Category: Retirement Planning
By Jan Cullinane and John Brady
Note: This is Part 2 of a 3 part series. See bottom of article for links to the other two.
April 16, 2015 -- In Part 1 we published detailed answers to the first two questions we asked our panel of six retirement experts - where they chose to live, and why. In this continuation of the series at Topretirements you can read how they responded to questions about aging and long term care, how well they followed their own advice, and their tips on finding a place to retire and a successful retirement. There is a lot of wisdom and food for thought in their responses; we hope you will enjoy them and
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Published on April 18, 2015
Comments 4
Category: Health and Wellness Issues
Updated October, 2016 -- So you have saved all the money you need for a comfortable retirement, scoured the world and found the best to place to retire - great. Unfortunately, all that great planning means nothing unless you have the good health to enjoy your retirement. To keep yourself healthy enough to enjoy your retirement the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all adults age 18-64 get at least 140 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week. That seems like a lot of time, certainly more than the average person is willing to put in. Fortunately there are a lot of great ways to get that exercise without having to become a gym rat.
Some of the ideas in the book by psychologist Elizabeth Lombardo, "A Happy You: Your Ultimate Prescription for Happiness" are pretty interesting and relatively painless. They make it easy because they incorporate a little bit of exercise into ordinary daily activities. Such as: Brushing your teeth - why not do some squats. Talking on the phone,
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Published on April 14, 2015
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Category: Retirement Planning
By Jan Cullinane and John Brady
Note: This is Part 1 of a 3 part series. See bottom of article for links to the other two.
April 4, 2015 -- Most of us know by now that one size cannot fit all when it comes to choosing our best place to retire. Just look at the tons of books, magazine articles and websites that try to answer that very question. So at the suggestion of our frequent contributor, Jan Cullinane, we decided to take a different approach, and go right to the source by asking a half dozen retirement gurus, including the authors of this piece, Jan Cullinane and John Brady, where they chose to “retire.” The word “retire” is in quotes since most of these experts are still working (some more than others), although their work is free from the constraints of being tied
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Published on April 4, 2015
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Category: Retirement Planning
April 2, 2015 --
By Jan Cullinane and John Brady
Retirement advice is not hard to come by – it seems like every website and newspaper will tell you how to do it. So we were intrigued when our frequent contributor, Jan Cullinane, suggested a different approach. Her idea was to ask a half dozen retirement gurus to describe their personal retirement plans and rate how well they followed their own advice. We think you will enjoy learning how they went about finding a great place to retire...where they decided to live... the areas where they think they planned well....and even where some felt they didn’t merit an A - in their own class! Note that due to the length of the various responses we have divided this into three articles. This is the Summary.
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Published on April 2, 2015
Comments 6
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
April 1, 2015 -- We were surprised recently by a group of commenters who took umbrage at the notion that you can work and also be retired. Their more traditional view was that if you are retired, you don’t work, period. A few even quoted dictionary definitions to support their case. But an increasing body of evidence points to an overwhelming trend in the opposite direction – that retirement is often going to be anything but traditional or predictable. Some retirees even find themselves exploring modern hobbies or part-time income opportunities, including non GamStop casinos, as they embrace flexible schedules. It is more likely to be a transition than it is stopping work. Instead of just cashing pension and Social Security checks and having morning coffee or golf with the guys, it might mean a change of career or a part-time or volunteer job. The trend is toward more of a highly personal, very customizable
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Published on March 31, 2015
Comments 32
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
March 27, 2015 -- So you are pretty sure you are financially literate and no one could scam you - better watch out! A recent study by researchers at DePaul University and the Rush University Medical Center came up with this scary result: Seniors who got financially related answers wrong, but were the most confident they got them right, were more often victimized by fraud. Fraud victims scored 5.39 on the overconfidence scale, vs. 4.21 for non-fraud victims. The authors of the study believe that this overconfidence, combined with declining cognitive skills, is a underlying reason for an alarming
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Published on March 26, 2015
Comments 13
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
March 23, 2015 -- It is no secret that there are millions of baby boomers who are wondering how on earth they are ever going to have enough money to retire. From many comments made on this site we know that a lot of you have those worries, so we thought we would help with some examples of reasonable place to retire, along with why it makes sense to downsize.
First, how a cheaper place to live puts money in your pocket
Your home is almost always your biggest expense, usually about 30% of your income. Anything you can do to reduce that is going to help you have a more comfortable retirement. The first thing you need to do in this process is to complete a retirement budget, keeping in mind any potential income sources, including savings or pension (if any), work, and Social Security. If you’re considering additional avenues to supplement your funds, be aware that online casinos no connected with gamstop, while often touted as a quick fix, can carry significant financial risks. You also have to understand what
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Published on March 23, 2015
Comments 39
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
March 20, 2015 -- If you have a 401(k) and/or an IRA, and you turned 70 and 1/2 last year, you have a very big deadline coming on April 1. That is the date by which you must have taken your first Required Minimum Distribution (RMD), or face significant penalties. A surprising number of people fail to take these distributions. You must also take your regular annual distribution by December 31 this year. All of the money taken from regular
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Published on March 20, 2015
Comments 27
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
March 17, 2015 -- In our book you can't just be too prepared for retirement - it's just too important to take a chance on not enjoying it. This is Part II of our Retirement Preparation Quiz, here is where you can find the Part I Quiz.
This version of the quiz is more about the financial side of retirement. It is inspired by a recent survey by the American College of Financial Services, an educational organization for financial professionals. That study found a dismally low level of preparation on several key questions about financial literacy. A majority thought they were doing a good job of saving to live comfortably in retirement, yet only 2 in 10 had a passing grade; no one got an A. The questions on their financial literacy quiz had questions relating to
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Published on March 17, 2015
Comments 16
Category: Singles and Retirement
March 16, 2015 -- Charlene and many other women members of Topretirements have asked us if we have any plans to post a question like: "Where did you retire as a single and why?" It seems like a great question, so here goes. We are hoping to hear from many single women (and men) who have either retired or are considering different places to retire. We think the answers are going to be fascinating.
As Charlene said: "Many of us become widows/or widowers before retirement age and that changes everything. Do you move away? Do you retire near family because your alone in case of health issues? Are you welcomed in strongly coupled communities, Etc.? In other words I'd love to read from other singles where they live and what's their experience. I know you have had comments about this but not a complete column of just real life experience. I have read
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Published on March 15, 2015
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