Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Millions of baby boomers are going to be looking for an affordable retirement in the next few years. In most cases they haven't save enough for retirement, although sometimes bad luck or some type of emergency might keep them from having enough money to maintain the standard of living they have become accustomed to. Whatever your situation, retirement age will come. The options are to get creative and make the best of it, or to accept a reduced lifestyle and blame someone else for it. Assuming Topretirements readers are positive people, this article will provide some ideas on how you can overcome your lack of funds and achieve an affordable, but quality retirement lifestyle. We will also list some places where you can live in style and on a budget.
With some good planning and dose of creativity it is very possible to find a retirement lifestyle that is exciting, fulfilling - and affordable. The best way to find that lifestyle is to start
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Published on July 27, 2010
Comments 6
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
July 20, 2010. You've heard of the most affordable places to retire. The most tax-friendly places. The best retirement towns for the arts, or for bicycling, golf, libraries, bookstores... etc. In fact, Topretirements has reported on all of those elsewhere on this site. But there is another sub-category of best places to retire that you might never considered - livability.
Livability means many things to different people. We just read an article at New York Magazine, "The Most Livable Neighborhoods in New York", where the author devised his personal livability formula. In it he identified the factors that
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Published on July 20, 2010
Comments 5
Category: Active adult communities
July 20, 2010 — There was one very big surprise on the annual list of the best active adult and 55+ communities which was just published by Topretirements.com. It wasn’t that Arizona, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, California, or South Carolina had plenty of representation on the list. The big surprise…
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Published on July 20, 2010
Comments 1
Category: Active adult communities
July 13, 2010 -- It's no secret that many Home Owner Associations (HOA's - also known as Community Associations) are seriously concerned about the rise in their members who are in arrears on their association dues. Now some HOA's are fighting back, often with the gloves off.
As background, arrears on community dues come in several forms. Many developments have some units that have been abandoned or foreclosed upon, so dues are usually not paid on those units. In many other cases the owners have just decided for one reason or another to stop paying. Both situations put the associations at risk, as fewer and fewer members are available to pay the community expenses. In some communities well over 50% of the homes are behind in their dues. If the situation becomes dire enough it can lead to the association itself going into default on its loans or bills, resulting in foreclosure and
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Published on July 12, 2010
Comments 5
Category: Active adult communities
Editors Note: One of our Topretirements members was kind enough to write this travelogue of his and his wife's recent "Stay and Play" or "Discovery" Package experience. We thought it was so interesting that it would make a good article. Wes and Ida used a weekend getaway package to explore Deaton Creek in Hoschton, Georgia (a small town northwest of Atlanta along I 85). Please note that we are not endorsing Deaton Creek, we are just passing along their experience. We applaud Wes and Ida's decision to check out a community in this way; there is no better way to get an opinion about a community than to live in it for a few days. Most active adult communities offer various Discovery packages. You can use the Advanced Search at Topretirements to find many of them. But if you don't see one, ask!
We enjoyed a wonderful weekend getaway at Del Webb's Village at Deaton Creek (DC)
this 4th of July
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Published on July 12, 2010
Comments 8
Category: Retirement Real Estate
July 6 — Results in the real estate market for 2010’s first quarter reflect a dismal picture for the most part. With $8000 tax credits a thing of the past (and which probably sucked up a lot of future demand), real estate sales hit the skids again. A report from…
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Published on July 6, 2010
Comments 0
Category: General Retirement Issues
July 6, 2010 -- Whether you stay where you live now or move to a new town, choosing a retirement town or active adult community is a life-altering experience. If you choose well, you will be able to live comfortably on your resources, enjoy activities you like, and savor relationships with friends and family. Choose poorly, and you might be living in near poverty, not be able to participate in fun activities, and be bored and lonely. This article is designed to help you understand some of the best reasons we have heard of for choosing a particular retirement town or community.
Let us reiterate one thing before we provide the list - staying where you
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Published on July 6, 2010
Comments 6
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
June 29, 2010. How closely do you match the profile of your fellow visitors at Topretirements? We just finished a new research study which looked at the questions asked by the almost 5000 people who have taken our Retirement Ranger Quiz. The results from that study have helped us learn more about baby boomer retirement hopes, dreams, and preferences. One of the most interesting things we've learned is that the people who have taken our quiz are much more ready to relocate than the average population - the vast majority of Ranger takers plan on moving in retirement. Another finding is that they are very open about the kind of environment they want to live in. We found out that most of our visitors are either already retired - or will do so soon. Taxes, cost of living, and region are all important considerations for
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Published on June 28, 2010
Comments 12
Category: Active adult communities
Update - June, 2014. Since we published this article much has happened in the Fairfield Harbour community. The community is much further along toward resolution of the issues. To that end we have provided here a 2014 update from Larry Knapp, President of the Fairfield Harbor Property Owners Association. To avoid a continuing to and fro on this issue will not permit additional comments at this time, either here or in our Forum.
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From Larry Knapp:
A Fairfield Harbour Update
June 15, 2014 -- Almost four years to the day, the article “When Bad Things Happen to Good
Communities – Fairfield Harbor” was posted. The article fairly portrayed the events
that led to some very “bad things” happening to our community. With recent lawsuits
now settled, it’s time for an update.
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Published on June 25, 2010
Comments 0
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
We get a kick out of the ING TV commercial, the one where one baby boomer asks another, "What's your number"? The response, "a Gazillion", always gets a laugh. But more importantly, the company makes a solid point - most people don't have any idea how much they are going to need in retirement. It is a very important issue, because starting the day you retire, your life changes. You no longer have a salary that will pay the bills. Now you are on your own - you have to know if what you have saved and will receive from other sources will be enough to live on. If the "number" you have accumulated is too small, you might outlive your money. This article will try to help you get a better idea of how to calculate your number.
What is the Magic "Number
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Published on June 22, 2010
Comments 7
