Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
May 3, 2022 -- You've worked hard to earn your retirement. So why not retire to a place where you are likely to be welcomed with open arms. To help with that we published a list of "10 Very Friendly Places to Retire" back in 2016, and it generated loads of comments and suggestions. Using this fantastic input from our Members (you can't beat the experience of real people!), here are even more great places to retire. We hope you will add to the list!
Cape Coral, FL. Here is what Linda had to say about this FL West Coast town: "I’d add Cape Coral, FL to your list. It’s not as isolated as Punta Gorda (about an hour up the coast). If we don’t have it in Cape Coral, there’s a good chance it’s available across the bridges to Fort Myers, Bonita Springs, Naples, etc. There is a very active New Residents Club here which has been going on for 50 years. If I had the stamina, I could be doing something with these new-found friends every day!"
more...
Published on May 2, 2022
Comments 5
Category: Retirement Real Estate
May 10, 2022 -- People living in a retirement face a new and growing problem - short term renters. While the problem is more acute in resort communities, it can occur almost anywhere.
Imagine living in a peaceful community where you know your neighbors on a first name basis. Then one day you wake to see strangers dragging suitcases down the hall, not sure where they are going. Confused about which unit they are renting, they might even try to get into yours. When when you hit the hay at 10 or so, the party next door is just getting started, their alcohol-fueled voices getting louder and louder over their music. The next day at the pool you find that you can't get a lounge chair, all of them taken up by your new neighbors as they enjoy their music, smoke, and drink beer from glass bottles. The renters, who might have crammed 3 couples into a 2 bedroom home, have helped to fill the parking lot too.
more...
Published on May 10, 2022
Comments 9
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
May 17, 2022 — People pick places to retire for a lot of reasons. How pretty it is, closeness to family, climate, low taxes, having a college, access to recreation or the wilderness, etc. But another really excellent reason is finding one that offers the amenities that match your lifestyle desires. In this article we will explore 11 great places to retire with particularly outstanding amenities. Our apologies in advance to any town we might have overlooked, we know there are many additional contenders that should have been included. Please provide your suggestions in the Comments section below!
11 Great Towns for AmenitiesHere in no particular order is our list of 11 retirement towns that offer exceptional amenities to their residents. We have tried to provide diversity to the list in terms of geography, size, type of amenity, and whether we have highlighted them before. Our biggest problem – we had too many towns to mention!
more...
Published on May 17, 2022
Comments 5
Category: Adventurous retirement
May 26, 2022 -- Sooner or later the "what are you going to do" question comes up in conversations about retirement. For a whole lot of people their answer is: "Maybe we'll take a river cruise". Then the big question is where? There are so many great possibilities. For sake of conversation, here are 10 of the best ideas for river cruises, and we would love to hear Member suggestions as well. We will publish another article on other types of cruises in the future.
What kind of river trip?
For the purposes of this article we are breaking these cruises into 4 categories: American, European, International, and Adventure. In addition to where you take your river trip, you also need to decide what company will take you down that river, and in what kind of style. There are a number of companies that offer river cruises for a host of different budgets and tastes, so you don't have to stick with the brand names you might have heard about. Talking with friends and your travel agent is a good way to find the one best suited to your needs and budget. We will list some of those operators under each category, but if you search the Internet you will be pleased with how many options there are.
more...
Published on May 25, 2022
Comments 3
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
May 31, 2022 -- Many of America's most hated companies are the cable, internet and telephone giants - Comcast/Xfinity, Century Link, Sprint, etc. People dread calling these behemoths for customer service, because they know they will get into a never-ending telephone tree that make it very difficult to speak to a human being. They also don't like the bills that come along with telephone, cable and internet service. The bill starts out looking reasonable, but after you add in the modem and cable box rental fees, broadcast and sports fees, and 6 different kinds of taxes, the total tab can easily approach $300/monthly. Adding more sports packages and HBO can send it north of that. And of course, every year the bill goes up. For retirees on a budget, these bills can become just too much.
After talking with friends your editor decided to cut the cord - or at least 2 of the cords - home phone and cable. Here is how he did it.
Alternative to cable TV
There are several good alternatives to cable TV.
more...
Published on May 30, 2022
Comments 14
