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
more...
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
more...
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
more...
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
more...
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
more...
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
more...
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
more...
Published on May 26, 2015
Comments 10
Category: Family and Retirement
May 23, 2015 -- Americans are crazy about their pets. There were 164 million pets in the U.S. in 2012, according to the Humane Society of the U.S., with about 62% of households having a pet. Pet ownership for retirees, however, is a little different than it is for younger Americans. The Retirement section of the New York Times recently did a feature, "Pets of the Golden Years", which profiled some of those differences. This article will highlight some of the issues that affect retirees and their pets (see end of article for our previous articles on this topic).
Some differences
For starters, a smaller percentage of retirees own pets than
more...
Published on May 23, 2015
Comments 57
Category: Retirement Real Estate
May 15, 2015 -- Looking for a place to retire where your housing dollar gives you the biggest bang? If so the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index, which ranks U.S. metros by housing affordability, might just have your answer. All of the top 10 most affordable markets are in the Midwest or Northeast, not such great news for retirees looking to retire in warm weather. The price of homes in these Metros ranges from a low of $75,000 (Springfield, OH) to a high of $105,000 in Sandusky, OH. Another problem with these "most affordable" Metros - none of them has inspired us enough to write them up as interesting
more...
Published on May 15, 2015
Comments 26
Category: Singles and Retirement
April 28, 2015 -- Last month we asked our single Members to share their thoughts, experiences, and dreams about where they would like to retire. This article summarizes and categorizes what you told us in over 80 very thoughtful Comments (which included a lot of back and forth between commenters). But please don't stop here, read all the Comments in the original article. You will also find many interesting links for singles looking for solutions to where and how to live in retirement at the end of this article.
Conclusions/Observations
There is a diversity of opinions expressed by our members about various aspects of retirement for singles, yet remarkable agreement on a number of other issues. Here are some
more...
Published on April 28, 2015
Comments 47
