18 Things You Should Do If You Want to Retire Early

Out of the estimated 48 million Americans living with some degree of hearing loss, only one in five wears hearing aids. The main reason? Cost. And these aren’t the only costs associated with hearing loss. Over the course of a lifetime, healthcare fees can add up to tens of thousands of dollars—or more. Here are tips to help you budget and plan for these expenses.

Find a health insurance plan tailored to your needs. Hearing aid devices usually range from $1,000 to $4,000 each and may require replacement roughly every five years. Many insurance companies do not provide full or even partial hearing aid coverage. Currently, only 22 states require insurance companies to provide hearing aid coverage for children, and only five states have provisions that include coverage for adults. Government healthcare programs such as Medicare offer little to no coverage, with the breadth of coverage varying from state to state for Medicaid.

If your current health plan does not cover hearing aids, an accredited insurance broker or agent can help you identify a plan that will work best for your situation and location. Make sure your agent represents several major insurers to ensure they are not incentivized toward selling you a specific plan.

Plan and budget to cover your healthcare costs. Plan for three types of expenses: fixed monthly premiums to your insurance company; routine out-of-pocket expenses (e.g., hearing devices); and unexpected costs (e.g., emergency room visits). In addition, make sure you understand all the costs included with your health plan, including deductibles, copays, co-insurance, and the out-of-pocket maximum. Once you’ve identified all these expenses:

Add up the cost of your fixed premiums and routine out-of-pocket expenses. Divide the total by 12 and aim to save that amount each month.

Open a separate medical emergency fund. You’ll want to start saving enough to cover your deductible and eventually, your plan’s annual out-of-pocket maximum. Consider opening a high-yield savings account, as they often have no fees and no minimum balance and offer higher returns than a typical savings account.

Ask your employer whether you’re eligible for a Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Account (FSA), both of which allow you to make tax-free contributions to save for medical costs. You may be able to use HSA or FSA funds to pay for hearing aid devices and hearing aid batteries. One key difference is that HSA funds automatically roll over from year to year, while FSA accounts have a use-it-or-lose-it provision.

If you’re raising a child with hearing loss, consider developing an estate plan to help ensure they are financially secure. A financial planner or estate planning attorney can help you navigate this complex topic and

develop a plan tailored to your financial situation as well as to your child’s needs. A trust, for example, can ensure your child’s inheritance is carefully managed according to your wishes. If your child is eligible for Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a special needs trust will ensure that he/she will remain eligible for federal benefits.

The costs associated with hearing loss can be overwhelming, but you don’t have to navigate them alone. A trusted financial professional can help you plan for these expenses or ensure your loved one’s costs are taken care of after you’re gone.

Matthew Phillips is a wealth adviser at Trilogy Financial, a privately held financial planning firm with advisers across the country. Based in Corona, California, Phillips partnered with RISE Interpreting and California Baptist University to deliver American Sign Language–certified translation, workshops, and other services to better serve his clients. For more, see trilogyfs.com. This article originally appeared in the Spring 2019 issue of Hearing Health magazine.

For references, see hhf.org/spring2019-references

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Written by: Dan Rafter

You’ve worked hard to build your own business, and you love the perk of being your own boss. But going solo does come with one big challenge: It can be tough to save enough for retirement.

When you work for a company, you often have access to a 401(k) plan in which you can automatically deposit money for your retirement. It’s not as simple when you’re self-employed. When you’re working for yourself, you need to develop a retirement plan and stick to it. Otherwise, you may face a long, stressful retirement, worried you won’t have enough money to pay for the lifestyle you want.

Here are some tips for building a retirement nest egg even when you’re self-employed.

Budget with Goals in Mind

Kevin Gallegos, senior vice president of client enrollment in the Phoenix office of Freedom Debt Relief, said the biggest challenge self-employed people face when saving for retirement is that their monthly income fluctuates so often.

It’s hard to save when your income soars to $10,000 one month but then crashes to $4,000 the next.

“Income that fluctuates from month to month does make it harder to establish any regular budgeting and savings, but it is doable with a different approach,” Gallegos said.

That different approach? Gallegos recommends that those who are self-employed create a budget that’s based not only on dollars and cents, but on goals, too.

These goals may include being able to retire at a certain age, taking regular vacations, buying a new car or just having the time to take a daily walk. Once you write down these objectives, you can build your budget with them in mind, Gallegos said.

What a Budget Should Include

Your budget should list your mandatory expenses each month – everything from your mortgage payment to your car loan to the minimum you need to pay each month on your credit cards. It should also record those regular monthly costs that fluctuate: items such as your utility bill, groceries and transportation. Estimate what these are, and don’t forget to factor in the money you spend on discretionary expenses, such as eating out and entertainment. Finally, your budget should include your regular monthly income.

When you look at your income and your goals, you might decide it’s time to make changes. You may have to scale back some of your loftier ambitions.

“It might mean modifying the hoped-for China vacation to, say, San Francisco’s Chinatown,” Gallegos said. “But whatever happens, you’ll find that you will be spending smartly and getting where you want to go.”

Work into your budget a line item for retirement savings in your expenses area. Gallegos recommends you choose a percent of your monthly income to designate for savings. Take a portion of that amount and save it in an IRA or other retirement savings vehicle to help steadily build your reserve.

Make It Automatic

Tommy Valmeyer, chief executive officer of San Francisco-based digital marketing company OpenKit.io, said the biggest challenge for the self-employed is remembering to contribute to a retirement fund at all.

“When you have a standard 9-to-5 with a company, they can automatically contribute a portion of your paycheck to retirement,” Valmeyer said. “This is not the case for the self-employed.”

The best solution? Valmeyer recommends that self-employed individuals find a checking account that allows them to automatically submit a certain amount of money each month to a retirement account. The key is to make the commitment to this deposit, and to keep it going even when your business might not be booming.

Consider a “Solo” 401(k)

Howard Dvorkin, a certified public accountant and chairman of Debt.com, said self-employed individuals need to consider all their options when it comes to saving dollars for retirement.

“Being your own boss is awesome, but being your own retirement savings plan can be a real downer,” he said.

If you work for yourself, you probably already know of traditional and Roth IRAs. But Dvorkin said many who are self-employed don’t know about the benefits of a “solo” 401(k) account.

This type of retirement savings vehicle, also known as a Self-Employed 401(k) or Individual 401(k), was designed for employers who have no full-time employees other than themselves and their spouse. In other words, it’s designed for people who work for themselves.

This 401(k) plan offers the same benefits as traditional versions. You can contribute up to $19,000 in your solo 401(k) plan in 2019 when contributing as an employee or up to $24,500 if you are 50 or older. When contributing as an employer, you can contribute up to 25% of your compensation. The total amount you can contribute to your individual 401(k) account, not counting catch-up contributions if you are 50 or older, is $55,000 in 2019.

If you are contributing as an employer, your contributions to the 401(k) plan are tax-deductible. If you are contributing as the employee, your contributions will reduce your taxable income.

Find the Right Savings Vehicle

Windus Fernandez Brinkkord, managing vice president in the San Diego office of Trilogy Financial, said self-employed people have several options when it comes to retirement savings vehicles.

Those who aren’t going to save more than $5,500 in a year will do well with a traditional IRA, Brinkkord said. Once these individuals are ready to save more money, though, Brinkkord recommends they invest in an individual 401(k) plan.

“Self-employed people often put so much back into their business they forget to save for their own retirement,” Brinkkord said. “In many cases, the business is them and, therefore, not sellable. Be cognizant of saving for yourself.”

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