Insurance & Retirement Guides

Plain-language guides on Medicare, health coverage before 65, life insurance, and retirement income from Way Maker Insurance Group in Cumming, GA.

When to Claim Social Security

The short answer: you can start Social Security at 62, but the amount is permanently reduced — and waiting past your full retirement age increases it, up to age 70. For most married couples the decision that matters most is not the one about your own cheque. It is what happens to the survivor when…

What “Safe Money” Actually Means

The short answer: “safe money” is not a product. It is a job — the part of your savings whose task is to still be there, rather than to grow. Getting it right is mostly about deciding how much of your money has that job, not about which product you buy. This page is the…

Health Insurance When You’re Self-Employed

The short answer: you buy the same individual coverage everyone else does, through the same marketplace. Two things are genuinely different, and both are about money rather than plans — you have to estimate an income you cannot predict, and there is a tax deduction that quietly interacts with your subsidy. Those two are where…

ACA Open Enrollment in Georgia: Dates and What to Do

The short answer: open enrollment for individual health coverage runs from 1 November to 15 January, and you need to be enrolled by 15 December for coverage that starts on 1 January. If you are in Georgia there is one more thing to know that catches people out every year: Georgia no longer uses healthcare.gov.…

Who Actually Pays for Long-Term Care

The short answer: long-term care gets paid for in one of four ways — out of your own savings, by your family in unpaid hours, by Medicaid once your savings are gone, or by insurance arranged in advance. Medicare is not on that list, and that is the part most people find out too late.…

COBRA or the Marketplace? How to Decide

The short answer: the choice usually turns on one question — whether you qualify for a premium tax credit on the Marketplace. And the rule that decides it is the opposite of what most people assume. Being offered COBRA does not disqualify you from the credit. Enrolling in it does. Key takeaways A COBRA offer,…

Your Annual Notice of Change: What to Actually Look At

The short answer: if you are on a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan, your insurer has to mail you an Annual Notice of Change by 30 September every year. It tells you exactly what is changing about your plan on 1 January — the cost, the drug list, the network. Most people set it…

Questions Worth Asking Before You Sign an Annuity

The short answer: before signing an annuity, get plain answers to a short list — how long the money is committed, which number on the statement is actually yours, what any optional feature costs, what happens to the money when you die, and how the person selling it is paid. Any of those answered vaguely…

What an Index Annuity Actually Does — and What It Doesn’t

The short answer: a fixed indexed annuity credits interest linked to a market index, with a floor that protects your account value from index losses and a ceiling that limits how much of a good year you keep. You are not invested in the market and you do not own the index. What you trade…

Life Insurance With a Health History: What’s Still Available

The short answer: a health history rarely closes the door on life insurance — it usually changes which door you go through. There are three levels of underwriting, from full questions and medical records down to no questions at all, and each asks less in exchange for costing more. A decline from one company is…