Category: Checklists
January 11, 2016 -- It can be daunting to think about planning for retirement. There is so much to consider, where do you even start? But what if all you had to think about was boiled down to a 3 x 5 index card? That is what we have done in the part 1 of this article. In part 2 we are going to show how you how to write your retirement action plan on an index card, complete with a sample.
Our hope is that once you have seen retirement planning simplified to the bare essence, you will give planning a chance. So
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Published on January 11, 2016
Comments 31
Category: General Retirement Issues
February 1 Update: Since we published this post more of the Topretirements site has gone mobile friendly. The City Reviews, over 1000 of them, are now much easier to view on your mobile. Please also check out our 2nd video, which is a quick one on "How to Get Started Finding the Best Communities at Topretirements"
January 3, 2016 -- If you are viewing Topretirements on a tablet like an Ipad or a smartphone, there is a different look from you would have seen a few days ago. The world is moving more and more to mobile phones and ipads, and Topretirements.com is trying to meet that demand. To that end we are pleased to announce that after a long and demanding upgrade process, our site is now much easier to use and better looking on the small screen.
Stats by device type
The trend is pretty clear - Internet users are moving from desktop computers to tablets and mobile phones. In the last 6 months
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Published on January 3, 2016
Comments 8
Category: General Retirement Issues
December 30, 2015 --- As 2015 begins to float away in the eddy of the busy holidays, it is interesting to see which articles grabbed the attention of the Topretirements.com community during the year. There are always at least a few surprise articles that generate more readership and Comments than we expected. Here is our annual review of the best of Topretirements for 2015.
We Do Appreciate
Before we list the best articles, we need to mention some other bests here. For one, we appreciate the loyal advertisers who make this site possible. Many have been with us almost since our beginnings in 2007 - thank you for your support. Our members are tops too; we love your insightful and thought-provoking comments and suggestions (please keep both coming!) It is fun to produce this site for such an engaged group of people.
Most Read Articles of 2015
The first few articles are no strangers to this list - our
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Published on December 29, 2015
Comments 2
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 28, 2015 -- You only have a few days left to do it, but you can now once again make a qualified charitable donation from your IRA in 2015, and not have that donation count as taxable income. The re-authorization of The IRA Charitable Rollover provision is one of many outcomes of the Congress's recent Omnibus spending bill (PATH Act of 2015). The provision allows individuals who have reached age 70½ to donate up to $100,000 to charitable organizations directly from their Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The change is permanently reinstated. The payment must be made directly to the charity from the IRA or 401k.
The problem with this good news is that most
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Published on December 27, 2015
Comments 6
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Note: This article compiles information from a Social Security Office or Retirement and Disability Report: Taxation of Social Security Income. Note that we are not tax professionals - consult your accountant or other expert before you make any important decisions on this issue.
December 18, 2015 -- Many of our members are either not aware that they might have to pay taxes on their Social Security benefits, or if they are, not sure how much they might have to pay. This article will try to shed some light on the issue.
Social Security beneficiaries with total income exceeding certain thresholds have been required to claim part of their Social Security benefits as taxable income since 1984. The income thresholds for taxation of benefits have remained unchanged since Congress first established them but, because wages have increased, the proportion of Social Security beneficiaries who must pay federal income tax on their benefits has risen over
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Published on December 19, 2015
Comments 13
Category: Health and Wellness Issues
December 15, 2015 -- Hopefully at this point your children have been raised, your career is behind you, and you have amassed enough money to start enjoying a comfortable retirement. Now you have a new job: a happy and fulfilling retirement. But what is the best way to do that, and avoid wasting what are supposed to be your golden years?
One really good place to start is to examine the attitudes and behaviors toward retirement and aging of the people who have gone before us. You most likely know or remember some people who you admire for the way they lived their lives. This article will examine some of the life lessons we have seen firsthand or read about in famous
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Published on December 15, 2015
Comments 4
Category: Green Retirement Communities
By Roberta Isleib
December 15, 2105 -- With talks on climate change wrapping up in Paris with an agreement signed between 196 nations, it seems like a good time to consider whether climate change should be factored into choosing your best place to retire. (And to be perfectly honest, one of our regular readers tweaked us recently to write an article on this subject, saying "retirees really need to know how climate change is affecting and will affect their retirement location.")
So we're hoping to set aside political agendas and ideologies today and explore some of the facts about where and how things are changing and how that might inform your retirement choices. Are there locations where you should not plan to retire, either in the near future or down the road? The answer - almost certainly.
The Washington Post reported this week that the president of Kiribati, a pacific nation consisting of 33
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Published on December 15, 2015
Comments 91
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 9, 2015 -- For a surprising number of baby boomers the ideal retirement is not in an active community with a golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool, or clubhouse. Neither is it a small town, nor a postcard pretty burg with a college as its centerpiece. Instead, many surprise their friends by moving from the suburbs to of all places - a city. While an unexpected choice, there are any number of good reasons to make this move, akin to a salmon swimming upstream. This article will explore the many advantages and disadvantages of an urban retirement lifestyle, and then we will provide a list of 10 great cities where you can retire.
As we are fond of saying, retirement is a chance at a do-over on life. Lets say you have regrets about some choices you made during adulthood - like where you chose to live or what you did for a living. Now that you are
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Published on December 8, 2015
Comments 18
Category: LGBT Retirement
By Dave Hughes
December 7, 2015 --When it comes to choosing a place to live during retirement, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people want the same things that everyone else wants – someplace safe, reasonably priced, agreeable climate, cultural and recreational amenities, and good healthcare. LGBT people, however, have a few additional factors to consider. Those include: how tolerant an area is, the presence of a gay community, and healthcare providers that are welcoming towards LGBT people. Sadly, instances in which LGBT patients are treated poorly and same-sex partners are denied visitation rights or decision-making rights in hospitals and nursing homes are still all too common.
How can straight people benefit from a list of LGBT-friendly retirement cities?
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Published on December 7, 2015
Comments 43
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 6, 2015 -- If you have a 401(k) and/or an IRA, and you turned 70 and 1/2 in 2014 or earlier, you have a very big deadline coming December 31. That is the date by which you must take your annual Required Minimum Distribution (RMD), or face significant penalties. A surprising number of people fail to take these distributions. All of the money taken from regular
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Published on December 5, 2015
Comments 5
