For people hurtling toward retirement, the standard personal finance advice is to continue to fund your retirement accounts as aggressively as you can, including taking advantage of catch-up contributions. Those additional contributions can add up to a tidy sum in retirement, but after age ...
Senior news RETIREES TO MEET: St. Joseph Warren Hospital Retirees will have their monthly meeting at an 11 a.m. brunch Monday at Wayside Restaurant in Champion. Retired and former employees from St. Joseph or Warren General Hospital are welcome to attend. Attendees are requested to bring nonperishable items for food bank donations. PERI TO MEET: The Public Employee Retirees (PERI) of Mahoning County Chapter 18 will meet for lunch at noon June 2 at Avion on the Water Banquet Center, 2177 Western Reserve Road. The cost of lunch is $20. Reservations are due May 26 by contacting ...
When a health care provider prescribes a medicine to you, they are usually focused on just the one condition for which you sought help. They might not think about long-term consequences for other body systems. A gastroenterologist who prescribes heartburn medicine, for example, may not warn you about its potential effect on bone density. You, however, might have to deal with the eventual impact on bone strength. A reader sent us the following story: “My DEXA [a measure of bone density] was normal before my doctor prescribed a PPI [proton pump inhibitor] for acid reflux. After ...
DEAR ANNIE: I’ve been friends with “Mark” since high school, which was over 15 years ago. He actually feels more like a brother than a friend. But over the past year, there’s been a shift in him. He’s gotten deep, deep into conspiracy theories. Every conversation somehow turns into a rant about the government’s hidden agenda or the evils of the pharmaceutical industry. I brushed it off for a while, but it’s constant. It makes me not want to be around him. I’ve tried joking it away and even telling him directly it makes me uncomfortable, but he either doubles down or ...
DEAR HELOISE: Regarding favorite/least-favorite chores, I used to dislike folding laundry until I started seeing posts about different folding techniques on social media. Now I enjoy the numerous different ways of folding laundry items to minimize the space that they require. — Jerry A., in St. Louis Jerry, I know what you mean. I saw one video on folding blue jeans, and it changed the way I fold mine. Below are a few more letters from readers who wrote in about their favorite/least-favorite chores. — Heloise DEAR HELOISE: My least-favorite chore is cleaning the shower. ...
DEAR DR. ROACH: I’ve seen a number of stories lately about people who’ve been arrested for behavior that doesn’t seem to be criminal, but the behavior is odd. Some of these people are homeless, and I wonder if they are mentally ill and aren’t taking prescribed medication. — P.L.P. ANSWER: Mental illness often leads to behaviors that definitely seem odd. Behaviors like hoarding, which can be found by itself or with several different mental illnesses, often affect the individual but sometimes lead to risks for others who live with them. These behaviors can lead to ...
