[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 7793]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  TEN SMART THINGS TO DO WHILE YOU AGE

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, getting old is probably the most 
universal experience no one really likes to talk about. Sure, people 
talk about minor aches and pains, but the big topics are unmentionable. 
They include paying for a funeral, preparing for a nursing home stay, 
or getting checked for prostate problems. These things make people 
uncomfortable, but they really should not. Consider Katie Couric's 
comment about colon cancer. She said, ``Some people find the procedures 
like . . . colonoscopies unappealing. I can tell you they are all much 
more appealing than dying of this disease.''
  In honor of Older Americans Month, I encourage aging adults--and that 
means all of us--to mention the unmentionable, and to think the 
unthinkable. Once you get these chores done, the rest of your years 
will be a day in the country. Here are 10 Smart Things to Do While You 
Age:
  1. Secure your retirement income. One financial planner said saving 
for retirement is ``like pushing a ball up a hill. The longer you wait, 
the steeper the hill (seems).'' Yet 56 percent of U.S. households do 
not save enough for retirement. What should you do? The experts advise 
developing a financial plan and sticking to it. Save $25 a week for 40 
years with 5 percent interest. You will have $165,000. Before you 
decide how much to set aside, think about how much you will need to 
maintain a standard of living.
  My own advice is do not overrely on Social Security. Think of it this 
way, a solid retirement plan is a three-legged stool of Social 
Security, retirement savings, and a pension. Look carefully at your 
pension plan, too. Make sure you understand what's coming to you, and 
when.
  2. Think about where you would like to live, and how. Do you dream of 
staying in the same town or city for the rest of your life? If 
necessary, could you modify your home to accommodate you as you get 
older? Would you like to move closer to friends and family? Would you 
like a condo on the beach in Florida or an assisted living facility, 
where you pay people to do your laundry and cook your meals? This item 
goes hand-in-hand with financial planning. The more retirement income 
you have, the more housing options you have.
  3. Get preventive health checks, exercise, and eat well. Preventive 
health checks are getting easier all the time. Increasingly, they are 
available through insurance coverage. Medicare covers vaccinations, 
mammograms and screenings for colon and prostate cancer, diabetes and 
other illnesses. Unfortunately people often do not take advantage of 
the health screenings available to them. Only one of eight older people 
gets the recommended testing for colon cancer. This is a shame, when 
you consider that colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of 
cancer death.
  More than half of all Americans do not get the exercise they need. 
Generally, the older people get, the less they exercise. Of course, 
some people have physical limitations that prevent such activities, but 
those who can exercise should, and at any age, doctors say. Exercise 
can help stave off heart disease, colon cancer, diabetes and high blood 
pressure. A good diet carries many of the same benefits
  4. Write a will or living trust. Either of these documents delineates 
how you'd like your property distributed after your death. If you die 
without a will, the State will distribute your property for you. The 
result may be contrary to your wishes. It is best to write a will or 
living trust well before old age. That way, your spouse and children 
will be provided for if you face an untimely death. More than 40 
percent of people 35 or older do not have any kind of legal document 
determining how their belongings will be distributed after they die.
  5. Consider long-term care insurance. Many people do not realize that 
nursing homes are very expensive. Most nursing home residents do not 
pay out of their pockets for long. They spend down their assets to 
become qualified for Medicaid, which then picks up the tab. Spending 
down assets means giving up almost everything, including a house. Long-
term care insurance is an option for covering long-term care expenses. 
The earlier you buy the insurance, the less expensive your premiums. I 
have sponsored legislation that would establish a tax deduction to 
encourage the purchase of long-term insurance.
  6. Plan your funeral and burial or cremation. The national average 
cost for a funeral, burial and monument is $7,520. These costs can be 
much lower, but they can be much, much higher. The average mark-up on 
caskets is high. The latest estimated mark-up is 500 percent. Some are 
marked up as high as 2,000 percent. The high costs, and the presence of 
some bad apples in this industry, build the case for arranging a 
funeral early. It is hard to comparison-shop when you are grieving. If 
you plan ahead, you can call funeral homes for the best price. Of 
course, planning ahead has its pitfalls. Be sure you tell your family 
members about prearrangements, and give them all the relevant 
paperwork. That way, your family can verify that your contract is 
fulfilled after you're gone.
  7. Think about whether a family member will care for you, or vice 
versa. Unpaid family caregivers keep millions of people at home and out 
of nursing homes. More than 22 million households have a caregiver who 
is age 50 or older. The majority are women. Caregiving takes a large 
toll, both financially and emotionally. I am working to provide more 
resources to family caregivers, including a $3,000 tax credit that 
would help them cover their expenses.
  8. Decide how long you will work. Until recently, people who worked 
past age 65 lost Social Security benefits if they made more than 
$17,000 a year. Congress just repealed that penalty for people ages 65 
to 69. This likely will cause many Americans to rethink whether they 
will work past age 65, either part-time or full-time. Choosing the best 
age at which to retire is an important financial decision.
  9. Determine your treatment at the end of life. In a living will, 
which, or course, is completely different from an estate-planning will, 
you direct how your doctor should administer life-sustaining treatment 
if you are unable to decide for yourself. A living will guides your 
treatment if you are terminally ill, irreversibly unconscious, or in a 
persistent vegetative state.
  10. Enjoy yourself. You have worked hard to stay financially fit and 
physically healthy. The opportunities for older Americans are greater 
than ever before. You can work well into your eighties and nineties if 
you choose. You can become a competitor in the Senior Olympics. You can 
write a book, volunteer with your church, or teach people how to read. 
Surf the Internet. E-mail your grandchildren. Take advantage of the 
insight and depth that inevitably come with aging. Someone once said, 
``Being a fun person is the hallmark of true maturity.
  I yield the floor.

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