Second, your costs are fixed and known in advance with no “surprise” premium increases. Third, if you live for a decade of more after you start receiving your deferred annuity payments, the return on your investment is way beyond what LTC insurance will provide.

So what are the downsides? The obvious one is that you may need long term care before you turn 80 (or whatever age you select for your deferred annuity). If that happens, the $100k or so you paid for the longevity insurance does you no good. Second, by the time you turn 80, inflation could have substantially eroded the value of the benefit to the point that long term care costs are much greater than your monthly annuity benefit.

My current thoughts are to stand pat with what we have. If MetLife secures a large premium increase (which requires state agency approval), I will certainly look again at the relative costs vs. benefits of keeping the long term care policy compared to purchasing a deferred annuity as longevity insurance.

Here is more information about the economics of longevity insurance.

Your thoughts?

The post Is Longevity Insurance a Substitute for Long Term Care Insurance? appeared first on Go To Retirement.

First, the retirement confidence expressed by those workers surveyed lingers at the same dismal levels reported in 2011.  More than half of workers expressed some level of confidence (13 percent “very confident” and 38 percent “somewhat confident) in having a financially secure retirement. Conversely, 28 percent reported being “not at all confident” with another 21 percent “not too confident.”

The outliers are those  who are “very confident” (18%) and “not at all confident” (14%).

Here are the unreal numbers as I assess them:  Those surveyed were asked how much they believe they will need to save to achieve a financially secure retirement.  20 percent replied that they will need to save between 20 and 29 percent of their income.  Another 23 percent replied that they need to save 30 percent or more of their income.

For the vast majority of people, those savings rates are nowhere near sustainable. In other words, the perceptions of what is doable in retirement savings rates far exceeds reality.

I don’t know how these proposed retirement savings rates got into the heads of those surveyed because only 46% had even tried to determine how much money they will need to retire securely.

I have sympathy for these folks and hope they find a way to cause their perceptions and realities on retirement planning to converge.  The starting point has to be actually estimating what it will cost them to live in retirement under a reasonable set of assumptions.

The survey report includes a chart showing retirement savings amounts by age. This chart is quite illuminating. For those age 55 and older, 36% had saved less than $10,000 for retirement!

24% of those in this boomer age bracket reported having saved more than $250,000. For some folks without substantial pensions or gold-plated private insurance, even this savings level could be a bare minimum amount needed because of future out of pocket health care costs which many estimate could be north of $200k.

Other big picture responses to all of this information may be:  (a) Social Security and 401(k) accounts cannot in combination meet the retirement needs of pension-less middle class retirees; and (b) retirement savings contributions should be mandatory, over and above current Social Security payroll taxes. Imposing retirement savings discipline from day one of your working life may be the best option for everyone. Don’t let the workers ever  see the money.

Here is a link to the EBRI 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey.

What is your take on all of this?

The post Retirement Saving Perceptions vs. Reality appeared first on Go To Retirement.

Of course, the skeptical engineer in me compelled me to further investigate the science behind the supposed benefits of meditation. At age 61, I was not about to take time out of my “busy days” to do nothing and think about nothing, unless there were some benefits to be gained. I wondered – was it really possible to look for those spaces in your mind between thoughts?

What I learned impressed me. I discovered that it is possible to retrain the brain and that having a constant flow of “busy” days is not an optimum path through life.  So I studied more about how to be an effective meditator and found that it actually is very easy to do, almost anytime and anywhere.  I meditate at home, while walking around, sitting in doctor’s waiting rooms, etc. It sure beats getting caught up in a past that cannot be changed or in a future that may not unfold in the way you expect, if at all.

I am convinced that my meditation has helped calm my mind and brought me the benefits of living more in the present moment.  Other documented benefits of meditation include reduced stress, increased brain function and focus, control of cravings, etc. Sounds good, right?

So how do you start?

My suggestion is to read this recent post in Lifehacker which contains links to articles about how to meditate and to reports confirming the various health and lifestyle benefits of mindfulness meditation.

If you have any serious physical or mental health problems (e.g., chronic pain or debilitating stress), mindfulness meditation is definitely for you.  For those of you in this category, I highly recommend the book “Full Catastrophe Living” by Jon Kabat-Zinn.  Many libraries have it or you can listen to the audio book for free on YouTube here. The book includes exercises to help you begin a meditation practice.

I think all baby boomers should give meditation a try.  (No, you do not have to abandon your religion and become a Buddhist to enjoy a regular meditation practice!) At the very least, meditation could help you stop worrying so much about how you are going to fund your retirement!

Do we have any other boomer-meditators out there?

The post Are You Meditating for Improved Health? appeared first on Go To Retirement.

Being a baby boomer, you can probably predict that I love the “oldies.” Indeed, over the years I have collected more than 700 songs on CDs from the ’60′s and ’70′s.  I listened to oldies stations in the car. I was in an oldies rut, to be sure. So what changed?

Don’t get me wrong, I still love the oldies and still look for music to fill holes in my oldies collection. However, last year we invested in a Sonos music system to make it easier for us to listen to high quality music when we are relaxing on the deck. Although expensive, the Sonos system is quite expensive compared to other options (blue tooth speaker, boombox, etc.), it has been worth every penny. The sound quality is outstanding. The user interface on the controller (phone or tablet) is a easy to understand and operate. Also, the Sonos system creates its own wireless mesh network, meaning that does not impact – and is not impacted by – your home wifi system.

With the Sonos system, I started listening to the Pandora music streaming service (free).  If I heard a song I liked, I created a channel around that song, which exposed me to similar music by other artists. For example, I really like the song “Little House” by Amanda Seyfried from the movie “Dear John.” I built a Pandora channel around that song, which then brought me more music by Norah Jones, Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Jack Johnson, Howie Day, and many others. I found songs from all of these artists that I really enjoyed, so I bookmarked them in Pandora on the fly while the songs were playing. This built a list of songs that I might be interested in adding to my personal music collection.

I already had an iTunes account and had imported most of my oldies CDs into iTunes. However, I found iTunes too restrictive. For example, I wanted the ability to easily stream my music from the cloud to my office computer, etc. Therefore, I decided to import all of my iTunes music into Google Music Player and Amazon Cloud Player. This increased the utility of our Sonos system even more because Sonos has an arrangement with Amazon so that you can stream your music (and playlists) directly from the cloud into your Sonos system.

I can now purchase music from any of the three music services and move the music into the other two. It is actually easiest to buy from Amazon because immediately after downloading a new song or album (a) the Amazon software automatically adds the music to iTunes and (b) the Google software then automatically imports the new music from iTunes into the Google music player. Awesome.

I didn’t stop there. I discovered a hidden (to me) gem in our Nashville area – McKay Used Books, Movies, and Music.  This is a supersized used music store. It has a huge collection of used CD’s in all music genres.  Now, if I find a new song that I am interested in from a new artist, I go there to look for a CD with that song and perhaps a few others I like (based on sampling the songs online). If the price of the used CD is close to to the MP3 price, I by the CD. I have acquired a number of outstanding CDs for $3.95 or less.  On the flip side, I have sold McKay’s a bunch of our unwanted books. This has offset the cost of the music purchases and then some.

Amazon helps here also. Every 10 days or so it will have a huge sale on high quality MP3 albums from established artists. For example, this past Saturday I downloaded greatest hits albums for Simon and Garfunkel and Elvis for $1.99 each.  The Elvis album had 25 songs, most of which are among my favorites.

I now have over 1200 s0ngs I like, available to me on my phone, tablet, streaming to any computer (anywhere) and streaming to Sonos.

Many of you are probably way ahead of me on all of this. For those of you still stuck with your old music collection, consider extending yourself. There is some great music out there and the newer technology makes it so much easier to acquire and play it.

Do any of you have any suggestions for music or music technology for our fellow boomers?

The post Upgrading My Boomer Music Collection appeared first on Go To Retirement.