Category: Retirement Planning
May 27, 2014 -- Reality check: Even if you are among the fortunate half of baby boomers who will have enough money to maintain your pre-retirement lifestyle - you are still not out of the woods. That's because your financial well being is only one part of the retirement happiness equation - being prepared mentally and psychologically is just as important. In the first part of this article we've come up with 5 warning signs that you might not be well prepared psychologically for retirement. The second part has advice from various experts on the keys to solid mental preparation.
5 Warning Signs
There are probably a lot more than we have listed here. But yes answers to these questions as you start retirement might be a pretty good indication that your mental preparation for retirement is not up to snuff:
1. Most days you have nothing special to look forward to when you wake up in the morning.
2. Your best friends are at the job you just left.
3. Your personal identity is wrapped up in the title of the job you had previously.
4. You don't have any great reason to leave your house during the day.
5. You wish you weren't retired - or greatly fear you will soon be so.
Tips for Tuning up Your Retirement Psychological Profile
Here we've assembled some of the advice we have seen on getting psychologically ready for retirement.
People and dogs aren't so different
Dog trainers typically say that
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Published on May 27, 2014
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Category: Retirement Planning
March 5 – An annual CareerBuilder survey shows a slightly more optimistic picture for full-time workers nearing the end of their careers than just a few years agon, when the Recession caused many workers to delay retirement plans or forego them completely. While a majority (58 percent) of workers age 60 or older say they are currently putting off retirement; it represents continued improvement from 61 percent in 2013 and a peak of 66 percent in 2010.
The nationwide survey – conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of
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Published on March 4, 2014
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Category: Retirement Planning
January 20, 2014 -- It's the beginning of the year so it must be time to prognosticate about what's to come and how we might make things better. We have seen several thoughtful pieces along this line, including one from our colleague over at MarketWatch, Bob Powell ("New Laws, Regulations the Experts Want for 2014").
In this article we are hoping to get our loyal members and readers to reflect on the planning that went into their retirements. Who else is more qualified to talk about retirement than you folks - you are the ones living
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Published on January 20, 2014
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Category: Retirement Planning
December 2, 2013 -- There's an interesting new book out that has parallels to the transition from the working life to retirement. It's "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth", written by Colonel Chris Hadfield, one of the world's most experienced astronauts. The book made us think about how much retirement is like entering a new world. Many of the survival skills you learned in the world of work will be useful. But to succeed in your new environment it might be necessary to master new ones. We are hoping that this guide will be a group effort - that those of you who have already passed through the airlock
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Published on December 2, 2013
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Category: Retirement Planning
November 12, 2013. -- Let's assume you have been doing all the things the experts suggest as you go through the process of finding your best place to retire. You have listed your priorities, discussed them with spouse and/or family, and paid visits to the more likely suspects. But before you make that down payment on your retirement home, here are 7 more questions we think you would be well advised to answer. Hopefully this list will make you think of a few more, all the better to help you realize the wonderful retirement you have worked so hard to get.
7 Questions to Ask
These questions are meant more as a stimulus for conversation than a yes or no. By discussing them with someone else, you might gain
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Published on November 12, 2013
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Category: Retirement Planning
September 3, 2013 -- So many people would rather stay in their homes than spend their old age in an independent living or assisted living facility. Just ask your baby boomer friends who can't convince their aging parents to move into one of these places - even when they are beyond caring for themselves. PBS had a nice segment recently on the Retirement Village concept, where by pooling resources older folks can get the support they need to safely and comfortably stay in their homes longer. Here is where you can watch the segment, "There is No Place Like Home".
The Village to Village Network also has a list of village neighborhoods across the country, plus more
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Published on September 3, 2013
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Category: Retirement Planning
Update August, 2017 - We ran a new version of this survey this year. Here is a link to the results, which are similar but show even more interest in moving.
August 5, 2013 -- Members at Topretirements are not fuzzy about their retirement plans. Instead, they are busy getting the old homestead ready for sale and packing the wagons for the move to an exciting new (and possibly very different) home. Both the response to the survey (with 1300 responses) and the quality of your insights into our questions on selling your home, what you are looking for in the next, downsizing, and moving were amazing. In this article we will summarize the results for each question. Just as important, since so many people shared their opinions on these important questions, we have provided you with summary document where you can read all of the responses to Question 11, where 830 folks were kind enough to share their concerns and thoughts about selling, finding a new home, moving and downsizing. We urge you to read them - these real world experiences have some wonderful insights and great pieces of wisdom!
Survey results show Topretirements members are much more mobile than typical retirees
In the survey we ran last week 48% of respondents "definitely" plan on moving to a different home for retirement. Asked about their intentions about selling the home they live in now, 68% have either already sold it or are definitely putting in the market. There was strong interest in moving
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Published on August 5, 2013
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Category: Retirement Planning
July 29,2014 – One of the top requests in our recent member survey was for more information about member experiences and expectations with selling their home, downsizing, and moving. Lots of folks are looking to learn from what you think. So please, take just a couple of minutes to fill…
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Published on July 29, 2013
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Category: Retirement Planning
July 16, 2013 -- Note: This is a 3 part series. Part 1 on the "Top 10 Retirement Mistakes" generated a lot (34) of comments. Part 3: Avoid These 6 Retirement-Wrecking Mistakes" was published in 2014.
Since it is so important that you seize the opportunity retirement represents - in essence it's a partial do-over on life - we thought it would be worth revisiting the topic from a fresh perspective. In today's article we first present a revised "10 worst" list, followed by a summary of our member's comments to the original article. We are particularly interested in your new comments - please add them at the end of this article.
10 Retirement Mistakes You Don't Want to Make
1. Start planning your retirement the day after you retire. That's too late. A smart
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Published on July 16, 2013
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Category: Downsizing
June 5, 2013 -- We surveyed our members last week, asking them for future article and survey ideas. It wasn't much of a surprise to see downsizing and moving right up there near the top of the list, since we've noticed baby boomers love to share their downsizing travails and experiences. To answer that need we've prepared this article, which will be a companion piece to "12 Steps to Successful Downsizing", which we also just wrote. This article will report on the experiences of 3 baby boomers who just went through the downsizing process.
A Really Big Move for Sandy -
Newly retired Sandy and his wife had had just about enough
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Published on June 4, 2013
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