Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 4, 2012 - You've probably seen the ads for reverse mortgages- "Use the cash in your home to solve your retirement money problems". They sound simple enough - instead of you sending money each month to your mortage company, they send you a check! At the end of a specified period, after you either sell your home or have joined the big Kahuna in the sky, the payments are finished and the mortgage company gets paid back.
Unfortunately, as the New York Times recently reported in "Reverse Mortgages Costing Some Seniors Their Homes", it's not always that simple. Most companies offering reverse mortgages are legitimate and trustworthy, but as smaller companies with questionable ethics enter the market, there is also a lot of high pressure salesmanship and hype. The combination often results in unwary and poorly qualified
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Published on December 3, 2012
Comments 9
Category: Active adult communities
December 4, 2012 - You can't beat it when your biggest dream comes true. When we started Topretirements.com 6 years ago we imagined this site would be a place where members would share their knowledge and experiences about the places they know and visit. So when we read Carole's amazing post this morning in the Comments section of the "Tell Us Where You Are Going to Retire - And Why" Blog article, we knew our dream has been realized. Carole has shared a newsy, factual, and interesting report on her travels about the communities she and her husband are visiting in South Florida. She's not only provided many useful facts and figures, but she also tells us her impressions, which can be so valuable.
We've reprinted some of her posts in this article not only because they are so good, but because we want more people to see them. Although the post to which she responded now has a stunning 557 comments, the only people likely to see her comments are our Daily Digest subscribers, since the original post dates way back to February. In the interest of geographic
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Published on December 4, 2012
Comments 4
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 8, 2012 -- Researchers at DePaul University and the Rush University Medical Center think they have found the underlying reason for an alarming rise in fraud committed against our rapidly aging baby boom generation. The explanation often arises from “that combination of not knowing but thinking you know", according to Keith Gamble, an assistant finance professor in DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business. In other words, overestimating what you think
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Published on December 8, 2012
Comments 3
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 9, 2012 -- Our search for the towns that offer the best amenities to retirees has turned up some fascinating possibilities. One really nice thing we learned right away is that there are many communities that offer impressive amenities. Some towns are great for one type of amenity, such as golf, tennis, or culture. Others are more balanced, offering an array of facilities and opportunities.
This is Part 2 of our series on Amenities. The first came out 2 weeks ago, ("10 Best Amenities that Make for a Best Place to Retire"). Many thanks to the readers who provided comments and suggestions to that post.
It would be highly subjective and a bit reckless
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Published on December 9, 2012
Comments 6
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 18, 2012 -- Long term care insurance is one of the more difficult products in the insurance world. Unlike most insurance products, the decision to buy it or not is not clear cut. While it's easy to see why you need insurance on your car, home, or health - justifying long term care insurance is a a bit tricky. According to some reports, only 10% of people over age 60 have long term care insurance.
The market has not been kind to providers of long term care insurance. Some, including Prudential and MetLife, have stopped selling new policies in recent years, while others have had to ask for rate increases of over 40%. Life insurers sell some "flexible" life policies that provide a cash benefit before death as a kind of long term care hybrid. Recently we've seen some helpful articles on long term care insurance (see end of article). Here is a brief primer; we recommend the references to get a fuller understanding.
Long term care insurance provides
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Published on December 18, 2012
Comments 35
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 19, 2012 -- Legislation coming out of Congress in the next few weeks is likely to affect all Americans. Most of our federal tax rates will either stay the same, or we will fall off the fiscal cliff and rates will go up. As both parties state and restate their positions, there have been some new proposals that could potentially affect both social security and Medicare, both popular programs for baby boomers. Also in the news - cars that make driving easier for aging baby boomers.
Medicare
The latest proposal being discussed to help keep Medicare solvent is to raise
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Published on December 18, 2012
Comments 49
Category: Retirement Planning
December 26, 2012 -- The new year is almost upon us, and many of us in the older crop of baby boomers are just a few days away from starting our retirements. If that includes you, here are 10 things you should think about in the coming days. At the end of the article we've included a list with some of our best retirement preparation articles.
1. Work out your at-home lifestyle. This is particularly important if you are in a relationship where one person is already at home most of the day. That person already has their routine and their spaces - and you the newly retired person are the intruder. So think out and negotiate where you are going to hang
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Published on December 26, 2012
Comments 4
