My parents hit Medicare and Social Security in the same year.

They’d immigrated from Hawaii, worked their whole lives, and then hit two clocks in the same stretch of months: Medicare at 65, with a stack of mail from carriers they’d never heard of, and the decision of when to start Social Security. Everyone they called was selling one product. Nobody was treating health coverage and the claiming age as one conversation.

If they had waited a couple more years to claim, their cash flow in retirement would have been better. I started doing this so other families get that picture — Medicare and Social Security together — before they have to live on both.

I’d spent fifteen years helping people understand benefits. I’m a new dad now, in Henderson. We work by appointment.