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7 “Must-Do” Items Now That You Are Retired

Category: Retirement Planning

Note: This is the third in our series of vital things you need to do once you retire. The first 2 installments include different things to think about, and also have some great Comments from our Members. February 8, 2016 -- Well done, your long-awaited reward for years of hard work, struggle, and sacrifice is here. Now that you've actually retired, we have just a few more tasks to complete the process. Once you tick these off you can truly enjoy your retirement, knowing that you done most if not all of the important things you need to do to protect your family and heirs, not to mention make the most of this experience.

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Published on February 8, 2016
Comments 0

The 3 x 5 Index Card Guide to Retirement Planning

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

What’s in Your Retirement Plan?

Category: Retirement Planning

October 21, 2015 -- Maybe the better question is, "Do you have a retirement plan". According to Richard Russo in a recent MarketWatch Retirement Weekly article, having a plan greatly increases your chances of success. So if you don't have one, now is a mighty good time to start. This article will explain what sorts of things should be in your plan, and how you can use it to help you achieve a successful retirement. Russo, a senior financial adviser with Clarity Financial in Houston and author for Random Thoughts of a Money Muse, cautions that you shouldn't get uptight about your plan if it isn't working out exactly as you had thought. He says they are "extraordinarily imperfect... 20% science and 80% forecast (or art)". He believes you should start your plan 5 to 10 years in advance of when you think you might retire. If you do, you can greatly

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Published on October 20, 2015
Comments 27

12 Lies We Tell Ourselves about Retirement

Category: Retirement Planning

June 12, 2015 -- Oh, the things we say we are going to do in retirement. And if only we did them! We were inspired by a recent MarketWatch story, "Five Lies We Tell Ourselves in Retirement", which focused on lies people tell themselves on financially related aspects of retirement. We liked the idea enough we decided to create our own list of lies, but with a different focus - (mostly) non-financial fibs. This is our list - we encourage you to add

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Published on June 12, 2015
Comments 16

Part 2: How Well the Retirement Experts Follow Their Own Advice (Or Not)

Category: Retirement Planning

By Jan Cullinane and John Brady Note: This is Part 2 of a 3 part series. See bottom of article for links to the other two. April 16, 2015 -- In Part 1 we published detailed answers to the first two questions we asked our panel of six retirement experts - where they chose to live, and why. In this continuation of the series at Topretirements you can read how they responded to questions about aging and long term care, how well they followed their own advice, and their tips on finding a place to retire and a successful retirement. There is a lot of wisdom and food for thought in their responses; we hope you will enjoy them and

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Published on April 18, 2015
Comments 4

Where the Retirement Experts Are “Retiring,” And Why – Part 1

Category: Retirement Planning

By Jan Cullinane and John Brady Note: This is Part 1 of a 3 part series. See bottom of article for links to the other two. April 4, 2015 -- Most of us know by now that one size cannot fit all when it comes to choosing our best place to retire. Just look at the tons of books, magazine articles and websites that try to answer that very question. So at the suggestion of our frequent contributor, Jan Cullinane, we decided to take a different approach, and go right to the source by asking a half dozen retirement gurus, including the authors of this piece, Jan Cullinane and John Brady, where they chose to “retire.” The word “retire” is in quotes since most of these experts are still working (some more than others), although their work is free from the constraints of being tied

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Published on April 4, 2015
Comments 20

OK You Retirement Experts, How Well Are You Doing with Your Own Retirement?

Category: Retirement Planning

April 2, 2015 -- By Jan Cullinane and John Brady Retirement advice is not hard to come by – it seems like every website and newspaper will tell you how to do it. So we were intrigued when our frequent contributor, Jan Cullinane, suggested a different approach. Her idea was to ask a half dozen retirement gurus to describe their personal retirement plans and rate how well they followed their own advice. We think you will enjoy learning how they went about finding a great place to retire...where they decided to live... the areas where they think they planned well....and even where some felt they didn’t merit an A - in their own class! Note that due to the length of the various responses we have divided this into three articles. This is the Summary.

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Published on April 2, 2015
Comments 6

Take Our New Retirement Confidence Poll

Category: Retirement Planning

Note: This survey is closed. To see the most interesting results, go to: “Topretirements Members Very Confident About Retirement” September 9, 2014 — Please share a couple of minutes to tell us about your confidence in maintaining your standard of living, importance of proximity to good medical care,…

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Published on September 9, 2014
Comments 1

Is Your Town Ready for Your Retirement? A Checklist

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

Avoid These 6 Retirement-Wrecking Mistakes

Category: Retirement Planning

August 5, 2014 - Note, this is the 3rd article in our series on how to avoid wrecking your retirement. The first 2 articles can be found in "Further Reading" below. Retirement is hard enough without making a self-inflicted, hard to recover from mistake. To help you avoid that trauma we have searched through comments to our previous retirement surveys and the general literature for the

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Published on August 4, 2014
Comments 69

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