Category: Family and Retirement
August 3, 2016 - Two weeks ago your editor became a grandparent for the first time. Having just about the most beautiful, precious child in the universe made us think - how can we help her become the best and happiest person she can be, and what can we do to support the new parents? In this article we’ve tried to include the major grandparenting topics, and for each of them some of the best tips we’ve heard or read about. However, our experience is very limited - under two weeks! We are hoping that our Members will chime in with their best ideas in the Comments section below - making this a shared community where we are all help each other enjoy the experience.
All of our friends and relatives rave about the grandchildren experience, whether they are retired or not. Life-changing and joy are two of the words that come up most
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Published on August 2, 2016
Comments 12
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
August 3, 2016 -- Sometimes you visit a possible retirement town that is just so darn pretty you can't stand it. Edenton, North Carolina is one of those.
Here is where you can find our more detailed review of Edenton. But it proved to be such a charming place to retire on a recent visit that we wanted to give you more of a description and photos too.
Where it is
Edenton is in northeastern North Carolina, about an
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Published on August 3, 2016
Comments 47
Category: Retirement Planning
August 9, 2016 -- If you are retired or just about to retire, congratulations - this retirement survival guide is for you! You have earned your retirement - and we wish you the greatest happiness. This survival article will give you some basic guidelines for making it the happy and successful time it was meant to be. We have tried to take a broad approach to retirement survival, going beyond the financial component that is the focus of many 'survival" books. If you search online you will find lots of "retirement survival kits" for sale - the gag gifts they contain are fun, but this piece is meant to be a little more practical! You will note that for each topic we have included a link or two to more articles that give you more depth.
Make a Plan
Everything goes better with a plan. Having a thought out approach with specific
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Published on August 9, 2016
Comments 3
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
August 17, 2016 -- Note: We are pleased that MarketWatch published a version of this story on their site with beautiful photos - "10 Prettiest Places to Retire".
Talk about job for King Solomon, how could anyone judge the 10 prettiest retirement towns in America? There are just so many pretty towns, so many different ways to judge beauty - the task is impossible. That said, we are still going to make a good effort in this article to list some incredibly beautiful towns that make good places to retire. In fact we have 2 lists for you: 10 towns that we selected on our own and using some research from CNTraveler, plus 12 more that came in as great suggestions from your fellow Topretirements members. We welcome more
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Published on August 16, 2016
Comments 33
Category: General Retirement Issues
August 16, 2018 – 10 years ago this month Topretirements.com came out of the ether and appeared on the world wide web. It didn’t look like much, but there was some pretty good (if limited) information. Since that time we’ve had several redesigns and make overs, and the new content…
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Published on August 18, 2016
Comments 8
Category: Work and Volunteering
August 23, 2016 -- One of the often overlooked challenges of retirement is how you will stay busy and engaged over time. You might think that you'll be happy just by kicking back and relaxing, but that is not generally how humans are built. In that regard we are a lot like working dogs, happiest when we have a job or activity that keeps our minds and bodies busy.
Volunteering is an obvious and rewarding way to keep a focus in retirement. There are so many possibilities: mentoring children, helping a small business on a project, assisting at the library or hospital, trading work for free space at a national park, helping a local volunteer group or community association, or
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Published on August 22, 2016
Comments 17
Category: Retirement Planning
August 30, 2016 -- One of our longstanding Members, Robert M, suggested that we interview our early subscribers who are still members and see how Topretirements and its community have helped them over the years. This is his and his wife Jan's retirement planning story - which is still going on. Even though they have been with Topretirements almost 10 years, they are still 5 years away from pulling the trigger. We admire their planning spirit! We hope that their experience will prove useful to all of our members in suggesting ways to improve their retirement planning. Thanks Robert and Jan, it has been great to read how real people manage the retirement process (and thank you for your many kind comments)! Several other folks who responded to our interview request will be publishing their retirement stories in the near future.
Take it away Robert. We have tried to provide links to some of the features mentioned for your convenience.
Q: When and how did you discover Topretirements?
A: Looking at my files where I printed stuff off it looks like I found your site in late 2007/early 2008. I found it through looking for information on retirement and various states. Back then we decided we need to
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Published on August 29, 2016
Comments 4
Category: Estate Planning
August 31, 2016 -- Consider this unpleasant scenario: You go to bed tonight and don't wake up. Instead, you go on to your greater reward, leaving a saddened spouse, family, and friends. They, on the other hand, are about to find out how well you prepared for this event. While not fun to think about, this is not an "if" it happens situation, it is only "when".
Not so long ago your heirs would face many unpleasant chores as a result of your untimely death, but at least the tasks were relatively straightforward. Assets could generally be traced by looking in file folders, safe deposit boxes, and various spots around the house. Statements would eventually come in the mail, alerting your survivors to the existence of various accounts. Now in the digital age, your executor or surviving spouse face the same tasks, only they tend to be much more difficult. That is mainly because so many of your assets and accounts only exist online. How will they find out what accounts
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Published on August 30, 2016
Comments 13
