Category: Singles and Retirement
December 21, 2020 -- The most helpful and valuable input we get on this site comes from you our Members. And when it comes to where single people should be looking to retire, and what they should be looking for, with your comments we hit the jackpot! There is really nothing better than detailed input about real places from real people. Special thanks to Moderator Flo for suggesting this.
In this article we will reprint some of the most practical and informative Member suggestions about retirement for singles from many different Blog articles on this site. There are many suggestions about specific places to retire where singles will be happy, what types of communities you should consider, organizations to join where you can meet folks, and strategies for meeting and making new friends. At the end we have provided a list of our previous articles about singles and retirement, with many tips, ideas, and dozens of Member comments.
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Published on December 19, 2020
Comments 10
Category: Health and Wellness Issues
December 19, 2020 -- A very popular retirement-age calculator now is Livingto100. Developed by Dr. Thomas Perls, it asks a raft of fairly predictable questions and then provides an estimate of how long you will live, along with tailored advice. The questions makes a lot of sense - if you are healthy and avoid most of the bad things (drinking, smoking, stress, obesity), and do the good things (exercise, have friends, brain activities, floss, wear sunscreen, etc.), and your parents lived to ripe old ages - you have a good shot at living to 100. Which leads us to the connection to Winston Churchill, who, despite legendary bad habits, lived to 90 years old. How did he do it, and what can we learn from his experience?
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Published on December 18, 2020
Comments 7
Category: General Retirement Issues
December 15, 2020 -- We are pleased to announce the winners for the "Best Retirement Planning Articles" of 2020. The criteria for this first ever award are that the writing is thoughtful, timely, interesting, and helpful to retirees and prospective retirees. We tried to concentrate on more practical topics and avoided Top 10 lists, as they are ubiquitous and sometimes a little silly. Our hope is that you will enjoy and learn from these great examples of writing about retirement planning.
Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich from Pexels
To come up with the winners we reviewed retirement-related articles on the main websites that we use for collecting retirement ideas. Those include: The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, NextAvenue, Squared Away Blog, AARP, Robert Powell at TheStreet.com, The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, etc. We also looked through Topretirements.com for 2020 articles that were inspired by reporting at other media outlets. We tried to choose from a variety of these sources to spread the glory around. As few of these sites are behind a pay wall, so we have tried to provide permalinks. In some cases, however, you might not be able to read the article unless you subscribe. Real, honest journalism is under siege from sources that will make up anything outrageous to get readers, so please support organizations like these that rely on the facts and honest data.
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Published on December 15, 2020
Comments 4
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 7, 2020 -- With the pandemic putting a damper on travel, many people are postponing their winter time retirement explorations. As a partial substitute for those travels, here in Part 1 of this series we will provide a virtual tour of some of the best places to retire in Southwest Florida. In Part 2 we featured a tour of Arizona places to retire. Future installments will cover Florida's East Coast, Central Florida, the Carolinas, and others suggested by our Members.
Best Places to Retire in Southwest Florida
Southwestern Florida starts just above Tampa and goes south to Marco Island. This 180 mile stretch probably has more places to retire than anywhere in the world, with the possible exception of the southeast coast of FL from Vero Beach to Miami. Here on the Gulf Coast there are barrier islands, 3 good sized cities (Tampa/St.Pete, Sarasota, and Fort Myers), fabulous beaches, endless waterfronts and waterways, and a variety of towns that make for interesting places to retire. There are thousands of active adult and 55+ communities, ranging from budget RV/Mobile Home parks to exclusive refuges catering to the 1%.
Anyone looking for a warm winter retirement should definitely at least consider this area - when safe travel resumes again a leisurely exploration would be well worth it. While you are there, if certain towns and areas appeal, you might consider a Stay and Play package or monthly rental to see if you really like the place. Note: Most of the names of the cities and towns in this article are linked to more detailed reviews as places to retire.
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Published on December 6, 2020
Comments 2
Category: Health and Wellness Issues
December 4, 2020 — Been wondering exactly where you stand when it comes to getting a Covid vaccine? We know we have been. Out this morning is a very cool tool to help you get a better idea, depending on where you live, your age, occupation, and any health care…
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Published on December 4, 2020
Comments 8
Category: Travel
December 2, 2020 -- While up north there has already been plenty of snow and ice, that doesn't mean that all the snowbirds have taken flight to warmer climes. The Covid pandemic seems to have clipped the wings of a significant number of people in the northeast, midwest, and Canada, as reported in the South Florida Sentinel, which recently published an article interviewing officials in communities and the tourist industry. Although precise figures are hard to come by, it is clear that not everyone is going to come south. The article's conclusions line up with results from the Topretirements Blog article on snowbirding this winter, which generated 29 comments.
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Published on December 1, 2020
Comments 6
Category: Active adult communities
by Larry Gavrich
Editor's note: Larry is a frequent contributor to discussions here at Top Retirements, and we have learned much from him. We are happy to have him today as a guest to discuss what he has learned from helping individuals and couples find the best golf community for them (even if they don't play golf!).
After 15 years of research, visits to 150 planned communities, more than 1,000 articles and hundreds of conversations with real estate professionals, golf directors, community board members and, most of all, the hundreds of clients I have worked with to identify the best community for them, I have come to a few important conclusions. I cover them, and more, in my new book, Glorious Back Nine, How to Find Your Dream Golf Home (which I could have titled, just as well, “Not for Golfers Only” since about half of those who live in golf communities never play golf).
Here are a few of the most critical lessons I’ve learned:
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Published on November 29, 2020
Comments 15
Category: Health and Wellness Issues
November 26, 2020 -- You see the person coming down the aisle toward you and... panic! A minute ago their name was on the tip of your tongue, but now it is gone! Or, you are describing something to a friend, and the name of the book or the noun you are looking for has completely escaped you. It happens to all of us, but new research indicates that it is more likely to occur in people who are retired than people of the same age who are working.
Ross Andel, director of the School of Aging Studies at the University of South Florida, tested the memories of people in their early 60s living in Canberra, Australia over almost a 20 year period. In the Australian test, starting at age 60 subjects were were asked to remember as many random and unrelated words in a list as they could. The tests were repeated every 4 years.
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Published on November 26, 2020
Comments 4
Category: Retirement Planning
November 23, 2020 -- One of our favorite pieces of advice is that retirement offers a chance for a do-over on life. However life has turned out so far, most of us have the opportunity to change directions, if we want to take it. With that in mind, here are the eleven types of retirees we've seen. Which type will you be?
Note that many, if not most, people live a retirement that is a combination of many types. Have you observed other types that we should have mentioned?
11 types of retirement
Keep on Truckin'. This might be the most common type of retired person. They retire and continue to live in the same home, doing the same kind of activities they always did. They might continue to work on a less rigorous schedule. They have more time now, but their days fill up quickly with projects, TV, etc.
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Published on November 23, 2020
Comments 11
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
November 18, 2020 -- Finding a state with no income tax can be a good reasons to choose it for retirement for many well-heeled retirees. Up until 2021, only 7 states could claim they have no state income tax. But coming in 2021 an 8th will join the list, Tennessee (the State previously taxed dividends and interest, but not other income). Other states have made moves to make their tax situation more favorable in 2021 as well, mainly by increasing standard deductions and personal exemptions.
These states have no income tax
Starting in 2021 the eight states with no income tax will be: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. New Hampshire almost makes the list because it only taxes interest and dividends (up until 2021 Tennessee was in the same category).
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Published on November 18, 2020
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