Main Street Monthly 201 W. Main Street, Suite C, Lexington, SC 29072 • P: 803-358-7214 • www.strattonreynolds.com
JULY/AUG 2018
DON’T SELL THE HOUSE! LONG-TERM CARE COSTS AND WORRIES
H aving to make long-term care decisions about your loved ones is never easy. Nobody is prepared for the day when they have to consider putting a parent in a nursing home or assisted living facility. To make matters worse, long-term care is extremely expensive. According to Genworth Financial, one of the leading long-term care insurance providers, the cost of long-term care has risen steadily over the past 13 years — and it shows no signs of slowing down. Unsurprisingly, the biggest question many people have about long-term care is, “How will I pay for it?” In haste to secure financing, many people end up making unwise decisions. That’s why it’s so important to speak with an elder law attorney before doing anything drastic. The laws surrounding long-term care payments are complex, so it behooves you to have somebody with experience on your side. The biggest error we see people make as they plan to pay for long-term care is immediately selling their home. This can be an expensive mistake, because under many government programs — including Medicaid for nursing home care and the Veterans Affairs
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JOIN US FOR A WILD NIGHT OF FUN AT OUR NEXT CLIENT APPRECIATION EVENT
Everything our firm does wouldn’t be possible without our wonderful clients. We are so grateful for the chance to work with you, and we want to say thanks. We’d like to invite you and your family to join us for a client appreciation event at the Riverbanks Zoo. THE STRATTON & REYNOLDS CLIENT APPRECIATION EVENING When: Thursday, July 26 at 6 p.m. Where: Aquarium Reptile Complex at the Riverbanks Zoo, 500 Wildlife Pkwy., Columbia, SC 29210 It will be a casual night of fun, with snacks, activities, and of course, plenty of critters. We hope you’ll come and spend the evening with us. Please RSVP no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 24 by calling our office at 803-358-7214.
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Road trip season is in full swing, which means you’ll soon pile the whole family into the car, ready to brave the road for a vacation. Everyone knows that riding in the car for hours can be torture. But with a little creativity, you can turn the worst part of a long trip into a fun event. Road Trips Don’t Have to B Try Games, Audiobooks, and Pod
PACK A TRAVEL GAME When the excitement of the family vacation starts to wear off, keep the peace and entertain your kids with a travel game. Many board game manufacturers offer travel-sized versions that are easy to pack and play in the car. Before your next road trip, consider purchasing digital Yahtzee, which packs all the fun of the classic game without the dice, or IQ Fit, a logic game with over 100 challenges. Both games cost around $10 and can provide hours of entertainment.
INCLUDE THE WHOLE FAMILY Once the travel games no longer pique anyone’s interest, try an activity that can be fun for the whole family: a traditional road trip game. If you have a car full of storytellers, try “Fortunately, Unfortunately.” The rules are simple. The first person starts by saying, “fortunately,” and mentioning something good about the road trip or the destination. The next person (moving clockwise) then follows by saying something “unfortunate” about the previous person’s statement.
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Aid and Attendance program — your home is an “exempt” resource, which means it is not counted in your total assets when determining your eligibility for these benefits. By selling your home, you are converting this “exempt” asset into cash. Cash is almost always a “countable” resource, which must be almost completely spent before you can qualify for these benefits. We hate having to tell people who come to us to discuss long-term care options that because they sold their parents’ house a year or two ago, they have to spend almost all of the proceeds from the sale of the home so that their parents will be eligible for benefits planning. There are still options for planning in that situation, but often the family has lost tens of thousands of dollars because they did not consult with an attorney before selling the home.
If you or someone you love is considering long-term care planning in the near future, give us a call. We’ll discuss the best strategy for you before you start liquidating the assets. With good planning, you can likely preserve many more assets than you thought you could, while also qualifying for benefits that will pay for a significant portion of the long-term care costs. As with any major life decision, it’s important to weigh all the options before coming to a final conclusion. We totally understand that you want to provide the best possible care for your loved ones, but the smartest way to go about that isn’t always to convert assets into cash. Let us guide you through the process so that care for your loved ones doesn’t come with a price tag that will leave you in ruins.
–TC and Chasity
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Painful asts to Pass the Time
You may have been warned about blue light and its impending threat to your eyes. It comes from your computer screen, your phone, and even from the sun. Why is this form of light harmful, and how can you keep your eyes safe? IS BLUE LIGHT A NEW THING? Blue light occurs in nature and is nothing new. However, because many electronics emit blue light, it’s more of an issue now than it was just 10 years ago. Backlit LED screens emit strong blue light waves, so our use of devices like cellphones, tablets, and flat-screen TVs means we are exposed to more blue light than ever before. WHY ARE EYE DOCTORS WORRIED? Blue light isn’t inherently bad — it’s found in sunlight and lightbulbs — but our increased exposure to it might be. Our eyes are pretty good at blocking UV rays but not so good at blocking blue light. Blue light has a higher energy output than other forms of light, so instead of being filtered by the corneas and lenses, almost all of it reaches the more sensitive retinas. The high energy output of blue light and our eyes’ inability to protect the retinas from it appears to cause damage similar to macular degeneration, an eye disease mostly affecting people over 65 that can lead to blindness. These similarities to macular degeneration have scientists worried that our increased exposure to blue light could lead to more cases of it. HOW CAN YOU MINIMIZE EXPOSURE? Many computers and electronic devices have a “night shift” option built into them. Enabling this feature will dim the screen and lower the amount of blue light that your device emits. There are also removable filters you can put on your computer screen. Brands like RetinaShield/Tech Armor and Eyesafe are designed to limit the amount of blue light your eyes are exposed to. To avoid eye strain, talk to your eye doctor about blue light glasses. These tinted glasses, which come in prescription and nonprescription versions, reduce the amount of blue light that reaches your eyes. THE HAZARDS OF BLUE LIGHT How to Protect Your Eyes and Minimize Exposure
Take turns with every passenger in the car. If someone stumbles, they get a strike; three strikes and you’re out. The last passenger standing wins. PLAY AN AUDIOBOOK OR PODCAST We get it. Sometimes passengers don’t want to play games. Occasionally, they’d rather relax or take a nap. However, your listening material doesn’t have to be limited to Dad’s favorite music. Instead, consider listening to a family-friendly audiobook or podcast, which can make the longest and most boring parts of your trip an entertaining or educational experience. Almost any popular book is available in audio form, but it can be hard to find an enjoyable podcast. “Transistor” is a science-focused podcast that explores subjects kids and adults will find fascinating. Or if you’re looking for something fictional, try “Storynory,” in which the narrator tells fairy tales and legends from all over the globe.
SUDOKU
Remember, blue light itself is just a natural form of light and isn’t inherently bad. During the day, it can even be beneficial to get some natural blue light from sunshine — while wearing sunglasses, of course. But it’s also a good idea to take precautions to protect your eyes from artificial blue light, especially if your work environment and hobbies expose you to it frequently.
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Call Now! 803-358-7214 www.strattonreynolds.com
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201 W. Main St., Suite C Lexington, SC 29072
Inside this Issue
How Not to Pay for Long-Term Care page 1 An Event in Honor of You page 1 How to Make Your Road Trip a Breeze page 2 What’s All the Fuss About Blue Light? page 3 Invest in Movie Nights page 4
IS MOVIE PASS RIGHT FOR YOUR FAMILY? Parents Watch Free
ARE YOU A MOVIE FAMILY? Do you go to the movies often as a family? Or do you and your spouse need more date-night options? With the $9.95 monthly subscription fee, as long as the pass holder in your family sees more than one movie a month, you are saving money. This can be a great encouragement to see more films, whether as a family or individually. IS 3D A MUST? The one catch of Movie Pass is that it will only get you into standard 2D movies. If you and the family want the 3D experience, you’ll have to pay for it separately. If enough theaters in your area participate, your family enjoys going to the movies, and you’re not set on seeing 3D movies, Movie Pass can be a great investment. But if the answer is no to any of these questions, you’re probably better off just buying tickets at the box office.
Superheroes, robots, and dinosaurs, oh my! The 2018 blockbuster season is in full swing, and chances are your kids don’t want to miss out on the action. But these days, going to the movies costs an arm and a leg — and that’s before you buy the popcorn. One service is looking to change this. If you’ve watched the news at all in the last year, chances are you’ve heard the buzz about Movie Pass. It’s a subscription service in which one user pays $9.95 a month in exchange for four free movie tickets each month at participating theaters. While initially envisioned for college students and film aficionados, could Movie Pass be right for your family? WHERE DO YOU LIVE? The first thing you should do when considering whether to sign up for the pass is research which theaters in your area take the pass and which don’t. If you have to make a long drive just to get to a participating theater, it’s probably not worth subscribing.
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