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 Photo by Centre for Ageing Better on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The kitchen renovati…

 Photo by Centre fo…

 Photo by Centre for Ageing Better on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The kitchen renovation is 95% complete, our finances are secure again after the latest incident of identity theft, and we have planned, executed, and survived three home invitational events around the Jewish High Holidays. Now, finally, we have returned to the front burner the task of assembling everything our children need to know when one or both of us departs this earthly vale.It is a somewhat macabre enterprise, …

No. 66/October 9, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Election Dilemmas – Medicare Gets Even …

No. 66/October 9, 20…

No. 66/October 9, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Election Dilemmas – Medicare Gets Even More ComplicatedFrom the “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” Department: In 2025, out-of-pocket costs for drugs covered by Medicare are limited to $2,000 annually… Read more

Photo by Vladislav Babienko on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.From the time I was 12 ye…

Photo by Vladislav …

Photo by Vladislav Babienko on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.From the time I was 12 years old, I knew exactly what I wanted to do in life. What a pity that I was wrong.My ambition was to become a newspaper reporter in the footsteps of role models Mark Twain and Clark Kent. In single-minded pursuit of this goal, I worked on my school newspapers in junior high school, high school, and college. In high school I was a stringer for the local daily, earning the princely sum of 25-cents p…

Photo by Jan Canty on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On Thursday, September 5, I receiv…

Photo by Jan Canty�…

Photo by Jan Canty on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On Thursday, September 5, I received an email from Microsoft, stating: “Thanks for your order on September 4, 2024.” The billing statement showed that I had purchased  Microsoft 365 Business Standard package for $450.00, marked up (for reasons unstated) to  $492.08.I do have Microsoft 365 on my computer, but not the business standard. I don’t need it. I don’t want it. And I was mad as hell about it.Share The EndGameScam …

No. 65/September 25, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Most Retirees Are Okay FinanciallyDesp…

No. 65/September 25,…

No. 65/September 25, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Most Retirees Are Okay FinanciallyDespite the persistent drumbeat of scary stories declaring that workers are not saving enough for a secure Retirement,  86% in a Federal Reserve survey said th… Read more

Photo by charlesdeluvio on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My heartfelt thanks to the New Y…

Photo by charlesdelu…

Photo by charlesdeluvio on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My heartfelt thanks to the New York Times for bringing to my attention one more damned health condition to worry about in my dotage. As if weakening eyesight, questionable hearing, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and receding gums weren’t enough.To these I now must add a condition known as “dead butt syndrome.” It typically affects people who spend hours at a time sitting. People like me, in other words. A lifelong …

No. 64/September 11, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Maybe You Don’t Need That StatinMore…

No. 64/September 11,…

No. 64/September 11, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Maybe You Don’t Need That StatinMore than 92 million Americans take statin drugs to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart attack and Stroke. Doctors who prescribe them follow guideline… Read more

Photo by Patrick Marah on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My memory has a negative bias.…

Photo by Patrick Ma…

Photo by Patrick Marah on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My memory has a negative bias. Maybe your memory isn’t wired this way, but whenever I have occasion to look back at my life, I find it easy to recall  my failures and hard to recall any successes. Looking across the broad expanse of my life, my first impression is a series of stumbles, meanders, and random events. No pattern or consistent theme is readily apparent.The retrospective view happens to be top of mind because my …

Photo by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Curated LifestyleThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My wife a…

Photo by Unsplash+ i…

Photo by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Curated LifestyleThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My wife and I have been talking about how to handle our final resting places. Not with our friends, of course. The surest way to clear a crowded room instantly is to talk about death. The subject makes most people a bit twitchy.My siblings and I had that exact reaction when our mother sat the four of us down and demanded that we divide her possessions among us, now, because she didn’t want any bickering …

No. 63/August 28, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Aging Occurs in Great Leaps       �…

No. 63/August 28, 20…

No. 63/August 28, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Aging Occurs in Great Leaps                 A study published this year has found that humans age – at the molecular level – in two great bursts, one at age 44 and a second one at age 60. Scientis… Read more

Photo by Alisha Hieb on UnsplashAs a former vice president of the United States once remarked to the United Negro College Fund, "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is bei…

Photo by Alisha Hie…

Photo by Alisha Hieb on UnsplashAs a former vice president of the United States once remarked to the United Negro College Fund, "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."  For many years, the conventional Wisdom was that, with rare exceptions, losing one’s mind was an inevitable part of aging. An inability to recall names, or proper nouns, or any nouns, can certainly fuel the fear that the loss is under way.The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or pai…

Photo by Aleksei Sabulevskii on UnsplashEarlier this summer a tropical Depression visited my hometown, and another kind of depression visited me. Spoiler alert: I’m over it now. When depression h…

Photo by Aleksei Sa…

Photo by Aleksei Sabulevskii on UnsplashEarlier this summer a tropical depression visited my hometown, and another kind of depression visited me. Spoiler alert: I’m over it now. When depression has me in its grip, it is not possible to write. It is not even possible to lift a pencil. I have no energy, no motivation, no hope.The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Share The EndGameBut first, let me set the scene. Most of the time,  I enjoy a peaceful, pleasant existence characterized by regular ha…

No. 62/August 14, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.How to Make Retirement Savings More Secur…

No. 62/August 14, 20…

No. 62/August 14, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.How to Make Retirement Savings More SecureOn the 50th anniversary of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), retirement writer Mark Miller asked policy experts how to improve … Read more

Photo by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty ImagesThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.As the number …

Photo by Unsplash+ i…

Photo by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty ImagesThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.As the number of older adults in the U.S. continues to rise steadily, much like the sea levels, you may be happy to learn that someone in Washington wants to do something about it.A consortium of 16 federal agencies and departments (an impressive achievement in itself!) plus three private foundations have issued a report called Aging in the United States: A Strategic Framework for a National Plan on Aging.Note …

Photo by Jake Hills on Unsplash[Note to subscribers: While I am on a brief vacation, I am reposting a past column. Don’t worry: the summer rerun season at The EndGame is brief.]The EndGame is a read…

Photo by Jake Hills …

Photo by Jake Hills on Unsplash[Note to subscribers: While I am on a brief vacation, I am reposting a past column. Don’t worry: the summer rerun season at The EndGame is brief.]The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.When Bob and I walk together around the neighborhood, meeting our minimum daily requirements for steps, we always compare notes on how we’re faring against the slow, inexorable advance of decrepitude. We each do our “organ recitals,” and then Bob asks the tough question: What’s n…

Photo by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty ImagesThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.What if I told…

Photo by Unsplash+ i…

Photo by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty ImagesThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.What if I told you that you have access to a free miracle drug that can lower your risk of heart attack, lower your glucose level, reduce the inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis, relieve tension, improve cognitive function, and lengthen your lifespan? Would you be interested? Would you believe me?It’s true! I kid you not.This wonder drug is laughter. Big honking obnoxious laughter. Quiet giggling laughter. U…