Category: Family and Retirement
November 2, 2022 - Thanks to everyone who took the time to take last week's instant poll on spousal compatibility around retirement decisions. The good news is that the vast majority of you all are either extremely compatible (25%) or mostly compatible (41%). Luckily, only a handful are extremely incompatible. Many of you added insightful comments to explain your particular situation, and offer lessons learned to others. We have incorporated some of those into this article, along with ones from previous articles. (see Further Reading below to see all of them).
The worst situation
The biggest problem is when two partners disagree on major issues about retirement. If they can't agree on when and where to retire, how much money to spend, how close to family, or what is the right climate, somebody might end up extremely unhappy. Let's hope that didn't happen to you. But if it does, here are some tips on how to make the best of it, along with some of the common pickles that couples find themselves in.
Get started early
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Published on November 1, 2022
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
November 9, 2022 -- Even though the Sunshine State typically adds 900 new residents every day, it still has plenty of detractors. You have probably run into many of them, often at a party where people are discussing retirement locations. "I hate the bugs, the humidity, the hurricanes, the sprawl, and the traffic"; that's a pretty good summary of the usual complaints. So if you are one of those who wants to avoid a Florida retirement, where else should you consider?
One of Florida's obvious attractions is the warm winters it provides. For those who have to have that climate requirement, geography creates some limitations. Fortunately there are some possibilities, which we will discuss here, along with some of tradeoffs and comparisons with Florida.
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Published on November 8, 2022
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Nov. 10, 2022- A disturbing statistic emerged in 2021. In that year 10.7% of America's over 65 population lived in poverty, up from 9.5% in 2020. While that is a lot better than the third of elderly Americans who were in poverty before Medicare came along, it is an alarming trend. Although poverty among the elderly in the U.S. is low by historical standards, we have one of the highest rates in the developed world, per the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Unfortunately, there is a long list of reasons why so many older people face economic hardships.
The pandemic was a big reason for the poverty rate uptick in 2021. People lost their jobs and businesses. One person in the marriage might have died from Covid, or they faced big and unexpected medical expenses. But there are many other reasons beyond the pandemic too. People retiring today are much less likely to have a pension than in the past. Some might not even had had a chance to participate in an IRA or 404(k), or make enough to amass significant savings. Think of someone who made the minimum wage or just above it, how were they going to even get by, much less save for retirement? Many other workers were doing OK, only to find their jobs ending well before they wanted to retire. Debt, medical problems, having to take care of elderly parents or adult children, etc. can mean a retirement in poverty for others.
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Published on November 9, 2022
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Category: Active adult communities
Update June, 2023 - In another development, Governor DeSantis recently signed the much anticipated Surfside Glitch Bill, SB 154, into law. The bill relieves some of the ambiguity in SB 154. It also provided relief for some provisions of the law such as allowing a Milestone Inspection to be provided by a team of professionals with an architect or an engineer acting as a registered design professional in charge of the report (the supply of inspectors was an issue). Other clarifications had to do with reserve requirements. In one provision, reserves are not needed for replacement costs for items for which the estimated remaining useful life exceeds 25 years (but reserves are still required for deferred maintenance for those items).
November 13, 2022 -- Hurricanes Ian and Nicole were bad enough, destroying thousands of homes, changing the coastline, and scaring residents and real estate buyers alike. But a new Florida law, SB 4-D: Building Safety, is about to provide a potential killer wave to the Florida condo market.
The Building Safety Law is a reaction to the tragic Surfside building collapse in Miami in 2021. It has several key requirements for condominium associations that most are not yet aware of, especially how fundamentally those will affect their finances. This article will attempt to give a quick snapshot of what is now required, and how things will change. We recommend that if you are on a condo board you get familiar with the law now, because it has several new requirements. As it spells out clearly, failure to meet them is a breach of an officer’s and director’s fiduciary relationship to the unit owners. Sadly, the jailhouse humor going round is that it could cause mass resignations of board members across the state. Even if you are not a board member, you should make sure that your board is working on this issue.
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Published on November 12, 2022
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Category: Active adult communities
November 16, 2022 — With people more and more willing to travel these days, some of those trips will be to explore active adult or 55+ communities as potential places to retire. We have just updated a popular article of a few years back with that in mind. It explains…
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Published on November 15, 2022
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
November 22, 2022 -- So you've done your research and found the best town and state for your retirement - great! But before you pull that trigger, here is one last checklist to go over. This last bit of research will help to make sure that even if the climate and the location and the community are just perfect, that something unexpected doesn't come in to play to spoil your decision.
A lot of people do decide to move far away once they retire. According to the website hireahelper.com, 234,000 American retirees moved last year, up slightly from the pandemic reduced 2020. Being close to family and cheaper/better housing were the top 2 reasons for moving. Florida was the number 1 state for retirees who moved out of state (12% moved there), with the mid Atlantic Coast coast region (Melbourne) area attracting the most. Other states in the top 5 were North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia. Oregon and Maryland were the top 2 states retirees moved away from.
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Published on November 23, 2022
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
November 27, 2022 -- Researchers at The John Hopkins Sex and Gender Clinic have a message for people over 50: "It's not just for young people." In an article at AARP, Kate Thomas, Director of Clinical Services says that "“It can strengthen our relationships, promote self-esteem, and improve our sense of identity.” Beyond that, the article listed other ways researchers have found sex is beneficial to older people.
8 ways sex is good for you
Boosts Immunity. Apparently a romp in the hay is also good at improving your response to disease, possibly even Covid. People who had more sex showed more immunity than others according to a study by researchers at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania.
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Published on November 26, 2022
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