Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 3, 2018 -- One of the intriguing lines that came up during the interviews for our "Should You Hire a Financial Advisor, Or Do It Yourself" article of a few months ago was this one: "Beware those free dinners". Lewis, the author of that quote, was referring to those invites you get in the mail for a free dinner at some nice restaurant; in exchange all you have to do is listen to some financial expert tell you how you can make a ton of money. Recently Ron Lieber, a columnist from the New York Times, took up that invitation, using one that came in for his 80 year aunt. The pitch was: "Tired of the stock market roller coaster ride? Want to protect your principal and lock in interest earnings?” The answer was to be found during a free
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Published on December 2, 2018
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Category: Retirement Planning
November 26, 2018 -- Thanks to the almost 700 members who generously contributed their insights to last week's "Snowbird" poll. We appreciate you sharing! As promised, here in Part 1 is our first detailed report on the summary for each question. Part 2 features a compilation of the most popular snowbird pairings (where our Members say they want to snowbird to, and from where), along with how they get there and other details of their migrations.
HighlightsYour input confirms many of our pre-conceived opinions, along with some surprises. For example, it is not news that the top snowbird destination states are Florida, Arizona, and South Carolina - in that order. But we were surprised by how many people have a reverse migration pattern; they pack up and go somewhere cooler in the summer. One Member called himself a "sweatbird", "shadebird" might be another handle!
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Published on November 26, 2018
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
November 20, 2018 -- Flu season is upon us. That means lots of people...and their germs - are traveling. So that makes it a good time for us to consider all the vaccinations that are recommended for those of us of a certain age. As we get older, our immune systems tend to weaken, putting us at higher risk for certain diseases. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) believes that you should get all recommended vaccines, not only to keep yourself healthy, but those around you as well. All information in this article is from the CDC.
The Flu
All adults need a seasonal flu (influenza) vaccine every year.
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Published on November 20, 2018
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
November 17, 2018. We would love to share with you solid information about how many retirees are interested in becoming a snowbird. Where they come from, and where they go to for the winter. How they found the places they snowbird in. Rent vs. own. And more. But to do…
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Published on November 16, 2018
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Category: Family and Retirement
November 13, 2018 -- Having an elderly pet can be a challenge; in some ways it is similar to caring for an older family member. But looking on the bright side, there are any number of lessons that Felix or Fido can offer to improve the enjoyment of your retirement. We'll explore some of these here.
- Stretching is a good thing. Cats, and to some extent dogs too, naturally stop and stretch to get the kinks out - and so should we. Daily stretching is one of the best things you can do to avoid injuries as well as
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Published on November 12, 2018
Comments 8
Category: Adventurous retirement
This article is courtesy of a recent interview with Nomadic Pilot, a long time Member at Topretirements. His retirement story is pretty interesting, we hope you enjoy it.
November 11, 2018 -
TopRetirements: We understand you are a pilot. Could you tell us a little bit about your flying life?
Nomadic Pilot: I’ve been a ‘recreational’ pilot since 1983. We use the airplane for weekend fun or family trips. My current plane is my third – a Cessna Turbo 210, preceded by a Piper Arrow II and a Cessna 172. I hold private single-engine-land (SEL) and single engine-sea (SES) certificates along with an instrument rating. The 210 is a fabulous cross country airplane. I purchased it in 1998 when we were living in southern CA. While there we used it for trips to Palm Springs, Sedona, Eureka, Napa, Seattle, Spokane and Fort Collins to name a few. We used the plane quite a bit to fly to college towns in the west when our son was evaluating colleges. We’ve also used it to fly to the annual
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Published on November 10, 2018
Comments 7
Category: Home and Garden
November 7, 2018 -- In our younger days we baby boomers did our bit to change the world. Now that most of our working days are behind us, will we revolutionize retirement living too? This article will review how retirement living options have changed since our teen years, and then we will prognosticate on what might be coming down the road, as the last baby boomers reach retirement age (they hit age 65 in 2031), and turn the baton over to Generation X in 2032.
Retirement, back in the day.
Prior to 1960, when Sun City Arizona opened, your retirement living options were pretty simple, probably occurring in stages. You could live in your own home (with a caretaker if you were well off), move in with one of your children, or go to a retirement or nursing home. The latter tended to be pretty bleak- surrounded by a lot of old people, maybe lucky to get your own room. Amenities tended to be limited.
The original Sun City Show Home
Sun City introduced the active adult community (or 55+ community) to the world, and it has been super successful. To give you an idea, from that single community in 1960 there are now thousands; in fact there are 3,761 communities in our Topretirements database, and at least 80% of those could be classified as 55+ or active adult. We
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Published on November 7, 2018
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Category: Retirement Planning
October 31, 2018 -- A provocative question we hear from time to time is, "Where do you think you'll be, and what will you be doing, when you turn 80 and move toward 90?" Forward thinking helps insure that you arrive at the place that you want to be, ready for the challenges that might be there.
The purpose of this short article is to solicit brief answers from our Topretirements community on this question - how will your lifestyle differ from what it is now in your 60s or 70s? Please refrain from saying you will probably be dead - half of us will live into our 80s - and we need to understand what we should be
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Published on October 30, 2018
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
October 30, 2018 -- Last week we reported on the retirement towns we visited in Western North Carolina. This second installment continues the trip down into northwestern Georgia. Don't forget to see links to our other road trip articles in the "Further Reading" section at bottom.
The Planning BeginsWe planned the trip by going through the Topretirements State Directories, looking for potential retirement towns to explore in the western parts of Georgia.
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Published on October 29, 2018
Comments 4
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
October 23, 2018 -- For the longest time we have wanted to explore the western Carolinas and northern Georgia to get a better picture of this popular region for retirement. So for this year's southern migration my wife and I decided to take the western route, starting out on Interstate 81. What a great trip it was. We will report on the towns we visited in western North Carolina (plus a list of the ones we didn't to see). In a second installment we will continue with those we visited in northwestern Georgia. Don't forget to see links to our other site visit articles in the "Further Reading" section at bottom.
Even if you are not considering retiring to this area you might find this travelogue a source of good ideas. You could use it for either a short vacation, or as a diversion if you are a snowbird hurtling to and from your summer and winter haunts.
The Planning Begins
We started planning the trip by going through the Topretirements State Directories, looking for towns in the western parts of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. Our goal was to find towns that we
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Published on October 22, 2018
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