Relive the 1950′s with the “Thunderbolt Kid”

It’s a Great Read

Baby boomer nostalgia is hot these days, and there is no funnier read on the subject than Bill Bryson’s delightful book – “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid”. He captures perfectly the times, culture, and the absurd miscellanea of those days – you won’t stop laughing.

My sister recently gave me the book because it reminded her of my brothers and me countlessly jumping off chairs in (pathetic) imitations of Superman. The book does a fascinating job of helping me re-live “those thrilling days of yesteryear”. All the old heroes are dusted off (with wry observations about just how weird they would seem today) – from Batman to The Lone Ranger (“not the kind of fellow you would want to share a pup tent with”) to Roy Rogers, Davey Crockett and Zorro. Cultural icons I had forgotten about once again come to life – like the worst game of all time (electric football), slinkies and silly putty, and hiding under your desk during nuclear “attacks”.

Broadway Books, Copyright 2006. Bill Bryson

Check it out! And it that whets your appetite, see this blog for frequent doses of great baby boomer nostalgia

Greenspan to Baby Boomers – Deal Now with Financial Uncertainty

New York – April 27. Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan made headlines again this week – this time at a conference on the coming baby boomer retirement crisis. Greenspan warned that the government is going to find it “difficult” to keep all of its financial promises in coming years. He urged baby boomers to deal now with that, and a new complication – their increased longevity.

“We have to recognize that what we’re going through is unique in world history,” said Dr. Greenspan. “Retirement is a relatively new phenomenon. As a society we’ve dealt with it successfully in the past few decades but we’ve never had such a huge group of individuals going into the system at once and then living so long in their retirement years.”

As life expectancy continues to increase, Greenspan believes that Baby Boomers will likely look for additional ways to remove the financial uncertainties that will come from a longer retirement. Those include analyzing their lifestyle, determining the resources at their disposal, and ultimately making decisions to best prepare for their future.

Greenspan encouraged Baby Boomers to take more responsibility to prepare for their retirement. Dr. Greenspan was the keynote speaker at the MDRT BoomertirementTM Industry Summit.

Read this article to find the 10 worst mistakes one investment advisor has seen

Or, read here for advice on when to social security benefits – early or late?

Home Sales Figures Out – Buyers’ Market Continues

April 25 – Yesterday the sales figures for existing homes were released – and the news continues to be bad for sellers. Sales in March were 8.4% below February’s, and 11.3% behind the March 2006 figure. Bad weather is being blamed for at least part of the slowdown, while sub-prime mortgage problems are another likely cause. These sales totals are for all types of existing homes, including condominiums. The figures were released by the National Association of Realtors.

Experts quoted in the Wall Street advised that this continued softness is putting pressure on sellers, including builders of new homes. Buyers can afford to be picky and to ask for concessions. There is a 7.3 month supply of total housing inventory available, up from 6.8 in February. Condominium sales were flat in February but 6.7% below March of 2006. The median price of an existing condominium, nationwide, was $228,200 in March (up 3% vs. year ago).

Most markets nationwide are down. Some of the few bright (or at least, less negative) spots were Boston, New York, and Washington.

National Association of Realtors

Read this for a list of the best 10 values in retirement communities

A New Look at Topretirements!

Welcome to our newly redesigned Home page. Our goals were to add a “News” element (which you will see in this space, updated several times a week with news about retirement communities), as well as to try to keep our most popular features higher up on the page for greater visibility. Please let us know how we succeeded by posting either in reply to this News blog, or in the Discussion Forum. We are always interested in hearing your comments and suggestions, because after all, this is your site!

One great new feature is that you can use RSS to easily import the headlines from this blog onto your home page at Yahoo, Google, etc. Just click on the RSS link to do that – it is really easy!

As always, use this convenient link to find a list of the best retirement communities reviewed at Topretirements.