Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
By Jay Mills
A few years ago retirement used to be about--well, retiring. Perhaps you moved to somewhere warm, bought a condo, and enjoyed the slow, relaxing pace of retirement.
Today, baby boomers are living more active, goal-oriented retirements. They're starting new businesses, traveling the world, and pursuing new hobbies. A common thread among many boomers is a desire to continue their passion for "lifelong learning." In fact, according to U.S. News and World Report, the number of baby boomers enrolled in some type of post-secondary education has increased by 20% in the last decade(1). And many are opening 529 Savings Plans and naming themselves as the beneficiaries in order to prepare
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Published on December 12, 2011
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Category: Active adult communities
Note: Don't miss the related articles in this series: "When Good Communities Go Bad", and "When Bad Things Happen to Good Communities - Fairfield Harbor"
December 9, 2011 -- Perhaps the biggest concern of someone making a retirement decision is, what happens if my new community goes bankrupt? Just last week that became a real-life concern for residents of The Village of Penn State, a well known Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) community located in State College, PA. The Village is one of a growing number of university-affiliated communities; in fact it is frequently consulted by other universities who are considering their own retirement communities. According to published reports, the Village has apparently been struggling with its debt load for
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Published on December 9, 2011
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
By Mike Brady
The power of cocktail party conversations should not be underestimated. Countless decisions on investments and other matters have their roots in the chit chat made over a glass of chardonnay and mustard soaked mini hot dog roll. But when it comes to choosing a retirement location, this advice could be hazardous. The financial and tax issues that affect retirement choices are particularly difficult and confusing, yet of critical importance. This article is intended to help you identify and prioritize them.
Choosing a location as a great place to move for financial reasons based on one piece of information might be a very big mistake. For example, an individual might hear
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Published on December 6, 2011
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Category: International Retirement
December 4, 2011 - Note: This profile is one of many in our “Adventurous Baby Boomer Lifestyles” series.
Stephen Anderson and his wife retired to Mexico seven years ago. Speaking to Topretirements recently by phone, Steven told us this was the biggest mistake of their lives. For the last year they have had their home on the market. They intend on returning to the USA as soon as it sells, as many of their friends have already done.
There are currently something like 1,000,000 expatriates that have retired to Mexico and many, many more coming. They are under the sometimes false impressions that it is far cheaper to live here; that it is nothing but beaches, mountains, and margaritas; and they can live better in Mexico than in the US or Canada. The truth is that it is not always less expensive to live here; it is also a country where crime and corruption are rampant. Indeed expatriates are not only the prey of choice, but crimes perpetrated against
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Published on December 4, 2011
Comments 163
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
November 29, 2011 -- Marketers have been salivating about baby boomers since the time we started overwhelming kindergartens in 1951. Developers are still excited about our huge numbers (76 million); today they are are eager to supply us with real estate for our "golden years". Yet, just as when we were in our teens a lot of companies couldn't connect with us, many of the people trying to market to us today are hopelessly young, and they don't always get what makes us tick either.
One constant is that baby boomers will never think of themselves as old. Our bodies might not look much like what they did when we got naked at Woodstock, but, attitudinally, we still tend to place ourselves in our late teens or 20's. Keeping that in mind, here are the top things that baby boomers don't want to hear as they think about retirement. Some are contradictory, but heh, who ever
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Published on November 28, 2011
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
November 22, 2011 -- A survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that only 13% of workers felt very confident they would have a secure retirement. To help get you into that elite group, here is
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Published on November 22, 2011
Comments 5
Category: General Retirement Issues
November 22, 2011 -- One of the regular questions we get from journalists and researchers is - where are today's retirees moving for their retirements? It's a tough question on which to find information. Fortunately some new data from the IRS puts some welcome dimension to the issue. Note that these immigration figures are for people of all ages, so while directionally useful, they are still not
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Published on November 21, 2011
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Category: Home and Garden
November 18, 2011 -- Earlier this month we generated a lot of member feedback with our article, "If You Could Break the Mold, What Would Your Ideal Community Look Like". Members have made 34 comments so far that reflect a wide range of opinions, from those who love the idea of an active adult community to those for whom that is the worst idea ever. Your input has been terrific!
This week we thought we would take this a little further - into the features and kind of home you as a baby boomer want to live
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Published on November 18, 2011
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
Nov. 14 -- Although a good 40% of baby boomers have considered long term health care insurance, the decision to buy it is rarely made. In a new survey by NBER Retirement Research Center and reported on by the Financial Literacy Project, several academics found that as in so many other decisions involving delayed gratification, we baby boomers have not decided to pay today for this protection tomorrow.
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Published on November 13, 2011
Comments 62
Category: Retirement Real Estate
November 11, 2011 - Here in Biloxi at the “Back from the Brink: Building Bridges to New Horizons” conference put on by the AARC, the mood is resilient, if not overly optimistic. Attendees at the conference were primarily developers of retirement communities and marketers from states/municipalities promoting their regions as retirement destinations. It has been a hard ride for these folks since the real estate market started its downhill ride in 2007. Construction in active communities has virtually stopped as short sales and foreclosed properties have made new properties uncompetitive. Half-finished communities have languished, gone into bankruptcy, or been sold to deeper
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Published on November 12, 2011
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