Welcome to 2025!I wrote a check today – remember those? I had to sign the date of 2025 for the first time, and it always takes me a few weeks to get used to signing the new year. I usually start by writing 2024, realize my mistake, and try my hardest to change the ‘4’ to look like a ‘5.’ We’ll see how long it takes for me to write 2025 without hesitation. Here is the agenda:
|
|
| United Healthcare and Dr. Oz Recap
I did something new for this one. I tried doing a YouTube Live to address the topic I covered in last month’s newsletter. More specifically – What can we believe around news claims about denials and Dr. Oz’s plans for Medicare? YouTube Live is a bit tricky. If I’m staring at the comments, it means getting a cohesive thought out of me becomes challenging. This led to me talking for a bit… and spammers loading up the comments with garbage. Once I saw it, I was able to remove them, but that distracted me to where I didn’t realize when I was or was not sharing my screen. If you haven’t seen it already, here is that video with a lengthy Q&A session at the end. Click the picture or here to watch: |
|
|
|
| Important Disclaimer What I do NOT want people to take away from this is that I love any certain company or plan type. That is not the point of the video.The whole point of the video was there are viral news articles that are at best… laughably inaccurate and at worst… blatantly fraudulent. United Healthcare and all other insurance companies offering Medicare Advantage plans have prior authorizations and deny claims. The question we are all trying to figure out is how many claims are denied and, more importantly, how many claims are denied that should have been approved. You, me, every agent I know personally, and every insurance company employee I know personally want to fight against improper denials. Social Security Fairness Act On January 5th, President Biden signed into law the Social Security Fairness Act. This Act eliminates the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). These applied to government employees as well as some nonprofit employees who had their Social Security benefits reduced as a result of not contributing to the Social Security Trust Fund over the course of their careers in government employment. This makes up about 2.7 million individuals, or about 3% of those collecting Social Security benefits. I was able to sit down with Tyler Williamson to go over this information in more detail. Check out the video for more details on this Act. Click the picture or here to |
|
|
|
Book Recommendation |
|
|
Each year, I publish my list of books read for that year. I listen to most books on Audible or my library app – Libby. I wrote a post a few years ago on my strategy to read more books here: I did not hit that number this year. Was I lazy? Those were the first things that came to mind.
And I started to realize, it wasn’t a failure. Some of those other things are more important than finishing the next book. So… the book recommendation this month is really just a list of the books read this year with some ratings next to them. For those who have been part of this newsletter for a while, you’ll recognize some titles. Your Recommendations |
|
Words of Wisdom – It’s been 1 year.Today marks 1 year to the day since I lost my mom to her fight with cancer. In my opinion, it’s those firsts that are hardest. Our kids’ first birthdays without their grandma. Once you lose someone like that, there will always be a hole, and I get that. Two of my mom’s siblings passed away this year as well, which is pretty crazy to think that 3 siblings passed away in about 10 months. Life is fragile. This isn’t meant to bring us all down, so stick with me as I attempt to turn this around. If Today Was Your Last Day They have a song called, “If Today Was Your Last Day,” which is similar to many other songs that cover the idea of – What would you do if you knew this was it? Most of us won’t have a chance to control how we go out, but the thought crosses my mind more than it should. What’s it going to look like? Just a YouTuber My wife has a family reunion on Christmas Eve each year where we all get together. One of the family members asked, “So, Erik… what are you doing for work these days?” I don’t think they were trying to make me feel bad. What do I do for work? I don’t get to tell people that I’m something cool like my best friend who became an orthopedic surgeon. I’m just a guy who makes videos on YouTube talking about Medicare, Social Security, Financial Planning, and Estate Planning. I would hope that I would be remembered as a kind, tender husband. In the grand scheme of things… with us spinning on a blue marble in the middle of the universe at 67,000 miles per hour, with trillions of galaxies out there… does it really matter? And that’s okay. Because there is one gorgeous girl, 3 little kiddos, and 2 dogs who think I do matter. What About You? Here’s what I want you to know. YOU matter to me. You may be thinking, “C’mon, Erik… you don’t really even know me.” There are a lot of people who get this newsletter message who I’ve never met. But a humbling experience that hits me every day is the fact that, starting April 1st to this exact moment of me typing this sentence, there have been 2,382 real-life human beings who saw my face on YouTube… thought what was presented there was a reasonable enough reason to find their way to TheRetirementNerds.com… find the Newsletter sign up page… type their name and email address into the fields… and pressed the button that said, “Erik, we’d like to hear from you.” That’s not what the actual button says, but it’s what I think whenever I see it. And that may seem like such a small act on your part, but it is unbelievably meaningful to me. YOU matter to me. 2025 Every newsletter message and video I make this year is with that thought in mind. Thank you for your presence and support in my life, and the difference you make for me. Erik |
|
|
|
|
Miss you like crazy, mom. – Your Punkin.
|
