Category: Retirement Planning
July 28, 2014 -- Rich got our attention when he contacted us to suggest a city review for Ocean Shores, Washington. For one, we had never heard of this town. But more intriguing to us, he happened to mention that he had a 7 page analysis of how it stacks up to the criteria he found on Topretirements.com. That sounded pretty thorough to us. One thing led to another, and subsequently we had the pleasure of interviewing Rich about that analysis.
A Search for the Perfect Retirement Town
Rich and his wife, Jan, had lived in Washington State for 26 years early in their careers (1969 - 1995). Then they moved to Texas, where Rich
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Published on July 29, 2014
Comments 27
Category: Retirement Planning
June 24, 2014 -- Thanks to the over 1800 members who took the time to contribute their valuable insights to last week's "Where You'll Live" poll. We appreciate you sharing! As promised, here is a detailed report on the findings. At the end of this article you will also find a complete report of the more than 450 individual responses to question 11, "Do you have anything else you would like to share about your retirement living preferences and the reasons behind them?."
Highlights
Your input provides confirmation of many opinions we hold about retirement preferences in general, along with some surprises. For example, it is not much of a stretch to bet that most of you are interested in retiring to a warm weather clime, with the Southeast and Southwest at the top of your preferences. We did not expect to see the level of interest there was in a suburban environment. And we were blown away with
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Published on June 24, 2014
Comments 52
Category: Downsizing
June 18, 2014 -- Downsizing and raising children have at least one thing in common- it's a lot easier to tell other people how to do it than it is to do it yourself! Topretirements has published several articles about downsizing (see Further Reading at end of article) due to member interest. In this article we will explore some new tips from all over, and hope that you will contribute your own suggestions in the Comments section below.
1. It is never too early to start.
We can't tell you many of our friends didn't leave enough time for
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Published on June 17, 2014
Comments 59
Category: Retirement Planning
June 16, 2014 -- Your past responses to our various retirement surveys have been so interesting we just had to do it again. Today's survey focuses on the "Where" about retirement - where you are thinking about retiring to, what kind of community, and why. Since we created this survey over 1900 community minded folks have taken, here is a link to our complete report on the results, along with many of the more interesting/representative comments.
In the coming weeks Part 2 of this series will focus more on the financial and related issues having to do with retirement. Stay tuned
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Published on June 16, 2014
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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: Retirement Planning
May 27, 2014 -- Reality check: Even if you are among the fortunate half of baby boomers who will have enough money to maintain your pre-retirement lifestyle - you are still not out of the woods. That's because your financial well being is only one part of the retirement happiness equation - being prepared mentally and psychologically is just as important. In the first part of this article we've come up with 5 warning signs that you might not be well prepared psychologically for retirement. The second part has advice from various experts on the keys to solid mental preparation.
5 Warning Signs
There are probably a lot more than we have listed here. But yes answers to these questions as you start retirement might be a pretty good indication that your mental preparation for retirement is not up to snuff:
1. Most days you have nothing special to look forward to when you wake up in the morning.
2. Your best friends are at the job you just left.
3. Your personal identity is wrapped up in the title of the job you had previously.
4. You don't have any great reason to leave your house during the day.
5. You wish you weren't retired - or greatly fear you will soon be so.
Tips for Tuning up Your Retirement Psychological Profile
Here we've assembled some of the advice we have seen on getting psychologically ready for retirement.
People and dogs aren't so different
Dog trainers typically say that
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Published on May 27, 2014
Comments 28
Category: Retirement Planning
March 5 – An annual CareerBuilder survey shows a slightly more optimistic picture for full-time workers nearing the end of their careers than just a few years agon, when the Recession caused many workers to delay retirement plans or forego them completely. While a majority (58 percent) of workers age 60 or older say they are currently putting off retirement; it represents continued improvement from 61 percent in 2013 and a peak of 66 percent in 2010.
The nationwide survey – conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of
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Published on March 4, 2014
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Category: Retirement Planning
January 20, 2014 -- It's the beginning of the year so it must be time to prognosticate about what's to come and how we might make things better. We have seen several thoughtful pieces along this line, including one from our colleague over at MarketWatch, Bob Powell ("New Laws, Regulations the Experts Want for 2014").
In this article we are hoping to get our loyal members and readers to reflect on the planning that went into their retirements. Who else is more qualified to talk about retirement than you folks - you are the ones living
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Published on January 20, 2014
Comments 64
Category: Retirement Planning
December 2, 2013 -- There's an interesting new book out that has parallels to the transition from the working life to retirement. It's "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth", written by Colonel Chris Hadfield, one of the world's most experienced astronauts. The book made us think about how much retirement is like entering a new world. Many of the survival skills you learned in the world of work will be useful. But to succeed in your new environment it might be necessary to master new ones. We are hoping that this guide will be a group effort - that those of you who have already passed through the airlock
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Published on December 2, 2013
Comments 72
Category: Retirement Planning
November 12, 2013. -- Let's assume you have been doing all the things the experts suggest as you go through the process of finding your best place to retire. You have listed your priorities, discussed them with spouse and/or family, and paid visits to the more likely suspects. But before you make that down payment on your retirement home, here are 7 more questions we think you would be well advised to answer. Hopefully this list will make you think of a few more, all the better to help you realize the wonderful retirement you have worked so hard to get.
7 Questions to Ask
These questions are meant more as a stimulus for conversation than a yes or no. By discussing them with someone else, you might gain
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Published on November 12, 2013
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