If you’re planning to retire at age 62, that leaves three full years before Medicare kicks in — so how can you still afford the cost of healthcare? A Santa Clarita financial advisor is offering a few different strategies to help you retire when you want to.

“What’s the most important thing that we have found over the last few years when it comes to retirement?” asked Arif Halaby, a Certified Estate Planner and president/CEO of Total Financial Solutions. “That is your cost of insurance — health insurance in retirement.”

One option is what Halaby called the “small business angle,” meaning if you’re the owner of a small business, you can have guaranteed issue health insurance regardless of whether you’re still actively working or not.

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“Many of you retire and do consulting, or you’re still going to be a loan broker part-time — one or two loans per year … maybe nothing a year, but it’s still your business,” Halaby explained. “You can have guaranteed issue (health insurance).”

An option for those who work at a large employer like Walmart, Costco or Starbucks is to either carry over their health insurance benefits into retirement, or work the minimum amount of hours to qualify for benefits.

“If you’re retiring from an employer at age 62, you can take a look at the portability of that benefit and continue to pay basically offline, individually on your own,” said Jeff Girard, Halaby’s co-host on KHTS AM-1220’s “Total Financial Solutions: ‘Safer Money Hour.”

Halaby added, “Some of these larger employers … do offer health insurance benefits with (a) minimum amount of work — 20 hours a week, 25 hours a week. So there is a place where you can get benefits and still be working part-time.”

Regardless of your workplace situation, Halaby noted another option is to consider signing up for a plan with what’s called a concierge doctor, which he described as a pre-paid, membership-style health care provider.

“A concierge doctor is one that you would pay money to on an annual basis, like a membership,” he explained. “It isn’t an easy concept for a lot of Americans to get their head around, but it is literally what a lot of other parts of the world do.”

Halaby noted that all of these options can help retirees afford their health insurance until Medicare kicks in at age 65, giving you the opportunity to fulfil your dream of retiring at age 62.

Total Financial Solutions offers assistance with preparing for retirement and financial planning in Santa Clarita and the surrounding valleys. Santa Clarita financial advisor Arif Halaby, a Certified Estate Planner, and Total Financial Solutions staff work with people of all ages, helping them protect, grow and preserve their assets through an individualized approach. As a well-known financial planner, Arif Halaby is also the host of “Total Financial Solutions Safer Money Hour” on KHTS AM-1220. Launched in 2004, the show offers listeners financial planning tips and guidance for dealing with today’s ever-changing financial needs from the perspective a financial advisor.  

Total Financial Solutions, Inc.

24322 Main Street

Newhall, CA 91321

661-753-9683

800-990-7344

Total Financial Solutions – Newhall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDkCCXhdpIg

Arif Halaby, Total Financial Solutions, Financial Planner, Financial Planning, Financial Advisor, Financial Adviser, Santa Clarita Financial Advisor, Santa Clarita Financial Adviser