March 12, 2013 — As you might expect, we get a lot of retirement questions from our members and site visitors. The same applies when new friends of your editor find out about Topretirements. This article recaps the most frequent questions we receive, along with our usual answers. We hope you find it helpful.
Frequent Questions 1. What is the Best Place to Retire. This is by far the most prevalent question, so much so that it completely overwhelms any others we get. Since we get the question so often we have developed a stock response, one that we hope is helpful. So when people ask, “where is the best place to retire”, here is how we typically respond: “Retirement is a very personal matter. The best place for us might very well be a terrible retirement destination for you. To make the best decision for you, you need to first answer a number of questions.” (And then we tell them some of the questions).
February 23, 2013 — By now most are familiar and tend to agree with the modern adage – “Old age isn’t for sissies”. Wes Craven, the creator of the now classic horror film, “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, has chimed in with an addendum – “Retirement is scarier than (his horror character) Freddy Krueger“. It’s a pretty funny Op-Ed piece he wrote in last Sunday’s New York Times about his trial retirement, which we recommend to you.
It seems that Wes at age 73 was looking forward to chilling out (more…)
February 19, 2013 — What’s going on in Hollywood – retirement is the hot theme of the moment. Witness white-hot Maggie Smith, who is starring in 2 current movies (“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and “Quartet”), not to mention “Downton Abbey”. We thoroughly recommend the former, and have heard great things about the latter. But have you also seen the 40 minute film documentary about life in a retirement community, “Kingspoint”? Nominated for an Oscar, the film is self-described as a “Tale of Love, Loss, and Self-Preservation”. The Huffington Post said… “It’s a magnificent film. It is the wake-up call we all need to understand the mindsets of our parents and grandparents as they contemplate the final stages of their lives.” We’ll provide a review of “Kings Point” here as a warm-up to next week’s article – a summary of what our members think about retirement movies in general, including their favorites.
We had heard a lot about “Kings Point” since its subject is life in a retirement community. So when it came to a nearby theater as part of the Oscar “Shorts” package, we went. Initially we weren’t sure how we were going to like it.
Kings Point is an active community that was built in the 1970′s. At the time retirees from the Northeast swarmed in for low cost, non-stop fun in the warm Florida sun. But as the residents have aged together, so has the community. It looks dated, as do (more…)
January 1, 2013 — This website covered a lot of editorial ground last year, thanks to feedback and suggestions from our members. It’s hard to pick the “best of 2012″, mainly because we can think of so many different ways to select them. Our traditional way to pick is to look for the most read Blog articles. That is certainly a good measure, but the results are fairly predictable. To broaden that approach we are introducing 3 other “best article” categories here: Most Commented Upon, Best Member Contribution, and Best Series. Hope you like our selections!
Most Read Articles of 2012
Our “Best” and “Worst” articles are always the most read of the year, and that certainly makes sense. The top 4 most read articles in 2012 were: 10 Worst States to Retire
November 12, 2012 — Americans love their pets, there is no getting around that. According to the World Society for the Protection of Animals, the USA is the overwhelming pet capital of the world. The WSPA reports that in 2007 we had 67 million dogs, more than twice as many as Brazil, which had the second highest number. And when it comes to cats we are even crazier – our almost 84 million cats outnumber Russian cats by more than 4 times (Russia holds 2nd place in the cats race with 18 million cats). The number of pets reported by WSPA seems higher than those from Petfinder.com, but they are directionally similar. Petfinder reports that 57% of American households have some kind of pet, often more than one.
The question many folks have as they approach retirement is whether or not to have a pet, and if so, what kind. This article will explore some of the issues you need to consider about pet ownership – pros, cons, and strategies for pet owning success. More than that, we are hoping to provoke (more…)
Sept 25, 2012 — The NY Times does a great job of writing helpful features for its readers. This month’s special Retirement section is no exception, so we are passing along links to some of the more interesting stories, which are difficult to find unless you know the exact title of the article. We hope you find them useful in planning your retirement.
Heading South, but Stopping Short of Florida. This piece profiles several couples who thought they would retire to Florida, but who decided for a variety of reasons to retire along the way. Indeed there are many parts of the mid-South where the 55-64 and over 65 population is increasing by 60% or more. You will find (more…)
July 31, 2012 – There have been so many interesting articles about retirement lately that we just had to put together in one place for your education and pleasure. Here you go:
July 14, 2012 — The results are in from this week’s survey of Topretirements visitors and members, and they are surprising in many respects. As you will see from some of the comments made to this post, it appears that Topretirements members and readers are not your typical person when it comes to retirement. The consensus seems to be that you are better prepared, more of a planner, and more willing to pick up stakes and move. In an interesting coincidence, Pulte, a major developer of active adult communities (as well as Topretirements advertiser) released the latest of its ongoing survey of 55+ baby boomers who are still working last week. We will provide their results for contrast where applicable.
Q 1. What age will you retire?
A: Early! Just over 2/3 or our 467 respondents said they either (more…)
July 9, 2012 — We are dying of curiosity to find out more about what you, our members, are planning for your retirement. And we think you are interested in comparing notes with others too. So we’ve created a very short, 5 question survey with multiple choice answers. If we get a good response, we’ll report on the results next week. And if it looks promising, followup with other questions on topics such as what’s on your bucket list (and do you have one), top 3 things you are looking for in a retirement community, your worst retirement planning mistake, etc.
Here is the link to to the poll. Responses are capped at 200 – so vote early to get your opinion heard!
May 24, 2012 — Ever had that feeling that you’ve seen an article… but just can’t put your finger on it? We know we have, and that’s why we have just completed a comprehensive index of all our past featured articles. Now hundreds of our most helpful features are all in place, logically arranged in 13 categories so you can find them more easily. Some of the categories (more…)
