In recent years we’ve seen a major call for Americans to get their retirement plans in order now or pay the price later. While it’s certainly essential to start socking away savings and contributing to your 401K today, one factor that often gets glossed over is health. As much as any other thing, health insurance will play an important part of your happy retirement and is the single biggest threat to your financial future as well. If you are in the process of laying out your retirement plan, make sure that your personal health is central in your thought process. Use these three tips to make sure your healthcare plan is taken care of in retirement.
1. Use Your Coverage Now
An action you can take today that will pay off later is to start seeing your doctor regularly to deal with any health issues you have developed and identify future concerns. Make the commitment to living healthy, eating right and getting exercise to keep your body running optimally well into your senior years. By using the health coverage provided to you through your insurance while you are working, you get the most out of your plan while getting the care now that will ensure your happiness later.
2. Save for a Rainy Day
Think of your main retirement accounts as separate from what you will need to take care of your health insurance. If you start saving a little more each month and putting it into a separate account, you will have a tidy sum built up later you can use to address your healthcare needs. Find out about the tax-deferred ways to save that are available to you, such as an HSA (Health Savings Account), which allows you to grow your savings for medical coverage just like an IRA.
3. Invest in Your Future
One of the main reasons many people have for working well past the age of 65 is to hold onto employer-funded health insurance. Whether you work in retail management or rent construction equipment for a living, if you invest in your health today, you’ll erase the worry of being left with insufficient insurance in your later years. There are some great options designed to help in this regard, such as 10-pay long-term care insurance.This allows you to pay premiums while you are still working over a period of 10 years, at which time your policy is completely funded.
Final Thoughts
The path to a successful retirement is when you plan to have the financial security that supplies piece of mind and the physical ability to do the things you love. By making your health a primary concern for your retirement by taking care of your body today and putting money away for tomorrow, you’ll ensure your later years will truly be golden.
Michelle is an aspiring writer with a passion for blogging. She enjoys writing about a vast variety of topics and loves that blogging gives her the opportunity to publicly voice her thoughts and share advice with an unlimited audience.
