Category: Checklists
June 6, 2021 -- And aging in place checklist is critical to a long and happy retirement Whether you plan on staying in the home where you've always lived, buy a new retirement home, or you haven't yet decided where you are going to retire, you have to make sure that your home continues to be an easy place to live as you age in place. If you don't, life in that home is going to get harder, if not impossible. This article will lay out some of the things that you absolutely, positively, must keep in mind; either if you buy a new home or decide to stay in the one where you live now. At the end of the article you will find a quick quiz to help you evaluate if your home is ready to support your retirement.
Commonly called universal design, the idea is take steps to insure that your home will be a friendly place to live, no matter what your physical condition in the future. It starts with the assumption that you might not always be able to see well, bend down or reach up, walk unassisted, or have great balance. That might not seem that important now, but it could easily be the case some day. Most homes assume that everyone who lives there has normal physical abilities. Sadly, not all of us will have those during the rest of our lives, and those changes usually come out of nowhere.
Aging in place checklist: Keep these universal design principles in mind for the long haul:
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Published on June 5, 2021
Comments 10
Category: Checklists
July 10, 2018 -- Think of your retirement as if it were a rocket poised for liftoff at Cape Canaveral. You, flight safety, are going through an elaborate countdown, ticking off countless items from exhaustive checklists. Only when everything is lined up properly is permission granted for your retirement launch!
In this piece we'll go through a five year countdown to retirement, an excellent idea developed in a NY Times feature last week by retirement expert Peter Finch. Without first looking at what he proposed, we took our own crack at this countdown idea... and look forward to comparing notes (a link to his article is at bottom).
Five, four, three, two, one - retirement blastoff!
Although we have tried to concentrate each year on one major task, that doesn't mean you should not be thinking about other planning aspects. This is a suggested timetable - you don't have to be rigid about which planning area gets emphasized each year - but these are the important areas to consider. What is important is to tackle all the key planning bases with the remaining time you have before "blastoff". Think where you live now is the best place for you to retire, and don't need to bother? Going through this planning process helps guarantee that as a mindful decision, rather than planning by just letting things happen.
Five years out - Finances rule
Your most important task this year is prepare a financial balance sheet that shows what your expected income will be compared to your retirement expenses. By taking a serious
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Published on July 9, 2018
Comments 4
Category: Checklists
Updated June, 2023 - Many important things in life rely on a three sided approach. Christianity has as the Holy Trinity the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. A pyramid relies on 3 faces for stability. Less seriously, our brother likes to say that a good gumbo relies on the holy trinity of vegetables: green peppers, celery, and onions (we would add okra). We think there is a good case to be made that a good retirement relies on three key supports as well.
3 Pillars of Retirement
1. Health. Far too many people yearn for and plan for a great retirement, only to have those hopes shattered by a serious change in their health. Sometimes that happens before they retire, other times it happens not along after their working days end. Instead of enjoying golf, tennis, hiking, fishing, or whatever - you find yourself living a sedentary lifestyle, often with crushing medical expenses and painful treatments. Having a serious health change can also affect many other aspects of life too, such as where you live, and how you plan to stay busy in retirement.
The problem is that no one ever thinks bad medical news will happen to them. But too many times, one day
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Published on January 16, 2018
Comments 15
Category: Checklists
January 11, 2016 -- It can be daunting to think about planning for retirement. There is so much to consider, where do you even start? But what if all you had to think about was boiled down to a 3 x 5 index card? That is what we have done in the part 1 of this article. In part 2 we are going to show how you how to write your retirement action plan on an index card, complete with a sample.
Our hope is that once you have seen retirement planning simplified to the bare essence, you will give planning a chance. So
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Published on January 11, 2016
Comments 31
Category: Checklists
August 19, 2014 -- Whether you have decided to stay where you live now or maybe move out of state, you need to make a wise choice about where you retire. Part of that decision hinges on you being realistic, and demanding, about the requirements you need to make all the years of your retirement fulfilling - not just the first 10 years or so.
As we baby boomers age we are definitely moving the average
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Published on August 19, 2014
Comments 14
Category: Checklists
June 3, 2014 -- Congratulations on your retirement, be it impending or already underway. You've worked hard to get to this point, and we hope you enjoy every well-deserved second. But before you get too carried away with your new-found freedom, we would like to bring to your attention some housekeeping items that need to be taken care of. These are in addition to, and in fact go off in a different direction from, the to-do items in Part 1 of this series: Now That You're 65: 10 Items You Need to Know. There is also a Part 3.
Peace of Mind and a Gift for Your Heirs
Today's To-Do list has to do more about taking steps to simplify the job for your heirs, once you pass on to Woodstock
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Published on June 3, 2014
Comments 14
Category: Checklists
Updated July, 2023 -- Editor's note: This article was originally written in 2010, but has been updated many times. Don't miss the Member comments at the end - they are really terrific! There is also a helpful checklist you can print out at the end of the article.When falling leaves start to hit the ground in the Northeast and Midwest, snowbirds across those regions start to get itchy. Winter is coming, and their thoughts turn to their homes in warmer climes. Here is our “Leaving for the Winter Checklist”, suggested by Harry. (See our other helpful checklists here)
Mail. There are several ways to handle this important function, none of them perfect. The P.O. will hold your mail for a month. If you will be gone longer than that, you need to find a different solution. You can forward your mail and have it sent to your winter address (our experience with that has not always been perfect, with important mail being returned to sender, addressee unknown). USPS also has a premium forwarding service where you can do a temporary usps address update and they will forward your mail via Priority Mail at a reasonable cost. See USPS for your options. If you don't trust the Post Office the most
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Published on October 25, 2010
Comments 45
