Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
May 4, 2021 - Back in the day St. Petersburg was considered one of the best places to retire for people from the Midwest and Northeast. Tourists also flocked to this amazing city on Tampa Bay, about half way down Florida's West Coast. Some retirees settled here permanently, others spent the winter months in one of the many classic downtown hotels that are still present (but in different form). After the 1970's the city faded into a retirement backwater, supplanted by trendier destinations like Fort Myers, Naples, and affordable towns in Central Florida. Blight and poverty took over in many parts of the city, leaving some big downtown buildings as unused relics. Fast forward to today, when St. Pete is not only a very hot destination for retirement, but people of all ages are moving here. The population is 265,381, with 18.6% of the population 65 and over (about 2% points higher than the U.S. overall).
Downtown St. Pete
On a recent visit to the fair city we were very impressed with St. Petersburg's revival. It is not hard to see reasons for the resurgence. The city's location could not be better - a manageable city sitting on peninsula surrounded by the gigantic Tampa Bay. Broad streets host gracious buildings. Along the edges, nothing obscures the views of the Bay. Very few towns in the world can match the number of its parks and amount of open space along the Bay. Nicknamed the "Sunshine City", it logs an average 361 days of sunshine per year. On a recent late April evening the streets and parks were filled with people of all ages and types. The human diversity on display was refreshing. There were straight and gay pairs, mixed race couples, baby boomers, and millennials. The sidewalks were full of people out for a stroll along the boulevards and parks, having dinner in an outdoor restaurant by the Bay, or enjoying an ice cream. Soon even more will be coming to enjoy St. Pete's enviable cultural scene, which, as Covid ebbs, is on the verge of opening up. Retirees live in high rises, neighborhoods, or surrounding communities. There is a big variety of living choices.
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Published on May 4, 2021
Comments 5
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
May 5, 2021 -- For baby boomers, nothing was more exciting than getting our first driver's license. The freedom that lay ahead. Just as exciting, maybe even more, was the prospect of getting your first car. So we would like to hear about your first wheels - whether your parents gave you a brand new car (so jealous), or if you saved your part-time job earnings and bought a used jalopy. Please use the comments section to describe your first chariot to freedom. We will try to add your pictures (one of your own, we can't accept other photos for copyright reasons) to the gallery at the end of the article. Send the photo.
As for your editor, my first was a 1962 Renault Dauphine, bought in partnership with my 14 year old brother, funded with our house painting money ($350). Unfortunately for Mike, he never got to drive it legally because it died due to me hitting a curb and its own (serious) mechanical failings. He does like to tell the story of younger brother abuse though. My second was a 1965 Dodge Dart (Slant 6!) that was a wonderful reliable car (sold it to Mike later and he got better use of it). Then as I entered the Army, a 1 year old MGB - maybe my favorite car of all time (and the least reliable).
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Published on May 5, 2021
Comments 29
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
May 5, 2021 -- For baby boomers, nothing was more exciting than getting our first driver's license. The freedom that lay ahead. Just as exciting, maybe even more, was the prospect of getting your first car. So we would like to hear about your first wheels - whether your parents gave you a brand new car (so jealous), or if you saved your part-time job earnings and bought a used jalopy. Please use the comments section to describe your first chariot to freedom. We will try to add your pictures (one of your own, we can't accept other photos for copyright reasons) to the gallery at the end of the article. Send the photo.
As for your editor, my first was a 1962 Renault Dauphine, bought in partnership with my 14 year old brother, funded with our house painting money ($350). Unfortunately for Mike, he never got to drive it legally because it died due to me hitting a curb and its own (serious) mechanical failings. He does like to tell the story of younger brother abuse though. My second was a 1965 Dodge Dart (Slant 6!) that was a wonderful reliable car (sold it to Mike later and he got better use of it). Then as I entered the Army, a 1 year old MGB - maybe my favorite car of all time (and the least reliable).
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Published on May 5, 2021
Comments 0
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
May 11, 2021 -- Maybe the question should be, "Where Are You Going to Retire", as many of our Members have either not yet retired, or haven't quite come to a final decision. We all want to know about those greener pastures that beckon(ed) to you. Or perhaps, you have decided to retire where you live now, either in the same home or in a different neighborhood. Whatever the case, the Topretirements community is very interested in your plans, because where people are actually retiring is always a lot more interesting than what all those "best places to retire" articles come up with.
Knowing what other people are thinking about gives people ideas as well as food for thought. There will be many possibilities where baby boomers are retiring that you hadn't thought about, as well as considerations that you hadn't taken into account before. To get things started, we have copied a sampling of suggestions from over 140 Comments we received a few years ago on this topic (although that Blog was specifically about where singles will retire, most of the Comments were applicable to couples as well as singles).
Your thoughts please! We encourage everyone reading this Blog to give us at least a sentence or two about where you retire, or the places you are considering. If everyone will do that, which will only take a minute, we will have an amazingly rich resource that thousands of people will find fascinating. Just go to the Comments section at the end of this article and give us a sentence (or more about why if you would like). In some cases we have to approve it before it goes live, but we will try to do that quickly. Thanks!
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Published on May 11, 2021
Comments 42
Category: Health and Wellness Issues
May 12, 2021 -- Just about everyone struggles with a word or a name occasionally. As in, the name of person coming toward you in the supermarket is right on the tip of your tongue, but it just won't come out. So embarrassing, and yet so common. The Alzheimer's Association has some great information that can help differentiate between normal age-related change and the more serious signs of approaching dementia. We will recap some of those points here, but their article, Early Warning Signs and Symptoms of Alzheimer's, has even more detailed information that everyone will find useful. It seems that the difference between Alzheimer's and ordinary age-related change are degree (how serious the behavior is), and length of time it is displayed.
Alzheimer's is a brain disease that causes a slow decline in memory, thinking and reasoning skills. There are many other forms of dementia as well. Here are 10 warning signs, along with examples of normal age-related changes:
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels
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Published on May 12, 2021
Comments 5
Category: Active adult communities
May 18, 2020 -- The Southeast is by far the most popular region for retirement on this site. But which of the hundreds of 55 plus and active adult communities in this region attract the most attention from our Members and visitors? To find out we examined the data from the first five and one half months of 2021. Here are the most popular communities in the Southeastern states of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina (we included Alabama but no communities made the cut). Most of the winners are in Florida (15), with Georgia and South Carolina making up the rest. This article updates one we did in 2018, and complements a similar one for the Southwest: "15 Most Popular Active Adult Communities in the Southwest for 2019".
The results are a combination of: "of course" (The Villages and several communities we have as advertisers), "head shakers" that we never expected to make this list, and some pleasant "surprises". What was really interesting is that only seven of the communities on our 2018 list made it again this year. The winners cover a wide range - from really big (On Top of the World and Solivita), to 55+ communities within larger master planned developments (Cresswind), to special interest (Shantinakin and Nalcrest), to inexpensive manufactured home and RV communities popular with snowbirds (Lost Lakes and Jamaica Bay). Note that most, but not all, of these communities are designated 55 plus, although the majority of their residents would probably meet that qualification.
While these are the 21 most popular active adult communities on this site for these four states, they might not necessarily be the "best" for your needs. They were, however, interesting enough to beat out hundreds of other great communities. If this list does anything for you we hope it expands your horizons, showing how important it is to spread your net wide when researching active adult and 55 plus communities. There are thousands of choices that might work for you, but you won't even find out about them unless you look around. There are many good choices awaiting you, so make a little effort and go beyond the one you or your friends know about.
The most popular 55+ communities in the Southeast
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Published on May 17, 2021
Comments 6
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
May 19, 2021 -- Last week we asked our Members to tell us where they retired, or where they are considering. The response, although certainly not overwhelming, did come up with a lot more suggestions. To see all of them you can go to the Comments from that article, 29 of them so far. We have summarized (lightly editing) the places that were mentioned there, but you should really read the originals in their entirety to get more detail. We also encourage you to tell us where you are retiring, either at the bottom of this article or on the original one. Thank you to all who contributed, we really appreciate you making the effort!
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Published on May 18, 2021
Comments 3
Category: Retirement Planning
May 22, 2021— More than three-quarters of baby boomers won’t move more than a few miles away from where they live now when they retire. This article will explore the case for sticking close to home in the next phase of your life.
There must be plenty of strong arguments for staying put, since so many of us do just that. Here are some of the major ones, along with ideas on how to make that decision work.
– Family. Staying close to children and close relatives is often the best reason for retiring where you live now. Grandchildren, if we are fortunate enough to have any, are usually a great source of joy, but without all the work associated with raising our own children! So sticking close enough where you can see loved ones without a long drive or plane flight will be a regular source of happiness. In the past Covid year, those extended families who lived near one another had a big advantage many others did not.
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Published on May 21, 2021
Comments 4
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
May 24, 2021 — The Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) has released the results from its annual retirement confidence survey – and they are pretty good! Back in 2014, 55% of all workers said they were “confident they would have enough money to retire confidently”. This year, 72% of all…
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Published on May 23, 2021
Comments 1
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
May 27, 2021 -- Not everyone dreams of retiring in an active community, a small town, or the suburbs. There is a sizable group of baby boomers who yearn for something bigger than that. For these folks, retiring in a small or medium sized city might be just the ticket. This lifestyle has the attraction of living in the center of things, walking to everything, choosing from a raft of interesting restaurants, or seeing a good play production or concert. To these folks that is a lot more appealing than endless rounds of golf, pickleball, or mowing the lawn. Here are picks for some great places to retire that offer an urban lifestyle.
For cities to be considered we had several wish list items, although not every city will have all of them. We tried to find cities that are walkable; where pedestrians enjoy wide sidewalks, safe crossing zones, and some separation from cars. Pedestrian-only zones are a big plus. Bike lanes and paths that keep you and your bicycle out of harm's way from cars are nice to have. There has to be a number of good restaurants and cultural venues to choose from. The presence of a college or university definitely adds value. And finally, there should be some living options either in the downtown or in a quiet nearby neighborhood. Another bonus would be low cost of living (not all of our picks met that hurdle). We published a list of 9 Great Small Cities for Retirement a few years ago, and boy did that generate a lot of Comments and suggestions (199) - we think you will find them worth reading.
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Published on May 26, 2021
Comments 25
