Category: Retirement Planning
September 2, 2017 -- Results from the Employee Benefits Research Institute’s Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) paint a disturbing picture for many American workers. The percentage of pre-retirees who are very confident in their ability to afford a comfortable retirement continues to be low. On the other hand, people who are already retired report a much higher level of confidence that their finances will provide a comfortable retirement.
It is hard to say why the two groups - pre-retirees and the retired - report different levels of confidence. It could be that folks who are already retired know their situation and do not have the anxiety about the future that
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Published on September 1, 2017
Comments 34
Category: Retirement Planning
Editor’s note. This is another in our continuing series of articles exploring actual people’s retirement stories. Thanks so much to Gary and Pat for sharing theirs. See bottom of article for more baby boomer retirement articles.
September 1, 2017 -- When it comes to planning out a retirement and then living it to the fullest, this pair of former educators in the Michigan school system could teach the course. Gary grew up on a farm on Lake Michigan, and Pat grew up nearby. Both learned the value of hard work, and both loved living near the lake and exploring it winter and summer in their childhood and working days.
The pair have always been enthusiastic runners, bikers, and tennis players. They met as competitive cross country ski racers, crisscrossing
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Published on August 31, 2017
Comments 51
Category: Retirement Planning
August 23, 2017 -- There is one very clear conclusion from our latest Member survey, "Selling Your Home and Retirement Planning" - our Members overwhelmingly plan on moving to a different home when they retire. And, they plan on moving on in much greater numbers than does the general population. Some 90% of our recent survey takers said they definitely will sell their home, are thinking about it, or have already sold. That contrasts with just 6% that say they will definitely or probably stay in their current home.
Topretirements' Members itch to move is starkly different from a recent AARP survey, where 90% of people over 65 said they want to remain in their own homes and community as long as possible. For comparison, a Del Webb survey some years back found that about one third of baby boomers plan on moving in retirement.
The Topretirements.com survey from last week asked 10 questions about moving, downsizing, and what kind of home you intend to buy for
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Published on August 23, 2017
Comments 10
Category: Retirement Planning
August 14, 2017 — Whenever baby boomers get together there is always one guaranteed topic of conversation – what are your retirement plans? Here is your chance to share your plans (and actions!) and compare them with what others in the Topretirements.com community are thinking about. Our latest survey is…
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Published on August 14, 2017
Comments 0
Category: Retirement Planning
July 31, 2017 -- Just like the childless doctor that gives parenting advice, almost every "expert" has a few things to learn once they actually experience what they have been advising on. Retirement experts are no different. We recently read a great article by Paul Brown, who co-authored several books about retirement in his 30's and 40's. Now that he has actually experienced retirement for a while, he has had some realizations. In general Paul believes he gave good advice to his readers. But he knows now he should done two things differently:
1. Been more empathetic. Actual life is more complicated than theoretical.
2. Given more concrete examples.
Later on in this article we will give a quick rundown of the 3 examples he wrote about in this NY Times article, "Things I Should Have Said About Retirement Planning". But first, here are
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Published on July 30, 2017
Comments 63
Category: Retirement Planning
March 8, 2017 — In this article we hear from Bill Painter, who served for over 30 years as Chaplain/Spiritual Director at Judson Park, a Seattle area Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC), before retiring. Bill is an ordained American Baptist minister, clinically trained for health care ministry. He offers valuable insights into retirement life and its challenges, gained from many years of experience. We particularly like his case studies, which bring the points alive. This article is a good recommendation for choosing a CCRC with a spiritual resource like him on staff.
Q 1 What was your role at Judson Park?
I served as Chaplain/Spiritual Director at Judson Park for over 30 years. A CCRC is a community for elders serving residents in independent residential, assisted living, 24 hour skilled nursing care and memory support.
My primary role was to provide spiritual support for residents, families and team
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Published on March 7, 2017
Comments 3
Category: Retirement Planning
February 27, 2016 -- Editor's Note: This is part 2 of Jeff's retirement saga. Last month we published his account of How a Minnesota Boy Came to be Retired in the Heart of the South. This installment provides more of the decisions made and surprises encountered when he actually pulled the trigger on his retirement.
By Jeff Alden:
I closed my office last July after thirty-five years practicing law in Minneapolis. For several years, my wife and I had talked about where and when we might retire. We read about and discussed different options, but never got further than the obvious: wherever we landed, it had to be on one floor. We even made a few exploratory trips and talked about the possibility of moving to those places. Almost right up to the last moment, it didn't seem that we were really getting anywhere. Talk is cheap. But when we finally pulled the plug on our previous life, things happened fast. Kaboom! Like that.
I once had a law professor who liked to maintain that certain situations are "action-forcing." If A happens, B must follow. Our transition to retirement was a case in point -- the product of a series of forced actions on steroids.
My office lease was set to renew in August if I didn't terminate it by May. In a very real sense, that lease called my bluff. If I was serious about retiring, why would
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Published on February 26, 2017
Comments 43
Category: Retirement Planning
January 15, 2017 -- Not everybody wants to retire, even if that is the popular expectation. Many more people, even though they are old enough, aren't ready to retire yet. This article will help you determine if retirement is right for you, and if this is a good time to do it.
Retirement is a big step and one that is hard to reverse.
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Published on January 14, 2017
Comments 16
Category: Retirement Planning
Editor's note: Over a period of years we watched our friends Jeff and Paulette get ready for retirement. They thought about it a lot, made field trips, and discussed it thoroughly. Not without a little trepidation, their careful plans to retire to Greenville, SC came to pass this last summer. We are very pleased that Jeff was willing to contribute his account of how a Minnesota boy came to be retired in the heart of the South.
By Jeff Alden:
January 6, 2017 -- I first started coming to the Upstate of South Carolina in the seventies to visit my future wife's family on holidays. She was a young professor at the University of Minnesota, where I was in graduate school. I grew up in St. Paul and never questioned that I'd spend the rest of my days up North, in the country I knew so well. But every Christmas or Thanksgiving, we'd travel down to Greenville to spend time with her folks
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Published on January 5, 2017
Comments 14
Category: Retirement Planning
Nov. 29, 2016 -- Your editor has been retired 10 years now. And over that time he has written hundreds of articles that freely dispensed advice about retirement to tens of thousands of people. So what, if anything, has he learned during this decade, and what advice would he give anyone ready to enter retirement?
First of all, let me say how great it has been to be part of the Topretirements.com community all this time. The people I have met online and their wisdom and comments since the site began in late 2006 have been amazing in so many ways. Thank you to everyone in the Topretirements community, you guys have been so
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Published on November 29, 2016
Comments 128
