On December 5, a Good Samaritan brought a stray cat to the Brookhaven Town Animal Shelter and Adoption Center after caring and feeding her for the past three months. Upon examining “Mimi,” the Animal Shelter Veterinarian tech found she had a microchip that traced her back to a family in East Setauket. When they contacted the owners, they couldn’t believe what they heard since “Mimi” had been lost 10 years ago. The owners had looked everywhere for “Mimi” and they thought she was never to be found. They have since moved to Spain with their three other cats and are now arranging an animal transport company to fly “Mimi” back to Spain with them.
The Town of Brookhaven Animal Shelter and Adoption Center is celebrating the holiday season with its “Home for the Holidays” promotion, featuring free pet adoptions now through the month of December. Each adoption includes free neuter or spay, vaccinations, microchip, heartworm test, flea and other tests. The normal adoption fees are $137 for a dog and $140 for a cat. All adoptable pets are looking for a forever home this holiday season.
If you are interested in adopting a dog or cat, visit the Brookhaven Animal Shelter and Adoption Center located at 300 Horseblock Road in Brookhaven. It is open Monday through Friday from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm, Saturday from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm and Sunday from 11:00 am to 3:30 pm. For more information, visit the Town website or call 631-451-6950.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced on Dec. 23 that defendant Kenyonne Fleurinay of Huntington Station was sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty in September to Attempted Kidnapping in the Second Degree and then failing to voluntarily return to court for sentence.
“Not only did this defendant violently abduct a person that he should have cared for, but he was brazen enough to abscond from court and commit another felony while on the run,” said District Attorney Tierney. “This defendant’s actions have earned him a significant sentence.”
On March 6, 2022, Fleurinay, 23, abducted his 20-year-old girlfriend from America’s Best Value Inn in Smithtown following an argument, and drove her against her will into Brooklyn, New York. Surveillance video from a gas station in Melville captured the victim twice attempt to flee from Fleurinay’s car and Fleurinay twice violently throw the victim back into the vehicle. While driving from Suffolk to Kings County, Fleurinay repeatedly whipped the victim about her body with a phone charger. During the abduction, the victim’s mother contacted the defendant and pleaded with him to return her daughter until he ultimately drove her back to Suffolk County, where he was apprehended by the Suffolk County Police Department.
Fleurinay, pleaded guilty on September 9, 2022, to Attempted Kidnapping in the Second Degree, a Class C violent felony, before Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable John B. Collins. He was scheduled to be sentenced on September 23, 2022. However, Fleurinay failed to return to court for sentence and a warrant was issued for his immediate arrest. On October 30, 2022, he was arrested by the Nassau County Police Department for Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree, a Class B felony, and was returned to Suffolk County to face sentencing on this charge. Fleurinay was sentenced to 13 years in prison followed by 5 years post release supervision.
Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusatory instruments.
Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.
TBR News Media is endorsing Sen. Mario Mattera for this year's election. File photo by Raymond Janis
In an effort to influence the upcoming state budget, Republican officials in the New York State Legislature joined policy advocates at the Perry B. Duryea State Office Building in Hauppauge Thursday, Dec. 15.
The officials called the press event to raise public awareness about the lack of child care services on Long Island, hoping to pressure Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who is preparing the state budget for the 2024 fiscal year.
Child care on Long Island “is not a problem, it’s a crisis,” said Dean Murray, state Sen.-elect (R-East Patchogue), who organized the event. “We are at a crisis level on Long Island when it comes to child care, and there is no simple solution.”
Murray regarded the issues associated with child care as threefold. For him, the state government can remedy the problem by addressing its affordability, availability and accessibility.
While Murray applauded Hochul and the Legislature for targeting the issue in last year’s budget, he said the changes do not adequately account for regional economic differences throughout the state.
“The cost of living here on Long Island does not compare to areas upstate,” he said, “So when you have a statewide standard, it simply isn’t fair to regions like Long Island.”
He added that the child care is underfunded, arguing, “We need to do what we can as a government to help to create more availability, helping to build more facilities, helping to encourage employers to offer on-site child care.”
The state senator-elect regarded child care service as “a profession, not a job.” However, he said these professionals are often underpaid.
“Can you think of a job that’s more important than caring for our kids?” he said. “This is a professional job. [The workers] need to be treated as such, and they need to be compensated as such.”
State Sen. Mario Mattera (R-St. James) explained the problem similarly. He detailed the underinvestment in child care personnel, saying the incentive is to pursue other industries.
“The people right now with child care are leaving because they’re getting other jobs,” Mattera said. “They’re getting better [paying] jobs even in McDonald’s. That’s a problem.” He added, “They are watching our kids and protecting our children, but they’re not getting paid properly.”
Mattera also addressed the need for more child care training programs. If child care is to be a profession, he said these service providers deserve similar specialized teaching to those of other fields.
“We need to educate,” the state senator said. “We need to make sure [institutions] like Suffolk Community College, a perfect example, have some kind of a course … to have qualified people watching our children.”
Jennifer Rojas, executive director of the Commack-based Child Care Council of Suffolk, discussed the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the child care industry. While these essential services remained operational throughout the public health emergency, the industry has struggled since.
“When everything shut down in March of 2020, child care remained open because we knew how important it was for our essential workers to continue to work,” she said. “Unfortunately, our industry is in a crisis. … It’s expensive for parents, and the workforce is making poverty wages.”
She added, “It’s because you cannot raise the cost on parents in order to pay your staff more, so we’re stuck in this bubble where providers are not able to pay their staff and, therefore, not able to recruit.”
Without sufficient staff, Rojas said some child care programs are cutting back resources and, in some instances, shutting down altogether. “This is a crisis like we have never seen in this industry, and it’s always been an industry that has operated on razor-thin margins,” she added.
Above, state Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio (R-Riverhead). Photo by Raymond Janis
State Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio (R-Riverhead) echoed Rojas’ sentiments about the crippling effects of COVID-19 on child care service providers. To Giglio, the lockdowns generated conditions where child care was less necessary for parents.
“Because the moms couldn’t go to work and everybody was expected to stay home, a lot of these facilities closed down,” she said. “It costs a lot because your payroll is not going down and you’re still turning the lights on every day.”
Also in attendance was Ryan Stanton, executive director of the Long Island Federation of Labor, who emphasized the inordinate expenses associated with child care and the need for state support.
“In both Nassau and Suffolk counties, the cost of care is about $30,000 a year,” he said. “That is more than going to the State University of New York for an entire year. You have working families struggling to make ends meet. In order to go to work, [they] must have care in many instances. And we’re asking them to pay for a college tuition bill or more.”
Giglio, a member of the state Assembly’s Labor and Economic Development committees, suggested funding child care to remediate labor shortages, viewing such an investment as an economic development tool.
“We have warehouses out there that are full of materials, waiting to be delivered to customers, and those items are not getting delivered because they don’t have the drivers,” she said. “We need to get people back to work. Employers are looking for workers, and parents are looking for a better life for their families.”
Concluding the press conference, Murray outlined some possible solutions. He recommended removing the statewide eligibility standard to resolve the regional economic differences between Long Island and the rest of the state.
“Because of our economic diversity here, [the statewide standard] doesn’t serve Long Island like it should,” the state senator-elect said. “Rather than a statewide eligibility level, we should break it into the 10 regional economic development council regions.”
With different standards for different regions, Murray maintained that Long Islanders could qualify for additional state aid for child care, reflective of their higher cost of living. “This is a fairer way, especially for Long Island families,” he said.
Murray said another way to improve the issue is through employer-based on-site child care. He offered that expanding these benefits could assist working families and employers alike.
Speaking to employers directly, he said, “If you offer on-site child care as a benefit to your employees, I guarantee you that will put you above your competition in the game of recruitment,” adding, “What we want to do is incentivize that.”
Lastly, he suggested exploring any changes in state regulations that may be holding up the construction of new child care facilities. “We also need to sit down and look at whether or not there are regulations slowing down the building of health care facilities,” Murray said.
He added, “Let me be very clear: We will never change any regulations that deal with the health, the safety or the well-being of the children. But we should take a look at the regulations otherwise and see if they are slowing them down.”
Hochul is expected to release her proposed FY 2024 budget next month.
A view of the Stier family’s 2021 holiday display that won them a $50,000 prize in “The Great Christmas Light Fight.” Photo from the Stier family
Local viewers of “The Great Christmas Light Fight” may have recognized one of the families in a recent episode.
The family received a trophy from the show. Photo from the Stier family
Many residents in St. James and the surrounding areas are familiar with the Stier house on Arlington Avenue. Each year Ashley and Chris Stier, along with their children Serenity and Storm, fill the lawn with children’s playhouses that they decorate with lights plus handcrafted and hand-painted accents. Each structure is dedicated to a specific theme, such as the movies “Miracle on 34th Street,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and more. Traditional Christmas decorations complement the playhouses and an arch of lights decorates the driveway.
In 2021, a friend sent a video of the Stiers’ annual display, and the show’s producers interviewed the family after seeing the submission. The Stiers were thrilled when they were told they were chosen and filmed an episode last year over four days that aired this Dec. 12. While the family was notified that they had won the contest, they weren’t able to tell anyone and couldn’t collect the $50,000 prize until after the show aired.
Ashley Stier said while it was difficult, they were able to keep the secret. They also had yet to learn who they were up against while filming.
“The moment it airs, that’s the time we see it, too,” she said. “So we had to wait a whole year to see the outcome and who we competed against.”
The Stiers were up against stiff competition, including one family spreading their holiday display throughout more than 3 acres of land in Bainbridge, Georgia, and an Orlando, Florida, couple decorating their home with lights to honor those around the world who succumbed to COVID-19.
On the episode, when judge Taniya Nayak awarded the Stiers their Light Fight trophy, she said, “You can feel the love and all of the creativity in every piece of the display that you guys put together.”
To get ready for the competition show, the family began in September 2021 as they had 58 days to complete the setup before filming started.
“Everyone was, like, what’s going on,” Ashley Stier said.
The Stiers decided to go with “The Nightmare Before Christmas” theme, which would be fitting for Halloween, too. The passersby could see Santa Claus battling the character Jack as well as skeletons fighting each other.
“We had to figure out how to correlate the two holidays,” the mother said.
The Stiers’ display not only features Christmas favorites of the family but also plays into their interests and careers. Ashley Stier is a real estate agent and enjoys craft, and Chris is a sheet metal worker who co-owns Trio Sheet Metal Works Co. with his brother. The 16-year-old Serenity also enjoys the do-it-yourself projects, while 8-year-old Storm loves sitting in one of the houses handing out candy canes to visitors, in addition to helping put everything together like his sister.
The annual setting was inspired by a Dickens village that Ashley Stier’s grandparents once displayed in their home and her late grandmother passed on to her. Ashley’s grandfather Thomas Taravella also appeared on the show.
A close-up of one of the playhouses. Photo from the Stier family
In addition to fully decorating their lawn, the Stiers also host their extended family for Christmas yearly.
“As everyone started passing away, it was like now we are the ones who have to carry on the torch,” the mother said.
Ashley met Chris when she was a student at Ward Melville High School in East Setauket. They married and had their daughter young. As Ashley attended college, Chris and his brother began running their father’s business.
“We sort of grew up together,” Ashley said, adding through the years both have developed a deeper love for Christmas.
When Ashley was younger, she and her family would go every year to see the houses decorated in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, and once they started dating, Chris would join them.
“When I was little, that was a big deal for me,” she said.
The day would include a visit to the attractions as well as watching the movies “Miracle on 34th Street” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” and drinking hot chocolate. The tradition inspired the two playhouses in their outdoor display dedicated to the holiday movies.
Before the couple moved to St. James, they would set up an outside display at their East Meadow home. Chris Stier and daughter Serenity used one of her playhouses one year.
“My husband was always obsessed with the Christmas stuff with her,” Ashley Stier said.
Through the years, helping their parents with the holiday tradition and their father with projects, the children have learned various skills, including Serenity knowing how to weld and being knowledgeable about plumbing.
Although the family has lived in St. James for several years, they started going big with the display in the past few years. Ashley Stier said the presentation gets bigger every year with people, especially local moms, dropping off playhouses and other items.
Usually, it takes the Stiers a month to decorate, but this year it took approximately six weeks, because last year when it was time to pack up, Ashley Stier said they were tired, and they rushed to get everything put away.
However, the lawn is decorated once again, and people get out of their cars to check out the holiday display, and her son gives out candy canes when he can. Every once in a while, they push the button on their snow machine, depending on how many people are around.
They have a pathway up to each house so visitors can look closer, and a mailbox to send letters to Santa. There’s also a spot to drop off toys for Miss Minnie’s Kids which sends the items to children in Jamaica. Ashley Stier said in addition to putting money aside for Serenity’s and Storm’s college funds, the family will also donate some of the $50,000 prize to the nonprofit.
Recently, a Girl Scout Troop that had dropped off a playhouse a few years ago stopped by to see their contribution, which is now the gumdrop house.
“It’s kind of nice because it went from doing something for our family and now it’s turning into a community thing, everyone is a part of it in a way,” Ashley Stier said.
The episode, Season 10 Episode 5, can be viewed on ABC on demand or Hulu.
It’s been a while since I wrote, and I know you have a lot of last-minute requests at this time of year, so I’ll keep this short.
Kids around the world look to you as a role model for kindness and generosity. That must feel pretty good.
They also marvel at your round belly, claiming that it shakes when you laugh like a bowl full of jelly. Then, they literally feed that belly by setting out cookies and other sweets for you on Christmas Eve.
I have nothing against your round belly, but I’m concerned about the message it sends. We’re currently facing an epidemic of overweight kids and an ever-increasing number of children with type 2 diabetes. According to the CDC, the percentage of children in the U.S. between ages 10 and 19 with type 2 diabetes nearly doubled from 2001 to 2017. You, Santa, with your influence, can help reverse this trend.
Obesity has a much higher risk of shortening a person’s life span, not to mention affecting their quality of life. The most dangerous type of obesity is visceral adipose tissue, which means central belly fat. An easy way to tell if someone is too rotund is if their waistline, measured from the navel, is 40 inches or more for a man and 35 inches or more for a woman. Risks for pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer and heart disease increase dramatically with this increased fat.
Santa, here is your opportunity to lead by example (and, maybe by summer, to fit into those skinny jeans you hide in the back of your closet).
Think of the personal advantages of being trimmer. Your joints won’t ache with the winter cold, and you will have more energy. Plus, studies show that, with a diet that emphasizes fruits, vegetables and whole grains, you can reverse clogged arteries and avoid strokes, heart attacks and peripheral vascular disease. With a simple change, like eating a handful of raw nuts a day, you can reduce your heart disease risk significantly.
Losing weight will also change your center of gravity, which will make it easier for you to keep your balance on those steep, icy rooftops.
Exercise will help as well. Maybe this Christmas Eve, you could walk or jog alongside the sleigh for the first continent or so. As you continue to exercise during the “offseason,” you’ll start to tighten your abs and slowly see fat disappear from your midsection.
This might make it easier to steal a base or two during the North Pole Athletic League’s Softball season. The elves don’t even bother holding you on base anymore, do they?
Of course, the cookies don’t help. You might let slip that the modern Santa enjoys fruits, especially berries, and veggies, with an emphasis on cruciferous veggies like broccoli florets dipped in humus, which have substantial antioxidant qualities and can help reverse disease. And, of course, skip putting candy in the stockings. No one needs more sugar, and I’m sure that, over the long night, it’s hard to resist sneaking a few pieces, yourself.
As for your loyal fans, you could place active games under the tree. You and your elves could create an app with workout videos for those of us who need them, and we could follow along as you showed us “12 Days of Workouts with Santa and Friends.” Who knows, you might become the next Shaun T!
You could gift athletic equipment, such as baseball gloves, footballs and basketballs, instead of video games. Or wearable devices that track step counts and bike routes. Or stuff gift certificates for dance lessons into people’s stockings.
As you become more active, you’ll find that you have more energy all year round, not just on Christmas Eve. If you start soon, Santa, maybe by next year, you’ll be able to park the sleigh farther away and skip from chimney to chimney.
The benefits of a healthier Santa will ripple across the world. Your reindeer won’t have to work so hard. You might fit extra presents in your sleigh. And Santa, you will be sending kids and adults the world over the right message about taking control of their health through nutrition and exercise. That’s the best gift you could give!
Wishing you good health in the coming year,
David
P.S. If you have a little extra room in your sleigh, I could use a new pair of batting gloves. I hear the Yankees need help, and I’ve been practicing, just in case.
Dr. David Dunaief is a speaker, author and local lifestyle medicine physician focusing on the integration of medicine, nutrition, fitness and stress management. For further information, visit www.medicalcompassmd.com.
Brookhaven Superintendent Dan Losquadro, left, and Village of Head of the Harbor Mayor Douglas Dahlgard. Photo from Town of Brookhaven
Brookhaven Town Highway Superintendent Daniel Losquadro announced the recent completion of a stormwater project at the culvert on Rhododendron Drive in Stony Brook, just before the entrance to the Village of Head of the Harbor.
Following a pipe collapse, Rhododendron Drive was experiencing an erosion and flooding issue during heavy rainstorms. In addition, the roadway often saw runoff from the spring-fed wetland that crosses under Rhododendron Drive.
The Brookhaven Highway Department replaced the damaged pipe, installed new gabion baskets on each side of Rhododendron Drive to eliminate erosion, extended the curb, and installed a new drain to capture sediment.
The total cost for this project was approximately $30,000.
“We were happy to partner with the Village of Head of the Harbor to complete this stormwater project,”
Losquadro said. “The project successfully eliminated the flooding experienced on Rhododendron Drive following a heavy rainstorm.
Village Head of the Harbor Mayor Douglas Dahlgard added, “It protects the environmentally-sensitive wetlands in the area. This was a win-win for community members and the environment.”
People are waiting once again for COVID-19 and other tests at local urgent care centers. File photo by Lina Weingarten
Around this time of year, parking lots are often full.
That’s true of the mall parking lot, as people go out to shop for holiday gifts for their friends and family, but it’s also true, especially this year, for hospitals and urgent care centers.
With the so-called “tridemic,” which is a combination of viruses that typically affect the lungs, including COVID-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus (or RSV), infecting people of all ages, the need for health care and medical attention has been high in the weeks leading up to the holidays.
When Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, arrives at work at 7 a.m., she drives past urgent center parking lots that are “full for a reason. It’s because people are sick” and need medical attention at the start of the day.
Indeed, the combination of the three viruses, as well as other viruses and bacteria in the community such as adenovirus and enterovirus, has made it difficult for some children to attend schools and for adults to go to work.
For the week ending Dec. 10, which is the most recent period for which data is available, Suffolk County reported 3,936 cases of the flu, which is up 35% just from the prior week. The week ending Dec. 10 alone represents more than half of all flu cases for the entire 2019-2020 season, according to data from the New York State Department of Health.
At the same time, COVID and RSV numbers have climbed.
“We almost doubled our COVID census over the last three to four weeks,” Dr. Michael Khlat, chief medical officer at St. Catherine of Siena Hospital in Smithtown, explained in an email. St. Catherine currently has almost 60 COVID-positive patients. Nearly a third of those patients are admitted for COVID and are receiving intravenous remdesivir, while the others are incidental findings in the context of other medical needs.
“What is special about this surge is that it is inclusive of COVID, influenza, rhinovirus as well as RSV,” Khlat wrote. “The symptoms are very similar, and treatments are all supportive at this time.”
Family gatherings at Thanksgiving contributed to the increase, adding “extra turbocharging to the current respiratory viruses,” Nachman said.
The most vulnerable patients are the immunocompromised, patients with diabetes, chronic lung and cardiac disease, obese residents and patients with chronic liver and kidney disease, Khlat added.
Demand for beds
The influx of patients has meant that St. Catherine has had to increase its capacity of staffing using nursing agencies to meet the needs of the community for “seamless, high-quality care,” Khlat explained.
St. Catherine has also added more providers on the medical wards to care for patients and has load balanced patients with their Catholic services partner St. Charles Hospital and other Catholic Health facilities.
Nachman urged residents to see their primary care doctor if they have routine viral symptoms. Coming directly to the emergency room slows the process of delivering urgent care.
To be sure, Nachman urged anyone with chest pains or stroke-like symptoms should head directly to the emergency room.
Nachman said Stony Brook Children’s Hospital is transitioning to a model in which they triage patients who walk into the ER to assess the need for services.
As people prepare for family gatherings, Nachman suggested that they evaluate the risks of interacting with others.
People with an immune deficiency might want to wear masks or speak outside with others, particularly if someone in the group had one of the respiratory viruses.
Viruses like RSV are generally contagious for about three to eight days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
RSV spreads through close contact, which means that passing someone in a supermarket won’t likely spread the virus, while sitting and doing homework or eating a meal next to someone could.
As for COVID, Nachman continued to urge people to get the bivalent booster shot.
Every study, she said, shows that the booster drastically reduces the risk of being hospitalized with COVID.
We often think of our country as the greatest in the world. In many ways, it is, but we are falling behind other first-world countries regarding health care costs, life expectancy, high-speed transportation and more.
Among our country’s greatest weaknesses is a lack of affordable child care options for parents.
Local Republican elected officials recently held a press conference on Thursday, Dec. 15, to raise awareness about this important issue.
Their mission was to implore New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to include increased aid for child care services in the 2024 state budget. Hochul’s budget is still in its early stages and is expected to be released next month.
While the issue was addressed to an extent in last year’s budget, the elected officials said more needs to be done. Their plea is for the governor to consider how the cost of living varies throughout the state, with Long Islanders spending more than many of their fellow New Yorkers.
For these reasons, a statewide child care eligibility level makes little sense for Long Islanders. If the statewide standard is not amended to reflect these differences, more people will flee this Island for more affordable regions of the state and nation.
In New York, more funding and incentives are needed to make child care more accessible for working parents, including building more facilities and encouraging employers to offer on-site options. We are seeing the exact opposite take place within our region, with many child care facilities cutting back their services or closing shop altogether.
The low salaries of those working in the industry also need to be corrected. Many are making minimum wage or close to it. It’s inexcusable that those responsible for taking care of children are paid so poorly that they can make the same or more while working for a fast-food restaurant or retailer.
The onset of the pandemic demonstrated how vital child care is to families. While many worked from home, those deemed essential workers, such as people in the medical, emergency, media and food industry fields, could work on-site. Child care facilities remaining open for these workers enabled them to continue providing residents with necessary vital services.
At the same time, many businesses deemed nonessential were shut down. With employees working from home, child care services experienced a drop-off in enrollment. The result was a decrease in cash flow, creating financial burdens on many facilities and several shutting their doors for good.
In addition to helping families afford these services, it’s imperative that our child care providers and professionals receive the financial support they need to open centers and keep them open with properly paid staff members. These are all serious red flags for our regional economy.
On-site day care is more than babysitting. The benefits of attending a child care center include improved social-emotional skills and children who are better prepared for elementary school.
The need for more child care assistance for Long Islanders should be a nonpartisan issue, something every elected official should be rallying for in the near future. We hope to see more public leaders speak up about the need and get behind any legislation to improve child care in our state.
The financial stability of New Yorkers — and most importantly, our children’s futures — depend on it.
If you receive Social Security, you’ve probably already heard that your checks in 2023 will be bigger — considerably bigger, in fact. How can you make the best use of this extra money?
Here’s what’s happening: For 2023, there’s an 8.7% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security benefits — the largest increase in 40 years. Also, the monthly Medicare Part B premiums are declining next year, to $164.90/month from $170.10/month, which will also modestly boost Social Security checks for those enrolled in Part B, as these premiums are automatically deducted.
Of course, the sizable COLA is due to the high inflation of 2022, as the Social Security Administration uses a formula based on increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). So, it’s certainly possible that you will need some, or perhaps all, of your larger checks to pay for the increased cost of goods and services. But if your cash flow is already relatively strong, you might want to consider these suggestions for using your bigger checks:
Reduce withdrawals from your investment portfolio. When you’re retired, you will likely need to withdraw a certain amount from your portfolio each year to meet your expenses. A boost in your Social Security may enable you to withdraw less, at least for a year. This can be particularly advantageous when the markets are down, as you’d like to avoid, as much as possible, selling investments and withdrawing the money when investment prices are low. And the fewer investments you need to sell, the longer your portfolio may last during your retirement years.
Help build your cash reserves. When you’re retired, it’s a good idea to maintain about a year’s worth of the amount you’ll spend from your portfolio in cash, while also keeping three months’ of your spending needs in an emergency fund, with the money kept in a liquid, low-risk account. Your higher Social Security checks could help you build these cash reserves. (Also, it’s helpful to keep another three to five years’ worth of spending from your portfolio in short-term, fixed-income investments, which now, due to higher interest rates, offer better income opportunities.)
Contribute to a 529 plan. You could use some of your extra Social Security money to contribute to a tax-advantaged 529 education savings plan for your grandchildren or other family members.
Contribute to charitable organizations. You might want to use some of your Social Security money to expand your charitable giving. Your generosity will help worthy groups and possibly bring you some tax benefits, too.
While it’s nice to have these possible options in 2023, you can’t count on future COLA increases being as large. The jump in inflation in 2022 was due to several unusual factors, including pandemic-related government spending, supply shortages and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It’s quite possible, perhaps even likely, that inflation will subside in 2023, which, in turn, would mean a smaller COLA bump in 2024.
Nonetheless, while you might not want to include large annual COLA increases as part of your long-term financial strategy, you may well choose to take advantage, in some of the ways described above, of the bigger Social Security checks you’ll receive in 2023. When opportunity knocks, you may want to open the door.
Michael Christodoulou, ChFC®, AAMS®, CRPC®, CRPS® is a Financial Advisor for Edward Jones in Stony Brook. Member SIPC.
This week’s shelter pet is handsome Doc who was found as a stray at the end of November and is nowdoing his residency at the Smithtown Animal & Adoption Shelter until he can move on to a permanent home.
Doc
At approximately 8 years old, this man has a purr that won’t quit and an appetite for love and affection. Doc is diabetic, so he will need a home that can manage insulin injections twice a day and vet visits twice a year. This cat loves all people and would be a great addition to any home. He is available for adoption or as a Forever Foster.
If you would like to meet Doc, please call ahead to schedule an hour to properly interact with him in a domestic setting.
The Smithtown Animal & Adoption Shelter is located at 410 Middle Country Road, Smithtown. Visitor hours are currently Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Sundays and Wednesday evenings by appointment only).
For more information, call 631-360-7575 or visit www.townofsmithtownanimalshelter.com.
If you receive Social Security, you’ve probably already heard that your checks in 2023 will be bigger — considerably bigger, in fact. How can you make the best use of this extra money?
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