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Try It NOWCategory: Retirement Planning
Sept 23, 2024 — About a third of people aged 50 or more live alone, according to the AARP. That is a lot of people who can’t rely on a spouse or roommate as they age. So what is their plan going forward? The best advice is to start thinking…
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Category: Singles and Retirement
Oct. 7, 2023 -- Who says people in retirement are too old for love? The Golden Bachelor, a new spinoff on ABC from the popular Bachelor series, has many seniors glued to their TV sets. Community centers are hosting viewing parties, where folks watch, cheer, speculate, and gossip together.
The New York Times reported on three girlfriends at a New Jersey who attended a viewing party for The Golden Bachelor, a handsome fellow of a certain age. They had different takes on the featured bachelor, Gerry Turner, a widowed 71 year old from Indiana. One woman in her late 70's thought Mr. Turner was "too young" for her, but Toni Plugh, 68, commented that he was "right up her alley".... except, that she already has a husband. Her 73 year old friend, also married, agreed, except she joked that after 50 years, she was ready for a change.
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Category: Singles and Retirement
July 27, 2021 — As many Members have reminded us over the years, it is not safe to assume that everyone entering into retirement is part of couple. Many folks are single by choice, others by divorce, not to mention those who have lost a partner or spouse to disease…
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Category: Adventurous retirement
April 27, 2021 -- Nomadland scored a hat trick at the the 2021 academy awards. It won Best Picture. Chloe zhao won for Best Director. And Frances McDormand won for Best Actress. The film is one of the best portrayals of one niche of retirement life we have seen (see reviews of other retirement films at end). It is based on the book of the same name by Jessica Bruder, a journalist who traveled all over the country to document the van-life experience.
Fern, played by McDormand, is a van-dwelling woman who leaves her hometown after her husband dies and the sole industry closes down. Houseless, she travels around the United States, living in her old van that she has lovingly customized. Lonely and depressed, she finds temporary work at a giant Amazon fulfillment center. There she makes friends and ends up getting talked into visiting Quartzite, a convention for those living the RV and van lifestyle. There she meets Bob Wells, the organizer of Quartzite. Wells, vanlife guru and creator of cheaprvliving.com plays a fictionalized version of himself. He has a YouTube channel that is extremely successful.
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Category: Retirement Planning
February 2, 2020 -- Special thanks to frequent contributor Ed Lafreniere of Retirementhumor.net for suggesting this topic (one of several he made in response to our "Most Popular Articles of 2020" article). The mistakes people make in choosing a place to retire is a topic that always generates great interest. The three part series on "Retirement Mistakes People Make" we ran a few years ago resulted in hundreds of Comments. We recommend the whole series (see links at end), but today's article selects some of the most interesting and helpful comments from that series. We hope you find them useful.
Member Comments: Oh, the mistakes we made!Here is a summary of what our members think are the biggest retirement mistakes you can make when it comes to choosing a place to retire (some of the comments tell how to avoid making a mistake):
Country noise. Upon retirement a few years ago from the Wash. DC area I decided to move to a more rural area in NC for some tranquility. I was drawn to my home by the beautiful views and scenic rolling landscape. However, after being here a year now I have found there is just as much “noise” here as in the city. I call it “country noise” from farmers plowing their fields, trucks without mufflers, neighbors mowing their 10 acre lots, and aircraft flying over my home. -- Dale
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Category: Singles and Retirement
December 21, 2020 -- The most helpful and valuable input we get on this site comes from you our Members. And when it comes to where single people should be looking to retire, and what they should be looking for, with your comments we hit the jackpot! There is really nothing better than detailed input about real places from real people. Special thanks to Moderator Flo for suggesting this.
In this article we will reprint some of the most practical and informative Member suggestions about retirement for singles from many different Blog articles on this site. There are many suggestions about specific places to retire where singles will be happy, what types of communities you should consider, organizations to join where you can meet folks, and strategies for meeting and making new friends. At the end we have provided a list of our previous articles about singles and retirement, with many tips, ideas, and dozens of Member comments.
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
June 24, 2019 -- Women tend to do more of the worrying than men, at least in the circles we travel in. And for us men, that is usually a good thing for our preservation. When it comes to women's big fears about retirement, the research primarily focuses on money concerns, but there is no shortage of other worries. We'll cover the common concerns that we are aware of, but we are eager to hear what yours are in the Comments section at the end.
Top Worries - Money
A study published by the nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies reported that 46% of women were concerned they wouldn't have a comfortable retirement lifestyle. By comparison, only 31% of men had similar concerns.
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Category: Singles and Retirement
April 20, 2019 -- In many active adult and 55+ communities much of the social life centers around couples. For people who happen to be single, that environment makes it difficult to have a full social life and results in feeling left out. We hope this article can help single people find places to retire where they are happy and feel included.
It would be a mistake to cast all retired single people in the same mold, assuming that all of their retirement needs and goals are identical. Many singles are very happy to go through retirement without a partner. Others are content to be single, but would like to find a place to retire where they feel included and a part of the community. Another group would prefer not to be single, or at least to have more friendships and social interactions than they have now. Regardless of what type of single person you might be, we hope you find this article interesting.
First we'll talk about specific kinds of places that singles might find attractive as places to retire, and then we'll include a few Member comments that seem especially useful to this discussion.
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
March 23, 2019 -- This is the 5th module in our "Retirement Preparation 101" online course. The social aspects of retirement was one of most frequently requested topics for the series. Here is where you can see all of the Modules and all the Member suggestions for the course.
Here is a sample suggestion which led to this Module:
Katie: Loneliness in retirement. Whether single, divorced or widowed, loneliness is something that many of us will face as we retire from our work lives. Many of us spent our lives with people at work and any free time with spouses, children or other family. Friendships may have been with neighbors, our kids’ friends’ families, spouse’s work friends, etc. With retirement and a loss of the people around us, retirees can find themselves alone. Surely there are other good ideas and stories from people who have gone through this.
Overview - one step at a time
One short article cannot possibly address all the strategies or be a magic bullet to solving the problem of feeling alone. We encourage you to to view these tips as something to experiment with. A lifetime of habits cannot not be overcome in a day or a week or a month, but if you gradually apply some of these ideas in your daily life you just might be able to make a difference. Here we go:
Singles vs. married couples. A later module in this series will specifically address loneliness for singles. But we firmly believe that the strategies presented here are useful no matter what your state - single or married.
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Category: Singles and Retirement
June 22, 2017 -- You are retired now and all set to do that traveling you dreamed about. Europe, Patagonia, Japan, the Caribbean - there are some any exciting places in the US and the world to visit. But there is one problem, you don't have a traveling companion, and you are worried about doing it by yourself. Sometimes you might be in a relationship, but your partner either doesn't like to travel or cannot handle it physically. We would love to hear from our Members who have figured out answers to this challenge. But rather than not traveling because you don't have a companion, here are three suggestions for how to do it:
In Antarctica
1. Travel with a group such as Roads Scholars (formerly Elderhostel). They have trips everywhere, and many of their customers are traveling solo. You might pay extra if you are not willing to have a roommate, but you will certainly meet people on your
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