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Try It NOWCategory: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
Looking over the handlebars at 6 lanes of busy traffic that bars the way to your daily destination, you might wish you had done your bike-friendly research a little better. Fortunately that’s a lot easier in some parts of the country, because believe it or not, according to the…
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
If this headline about seller's remorse strikes you as a little bit of a non-sequitur, you wouldn't be alone. With the turmoil in South Florida's active adult and real estate market, you would think we should be talking about "buyer's remorse". That's the affliction that comes when people who bought a few years ago are under water with their mortgage - they owe more than what their home is worth.
Rafael Diaz could tell you all about it. Two years ago this Miami builder listed a brand new home near the University of Miami for $979,000. Today's listing price - $599,000. What's worse is that he turned down an offer of $770,000 just a year ago. What he told the New York Times says a lot of sellers remorse, "I should have taken it. ... I guess I was a little cocky...."
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Want to know how much you will receive from Social Security when you retire? How much will your check will be if you start taking benefits at 62, 66, or "full" retirement age (70). The Social Security Administration has just unleashed a powerful tool, The Retirement Estimator, that will give you these figures in less than a minute.
It's a great retirement calculator that has many uses. We've been doing some work with retirees lately and it is truly sad to see how many people are not financially prepared.
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Category: Active adult communities
August 6 -- We are constantly on the lookout for the best places to retire. And it's fun to write about a place so nice that it gives you the itch to move there.
A more difficult problem emerges when we try to seek out the best active adult communities. Many people want to live in these self-contained worlds (and yes, many won't go near them too!). But when we get excited about an active adult community that sounds just great - the other shoe drops when we find out where it is. Yep, 9 times out of 10 it is in some little town that no one has ever heard of, way out in the boondocks.
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
July 28 -- Are you the type of person who has a certain "magic number" in mind? The magic number being the amount of savings you think you need to quit the working world and retire. It's always been an interesting exercise, with the problem that all too often these numbers tend to be unscientific, often relying on shaky assumptions about spending and income.
Finding the magic number is an essential step in every baby boomer's preparations for a worry-free retirement. Nowadays there are any number of retirement calculators available on the internet. These nifty web pages take the mystery out of the process.
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Category: Green Retirement Communities
July 22 -- If there is one "cool" trend in home building today, it is going green. A number of factors have come together to make the green (environmentally sustainable) movement the potential saving grace of struggling home builders across the world. In fact, a McGraw-Hill Construction/National Association of Home Builders study predicts that "The market for green housing will grow to from as little as $12 billion this year to between $40B and $70B by 2012.”
Obviously the high price of oil is factor number 1. With oil prices skyrocketing, residential buildings, which account for 21% of U.S. energy consumption (source: U.S. Energy Information Administration), are an easy target for money-saving ideas.
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
July 15 - Retirees are coveted by states and towns because of their economic value. They buy homes, usually don't need jobs, and bring with them pensions, social security checks, not to mention tax dollars. A report from the N.C. Center for Creative Retirement: Institute for the Future of Retirement at UNC Asheville finds that some states are doing better at attracting retirees, and they are not all the usual suspects.
The Center relied upon 2005 data from the Census Bureau's American Community Surveys (ACS) to compile their findings. The biggest news reported is that Florida, although still receiving the biggest share of 60+ individuals, continues to lose market share to other states, particularly Texas.
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
For a lot of people the dream of retirement includes golf - and plenty of it. We've seen lists of the top 10 golf communities from other sources in the past, but frankly, they were less than satisfying. Nice list, no passion. That inspired us to a project we could really get into the swing of - the Topretirements.com list of top 10 golfing towns for retirees. Our criteria: the ready availability of great golf, relatively low cost, and other redeeming (non-golf) features, where possible.
Compiling a list like this by a self-described golf nut is a
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Category: Active adult communities
July 3 — Buying into a retirement or active adult community is a complex decision involving where you want to live, what lifestyle and activities you want, costs, and what kind of neighbors you want. Your new Home Owners Association (HOA), which typically runs most active adult communities and…
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
June 27 -- Identifying the bottom of a real estate cycle is a trick that is just about impossible to master. We at Topretirements have been exploring this question for over a year now, wondering if it is finally the right time to buy into a retirement community or active adult community. Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer in sight. Today's New York Times article, "Retirees Find the Time May Be Right to Buy", examined this question, profiling the experiences several retirees had as they explored the retirement community real estate market.
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