http://www.topretirements.com/blog Retirement Communities: How to Find Yours Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:01:08 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="attachment_627" align="alignleft" width="249" caption="Nicaragua Coast"][/caption]If you believe the marketing hype you can retire to any number of offshore paradises and live like a prince on social security - or less. In our opinion it certainly is possible, but there might be some important trade-offs along the way. Forbes just ... http://www.topretirements.com/blog/international-retirement/10-tips-to-consider-before-retiring-abroad.html/ In our recent article, "Whackiest Best Places to Retire List", we poked a little fun at some of the "Best Places to Retire" lists our big named publishing brethren keeping come up with. In so doing we promised to come up with our own "Best Affordable List", and here it ... http://www.topretirements.com/blog/great-towns/the-affordable-and-more-best-places-to-retire-list.html/ Readers love best places to retire (or live) lists. Publishers are crazy about them because... (read first sentence again). But good grief, is there is no end to zany lists? Consider three such lists put out recently. First one from U.S. News, another in a long string of "best places ... http://www.topretirements.com/blog/great-towns/who-has-the-strangest-best-places-to-retire-list.html/ October 15, 2009. It's official, there will be no social security COLA (Cost of Living Allowance) increase in 2010, the first time this has happened since 1975. The reason is simple, this year there was no increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) from the third quarter of 2008 ... http://www.topretirements.com/blog/financial/no-2010-cola-increase-in-social-security-is-stimulus-payment-an-end-run-on-the-system.html/ Note: This is the 3rd in a 3 article series about baby boomers and their retirement real estate plans. Part 1 featured the differences (and similarities) of boomers' retirement housing preferences and the homes builders are building. Part 2 explored the conflict between baby boomer desire to retire in suburbia ... http://www.topretirements.com/blog/baby-boomer-issues/baby-boomer-self-appraisal-where-should-i-live.html/ It's been a rough couple of days in the retirement real estate market. Fortunately, not all the news was bad, depending on your perspective. Here are few news stories crossing our desk: - Prices are falling in many active adult communities, which is stimulating sales to at least some degree. According ... http://www.topretirements.com/blog/real-estate/active-adult-communities-a-real-estate-checkup.html/ Remember the great fear of a few years ago: baby boomers will be retiring in droves, creating a severe shortage of skilled workers and driving up costs for employers. Whew - there's one less thing to worry about. A recent survey on the impact on retirement of the ... http://www.topretirements.com/blog/baby-boomer-issues/baby-boomers-delaying-retirement.html/ The Sunshine State just had its first population loss since 1946, according to research from the University of Florida. The State lost 58,000 residents in the year ending March, 2009, the first such loss since military personnel left the State when WWII ended. This decline is sobering to Florida, a state ... http://www.topretirements.com/blog/great-towns/floridas-population-declinesfl-in-its-sunset-years-for-retirement.html/ Note: This article is a continuation of our earlier article, "55+ Home Buyers and Builders Not Exactly in Synch". See Part 3, a Boomer's Retirement Self-Assessment. Baby boomers' expressed desires about where they want to retire are pretty clear: we want to continue living where we do now - in ... http://www.topretirements.com/blog/baby-boomer-issues/boomer-conflict-looming-on-suburban-retirement-desire-vs-reality.html/ August home starts were positive. Unfortunately sales of existing homes including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops declined 2.7 percent in August, breaking a four month streak of increases. That led to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.10 million units in August from a pace of 5.24 million in ... http://www.topretirements.com/blog/real-estate/august-home-sales-break-streak-inventories-decline.html/