Caring Currents

As the financial crisis shows no signs of slowing down and threats of recession loom, finance bloggers are addressing this challenging time by brainstorming ways to save money and free up cash.

If you or someone you're caring for is watching in horror as 401k and investment accounts shed their value, you may be pondering these same questions: How do I cut back on my spending to stretch the resources I still have? What are some ways to make money as savings dwindle? Finance and consumer sites like The Consumerist, MSN Money, Lifehacker, and FreeMoneyFinance, among many others, are answering these questions with lists of money-saving tips and ideas.

There's some overlap among the many articles, so here's a rundown of some of the best and most popular ideas:

Money Savers

• Balance your checkbook and review all credit card statements and medical bills for errors.
• Don't be afraid to ask for senior or...  Read more

During these rocky economic times, an increasing number of people are sacrificing their health to save money and cut back on spiraling health care costs, reports the Wall Street Journal.

When faced with skyrocketing premiums, deductibles, and prescription drug costs, more people are choosing to skip doctors visits and forego their prescription drugs, according to the article, which found that:

• 22 percent of people surveyed said that they were going to the doctor less often because of money woes, while in a different survey, 11 percent said they were cutting back on filling their prescriptions.
• The number of total prescriptions filled fell 0.5 percent in the first quarter and 1.97 percent in the second, compared with the same periods in 2007 -- the first negative quarters in at least a decade.
• Drugstores like Walgreens are reporting slower sales of prescription drugs.
• Health services company LabCorp...  Read more

Last week I wrote about how a second medical opinion may have saved Lois De Domenico's life.

Plagued by overwhelming fatigue and drenching night sweats, Lois sensed something serious was up, even though her regular doctor couldn't figure out what was wrong. So she sought out another physician who diagnosed a rare form of tuberculosis, immediately hospitalized her, and started treating the stubborn disease that took a solid six months for the normally fit and active 80-year-old to completely shake.  Her word of warning: Follow your intuition and ask for another doctor's advice.

How to go about the business of seeking a second opinion? This week I've pulled together six simple strategies to get you going:

• Make a good choice. Find a qualified physician through AMA's Doctor Finder and make sure the doctor is a board-certified specialist by checking credentials with the American Board of Medical...  Read more

With the relentless beat of bad financial news coming at us every day, it wouldn't be surprising if you started eyeing your mattress as the safest possible investment vehicle for these turbulent times.

But before you start slashing open that Sealy, take a deep breath and assess where your finances -- and those of your parents or other family members -- really are. For most people, now is probably not the best time to cash out. But in light of the market meltdown of the past few weeks, it does make sense to take a moment and scrutinize your family's financial situation and re-assess your investment strategies.

Newsweek this week asks "How Worried Should You Be?" According to the article, investors should:

• Keep their money safe in conservative, guaranteed investments like money market deposit accounts and government backed Treasury notes. Keep any money in bank accounts under FDIC insurance limits -- usually $100,000 -- to ensure that the money will remain secure in the event of a bank closure...  Read more

Medicare patients looking for help with the notoriously complex and confusing government health insurance program are often told to first call 1-800-Medicare for help. But according to a new congressional report, that may be the last place they should turn.

In response to complaints, Senator Gordon Smith, the ranking member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, conduted a three year survey of the Medicare hotline. In response to 500 test calls, the call center gave "inadequate answers to test callers 90 percent of the time," according to a Dow Jones Newswires account of a hearing on the matter.

And things may be about to get even worse: In two months, call center volumes are expected to go through the roof when Medicare Part D open enrollment begins. About 34.5 million seniors are expected to call 1-800-Medicare next year.

Laying out some of the more egregious errors, Senator Smith...  Read more

The so-called "doughnut hole" coverage gap in Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage snared millions of seniors in 2007 -- and forced many to stop taking prescribed medications they would have had to pay for themselves.

In 2007, 3.4 million people, or 14 percent of all people enrolled in Medicare Part D, fell into the coverage gap, says a Kaiser Family Foundation study released last week.

According to Medicare Part D rules, enrollees pay a monthly premium, a deductible, and a co-payment of 25 percent of the total cost of their medication until they have spent $2,510 on prescription drugs. After that point -- known as the doughnut hole -- they must pay out-of-pocket for prescription drugs until they reach a "catastrophic" level of $4,050 total out-of-pocket spending. Then, Medicare coverage will kick in again. (Seniors can also purchase a private insurance plan to bridge the gap...  Read more

Cash-strapped seniors have seemingly few options when it comes to getting their hands on more money. But now there may be one more possibility.

Similar in concept to reverse mortgages, LegacyLoans, soon to be offered through Legacy Funding Group, will allow older adults to take out a loan against their life insurance policy. They can use the proceeds of the loan for monthly expenses or simply to cover the costs of their life insurance premiums. When they die, the amount of the loan is deducted from the payout to their beneficiaries. There are other insurance companies, including New York Life, which are starting to offer similar products.

Seniors can already sell their life insurance policies, a transaction known as a "life settlement." For many people, this is a good way to use their existing policies to generate cash during their lifetime. The downside to life settlements is obviously...  Read more

The new mortgage bill includes provisions intended to make reverse mortgages more attractive to wary seniors. But is it a case of too little, too late?

This week President Bush signed legislation intended to address the foreclosure and mortgage mess that's devastated the housing market all year long. Included in the wide-ranging bill are dramatic overhauls to the rules governing reverse mortgages for seniors. What do these changes mean for your parents if they are considering a reverse mortgage?

To start with, under the new rules, your parents:

• Can qualify for much larger loans, depending on where they live. The previous loan limit of $417,000 has been increased to as much as $625,000 in high-cost areas.
• Can now use FHA-insured reverse mortgages to purchase second homes
• Should see reduced lenders' fees
• Are protected by new restrictions on lenders, which make it harder to cross-sell financial products...  Read more

With all the recent media attention on senior drivers, it's important to keep in mind that most elderly people drive cautiously -- and safely.

John Locher, director of the Senior Ombudsman Program at the California DMV, made this point in a recent interview: "As a general rule, most seniors are safe, mature, responsible drivers," he told me. "They tend to restrict themselves. A lot of seniors will tell you, 'I don't drive at night anymore.' "

Locher also points out that there is a lot of bias against senior drivers. "Look how traffic accidents are handled in the media," he says. "If little Johnny has a major car accident, there will be a single headline. But if an elderly person causes a car accident, it's in the paper for days."

He cites the example of the elderly man in Santa Monica who hit the gas instead of the brake and killed 10 people at the local Farmers Market...  Read more

Worried about how your parents will manage in a hurricane, cyclone, earthquake, flood, or other disaster? Get them gabbing. Talking is one of the most important ways to protect seniors in a natural disaster, according to a recent report from the Hartford Financial Services Group, an insurance company that funds research on aging, among other things.

A recent survey of older Americans commissioned by Hartford found that a huge majority expect to rely on others in a disaster. But most of these same folks haven’t talked about disaster planning with their family, friends, or neighbors. So the people most likely to help them don’t know what they need or expect.

The solution: Sit down for a chit-chat with your parents or other elderly loved ones and hatch out a plan for handling disasters. Covers such basics as:

• Establishing a network of people to check on them and then to...  Read more