Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
---By now you have probably received your November 401k statements, and maybe you even had the courage to open them. If you haven't lost 40% of your portfolio since last year, cheer up - you're a winner!
This article will explore strategies for how you can weather the depressing economic turmoil that has engulfed us in late 2008. We would love to hear what you are doing and thinking about it too. Just go to our Forum and join the thread on "Retirement and the Economic Mess".
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Published on November 11, 2008
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
This is not to say that the bad news in housing, particularly for retirement communities, is over. But there have been some rays of good news popping up here and there. Thank goodness, we are tired of writing about the same old bad news!
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Published on October 28, 2008
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Category: Green Retirement Communities
The #1 green priority in baby boomers’ retirement homes is solar power, according to a recent survey. Capitalizing on this interest, Shea Green Certified homes at Trilogy now offers solar powered roofs as a no-cost option in its Victoria Gardens active adult communities. The builder’s website claims savings of up…
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Published on October 27, 2008
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
When baby boomers prepare for the next phase of their lives - retirement - many of them start by looking for the best places to retire at Topretirements.com. Every year we keep track of the most popular retirement towns on this site - here is our list compiled based on 2008 results.
Asheville, North Carolina remains the run away favorite dream retirement town. Asheville has 50% more web visits than the next most visited town on this site (Sarasota, Florida).
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There were some new additions in 2008 within the top 10 places to retire on this list. Those include San Diego, California at #8; Austin, Texas at #9; and Phoenix, Arizona at #10.
Sunbelt states dominated with the most towns in the top 25 list. Connecticut (Old Saybrook), Canada (Halifax), and Ohio (oxford) were the only towns to make the list from north of the Mason-Dixon line. Arizona dominated with 6 "best" towns, followed by Florida (4), North Carolina (3), California (2), Texas (2), and Tennessee(2). Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut, Ohio, and Canada each had 1 town on the list.
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Published on October 20, 2008
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
If you are the kind of person who likes gambling, Biloxi Mississippi might be the town for you – for many reasons. First, it is a gambling paradise. Starting with the Hard Rock Hotel Casino and the Beau Rivage, there are at least 7 major casinos in Biloxi. It is…
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Published on October 16, 2008
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
We are always on the lookout for interesting retirements. So when a mutual friend told us about Betty Fitterman (http:adventuresinthebettybus.blogspot.com), we got pretty excited. Betty and her husband shucked off their expensive home and 3 of their 4 cars, and bought a 4 year old luxury RV. It’s…
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Published on October 6, 2008
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Understatement: People nearing retirement have had good reason to be concerned in the last few weeks.
Our friend who likes to check on his stocks everyday has suddenly developed other interests. And who wouldn't blame him. It's no fund getting whipsawed - down in the depths one day, brought back to euphoria the next - only to have all hope snuffed out the following morning. Better to take up macrame.
Which leads so many folks to wondering what is a safe investment these days. Precious metals were red hot last week - for a while. Ditto for commodities. Stocks - only the bravest went there. Even staid money market funds, last refuge for the faint of heart, took big hits with net outflows of $173 billion for the week. The Primary Fund "broke the buck" - going below a net asset value of $1. Fortunately the Treasury Department announced a new insurance program like the FDIC for money market funds, helping bring stability back to that market.
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Published on September 24, 2008
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Category: Green Retirement Communities
A study from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) shows that the energy crisis is producing big shifts in what consumers are looking for in new homes. In as short a period of 2007 to 2008, buyer interest in common features like mudrooms, home offices, game rooms, and home workshops…
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Published on September 17, 2008
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Category: General Retirement Issues
Thought our Topretirements visitors might be interested in a blog post published today on Murderati - an very popular murder mystery blog. The angle is that my wife, Roberta Isleib, just published her 8th mystery last week. So she is not only on the tour promoting it, but she dragged me and Topretirements in on the fun. Here is an excerpt (full story at Murderati)
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John: Tip #1 -- Find a way to be interactive with your audience. My team at BLR came up with the idea of an interactive quiz for Human Resource professionals, the HR Challenge, which tested their knowledge about different HR questions. We all knew it would be a good idea, but were blown away when the website got so much traffic it overwhelmed the server. We ended up having to shut it down for 6 months and rebuild the site so it could handle the traffic. Think about questions or contests that get people involved in your story.
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Published on September 15, 2008
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
It is one of our favorite recommendations – if you want to get a good deal in retirement real estate, stay away from the coasts. The 2008 Coldwell Banker Home Price Comparison Index provides a pretty good illustration of the theory. The real estate brokerage firm makes an annual comparison…
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Published on September 10, 2008
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