{"id":6187,"date":"2016-08-18T08:45:34","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T15:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/?p=6187"},"modified":"2016-08-18T06:32:57","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T13:32:57","slug":"financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Financial Tip of the Month: Financial Check-Up?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Financial Tip of the Month: Financial Check-Up?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"checklist\"<\/a>
\n
\nBy David S. Edge<\/p>\n

We know that we should or hopefully already have our financial house in order for retirement. Here\u2019s a list of must haves for that retirement check-list!<\/p>\n

1)<\/strong> Healthcare. Without your health coverage, it doesn\u2019t matter how much you have or are going to get during your retirement years. Healthcare is the #1 cause of bankruptcy in retirement. Plan carefully which Medicare plan will be best for you. Remember there are dozens of options for Medicare Advantage and Medigap plans as well as Part D drug plans. Get professional help! Also, how have you prepared for Long-Term Care if it becomes necessary? 70% of American\u2019s will need Long-Term Care and only about 7% have planned for it.<\/p>\n

2)<\/strong> Have a hard time saving? Get your income on an automatic savings deduction that pays savings first. If you don\u2019t see it or have it, you will be less likely to spend it.<\/p>\n

3)<\/strong>Debt? Many of us tend to let our credit cards get out of control occasionally.A great rule of thumb is to select the credit card with the highest balance and focus all extra income on that one card until it\u2019s paid in full. Then choose the next card. Make the minimum payments on all cards and put all the extra money towards quickly paying off one card at a time.<\/p>\n

4)<\/strong> Check your Credit Report! This should be done a minimum of once a year, and the more you use credit cards the more often you should check your accounts via a phone call to customer service or check online. With Identity Theft as an ever-increasing risk, this is critical for your financial wellbeing. Also check for misinformation about payment records. Are you paying on time? Your credit report should reflect this.<\/p>\n

5)<\/strong> Fees on Investments? Read your statements when they come in. If you don\u2019t understand the statement, get assistance from a professional. You will be shocked at the fees that are sometimes charged by the Broker House or the accounts themselves for maintenance fees. These can be in the 2-5% range, especially with Mutual Funds. These fees are charged if you make money or not! Check with your planner as there are 100\u2019s of retirement products that charge no fees except for tax reporting.<\/p>\n

6)<\/strong> Thinking about paying off Stuff? Many folks think to themselves that they need to minimize their monthly expenses by taking a large chunk of their retirement savings or 401K money to pay off the car or house or other debt. This is not the way to handle this, as during retirement years it\u2019s all about cash flow. Think of it this way, if you can get a 0% car loan for 60 months, you are using someone else\u2019s money to finance your car purchase. That money is costing you nothing. If your retirement money can make you 3-6% in income, use that income to pay the car payment and at the end when the car is paid off you still have your principal money to make more income. Got it?<\/p>\n

7)<\/strong> Budget? Most of us realize we can\u2019t just go on spending money nillywilly in retirement. Therefore a certain amount of restraint must be put into place. What is your have-to? Versus the nice-to? Budget out monthly expenditures based on current use. Maybe there are expenses you incurred while you were working that you won\u2019t have in retirement. Extra gas to and from work? Maybe you are not going to drive as much. Or maybe you no longer need two cars? Cleaning bills? Maybe you don\u2019t need that uniform or dress\/suit cleaning bill while you were working.<\/p>\n

Take a fresh look at what your expenses will be versus what they were while working. There\u2019s savings to be had and that money in the working year\u2019s budget can be put to use somewhere else in retirement years. Do you have grown kids that you are still supporting? You may need to learn that \u201cNo\u201d is an answer. It\u2019s time that you need to be looking out for you. So there you have our list of the seven virtues of retirement checklist!<\/p>\n

Need help? Remember at American Retirement Advisors, we are always here to assist you with any aspect of your retirement needs! Call us! 602-281-3898<\/strong> <\/p>\nClick here to read more<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Retirement Advisors 800-568-1095 Expert Advice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"American Retirement Advisors, David P. Schaeffer, Retirement Advisor, Retirement Defender, Insure your savings, Save your Savings from Wall Street. IRA, Annuity, 401k, Safe Savings, Never lost a penny of my clients money EVER\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Schaeffer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Schaeffer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5572a51be4fd98c2a88945215f1b7874\"},\"headline\":\"Financial Tip of the Month: Financial Check-Up?\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-18T15:45:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/\"},\"wordCount\":749,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/checklist.png\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/\",\"name\":\"American Retirement Advisors 800-568-1095 Expert Advice\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/checklist.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-18T15:45:34+00:00\",\"description\":\"American Retirement Advisors, David P. Schaeffer, Retirement Advisor, Retirement Defender, Insure your savings, Save your Savings from Wall Street. IRA, Annuity, 401k, Safe Savings, Never lost a penny of my clients money EVER\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/checklist.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/checklist.png\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Financial Tip of the Month: Financial Check-Up?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/\",\"name\":\"American Retirement Advisors\",\"description\":\"Expert Retirement Planning Advice\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"American Retirement Advisors\",\"alternateName\":\"ARA\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ARA-Long-Color-with-Tag-scaled.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ARA-Long-Color-with-Tag-scaled.png\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":850,\"caption\":\"American Retirement Advisors\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanRetirementAdvisors\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/americanretire\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/123easyretire\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5572a51be4fd98c2a88945215f1b7874\",\"name\":\"David Schaeffer\",\"description\":\"For over 12 years, David Schaeffer has been advising folks just like you on how to navigate the mysteries of Medicare. Thousands of retiree\u2019s including past employees of American Airlines, Banner Healthcare, Boeing, Honeywell, IBM, Intel, Pitney Bowes, and the State of Arizona have gone to Mr. Schaeffer for his expertise in transitioning from group and individual health plans to Medicare. You may recognize Mr. Schaeffer from his articles on the changes in Medicare in \u201cThe American Retirement Advisor\u201d on Money Radio 1510am. Additionally he has founded several online self service web sites to provide research previously not available to the general public, such as 123Easy Medicare.com, providing side by side comparisons of every choice facing a person new to Medicare. Mr. Schaeffer is one of only 7000 retirement planners to have been awarded the Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) designation in the United States. This designation certifies his proficiency via 20 part program covering retirement planning and finances and of course healthcare planning. Mr. Schaeffer lives in Cave Creek with his wife, Thea, and their two children; when he\u2019s not busy educating retiree\u2019s on ways to preserve their quality of life, he likes to work on lowering his golf handicap.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/author\/theadmin1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"American Retirement Advisors 800-568-1095 Expert Advice","description":"American Retirement Advisors, David P. Schaeffer, Retirement Advisor, Retirement Defender, Insure your savings, Save your Savings from Wall Street. IRA, Annuity, 401k, Safe Savings, Never lost a penny of my clients money EVER","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Schaeffer","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/"},"author":{"name":"David Schaeffer","@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5572a51be4fd98c2a88945215f1b7874"},"headline":"Financial Tip of the Month: Financial Check-Up?","datePublished":"2016-08-18T15:45:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/"},"wordCount":749,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/checklist.png","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/","url":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/","name":"American Retirement Advisors 800-568-1095 Expert Advice","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/checklist.png","datePublished":"2016-08-18T15:45:34+00:00","description":"American Retirement Advisors, David P. Schaeffer, Retirement Advisor, Retirement Defender, Insure your savings, Save your Savings from Wall Street. IRA, Annuity, 401k, Safe Savings, Never lost a penny of my clients money EVER","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/checklist.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/checklist.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/financial-tip-of-the-month-financial-check-up\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Financial Tip of the Month: Financial Check-Up?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/","name":"American Retirement Advisors","description":"Expert Retirement Planning Advice","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#organization","name":"American Retirement Advisors","alternateName":"ARA","url":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ARA-Long-Color-with-Tag-scaled.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ARA-Long-Color-with-Tag-scaled.png","width":2560,"height":850,"caption":"American Retirement Advisors"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanRetirementAdvisors","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/americanretire","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/123easyretire"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5572a51be4fd98c2a88945215f1b7874","name":"David Schaeffer","description":"For over 12 years, David Schaeffer has been advising folks just like you on how to navigate the mysteries of Medicare. Thousands of retiree\u2019s including past employees of American Airlines, Banner Healthcare, Boeing, Honeywell, IBM, Intel, Pitney Bowes, and the State of Arizona have gone to Mr. Schaeffer for his expertise in transitioning from group and individual health plans to Medicare. You may recognize Mr. Schaeffer from his articles on the changes in Medicare in \u201cThe American Retirement Advisor\u201d on Money Radio 1510am. Additionally he has founded several online self service web sites to provide research previously not available to the general public, such as 123Easy Medicare.com, providing side by side comparisons of every choice facing a person new to Medicare. Mr. Schaeffer is one of only 7000 retirement planners to have been awarded the Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) designation in the United States. This designation certifies his proficiency via 20 part program covering retirement planning and finances and of course healthcare planning. Mr. Schaeffer lives in Cave Creek with his wife, Thea, and their two children; when he\u2019s not busy educating retiree\u2019s on ways to preserve their quality of life, he likes to work on lowering his golf handicap.","url":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/author\/theadmin1\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6z8IX-1BN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6187"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6354,"href":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6187\/revisions\/6354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanretirementadvisors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}