Category: General Retirement Issues
December 12, 2016 -- Baby boomers have finally got to the age where senior centers actually are meant for us... oh perish the thought! Sadly it is true, the oldest of us baby boomers turned 70 this year and tens of millions are in our 60s.
Which brings us to one of favorite pet peeves. In our Connecticut town there was a proposal to build a new "Senior" Center. The old one was a mess and not big enough for the number of people that wanted to use it. We lobbied, unsuccessfully, to build a "Community", rather than a "Senior" Center. The Community Center would have had all the facilities and resources that aging boomers want and need. But in our view, freeing it from the "Senior" stigma would have boosted attendance and been a resource that the entire community could enjoy. Happily, a beautiful and
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Published on December 11, 2016
Comments 19
Category: Retirement Real Estate
Dec. 7, 2016 -- The ultimate dream for many a baby boomer is to buy a home on the edge of the sea. Brilliant sunrises, grandkids playing in the sand or swimming off the fishing dock, and fiery sunsets are all part of that dream. Unfortunately, the reality of rising seas is threatening that good life. A recent article in the NY Times, "Perils of Climate Change Swamp Coastal Real Estate", found that real estate prices in flood prone areas of the U.S. are either declining, or not rising as fast as in other parts of the country.
(Courtesy of Wikipedia)
It used to be that potential buyers of coastal property
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Published on December 6, 2016
Comments 28
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 5, 2016 — A few years back a reporter asked for our opinion about college town retirements. Her questions concerned the pros and cons, reasons why to choose one, top places to retire with colleges, etc. What we told her is that there are a lot of really good…
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Published on December 5, 2016
Comments 19
Category: Retirement Planning
Nov. 29, 2016 -- Your editor has been retired 10 years now. And over that time he has written hundreds of articles that freely dispensed advice about retirement to tens of thousands of people. So what, if anything, has he learned during this decade, and what advice would he give anyone ready to enter retirement?
First of all, let me say how great it has been to be part of the Topretirements.com community all this time. The people I have met online and their wisdom and comments since the site began in late 2006 have been amazing in so many ways. Thank you to everyone in the Topretirements community, you guys have been so
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Published on November 29, 2016
Comments 128
Category: Health and Wellness Issues
By Liz Szabo at Kaiser Health News. (Reprinted with permission)
Nov. 21, 2016 -- A new study finds that the prevalence of dementia has fallen sharply in recent years, most likely as a result of Americans’ rising educational levels and better heart health, which are both closely related to brain health.
Dementia rates in people over age 65 fell from 11.6 percent in 2000 to 8.8 percent in 2012, a decline of 24 percent, according to a study of more than 21,000 people across the country
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Published on November 26, 2016
Comments 7
Category: Adventurous retirement
By Betty Fitterman
http://adventuresinthebettybus.blogspot.com
November 26, 2016 -- Note: This is Part 5 of a 6 Part series that Betty Fitterman was kind enough to contribute way back at Topretirements’ beginning. Here is a link to Part 1, See bottom of this article for links to the rest.
The difference between my husband and me is that while I am impulsive and curious and not at all worried about getting lost, he is a strategist and a planner and the kind of person who reads the manual before assembly. And he hates getting lost. So he does all the work of mapping out our routes, getting the RV attended to, and other chores I find boring or distasteful. Which, happily, allows me to be a happy-go-lucky, go-along companion who rarely objects to his plans, except for the ones that include rushing through an adventure in order to get
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Published on November 25, 2016
Comments 0
Category: International Retirement
November 20, 2016 -- Editor's Note: This article was written for our Tips & Picks section by Andrew Mastrandonas and Preston Gitlin, who lived and developed property in Costa Rica for many years (they have since moved on to other adventures). We have updated it and moved it here to the Blog so that people will have an easier time commenting on it. Their insights and advice remain true not only for Costa Rica, but for buying real estate in any foreign country. It is the First of a series.
Costa Rica is an alluring place for many people. With a terrific climate, stable and democratic government, proximity to the United States, lower cost of living, unbelievable scenery and wildlife, plus many outdoor and cultural activities, it is no wonder this country only the size of West Virginia remains one of the best in the world for retirement, investment, or a vacation. Over one million people visit Costa Rica each year generating about
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Published on November 19, 2016
Comments 0
Category: Active adult communities
Nov. 18, 2016 -- Ask a group of retirees what they think about living in an active adult or 55+ community and you will get a wide range of responses (as we did in our recent Member Survey). Most people seem to think they are OK. But a common anecdote you will hear from a certain subset of folks is that they cannot/will not to live in a community that has a Community Association (also known as Home Owner Associations - HOAs). Their attitude seems to be that HOAs are a loathsome bunch, dominated by cliques on power trips. In this article we will explore attitudes towards HOAs as reported in some actual surveys, as well as why they sometimes generate negative opinions. In this we were fortunate to receive input from Joe West, CEO of the Community Associations Network, the largest free website of information for people on HOA boards.
Actually, most residents are positive about their HOAs
By large majorities, most of the people who actually
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Published on November 18, 2016
Comments 20
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Nov. 14, 2016 -- Your editor went on a golfing junket to Kiawah Island in South Carolina's Low Country recently, and here is our report on what it might be like to retire here. When added together with Judith's report on her SC visit and our recent "10 Best Places to Retire in SC" article (see bottom for links to those), we've given Topretirements Members a pretty good dose of South Carolina retirement information lately. So coming up we will move on to other areas.
This was our first visit here to this island, a stretch of coast just south of Charleston it shares with Seabrook Island. To get a picture of where it is, it's a little more than half way down SC's coast, with Myrtle Beach at the top and Beaufort and Hilton Head Island at the bottom. Rivers and wetlands occupy much of the space. Someone asked on one of our SC articles if flooding is a problem here, and the answer is definitely YES, they don't call it the Low Country for nothing. New homes must be built quite high off the ground to protect against flooding and tidal surges.{GOOGLE_AD}There are some places to retire along this stretch of South Carolina's Atlantic Ocean frontage, but not that many. Around Charleston there is Mount Pleasant and the Isle of Palms. But after you go south from Kiawah there is a fairly empty stretch of coast until you get to Beaufort and Port Royal.
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Published on November 14, 2016
Comments 4
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
November 12, 2016 — On a regular basis we update the thousands of pages at Topretirements. As part of that rotation we just updated the state retirement guides for every state in the union. The changes included tax changes all these states had in 2016 as well as other key…
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Published on November 12, 2016
Comments 6
