Category: Active adult communities
July 4, 2015 -- It's out there somewhere, the perfect place for you to retire. A community with the right combination of activities, ambience, neighbors, type of homes, etc. that matches exactly to what you are looking for. The reality is there might be dozens, even hundreds of places that where you can retire happy, if you can identify and analyze them. This quiz will take you through the major issues that will help you understand and rate the communities that are a good match for you.
About this checklist/rating sheet
For each question there might be several answers that describe you and your preferences, so choose as many as fit. Once you complete this form you will have a better idea about your overall preferences. Then, by rating different
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Published on July 4, 2015
Comments 58
Category: Family and Retirement
June 27, 2015 — Most people are in relationships. Making decisions that involve a couple is complicated, starting with the obvious - there are two people’s needs and wants involved. Reconciling the dreams and goals of two different people is a challenge, but one that can bring much happiness and joy if done successfully. The goal of this article is to help couples find effective strategies to achieve success in their retirement planning.
Two years ago we surveyed our Topretirements Members on Spousal Compatibility. Over 600 folks completed the survey and provided a wealth of data, opinions, and great advice. You will find a link to the results of that survey at the bottom of this article. In this space we will discuss some of the most difficult issues that the survey turned up, along with a summary of the advice we received from our members on how to handle those challenges. We know that you enjoy reading about the experiences of actual people in your situation, so we hope you find these anecdotes useful. We especially look forward to your additional Comments at the end of the article.
A Suggestion
One way to use the information in this article is for both
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Published on June 27, 2015
Comments 76
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
-- This article continues our Dueling Retirement States series with another regional comparison. See Further Reading at end for links to other comparisons in the series --
June 22, 2015 -- Are you tempted by the lure of mountains for your dream retirement lifestyle? The Mountain States of the U.S. - Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming - continue to experience amazing population growth, including from people of retirement age. Colorado's population, for example, grew by over 1 million people between 2000 and 2014, much of which was net in-migration. Many of these mountain states' new residents are 20 and 30 somethings who have come for jobs in these growing economies. But another demographic segment flocking to the region for its beauty, outdoor recreation, and in many cases, to be near their adult children, is the huge baby boomer group. The attraction for many of these folks is the opportunity to enjoy magnificent mountain ranges like the Beartooths in Montana, the Sawtooths in Idaho, and the many sub-mountain ranges of the Rockies in Colorado. In this article we will compare and contrast these 6 mountain states: Colorado and Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming (links go to our mini-retirement guides to each state). Population and income data is from American Fact Finder-U.S. Census Bureau.
A Few Facts
Colorado is by far the more populous of the 5 states. The 2014 population there increased to just over 5.35 million from 5 million in 2010, which is a 6.5% increase in just 4 years. There were 2.8 million people in the second most populous state, Nevada, up from 2.7 million in 2010 (+5.1%). Wyoming had the smallest population of the six, which stood at 584,000 in 2014, a 3.6% gain from 2010. Utah enjoyed a significant population increase from 2010 to 2014, 6.5%, double the overall U.S. growth rate. Its population estimate was 2,942,000 in 2014. Idaho had 1,634,000 people in 2014, up 4.3% from 2010. The Montana population was 1.024 million in 2014, up from 989,000 in 2010 (+3.5%).
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Published on June 22, 2015
Comments 14
Category: Green Retirement Communities
June 16, 2015 -- It is the rare person who doesn't at least give some nod toward being green in various aspects of life. It might only be grudging recycling efforts or turning off some lights, but the spirit is usually there, somewhere. But would you make your environmental concerns a requirement for finding a suitable place to retire?
If there are many people like that out there they are probably having a hard time finding such a place. Using the Advanced Search Feature at Topretirements we found we have 23 communities (out of about 3000) that are self-described as "Sustainable", another way of saying
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Published on June 15, 2015
Comments 4
Category: Retirement Planning
June 12, 2015 -- Oh, the things we say we are going to do in retirement. And if only we did them! We were inspired by a recent MarketWatch story, "Five Lies We Tell Ourselves in Retirement", which focused on lies people tell themselves on financially related aspects of retirement. We liked the idea enough we decided to create our own list of lies, but with a different focus - (mostly) non-financial fibs. This is our list - we encourage you to add
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Published on June 12, 2015
Comments 16
Category: Retirement Real Estate
June 9, 2015 -- We were very flattered recently to see a story from Builderonline.com, "The Top 15 Builders in 2015’s Retirement Magnets", which used Topretirements' "100 Most Popular Retirement Towns" as the starting point of its research. The online publication basically looked at our top 50 towns (chosen on the basis of visitor popularity on our site), and then determined which companies build the most homes in those markets. It was an intriguing idea with at least one very big surprise.
Quantity Built
Let's start with a big surprise: the #10 builder is.... Habitat for Humanity. So at least we know from the beginning that there all kinds of builders in our 50 most popular retirement markets - not just those catering to the retirement set. The builder with the most
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Published on June 8, 2015
Comments 5
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
June 6, 2015 -- This is part 2 of our series on the "Funky Towns of Florida". Part 1 explored unusual towns of this stripe in the Northern, Central, and Western reaches of the Sunshine State. In this edition we concentrate on the Eastern and Southern regions, plus one additional town from Florida Central. As always we want to know your suggestions for more "funky Florida" towns, which we define as communities that are interesting, have potential but are perhaps a bit down at the heels, and cater to a slightly more bohemian crowd.
East Coast
Fernandina Beach is the biggest town on Amelia island at the northeastern tip of Florida. It has about 11,000 people with an average age of about 46. There is a charming downtown with an artsy feel, a bustling waterfront with shrimp boats, a working lighthouse, and many quiet neighborhoods featuring Victorian homes. There are cute shops and many interesting restaurants and bars. There is a 50 block area is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
New Smyrna Beach New Smyrna Beach is a peaceful beach community of
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Published on June 5, 2015
Comments 31
Category: Health and Wellness Issues
June 3, 2015 -- It is one of America's fastest growing sports, attracting legions of new players from baby boomer ranks. Compared to tennis it is easy to pick up, doesn't require as much stamina or range of motion, and is fun from the get-go. Yet all is not perfect in the state of pickleball.
Symptoms of the fallout occured in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat recently, which recounted issues concerning expansion of pickleball facilities at the large (3000 unit) Oakmont active adult community there. The article, "Oakmont in a Pickle over Pickleball", chronicles the troubles that occurred as the
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Published on June 2, 2015
Comments 17
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
May 30, 2015 — One of the most important subjects about retirement is how much you can take out of your retirement funds. Withdraw too much too soon, and you run out of money for your old age. Take out too little, and you shortchange your fun - plus leave more than you intend to your relatives and/or the government. This article will explore some new competing theories to the popular 4% rule, which has long been viewed as the gold standard for retirement withdrawals.
One of the key assumptions about the 4% rule, which theorizes you can almost always withdraw 4% of your retirement savings every year without danger of exhausting them, was that your investments would at least earn something close to 4% over the long haul. The so called 4% rule is credited to
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Published on May 29, 2015
Comments 55
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
May 18, 2015 -- When you think Florida, is your image one of a north-south string of strip malls, punctuated by boring developments full of old people? If so, you would not be alone. But we are about to show you that Florida has more than its fair share of interesting, offbeat, even funky towns - places that completely defy the stereotypes. While they might not be for everyone, they might be just the place for some boomers looking for a retirement location that matches their personality. This is Part 1 of a series; you can find even more funky FL towns in Part 2.
First of all let's define what we mean by funky (and we realize you might have a different
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Published on May 26, 2015
Comments 10
