Category: Home and Garden
June 12, 2021 -- Thanks to the 200 people who took our Home Readiness for Retirement Quiz. The Topretirements community appreciates the few minutes you took to assess your home's readiness. We hope that you found the exercise useful. We know we did, our grab bars were installed today! Here are the results of the survey, with several surprises mixed in with findings that were more predictable.
The point of the quiz is to make sure that wherever you decide to live in retirement, your home is a safe place that lets you age gracefully in place. The good news is that most homes can be retrofitted to get there. Those without a first floor bedroom/bath option face a more problematic situation.
Overall Conclusions:
Almost three quarters (77%) of our Members have a bedroom/bath on the first floor, which is great news. They should be able to stay in their homes regardless of their mobility in the future.
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Published on June 11, 2021
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Category: Home and Garden
June 8, 2020 — Want to know if the home you are living in will be able to keep up with you over the next 25 years or so of your retirement? Well, just take this quick quiz and we’ll give you an instant score. We’ve graded it high, but…
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Published on June 7, 2021
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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
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Category: Home and Garden
November 10, 2020- if you like a lot of Americans you probably found some safe ways to socialize with a small group of friends or family this past summer. But with cold weather and the holidays arriving soon many folks are grappling with how to keep that going and avoid social isolation. We are curious to find out what techniques and strategies you might be using to make that happen.
Photo by Ekaterina Bolovtsova from Pexels
Back in September we surveyed what Coronavirus Activities you are willing to engage in. Over 500 completed it; here is a Summary of the responses. One of the questions (#9) directly asked about cold weather, specifically if you would be willing to visit or entertain when it comes. Just over half said they would visit with other folks in some way or another, but with some conditions. The issue becomes even more important as Thanksgiving and the holidays loom in the immediate future.
There were over 80 written Comments to the question. The vast majority of those seemed to indicate they probably would entertain/be entertained, but only if masks and social distancing were observed, and if they trusted the other people.
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Published on November 9, 2020
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Category: Home and Garden
September 21, 2020 — The leaves are starting to turn in some locales and there is a chill in the air. Which means many snowbirds are starting to wrap up their summer and getting ready to head south for the winter. To help retirees in that situation with their preparations,…
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Published on September 20, 2020
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Category: Downsizing
September 14, 2020 - Downsizing, ridding out, whatever you want to call it, paring down your stuff is an important job in retirement. This past week your Editor and his wife had the pleasure of safely disposing more than a dozen boxes of important papers that were cluttering up their home. Here are some tips on how you can do the same (with links to many of our other downsizing articles at end).
Don’t leave cleaning up to your surviving spouse or children. It’s just not fair. Give your kids a break – they have lives to live - so don't leave them with a basement or attic full of old papers or documents to dispose of. They will have no idea what was is important and what is not.
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Published on September 14, 2020
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Category: Home and Garden
September 2, 2020 -- Spending more time walking, cooking, taking the dog out, exercising, or gardening during the pandemic? One great way to get double the pleasure out of these activities is to listen to a good book while you are doing them. All you need is your phone and a set of headphones, preferably Bluetooth connected.
Your editor has enjoyed some wonderful books lately. American Dirt, Where the Crawdads Sing, and Half Broke all have female protagonists with strong storylines that will carry you away as you take on your various chores and activities. Educated is an inspiring memoir of a young girl's struggle to escape her crazy survivalist family in Idaho. Biographies like "Shoe Dog", the story of how Phil Knight created Nike, is a fascinating listen. The Doll House by Ann Patchett, narrated by Tom Hanks, is great too.
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Published on September 2, 2020
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Category: Home and Garden
September 24, 2019 -- The skies are starting to get busy with birds and butterflies headed south on their winter migrations. And soon Interstates like 25, 75, 95 will be crowded with baby boomers on their way to similar retirement destinations. To help you get ready for those trips we re-publish our popular "Snowbird's Leaving for the Winter" Checklist every year. This year we also have a new article with tips for making your snowbird experience as wonderful as possible. Note that most of these tips will apply even if you are one of the many counter-snowbirds: folks who live north in the winter and elsewhere the rest of the year.
Anyone who has had the snowbird experience quickly learns it leads to a very different lifestyle than what they experience living in only one place. Your snowbird life will be a little more complicated, probably a bit more expensive, and if done right - more enjoyable. Here are some things to consider as you embark on this lifestyle.
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Published on September 24, 2019
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Category: Home and Garden
July 20, 2019 -- Here is one thing in this increasingly divided nation that we can agree upon -- we all hate Robocalls! These annoying and persistent calls often come right around dinner time from numbers and names that look familiar. If you answer, it is about a scam trying to part you and your hard-earned money and security. Even when enrolled in DO NOT CALL registries, the problem is so bad that many people have stopped answering their phone unless they are sure who is calling. The problem is also spreading to text messages.
For this article we have done some research to find out the best ideas for how to minimize the problem. Here we go:
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Published on July 19, 2019
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Category: Home and Garden
May 22, 2019 — An interesting new book by Joseph Coughlin, founder of the AgeLab, pinpoints the many contradictions marketers face when targeting the senior market. In…
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Published on May 21, 2019
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