by Joe Hearn | Mar 9, 2016 | Hobbies, Pursuits, Travel
Note: Retirement is more than just a math problem. Yes, money is important, but you need meaningful activities and relationships too. When money and meaning intersect, you have the chance for something special. With that in mind, I’m starting a new periodic series called “aMUSEments” that will focus on a particular trip, activity, idea or adventure. Each article will be packed with links and resources to help you dream, plan and do. I hope they act as a muse to stir your imagination and help you plan your own adventures. Enjoy!
America’s Best Idea
Writer and historian Wallace Stegner called the national parks “the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” Filmmaker Ken Burns summarized this sentiment when he named his wonderful national parks documentary “America’s Best Idea.”
With spring in the air, now is the perfect time to begin planning an adventure in one of the parks. Incidentally, I’m eating my own cooking on this recommendation. In about a month, I’m heading to the Grand Canyon to hike it from one side to the other and back again. Rim to Rim to Rim. My family and I will also be hitting a few of the other parks this year to do some hiking and camping. Assuming I survive the GC, I’ll let you know how it goes.
What they are
There are 59 national parks that cover 51 million acres in 27 states and two U.S. Territories. They contain some of the most beautiful scenery and natural wonders anywhere in the world. The first National Park was Yellowstone. It was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872. President Theodore Roosevelt established more national parks (5) than any other president. California has the most (9) and Alaska has the biggest (Wrangell-St. Elias) as well as the least visited (Gates of the Arctic). The most visited parks are the Great Smokey Mountains and the Grand Canyon.
List of Parks
Here’s a list of all 59 parks.
Why visit
It’s fun to visit exotic, far flung places, but let’s not forget that we have some pretty incredible places right here in the United States and the national parks are the crown jewels of that collection. They are relatively inexpensive to visit and because they’re spread out across the states there is a variety and selection that is tough to beat.
Why 2016
This year is the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. There will be special programs at the different parks to celebrate the milestone and there will be 16 days where entrance fees will be waived in order to encourage people to visit. Throw cheap gases prices in the mix and this is the perfect year to plan a road trip to one or more parks.
Why retirement is the ideal time to visit
Retirement is the ideal time to visit the national parks. Why? For starters, you can get a lifetime annual park pass for $10 once you hit age 62. That same pass is normally $80 per year. Also, because you have a flexible schedule during retirement, you can visit the parks during the off season when things are less expensive and there are few crowds. Finally, there tons of volunteer (or even employment) opportunities geared towards seniors.
How
If you’re planning on visiting a few parks each year, it’s probably cheaper to buy an Annual Park Pass. The pass is normally $80, but is only $10 for a lifetime pass for those 62 or older and free for current members of the military. In addition to the pass, some parks require you to apply for permits if you plan on camping or staying in the backcountry. You can find specific requirements at the NPS website for the park you’re considering.
Best time of year to visit
This depends on the park, of course. If you’re visiting Death Valley, best to go January through March before the heat becomes unbearable. If, on the other hand, you’re heading to Glacier National Park, go in June when the weather is warming and the park is in bloom. Just Google “best time to visit <park name>” or visit the park’s official website to get recommendations on the best time to visit. In my opinion, the worst time to visit many of the parks is when the weather is the hottest and the crowds are the biggest. That means June and July for most parks when school kids are on summer break. Thankfully, one of the benefits of retirement is the flexible schedule so you can avoid peak crowds and visit in the shoulder seasons (just before or after peak season). September and October are often ideal months because the crowds have gone and the weather is mild.
What to do
Each park has a unique list of things to do and see like Old Faithful in Yellowstone, Half Dome in Yosemite, giant Redwoods in Sequoia and the Grand Canyon in…well…the Grand Canyon. In addition, there are plenty of other activities in the parks like hiking, camping, horseback riding, rafting, spelunking, snorkeling, kayaking, fishing, swimming, rock climbing, wildlife watching, sandboarding, hang gliding and leaf peeping. There is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to things to see and do.
Volunteer opportunities
There are tons of volunteer opportunities in the parks (usually in exchange for free lodging). You can get more information about the Volunteer In Parks (VIP) program here or find specific volunteer opportunities here.
Trip planning
Most of the official park websites have Trip Planner pages. Just visit the NPS site for the park you want to visit and look for the link that says something like “Plan your visit” or “Trip Planner.” Here’s the Trip Planner page for the Grand Canyon so you can see an example.
Can I take my pet?
Most National Parks don’t allow pets, but there are some parks that do. Acadia (Maine), Shenandoah (Virginia) and Cuyahoga Valley (Ohio) have hundreds of miles of hiking trails open to you and your pet. Other parks, like Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, don’t allow pets in certain areas of the park, but do have limited trails or other parts of the park where you can take your pet as long as they’re on a leash. If you want to take your pet, do some research before you go. The NPS website for each park lists their official pet policy.
Inspiring Videos
There are thousands of videos online about the national parks, but I wanted to highlight a series by Jim and Will Pattiz called More Than Just Parks. They are brothers and filmmakers and have set a goal to create a short film using time lapse photography for each of the national parks. The videos are amazing. Click on the Zion video for starters. That 4 minute video will do more to convince you to get out and enjoy the parks than anything I could ever say.
Helpful reading
If you’re thinking of visiting a park you might want to pick up a book or guide to help supplement the information you get from the park’s website. Lonely Planet makes great guide books and they have guides designed for many of the parks available at Amazon. Also, on April 19 they are publishing National Parks of America: Experience America’s 59 National Parks. It will be packed with photos as well as information, tips and sample itineraries for all 59 parks. If you’re looking for amazing photos, Ansel Adams in the National Parks is also a great option.
Documentaries
There is a new IMAX film called National Parks Adventure that is narrated by Robert Redford. It not only provides a history of the parks, but follows modern day adventurers as they explore some of the best things the parks have to offer. Here is a list of cities and theaters where the film is playing.
As I mentioned earlier, Ken Burns has a wonderful, six part documentary on the parks. It used to be available for streaming on Netflix, but I don’t see it there currently. You can try checking out a copy from your local library or it’s available for purchase at Amazon if you’d like to buy a copy.
Photos by Jeff Gunn, Srini Sundarrajan, Michael Balint, Arches National Park and Tupulak. Used under Creative Commons License. Note that several of the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links. That means Amazon will pay me a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you make a purchase using one of the links.
by Joe Hearn | Feb 19, 2016 | Investing, Retirement, Risk
Hi all. I hope you’ve been well. Sorry things have been quiet around here for a few weeks. As I’m sure you know, the markets have been kind of crazy this year and most of my time has been spent on the phone or in meetings with clients. Between that, annual reviews and an unexpected trip to Australia (more on that in another post), I haven’t had much time to write.
With that said, what the heck is going on with the markets?!? And what, if anything, should you be doing about it? Here’s a quick summary:
China
The Chinese economy has been slowing. Why? Several reasons. The population is aging. The Chinese currency—the Yuan—is overvalued and making their exports less competitive. Debt in China has skyrocketed. This last point is likely the most significant. Much of the debt in China was used to fuel their breakneck expansion and to meet their predetermined (i.e. not demand driven) GDP targets. This has resulted in no shortage of questionable investments and misallocated capital. I saw this first hand when I was in China several years ago. The skyline was dotted with construction cranes, but enormous new buildings sat empty. Countless high-rise apartments were built regardless of the fact that most Chinese couldn’t afford to live there. Highways, bullet trains and even entire cities were built without much concern for whether or not they were necessary. The fear is that many of those loans will never be repaid and will eventually put a significant strain on the Chinese banking system. The government is trying to engineer a soft landing, but the jury is still out on whether they’ll succeed. In the meantime, the economy is slowing and Chinese demand for commodities has dropped dramatically, which leads me to Point 2.
Commodities
By some estimates, China consumes about half of the world’s commodities. As their economy slows, their demand for things like copper, steel and especially oil has dropped significantly. Add to that OPEC’s decision to open the floodgates and Iran finally pumping oil after decades of sanctions and commodities have been in free fall. This is generally good for the consumer, because gas is cheaper, but bad for many others (e.g. oil companies, employees at those companies, stockholders of those companies, banks with energy related loans, high yield bondholders, oil producing states like Texas and North Dakota, and countries that are heavily energy export dependent like Brazil, Venezuela, Canada and Russia).
Debt
Too much debt is never a problem. Until it is. Most people probably think we have less debt in the system now than we did during the 2008 financial crisis. After all, those bad home loans were mostly written off, Europe smacked Greece into shape and consumers and businesses shored up their balance sheets, right? Um, no. Unfortunately, China isn’t the only one that has piled on debt. Debt is higher now in every category—household, corporate, government, financial—than it was in 2007. The latest numbers I could find put debt $57 trillion (with a “T” like The Titanic) higher than in 2007. That’s a big gain in a short period of time and it has investors nervous. Confidence greases the gears of the global financial system. If lenders lose confidence in borrower’s ability to repay, things get dicey.
Central Banks
From the “what will they think of next” file, many Central Banks around the world have started adopting negative interest rates. That’s right, zero apparently wasn’t low enough. Now they’re moving to negative. ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) has given way to NIRP (negative interest rate policy) in countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and Japan. The logic is to force banks to lend, weaken currencies to help exports and stimulate economies. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of people who think these policies could come with some pretty significant unintended consequences. This uncertainty has only added to the volatility.
Result: Market Volatility
Markets HATE uncertainty and all of the above have combined to give investors a heaping dose of it. Not surprisingly, most markets around the world are off to a rough start this year with 10-20% drops the norm. But don’t panic. If you go back through the archives at IR, you’ll see that I write an article like this one about once a year. The causes of the volatility change, but not the regularity. So you don’t want to overreact, but you do want to be defensive and make sure that your plans stay on track. The goal is to protect your retirement. As I’ve said many times before, the best way to do that is to Focus on Things You Can Control. That means things like asset allocation, security selection, debt, savings and cash to minimize sequence risk. Focus on those things and this too shall pass.
Have a great weekend!
Joe
Photo Credit: Jeremy Thompson. Used under Creative Commons License.
by Joe Hearn | Jan 13, 2016 | Misc., Retirement, Risk
Quick Note: For those of you with “Retirement Planning” on your New Year’s Resolution list, I extended the $60 discount on The Ideal Retirement Design Guide through January 31st.
I have a retired client—let’s call him Mark—who was going on a trip and he asked his neighbor to water his plants and keep an eye on his house while he was gone. A year later, Mark was making a big purchase at a home improvement store and he decided to apply for a store credit card. His application was denied. This surprised him because he only had one other credit card which he hardly ever used and always paid in full. A little investigation revealed that he actually had five credit cards—four of which he knew nothing about and that were completely maxed out.
By now I’m sure you’ve guessed that his neighbor did more than water the plants. He dug through Mark’s belongings and pieced together information like his date of birth, Social Security number and mother’s maiden name and then started firing off credit card applications (American Express: Don’t leave your neighbor’s home without it.). He had the bills sent to his office address and always made the minimum payment. This meant that the accounts weren’t delinquent, but also meant that any potential day of reckoning was years away.
Anyone can be the victim of identity theft, but retirees are particularly vulnerable. They generally have good credit and available resources (they’re retired after all), both of which can be tempting targets for thieves. Not only that, but our memory can diminish as we age, a situation that criminals are more than happy to try to exploit. So what exactly is identity theft and how can you protect yourself or a loved one? What should you do if someone steals your identity? Are you liable for any fraudulent debts? How can you clear your name?
What is identity theft?
Identity theft is when someone uses your personal information to fraudulently do things like take out a loan, obtain I.D., open a credit card or gain access to your bank accounts.
Criminals use a number of tricks in their efforts to gain access to your personal information. They steal mail, go through your personal belongings (like Mark’s neighbor), scour the Internet for personal information, send “Phishing” emails and hack into computers to name a few.
The longer a criminal is using your identity, the more damage he can do, so it’s important to keep your eyes open for certain red flags such as money missing from your accounts, calls from debt collectors about debts you know nothing about, unusual charges on your credit card statements or denial of credit. Any of those could indicate problems.
What should I do if my identity is stolen?
As I mentioned earlier, it’s important to act quickly if you find a problem. Begin by placing a fraud alert on your credit report with the different credit bureaus. This will prevent thieves from causing further damage by opening new accounts. You can do this by phone or at their websites:
Equifax
www.equifax.com
1-888-766-0008
Experian
www.experian.com
1-888-397-3742
Transunion
www.transunion.com
1-800-680-7289
Once you notify one agency, they are required to notify the others. The fraud alert will last for 90 days, but for more severe cases you can extend that to seven years by filing additional paperwork. After notifying the agencies, download a free copy of your credit report and go through it to identify any fraudulent activity or inaccurate information.
Next, file a police report and obtain a copy that you can use to verify your claims as you work to fix the problems caused by the theft. In addition to the police report, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). They maintain a large identity theft database which they use to assist law enforcement and affected companies with identity theft investigations. You can file a complaint at www.consumer.gov/idtheft or by calling 1-877-438-4338. One of the forms they will have you fill out will be the Identity Theft Affidavit, which you can use with affected companies to begin fixing any problems.
Once you have filed the fraud alert, the police report, the FTC report and identified the affected accounts, contact each company holding those accounts so you can notify them of the fraud and have the accounts frozen and closed. If your bank account or credit card was affected, you will need to open new accounts. Be sure to update your passwords or personal identification numbers in case those were also compromised. Once you have the problems fixed, it’s a good idea to work with the credit bureaus to clean up your credit report by having any entries related to the fraud removed from your report.
Am I liable for the fraud?
One of the first questions people often have when it comes to identity theft is “What am I liable for?” The answer depends on what form the fraud took and how quickly it is reported. You are generally responsible for $50 per card in unauthorized credit card transactions as long as you report the fraud within 60 days of receiving the bill with the fraudulent charges. Debit cards are a bit more stringent. You have only 2 days to report unauthorized withdrawals or transfers to maintain the same $50 limit of liability. Anything between 2 and 60 days will likely mean you’re responsible for up to $500 in unauthorized transfers. Anything beyond that and you risk losing the money. Not only do debit cards have a tighter reporting window, but you will also likely be without the money that was stolen until the bank can straighten things out. For those reasons, it may be worth choosing your credit card over your debit card when making purchases.
What can you do to protect yourself from identity theft?
There are several things that you can do to make it difficult for thieves to steal your identity. First and foremost, keep a tight rein on all of your personal information (e.g. Social Security number, date of birth, etc.). If you’re making online purchases or using online banking, make sure that you use strong passwords and that your computer has all of the latest security updates downloaded and installed. Run regular scans to detect any viruses or malware.
You can also place a security freeze on your credit report which will prevent credit agencies from releasing any information when they receive requests from banks or credit cards without first getting your authorization. As a result, any unauthorized application or request for a new account gets denied because the company can’t obtain the information it needs.
Finally, you might also consider signing up for a service like LifeLock to help you monitor your credit and notify you of any suspicious activity. These companies will also help fix any damage done by identity thieves. A paid service can be a good option (and give you peace of mind) if you are ever the victim of a large breach (e.g. Target stores, the Chinese hacking breach of the Office of Personnel Management, etc.) and want to keep a an eye out for anyone trying to misuse the compromised data.
by Joe Hearn | Dec 31, 2015 | Misc.
Well that year went by fast! It seems like just yesterday that Punxatawney Phil was telling us that spring was almost here and now Ryan Seacrest is warming up in Times Square to help us bid adieu to 2015.
How was your year? For me it was great in a lot of ways and challenging in a lot of ways. The positive things came in the form of the usual suspects: family, friends, travel, work, good books, etc. The negative things had a common theme: busyness. In some ways, 2015 felt like a real life game of Whack-A-Mole. When life starts to feel like that it’s important to reflect on the causes and do what it takes to refocus your efforts on the essential. I’ve been doing that for the last several weeks and am looking forward to starting the New Year off well. My mantra is “Less But Better.” That will mean some great new things here at Intentional Retirement so stay tuned.
Before I sign off for the year, here’s a quick round up of a few of the most popular posts of 2015 in case you missed them:
Well, that should just about do it for 2015. Oh yeah, “one more thing” as Steve Jobs was fond of saying. We need to wrap up our Bucket List giveaway for the year. I’ve been periodically writing articles about bucket list items and doing little giveaways with them. The grand prize is a $1,000 airline voucher and that goes to…drumroll…Scott over on our email subscriber list. Congrats Scott! I’ll be in touch with the details. Enjoy the travel and best wishes to all of you for the New Year.
~ Joe
by Joe Hearn | Dec 4, 2015 | Lifestyle Design, Retirement
When we think about compounding, we often associate it with financial success, but other areas of life—activities, travel, learning, ideas, marriage, friendships, clients, contacts, freedom, health, hobbies, religion—compound in a very similar way. Each time we get a small win in one of these areas, we can put it to work to help us grow and bring on bigger, better wins. It’s like earning interest on our interest, but the payoff is a richer life rather than just a richer portfolio. It’s lifestyle compounding rather than financial compounding.
This is a powerful idea and one you should keep in mind as you plan for retirement. The things you do with your life in the years leading up to retirement can have a huge impact on how rewarding your retirement will be. Why? Because with compounding, the really interesting payoffs come at the end.
That’s why Warren Buffett earned 99% of his wealth after his 50th birthday. Not because he somehow became a better stock picker as he got older, but because that’s when the big dollars started compounding. But he never would have gotten to that point if he hadn’t been a good steward with the small dollars.
He made his first trade at age 11 with about $200. Over time $200 became $400 and then $400 became $800. Pretty soon, thousands became tens of thousands, which became hundreds of thousands, which became millions and eventually billions. When you look at the chain of returns, you realize that the trade that got him from $1 billion to $2 billion wouldn’t have happened without the trade that got him from $10,000 to $20,000. The earlier trades weren’t as interesting because they didn’t have as many zeros, but they were absolutely essential.
Lifestyle Compounding
Since other areas of your life can compound in a similar way, then retirement is a time that can really be exponentially cool—IF—you spend the years leading up to retirement doing the things you need to do to build your “capital” of friends, skills, experiences, self-awareness, etc. Unfortunately, we often get wound up in one or two things at the expense of others during our pre-retirement years. For example, we focus on our stuff at the expense of our relationships or our careers at the expense of our health. We promise to get to the other things “Someday.” Then we get to retirement and rather than getting interesting payoffs in the areas that matter most, we’re stuck getting from 1 to 2, 2 to 4 and so on, without enough runway to get to the really interesting numbers.
This is why I’ve often said that delayed gratification is overrated. Not because I’m impatient, but because I know that if I only start to live when I hit some predetermined age (like 65), it will be like Buffett waiting until his 5th or 6th decade to start investing. He’d still be a brilliant guy, but he would run out of time before the numbers got interesting.
And no, it’s not lost on me that sometimes non-financial compounding is at odds with financial compounding. A dollar spent today on travel or a date night with your spouse is a dollar that you won’t be able to add to your compounding assets tomorrow, but if you spend it wisely, you’ll have something else—experiences, memories, strong relationships, skills, etc.—that will then be able to compound and produce greater and greater returns over time and bring you much meaning, happiness and fulfillment. It’s up to you to find the balance between the financial and non-financial that makes the most sense for your situation. Invest wisely in both.
Seneca once said: “Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. But when it is squandered…we perceive that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing.”
Ponder that thought and the aforementioned ideas on lifestyle compounding as you reflect on your past and plan for your future. And if you’d like a little help planning for both the financial and non-financial aspects of retirement, check out The Ideal Retirement Design Guide.
Be Intentional,
Joe
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