How to Grow Old
The Accidental Icon on the Influence of Authenticity
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Aging is a bit like a game of chess. We can’t sit still. We have to continually make moves based on our current and ever-changing situation. We have to be ready to seize opportunity when presented and to change courses when necessary. The more experienced we become and the more knowledge we gain, the better we’re able to play the game.
This issue of Growing Bolder shares some key strategies for the game of life including our 7 Keys to Happiness, the lessons we’ve learned from the world’s oldest and happiest people.
Our cover story is on Lyn Slater who might be known worldwide as The Accidental Icon, but there is nothing accidental about the life transitions that she’s made in her 50s, 60s, and 70s.
Dr. Emily Splichal, an expert on barefoot science and mobility, says getting in touch with our feet is the key to maintaining our independence and co-founder of the Functional Aging Institute Dr. Cody Sipe shares choices we can make today to live to be 100, and enjoy it.
Despite our best efforts, up to 70% of us will need some sort of long-term care. Vanessa Skinner, one of America’s top elder law attorneys answers your biggest questions about long-term care insurance.
America’s foremost death doula shares what she has learned about life, the DC Water Wizards remind us that it’s never too late to tackle new challenges, and our friends from Caring Transitions point out that it’s never too early to shed that what matters least, to concentrate on that what matters most.
It’s your move.
From the CEO
“The more experienced we become and the more knowledge we gain, the better we’re able to play the game. ”
Photo by Mike Dunn
I am allowed to try
things without knowing what the outcome will be.
– Morgan Harper Nichols
GROWING BOLDER WITH Alua Arthur
What talking about death can teach us about living
Alua Arthur believes that, if we let it, death can be our greatest teacher. She’s the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, “Briefly Perfectly human – Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End.” But embracing death while living wasn’t always her approach.
Arthur was a practicing attorney on a medical leave of absence when she met a young woman named Jessica on a bus ride through the Cuban countryside. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, Jessica was in the middle of traveling to her bucket list of places she wanted to visit before she died. Their conversation opened up a meaningful dialogue about how facing death changes how we look at life. It changed the way Arthur thought about her own life, and how she wanted to live it.
Soon after returning home, Arthur’s brother-in-law, Peter, became terminally ill. Alua moved in with her sister’s family to help, unknowingly embarked on her first experience as a death doula. A death doula is a non-medical and holistic support person offering practical, emotional, and spiritual support around death and dying. When someone is healthy, a doula can help them complete comprehensive end-of-life plans and work through all their thoughts, fears, concerns, and anxieties about dying. When death is more imminent, doulas can help them outline what they ideally wish to experience, under the circumstances. After a death, doulas can help family members wrap up affairs of their loved one's life.
“I wish we could all sink in deep to what a gift it is to be alive, no matter the circumstances of our life….”
- ALUA ARTHUR
Supporting Peter and her sister as he died helped Arthur see all the many ways those dying and those who love them need support. She became a certified death doula and eventually founded Going With Grace, a death doula training and end-of-life planning organization.
While death is inevitable for every one of us, it’s a subject we generally want to avoid as long as we can. When we do, we increase the odds of leaving important things undone. Arthur reminds us that being prepared to die includes taking care of the necessary items like an advanced directive, designating someone as a healthcare advocate, creating a will, and making plans for any dependents, humans and pets.
But she told Growing Bolder that the main regrets she hears are from people who wish that they had more time to do something that they didn't do, who regret the chances they didn’t take or the conversations they didn’t have. She believes it’s a great reminder to those of us who still have
that time to fully live our days.
“Being around dying is the most life-affirming thing I know how to do,” Arthur shared. “Being around people that are dying consistently…seeing a body not long after life has left it, it reminds me that I am still animated by that intangible something that allows me to engage with the world in a way that feels good to me, and it reminds me constantly to live and to be present and to be grateful for this gift that I have of life.
“I wish we could all sink in deep to what a gift it is to be alive, no matter the circumstances of our life…To get to experience the first drops of rain or the bite in your jaw when you first bite into an orange, or even to be able to look somebody that you love in the eye and be present in your life. That is an utter gift, and it's precious, it's fleeting. Our death often comes sooner than we expect it to, so why not sink into the gift that it is to be alive at this moment.”
The Answer to Movement Longevity Lies in our Feet
Maintaining movement as we age is critically important to our quality of life. Research shows it’s directly connected to our mental health, heart health, resistance to injury, greater strength and stamina, a reduced level of complications from chronic diseases, and so much more.
It’s also critical to our ability to live the lives we want to live. Multiple studies now show that 90% of adults want to remain in their own home as they age, as opposed to moving to an assisted living community. To do that, a certain level of independence is required, fueled by physical mobility. So, how do we maintain healthy balance and movement for as long as we live?
Functional podiatrist Emily Splichal says it begins with our feet. Dr. Splichal is the author of “Barefoot Strong” and the CEO and founder of Naboso, a company that creates products that focus on improving movement, performance, and recovery through stimulating thousands of nerve endings in our feet.
“Taking our shoes off and stimulating the nerves in the bottom of the feet is a really powerful way to access the brain,” Splichal told Growing Bolder. “These nerves in the bottom of our feet are designed to feel and 'read' the ground we are walking on. It is through this sensation that we are able to stand, balance and walk.
“What I was taught in podiatry school is that our feet are much more mechanical, that we have high arches, low arches, that we think of our foot as far as orthotics and supportive shoes,” Splichal continued. “But we cannot overlook the sensory or brain-based side of our feet - and that the sensory stimulation is actually what determines our foot strength and movement.”
All of the Naboso products include a patented texture designed to wake up the nerve receptors in our feet, much like braille works with fingers. Hundreds of tiny pyramids cover every product, activating the body’s ability to utilize two-point discrimination to get the most accurate nervous system stimulation.
As a functional podiatrist, Dr Splichal focuses not just on the feet but their ability to impact the entire body. She says the lyrics of the old spiritual song “Dem Bones” are important to understand: ‘The foot bone's connected to the ankle bone. The ankle bone’s connected to the knee bone.’
“That’s true. The body is very much interconnected. Every time we walk, every movement that we make there’s stress going through the body. If you don’t have sufficient mobility or strength in the parts closest to the ground, the foot and
the ankle, that stress has to go somewhere. It’s going to find a joint, and it oftentimes goes one joint up, which means it starts to stress the knees, hips and lower back.”
With a wide range of sensory-based products including textured insoles, sock and foot recovery tools, Dr. Splichal’s mission is to educate, guide, and empower patients to take their health into their own hands by allowing them to regain their mobility to live healthier and longer lives. Testimonials include patients and customers with neuropathy being able to feel their feet again, as well as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, stroke, and concussion patients achieving a new sense of independence as they can once again engage in the activities of daily living.
“What keeps me motivated is hearing those stories, knowing the way that I practice medicine and the products that I develop are genuinely helping people and changing their lives,” Splichal said. “Your feet are your body's foundation to movement, and that's what I want people to think about with my name. I advocate for foot awareness, foot strength, and foot recovery. Whether you're a young athlete, a masters athlete, or you are just an athlete of life, which is the ability to walk around the room, you need to be thinking about your feet.”
“Your feet are your body’s foundation to movement”
- DR. EMILY SPLICHAL
We would like to disclose that Growing Bolder has an affiliate relationship with Naboso. This means that we may earn a commission from the sale of products featured in this article at no additional cost to you.
How to Be Old
The Accidental Icon on the Influence of Authenticity
Marc Middleton
Lyn Slater realized the dream of nearly every social media influencer and then realized it wasn’t her dream. She found a huge audience but lost herself along the way. The influence she wielded was not the kind she had aspired to, so she walked away from lucrative brand deals to pursue a more authentic, less commercial but more powerful type of influence.
You’ve likely heard Slater referred to as The Accidental Icon which is a blog she started in 2014 at the age of 61, and led to a sphere of influence that includes over a million online followers. She’s been profiled and quoted by major publications and news outlets worldwide and her first book, How to be Old: Lessons in Living Boldly from the Accidental Icon, is already being called one of the best books of 2024.
In 2014, Slater was a professor in Fordham University's
Graduate School of Social Service with no connection to formal fashion, and no thought whatsoever about becoming a global influencer. Driven by her endless curiosity, she enrolled in a college course called Building a Vintage Business with a focus on upcycling and selling vintage clothing. She had no trouble fitting in with classmates young enough to be her granddaughters. “I was not really aware that I was the oldest person in the room because I was so engaged in learning something new,” she says. “The students would say, ‘You have really good style. You should start a fashion blog’. I was interested in writing in a more expressive way than you're allowed to write in academia. So, I just started the blog as a pleasure project and to find out about an area that I didn’t know.”
For the next three years, anxious to learn all she could about the fashion industry, Slater attended fashion shows, visited designers, and began doing a little modeling. “I was just having fun. In 2017, I went on a casting call that turned out to be for a Valentino eyewear ad. They basically said, ‘If we use your picture, we'll pay you $1,000.’ A few weeks later they sent me the check and I didn't think any more of it. A couple of months later, my friends started blowing up my phone. I was in a full-page ad for Valentino eyewear in every major fashion magazine in the world. That brought me to the attention of a modeling agent from Elite Models London who I then signed with, and I sort of blew up.”
Slater was unlike other older models. As she writes in her book, “I am unique in my stark self-presentation. No retouching, no filters. The way I dress, my unsmiling demeanor, my sunglasses, my not-classic beauty, my wrinkles, my white hair. I project an attitude that implies a blasé response to the world around me, a cool nonchalance. I am calmly demanding my right to self-creation on my own terms. I don’t care if you like me or not. I appear unafraid of being old.”
As Slater gained attention so did her blog, which initially had nothing to do with age. “I was not even thinking about my age. I never talked about age, and I didn't write about age. It was not my intention. When the media started to write about me, it became all about age. ‘Oh, look at her. She is involved in fashion and she's 62. Oh, look at her. She's good at social media. Oh, surprise, she's 64.’”
Slater quickly became one of the most powerful 60+ influencers on social media. She was one of the first to flaunt gray hair, and not just embrace, but celebrate aging. She was a rebel. “I've always been a rebel. My friends call me the good bad girl. I was a teenager and a young woman in the early 70s. We challenged authority. And so, I think that my generation is coming to aging with a very different attitude than our parents or our grandparents. Anytime that I am put in a box, stereotyped, or categorized in any way that does not feel authentic to me, I will push back against that.”
Photos from Getty
“Every single year and decade of my life, I have had opportunities. I have had challenges. I have had losses. I have had health and I have had sickness. I have had to figure out, how do I respond to those things so that I can move forward? To me, this stage of my life is exactly the same.”
- LYN SLATER
And that’s exactly what she did when social media began to define her. “When I started to work predominantly on Instagram, doing sponsored posts, I really began to lose myself and just became swept up in this constant scroll of social media. My narrative got hijacked as this poster girl for how we should all be aging. At some point, I felt like I stopped being a unique person and became a brand. I colluded in my own disappearing by becoming an influencer in the capitalistic sense of the world, not an influencer of cultural change which is what I originally aspired to be.”
Slater stopped doing sponsored posts. She turned down easy money to hawk products and focused on living her own, unique, authentic truth. “I feel privileged to be alive and healthy at 70 years old. And so, I decided to take that word ‘old’ and reclaim it as part of my narrative until it gets drained of all the negative connotations that society has put on it.”
That doesn’t mean that Slater has a Pollyannish view of aging. Nothing could be further from the truth. “Every single year and decade of my life, I have had opportunities. I have had challenges. I have had losses. I have had health and I have had sickness. I have had to figure out, how do I respond to those things so that I can move forward? To me, this stage of my life is exactly the same.”
Slater is bothered by two polarizing narratives about aging. “On one hand, you have this decline narrative that we'll all be disabled and have dementia. We'll be dependent and a burden on our family and society and wrecking it for all the generations behind us. And then there is the other narrative – the older person who is ageless, exceptionally fit, running marathons, highly resourced, very hot, completely independent and needs nothing. I think these unrealistic views reflect maybe just 3% of the aging population. Most of us are in the middle.”
It’s that malleable middle that holds nearly unlimited opportunity to continue learning, growing, and changing. “I'm still evolving, still reinventing, but I've given up this thing that I call ‘the striving,’ which was part of my younger life. And now, I just do the things I do for the enjoyment of them. I am in touch with so many older women who are saying, ‘Finally, this is my time. I can be the painter I always wanted to, or I could go back to school, or I could just be in my garden and be contributing to my community.’ The difference now is that we have this massive toolbox of experience, skills, memories, and successes accumulated over a lifetime.”
Four sentences from the epilogue of her new book sum up Slater’s narrative for authentic aging. "The next decade stretches before me, like a new notebook waiting to be filled with classes to be taken, essays to be written, mistakes to be made, and serendipitous occasions. There will be losses and gains, good times and bad. I will probably lose my way and find it again. I feel that little sliver of excitement that comes with asking myself what now."
DC Water Wizards Break Barriers
Learn to Swim Program Fields Team for NSG
Maurice Butler was staring down a death sentence, after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In 2017, when he learned he had the disease, doctors told him he had two years to live. Now, more than six years later, the 72-year-old photographer isn’t just surviving, he’s thriving, thanks to joining the D.C. Water Wizards.
“I just decided that I would rather live life than sit around and mope,” Butler told Growing Bolder at the 2023 National Senior Games. “So, I joined this team and it kept me alive, to be perfectly honest. It really has. I think that’s one of the reasons that I’ve been able to last so long, is because I do this.”
“I just decided that I would rather live life than sit around and mope,”
- MAURICE BUTLER
The D.C. Water Wizards are a unique adult swimming program in the nation’s capital. Using public pools, the program offers fitness opportunities for adults 50 and up of all levels, including learn-to-swim programs, water-aerobics and exercise classes.
“The District of Columbia [has a significant] African American population, historically and currently, and there’s a disparity in swimming and learn-to-swim access across the nation,” team coach Luis Salazar said. “We don’t have fees, and that encourages people of all walks of life to join our team. We are committed to the diversity and inclusion mission, and it’s beautiful.”
The Water Wizards were founded 20 years ago and created a team specifically to compete in the National Senior Games. The team has swimmers of different ages, genders, races, and religions. For many on the team, swimming has become a tool to bounce back from setbacks and build resilience for the challenges that can come with aging.
“We have a wonderful time together, but we all have different medical problems, too,” said swimmer Karyn Baiorunos. “There’s some of us that are really struggling, and they’re doing fabulously well. From beginner swimmers to swimmers who have been swimming since they were kids, we all get along, and we all help each other.”
The Water Wizards prove that it is never too late for a new adventure, to learn something new, and to add more positivity to your daily life. Many team members didn’t even learn to swim until their 60s or 70s. What they’ve learned is something much bigger than swimming itself.
“It really doesn’t matter about winning or losing, because just to get here, we’re winners,” Roy Fagin, 71, told Growing Bolder. “Swimming on this team is mostly about our physical condition more than it is about the competition. We do this so that we can enjoy our old age and enjoy what we love to do.”
“I think that anybody who learns to swim has conquered a new environment,” Coach Salazar said. “When you do that, you learn there’s probably no environment you can’t conquer. So, to give somebody that gift, that late in life, I think is really, truly special.”
For many, whether in the pool, or in Maurice Butler’s case on the pool deck with a camera, the team became their passion, and eventually their purpose. Even in the face of a cancer diagnosis.
“I had a purpose in life, and the Water Wizards gave me that purpose,” Butler said. “I tell anybody, it saved my life, and it’s why I’m still here. You just have to continue to do the best that you can do until you can’t do it anymore.”
How to Live to Be 100 & Enjoy It!
Who wants to live to be 100? It sounds great, right? But only if you’re still enjoying life. For many years the consensus was that we peak physically during our lives, and it’s a downhill trend from there on. What if we were able to live well for a long time and reduce the length of time we have with dysfunction and disability?
Dr. Cody Sipe is the co-founder of the Functional Aging Institute and the author of Quick Functional Exercises for Seniors: 50 Exercises to Optimize You Health. For over 30 years he’s worked with older adults to build their functional fitness, enabling them to be independent, to keep living in their homes and to enjoy active longevity.
In his book, Sipe outlines three key principles that should govern our exercise:
1 2 3
Adaptation
Our bodies respond to the challenges we give them. Adaptation is the process of growth through stimulation of specific systems in our body. If we want to become stronger, we do power training. But we must also challenge our bodies in multiple ways, such as improving our balance, mobility, and gait – all the areas that support our strength.
Specificity
How does the adaptation apply to what we want to accomplish? If we want to improve our balance we can focus on specific techniques, strategies and movements that challenge our balance in different ways.
Progressive overload
Eventually our bodies adjust to the initial challenges. If we want to keep getting stronger and be proactively ready for future challenges, we have to keep giving our bodies new challenges. If our ability to lift a certain weight increases from eight reps to 20 reps, it’s time to try a heavier weight so we can continue to build our strength and our reserves.
“A key aspect of maintaining your cognitive fitness and function as you age is moving physically and the more you move, the better.”
- DR. CODY SIPE
Sipe believes that we all have the potential to age with health and happiness and says that if we focus on that instead of on the challenges of aging, the sky's the limit.
And he has the research to back his beliefs up. Our daily lifestyle choices go a long way to determining whether we’re able to maintain high levels of physical function or if we decline into disability and dependence.
“When you look at what separates those who are living really well for a long time, versus those that are declining rapidly, it really does come back to what are you doing every day, and exercise is a major component of that,” Sipe told Growing Bolder.
Good cognitive health is also essential to enjoying life as we age. Sipe says the good news is that there is a link between our physical health and physical capabilities and our cognitive health and cognitive capabilities. Many people focus on so-called “brain games,” such as Sudoku, crossword puzzles, etc. But he emphasizes that even the most basic cardiovascular or strength training program can do far more to stimulate our brain physiologically and set
the stage for the development of new brain cells.
“Those games can improve very specific parameters of brain function, but they’re not doing everything to really help you build those new blood vessels, new brain cells, new connections in your brain. A key aspect of maintaining your cognitive fitness and function as you age is moving physically, and the more you move, the better. And if you move in ways that are more challenging from a coordination or a motor control standpoint, then that's going to be even better for your brain.
Supplements may also help promote the growth of new brain and nerve cells. Thorne, the wellness partner for 12 U.S. National Teams and a research partner of the Mayo Clinic, offers Brain Factors, which includes key brain health nutrients that may help support focus, attention, and mental function.
The bottom line? More is possible, and creating a life we enjoy living until the end begins with the choices we make today.
CODY SIPE
Honor Cherished Memories as You Move Forward
How to downsize with intent
Aging is a blessing to be celebrated because, with each passing year, our life experiences build upon one another and craft our legacy. We become more of who we are as we age. Each year is a new opportunity to do more of the things we love with the people we love, and to live the life we want.
Embracing our memories and life experiences, both positive and negative, is an important part of Growing Bolder. It aids us by knowing what to value, and what to let go of in our later years.
Early in life, we define ourselves by addition: more money, more responsibility, more relationships, more possessions. It’s a lot like filling up an empty canvas --- more is better. By midlife, however, that canvas is pretty full, and more brushstrokes begin to make the painting worse, not better.
Midlife is the point at which we can become sculptors and chip away all that is not necessary. We begin to choose subtraction over addition. We learn that less is more. We’re the sculptors and the sculpture. We begin chipping away at what is not ours to do anymore or does not serve us. Aging is a gift that
allows us to surrender the things that matter least, so we can concentrate on the things that matter most.
We’re not saying it’s easy! As we grow older creating a balance of honoring the life we have led and sculpting a new future is a challenge for many, especially during life’s transitions. It can be hard to let go of relationships, to make changes in our routines, and to change how we allocate our time or rid ourselves of physical items we’ve accumulated throughout the years.
Each year, more and more people report that they plan to downsize their home and age in place, to maintain their autonomy later in life. However, the task is easier said than done and can be incredibly stressful, time-consuming, and challenging to tackle alone.
The senior relocation specialists at Caring Transitions can navigate this journey by your side as you sculpt your future. They are experts in estate downsizing and can create an individualized plan that will honor your memories but set you up for day one living in a new community.
“This time of life is about the embracing of what’s next,” Carrie Coumbs, Caring Transitions Senior Strategic Advisor says. “The day one living experience is what's going to launch you into tomorrow, fully embracing this opportunity as best as you can. When Caring Transitions packs up your home, and diligently puts it back together piece by piece in your new community, it's as if someone has taken your home of 30 years and just replaced it in this new experience.”
Lisa Rizzo, 57, saw firsthand how a downsize led by Caring Transitions set her parents up for success in their new community.
“They unpacked every drawer, they put everything in all their dressers for them, they unpacked the entire bathroom, kitchen, everything,” Rizzo said. “My parents moved in, and they were ready to get into bed and not have to go, ‘Oh, look at all these boxes.’ Meanwhile, I saw their neighbor’s home, which was filled with unpacked boxes still sitting in their living room from their move nine months ago.”
Caring Transitions knows downsizing is emotional because choosing which items to keep and which ones to discard isn’t just about “stuff.” It’s about the memories that each item holds. That’s why they have created an online auction platform, CTBids, so that in your transition, the belongings you leave behind can find a new home, where new memories will be created.
There are many ways to embrace and honor our memories while downsizing:
• Write a journal or memoir of your favorite memories
• Create art, crafts, or paintings with your experiences in mind
• Display memories in a photo gallery wall or a digital photo frame
• Prominently display treasured possessions you choose to keep with you
• Educate younger relatives on favorite family traditions
• Talk about your memories with your friends and family, and ask about theirs
Don’t downsize just for the sake of downsizing. Downsize with intent. Think of the memories you’ve made in your current home, the traditions you’ve created, and the experiences you’ve gathered, and bring in an expert to help you preserve and honor the life you’ve led as you move into your next chapter.
There are more than 325 Caring Transitions franchises located across the country. To find the team nearest you, visit CaringTransitions.com
The Lowdown on Long-Term Care Insurance
Key Information & Considerations for Evaluating the Right Choice for You
Vanessa J. Skinner
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, people age 65 or older have nearly a 70% chance of needing some type of long-term care services and supports in their remaining years, with women needing care longer than men (3.7 vs. 2.2 years). Yet, despite these statistics, the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance indicates that only 7.5 million Americans, or about 3.3% of the U.S. population, have some form of long-term care insurance.
In my September 2023 column, I outlined long-term care insurance as one option for helping to defray the cost of long-term care. In this column, I want to take a closer look at this type of insurance that provides benefits for a range of services not covered by your regular health insurance, Medicare, or Medicare supplement insurance.
Photo via Getty Images
First, what does it cover?
Long-term care insurance can cover the cost of care at home, in adult day care, or in a long-term care facility, including assisted living facilities, memory care facilities, and skilled nursing facilities, for those who are cognitively impaired or need assistance with a certain number of the six activities of daily living. That includes bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring (getting in and out of bed or chair), eating and continence. Most long-term care policies will also pay, within certain limits, for modifications to your home so you can remain there and receive care.
Are all policies the same?
Long-term care insurance policies are not standardized. They vary in the types of care they cover, the daily benefit amount they pay, and the length of time the coverage lasts. There are many types of policies with many combinations of benefits available so that you can customize a policy to best serve your particular needs. You choose the benefit amount and the benefit period, which determines the maximum amount of coverage under the policy.
How do they pay?
The policies will usually pay either a fixed-dollar amount (an indemnity) or the actual costs of care (reimbursement). If the latter, there is typically a maximum daily benefit amount that will be paid. There may also be a limit on how many days the benefits will cover. You can also choose the deductible amount or elimination period, which refers to the length of time between when the injury or illness begins and when you receive benefits. The elimination period will range from zero to 180 days. The longer the elimination period, the lower the premium. Most states' regulations require companies to offer inflation protection, which automatically increases your benefits each year by a specific percentage so benefits keep up with increasing long-term care costs over time.
How much does long-term care insurance cost?
Hefty premiums, including a history of sudden and significant rate hikes, can make long-term care insurance cost-prohibitive for many Americans. Premiums vary, depending on your age when you buy the policy, your health, the benefits provided, the length of the elimination period, and any additional options you choose, such as the inflation rider. Traditional long-term care insurance follows a use-it-or-lose-it model. If you do not make a claim for long-term care benefits, the policy does not pay out anything. Hybrid insurance allows you to retain at least some of what you paid in premiums by paying a death benefit if long-term care is not needed. Hybrid policies, which link a life insurance policy with a long-term care insurance policy have grown in popularity over the years. In fact, the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance indicates that currently, the majority of longterm care insurance purchased is linked-benefit coverage.
Vanessa J. Skinner is a shareholder with the firm of Winderweedle, Haines, Ward & Woodman, P.A., where she chairs the firm’s Wills, Trusts & Estates Department. She was recently named one of the Best Lawyers in America in the area of Elder Law for the third consecutive year. She is the host of The Power of Planning Podcast, anchor.fm/thepowerofplanning
How does it affect my taxes?
There can be significant tax advantages to long-term care insurance. In general, the income from a long-term care insurance policy is non-taxable, and the premiums paid to buy the insurance are tax-deductible. According to the IRS, in most cases, long-term care insurance contracts are treated as accident and health insurance contracts. Amounts you receive from them (other than policyholder dividends or premium refunds) are excludable in most cases from income as amounts received for personal injury or sickness. If you itemize income tax deductions, longterm care insurance premiums are included within your unreimbursed medical expenses and are tax-deductible to the extent your total unreimbursed medical expenses exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI). The amount of the insurance premium treated as a medical expense is limited to age-based numbers issued by the IRS each year.
Begin now.
If you are considering purchasing a long-term care insurance policy, be sure to do your homework. You should review what benefits the policy offers, the criteria for receiving those benefits, and the exclusions and limitations of the policy. There is no one-size-fits-all option. You decide what is best for you, given your needs and circumstances. Knowing the average cost of nursing homes in your area can help you determine the amount of benefits you may need. Since an insurance company can refuse to sell you coverage if you are in failing health, try to consider your long-term care needs while you are in good health. Advanced planning is key.
Growing Bolder’s 7 Keys to Happiness
Are you happy? The results are in for a new study by Gallup measuring happiness levels, and Finland is now the happiest country in the world. How happy are we here in the United States? The U.S. fell from 15th down to 23rd on the latest happiness scale.
However, there is a sharp divide in happiness levels in the U.S., based on age. People 60 and older in the U.S. report high levels of happiness, ranking among the top 10 countries in the world for this demographic. Meanwhile, happiness among younger adults and teens is declining. One of the co-authors of the study believes social media is partly to blame for amplifying political polarization, discrimination, cyberbullying and other issues.
Of course, we would all like to lead happier lives as we age – but how do we get there?
Growing Bolder recommends these seven keys to happiness:
1 Have Purpose
It’s crucial that we have a reason to get up and get out of bed every morning. Having a sense of purpose has been directly linked to happiness. It gives us a sense of belonging, a reason for being, and helps us start each day off on the right foot. Your purpose doesn’t have to be profound or world-changing. It must simply move you to action and motivate you to seek out opportunities that give your life meaning. Many have found purpose by creating artwork, writing, volunteering, joining senior athletics, teaching, gardening and more
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Embrace Change
The only constant in life is change. If you fear it or fight it, you end up on the couch, isolated. We must learn to embrace change and grow with it. Change is not always easy, but it is the wave we ride to happiness.
3 Stay Curious
Never stop learning. Saying yes to new experiences and learning new things boosts confidence and can expand your life in countless and unpredictable ways. You may not fall in love with every new thing you try, but chances are you will find new places, activities, books, and more that bring you joy. Plus, studies have shown that in addition to making you happier, lifelong learning will improve your brain health, boost your memory and help prevent cognitive disease.
4 Be Kind to Yourself
In our younger years, many of us become self-critical. Social circles and stressful careers can lead us to compare ourselves to others and to try to please everyone. Now is the time to cultivate a kinder inner voice. Give yourself grace and become a friend to yourself instead of another critic
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Find Joy in the Little Things
Noticing good things, however small, helps develop a sense of hope, optimism, and happiness. Train your brain to see what’s good around you. Gratitude, recognizing what we have or what we have received, is a foundation for happiness. As historian and writer Alice Morse Earle once said, “Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.”
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Practice Random Acts of Kindness
6 Stay Connected
Nurture your relationships with others. It’s been proven that social connection is vital to our health and happiness, and isolation can be just as harmful as smoking, obesity, and diabetes as we age. Community is immunity. Knowing who you can turn to for support during life’s challenges is especially helpful.
Research has found that random acts of kindness increase happiness and self-esteem and decrease stress. These acts don’t have to be anything more than a simple smile, a word of encouragement, a plate of cookies, a phone call to check in, or a helping hand. Random acts of kindness are contagious. People who receive acts of kindness are more likely to be kind and generous themselves. So why not make a random act of kindness part of your “what’s next,” and spread more happiness in the world?
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