81 questions for you to consider

These are arranged into some categories to help you organize your thoughts.

Social Security

1) Will it be there for me when I retire?

2) What is the best age to take Social Security to maximize my benefits?

3) Will Social Security be taxable?

4) Is there a way to prevent that?

 

Medicare

5) Should I buy a Medicare supplement or Medicare Advantage coverage?

6) Will the starting age for Medicare be raised to age 67 and what impact will that have on me financially?

7) Do I have to take Part D prescription drug coverage if I don‟t take any medication?

 

Medicaid

8) How will the states afford Medicaid when the federal government stops fully funding the new Medicaid recipients?

9) Will those extra costs be passed onto me even if I am not on Medicaid?

10) Do I have to completely spend down all my assets to become eligible for Medicaid if I go into a nursing home?

11) Will the Medicaid program continue to grow and where will we get the money to fund it?

 

Interest on the debt

12) Do you realize that interest on the debt that our country owes is the fifth largest expenditure?

13) Do you know that the Congressional Budget Office predicts that the debt will rise to $57 trillion by 2035?

14) If the interest rate is the historical 5 percent number, how will we afford to pay all the interest on that debt?

15) Do you also realize that by 2030 we will only take in enough tax revenue to pay for Social Security, Medicare and interest on the debt?

16) Should you reduce or eliminate your dependence on the government under these circumstances?

 

Deficit

17) If the government spends $3.8 trillion and it only takes in $3.1 trillion in 2016, won’t that dramatically add to the debt?

18) What programs and benefits will be reduced or eliminated if the deficit increases?

19) Will deficits at the same county, city and municipality level also cause loss of benefits, tax increases or combinations of both and could it even cause those entities to “borrow” more money to continue to provide services. What impact would those decisions have on your financial future?

 

War, defense and terrorism costs

20) These costs are the second or third biggest expense in our national budget. If you include the costs for Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration they are easily second; if you don’t, they are third.

21) With the possibility of terrorism on our soil, will these costs increase or decrease?

22) With the world experiencing serious financial issues could a war or serious military event be almost expected?

23) How will we defend our borders and our interest and the interests of our allies without continuing to spend more and more?

24) Will military and defense spending offset some domestic spending?

25) Will that increase my taxes and lower my benefits?

 

Healthcare reform

26) Will Obamacare increase or decrease my healthcare costs?

27) Will it increase or decrease my access to care?

28) Does the Affordable Care Act “shift” costs from one group of payers to another group of payers?

29) Will I be penalized because I have really good coverage or if I decide not to cover myself?

30) Could this legislation be repealed if there was a change in the party that is in power?

31) What effect would that have on my healthcare coverage?

 

Unemployment

32) Is the unemployment number accurate or has the government manipulated it?

33) Does the unemployment rate include you any more if you have received all the unemployment benefits you are entitled to and you are still unemployed?

34) Is the unemployment number closer to 11 percent and would that increase if we had another economic disaster?

35) What impact would that have on all the retirement and savings accounts of all those people if they lose their jobs?

36) Would we have to take care of them in retirement if they have no money and reduced Social Security because they didn’t work?

37) Do you realize that we have less people employed than we did in the year 2000 and we have added over 20 million people to the population since then?

 

Inflation and Deflation

38) Which will happen first: deflation or inflation?

39) Which is more dangerous?

40 If prices of commodities, (stocks, bonds, real estate, gold, silver, copper, etc.) first deflate or decrease in price will the government take steps to artificially re-inflate those prices causing both real danger and opportunity?

41) If even moderate inflation results, how do we take advantage of it to maintain our purchasing power?

42) Are there ways to protect ourselves from deflation and inflation and even better are there strategies I can employ to take advantage of deflation and inflation?

 

Healthcare costs including nursing homes

43) Do you realize a recent study says an American family of four pays $24,671 per year for health care?

44) If a conservative growth rate of 6 percent is used do you realize you will pay $50,000 per year by 2025 and $75,000 per year by 2030?

45) How many Americans will be able to afford that?

46) What will happen to healthcare in America?

47) Could healthcare costs be America‟s neutron, hydrogen, atomic bomb that destroys our economy?

48) What about Nursing home costs?

49) If they are predicted to be $250,000 annually by 2025 and 75 percent of Americans have less than $28,000 in assets, who will take care of the 75 percent of people over 65 who are predicted to require long term health care?

50) Won’t most of the caregivers in America have to be family members? What kind of financial, physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual damage will having to be caregiver cause to families?

51) Is there a better, more efficient way to prepare for these costs?

52) Do you think most Americans realize that 75 percent of their lifetime healthcare costs are usually incurred in the last years of their life?

53) Ask how they feel about that and what do they think should be done?

 

Infrastructure

54) Do you realize most of the bridges in this country are in disrepair?

55) Should we fix them?

56) Can our highways handle all the additional traffic without upgrades?

57) Do our airports, train stations, bus depots need modernization or at a minimum repair?

58) Are we certain that our electrical grid can handle the increasing load being put on it and is it protected from terrorist acts?

59) Can out ports handle all the additional shipping and do we have the infrastructure to protect our borders?

60) What does that cost?

61) Should we spend the money?

62) Where or from whom do we get the money?

63) If you have money will they take your money to pay for these things?

64) Will these things have an impact on the success or failure of your financial future?

 

Natural disasters

65)Do you believe another disaster like hurricane Katrina could occur in our country?

66) Do you realize it is more than a decade since Katrina and New Orleans has still not repaired or replaced all the damage?

67) Will droughts and tornadoes and snowstorms and floods continue to become more powerful and create more destruction because of ever changing weather patterns?

68) Where will we get the money to replace the forests and the homes and the businesses destroyed by fires, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes, etc.?

69) What will happen when we finally have another even more serious earthquake, not in a place we expect like California, but in the middle of the country, in Chicago or St. Louis?

70) Who pays those clean-up costs?

71) Will people who don’t have any money pay these costs or will people who have money pay these costs?

72) How can you, your family and your business stay in control of how much will be taken by the government for these costs?

 

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA

73) Do you realize that these entities have begun to make the same kinds of loans again that caused the housing crisis of 2007 and 2008?

74) Do you realize that the FHA has only about one percent of the assets they would need to protect against defaults?

75) Doesn’t that mean if two percent of these loans default that they are bankrupt?

76) If that happens again, doesn’t that mean that the taxpayer has to bail them out again?

77) Aren’t these programs used by the government to artificially stimulate the economy?

78) Aren’t they back to giving home loans to people who really can’t afford them?

79) Won’t the government become more and more dependent on people who have money?

79) Are you okay with that or do you want to exert some control while you still can?

 

80) Do you want to protect yourself or keep going the way you are?

81)  Do you want more answers?