Category: Home and Garden
By Patricia Kennedy
March 21, 2017 -- I am pretty tech savvy for an old lady. This isn’t an idle boast because even way back in 1984, I began learning all-things-computers by helping my husband setup a network to link our home offices. It turned out that my organizational skills and compulsion to “follow the logic” were great advantages when mastering new software or installing the latest laptop. I remember that itchy-fingers feeling when downloading a new program finding great satisfaction when everything was finally up and running smoothly.
But that was then.
Now is more complicated. Especially with all the inter-connected “devices” that we rely
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Published on March 21, 2017
Comments 17
Category: Health and Wellness Issues
Update May 5: The latest version of this bill was narrowly passed in the House on May 4. The bill has most of the same features as the original, with some additional money thrown in to help people with pre-existing conditions, whose insurance can now go to market rates. The bill allows rates on people aged 50 -64 to increase dramatically. Now it is on to the Senate, which will probably produce its own version.
March 22, 2017 - The Republican controlled Congress and our new President have come out with their proposed replacement to the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. Unfortunately for its proponents, the new bill, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), has run into considerable headwinds. The American Medical Association (AMA), hospital groups, the Heritage Foundation,the AARP, as many as 18 Republicans in the House and Senate, several Republican governors, and virtually every Congressional Democrat do not like the bill. In this article we will review how the proposed bill would affect baby boomers 50-64 who are not eligible for Medicare. Unfortunately, many of the folks in this group are retired (often involuntarily) and have very low incomes.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 14 million Americans of all ages would lose health insurance coverage in 2018 under the bill, rising to 24 million by 2026. On the plus side, about a third of a trillion dollars would be saved during that period, mainly because subsidies to lower income folks would be replaced with less generous tax credits. Although younger people would probably see net health premiums (after tax credits) go down with the Republican plan, people age 50-64 would see increases in premiums that are so high
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Published on March 18, 2017
Comments 218
Category: Uncategorized
March 17, 2017 — We have some good news for our many Daily Alert subscribers! When we switched from Aweber to Mailchimp to send out our e-newsletters, one of the casualties was anchor links. Here is an example that will explain anchor links. In the Daily Alert what was happening…
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Published on March 17, 2017
Comments 0
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Updated April. 2020 - Originally published March 14, 2017 (see the many interesting Member suggestions for walkable towns in the Comments section).
Think how great it would be if you could retire to a place where you didn't have to own a car. You wouldn't have to climb in your vehicle, fight traffic down busy streets, or hunt endlessly for a parking place every time you wanted to go someplace. Here are 10 retirement towns where you can trade your car for a bike, golf cart, public transit, or - best of all - your own two feet.
In this search we are not mentioning the largest American cities, where having a car is more of a burden than a blessing. For example in New York City, where a surprising percentage of residents don't even have a driver's license, you can easily pay $500/month just to garage your car. In Gotham you can almost always get there faster on a subway, bus, taxi, Uber, or by
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Published on March 14, 2017
Comments 47
Category: Active adult communities
March 11, 2017 -- Jimmy Buffett fans, not known for worrying, can keep relaxing. In fact they can now find that last shaker of salt in their very own active adult community. The first one of many to come, dubbed Latitude Margaritaville, will go online next year in Daytona Beach, Florida. Press releases say the sales center there will be open later this year with the first models available in early 2018.
Topretirements must have seen 10 press reports about this new community - there is a lot of excitement about it. Here is what John Cohlan, chief executive officer of Margaritaville said about the new communities: “With Minto’s (the developer) expertise in creating master planned developments and Margaritaville’s inherent ability to deliver fun and escapism, Latitude Margaritaville has the exact coordinates for those looking to live the Margaritaville
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Published on March 10, 2017
Comments 11
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
By Flo Williamson (Moderator at Topretirements.com!). This is the first of a 2 part article - here is the link to Part 2: South Carolina.
March 8, 2017 -- There’s nothing so exciting as the thought of a road trip. My husband and I had been discussing revisiting and exploring the coasts of North and South Carolina, and as the grey winter started to settle in, we began to plan our trip in earnest. Our thought was to revisit some towns we had previously seen on a former visit several years ago, dubbed the “Inner Banks Tour”, and to explore some new areas that have always piqued our retirement relocation interest. We’re definitely the type who believe that getting there is half the fun, so rather than speed down Interstate 95, our trip really began as we picked up Rt.17, outside of Norfolk, VA.
Our first stop, Edenton, NC is a town we had visited before. Edenton, the county seat of Chowan County, is a small town with approximately 5,000 residents, located on the Albemarle Sound. If you like being around the water, this is the place to be. At the end of the main
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Published on March 8, 2017
Comments 97
Category: Retirement Planning
March 8, 2017 — In this article we hear from Bill Painter, who served for over 30 years as Chaplain/Spiritual Director at Judson Park, a Seattle area Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC), before retiring. Bill is an ordained American Baptist minister, clinically trained for health care ministry. He offers valuable insights into retirement life and its challenges, gained from many years of experience. We particularly like his case studies, which bring the points alive. This article is a good recommendation for choosing a CCRC with a spiritual resource like him on staff.
Q 1 What was your role at Judson Park?
I served as Chaplain/Spiritual Director at Judson Park for over 30 years. A CCRC is a community for elders serving residents in independent residential, assisted living, 24 hour skilled nursing care and memory support.
My primary role was to provide spiritual support for residents, families and team
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Published on March 7, 2017
Comments 3
Category: Health and Wellness Issues
Update March 18 - We just provided an update on how the new TrumpCare replacement will affect people age 50 - 64 - "Obamacare Replacement Will Hammer Pre-Retirees"
March 1, 2017 -- Judging by the number of Comments and questions we are seeing on this Blog, baby boomers are uneasy about what might happen to their healthcare insurance under Medicare, Medicaid, or the Affordable Care Act (ACA - Obamacare). Given all the headlines and conflicting plans and positions, those concerns seem to be well founded. In this article we will air some of the most frequent questions and concerns aired on the Topretirements.com Blog. In some cases we provide answers provided by other Members. We also have some good resources to recommend where you can research this topic in greater detail.
First, a little update on where we stand
The President, the Republican controlled Congress, and the new Secretary of the Health, Education and Welfare have all said they are going to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA - Obamacare). Democrats, on the other hand, favor improvement/repair rather than repeal. The subject is confusing: according to one poll, one-third of Americans don't realize that the ACA and Obamacare are the same thing. Republicans have floated at least one replacement plan in rough form, but they appear to have no consensus among themselves, in fact conservative Republicans say they won't go along with many of the provisions in that plan. What will happen,
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Published on February 28, 2017
Comments 50
Category: Retirement Planning
February 27, 2016 -- Editor's Note: This is part 2 of Jeff's retirement saga. Last month we published his account of How a Minnesota Boy Came to be Retired in the Heart of the South. This installment provides more of the decisions made and surprises encountered when he actually pulled the trigger on his retirement.
By Jeff Alden:
I closed my office last July after thirty-five years practicing law in Minneapolis. For several years, my wife and I had talked about where and when we might retire. We read about and discussed different options, but never got further than the obvious: wherever we landed, it had to be on one floor. We even made a few exploratory trips and talked about the possibility of moving to those places. Almost right up to the last moment, it didn't seem that we were really getting anywhere. Talk is cheap. But when we finally pulled the plug on our previous life, things happened fast. Kaboom! Like that.
I once had a law professor who liked to maintain that certain situations are "action-forcing." If A happens, B must follow. Our transition to retirement was a case in point -- the product of a series of forced actions on steroids.
My office lease was set to renew in August if I didn't terminate it by May. In a very real sense, that lease called my bluff. If I was serious about retiring, why would
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Published on February 26, 2017
Comments 43
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
February 22, 2017 -- A lot of baby boomers are facing a very difficult retirement. The Employee Benefits Research Institute’s (EBRI.org) 2014 survey reported only 55% of retirees are very or somewhat confident they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement. A Topretirements.com survey was even less optimistic; only 46% of our Members said that their expected retirement income will allow them to continue their pre-retirement lifestyles.
The Wall Street Journal recently profiled a baby boomer in this situation who took a surprising solution to solve the problem - "With $15 in the Bank, A Baby Boomer Makes Peace with Less (article might be behind a paid wall). Kathleen Wolf lived in the San Francisco area until recently. During her working life in real estate she made
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Published on February 21, 2017
Comments 35
