November 27, 2022 — Researchers at The John Hopkins Sex and Gender Clinic have a message for people over 50: “It’s not just for young people.” In an article at AARP, Kate Thomas, Director of Clinical Services says that ““It can strengthen our relationships, promote self-esteem, and improve our sense of identity.” Beyond that, the article listed other ways researchers have found sex is beneficial to older people.
8 ways sex is good for you
Boosts Immunity. Apparently a romp in the hay is also good at improving your response to disease, possibly even Covid. People who had more sex showed more immunity than others according to a study by researchers at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania.
November 22, 2022 — So you’ve done your research and found the best town and state for your retirement – great! But before you pull that trigger, here is one last checklist to go over. This last bit of research will help to make sure that even if the climate and the location and the community are just perfect, that something unexpected doesn’t come in to play to spoil your decision.
A lot of people do decide to move far away once they retire. According to the website hireahelper.com, 234,000 American retirees moved last year, up slightly from the pandemic reduced 2020. Being close to family and cheaper/better housing were the top 2 reasons for moving. Florida was the number 1 state for retirees who moved out of state (12% moved there), with the mid Atlantic Coast coast region (Melbourne) area attracting the most. Other states in the top 5 were North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia. Oregon and Maryland were the top 2 states retirees moved away from.
November 16, 2022 — With people more and more willing to travel these days, some of those trips will be to explore active adult or 55+ communities as potential places to retire. We have just updated a popular article of a few years back with that in mind. It explains how to plan your visits, but more importantly, has a huge number of tips our Members learned to get the most out of their explorations. We think you will find it very useful.
November 13, 2022 — Hurricanes Ian and Nicole were bad enough, destroying thousands of homes, changing the coastline, and scaring residents and real estate buyers alike. But a new Florida law, SB 4-D: Building Safety, is about to provide a potential killer wave to the Florida condo market.
The Building Safety Law is a reaction to the tragic Surfside building collapse in Miami in 2021. It has several key requirements for condominium associations that most are not yet aware of, especially how fundamentally those will affect their finances. This article will attempt to give a quick snapshot of what is now required, and how things will change. We recommend that if you are on a condo board you get familiar with the law now, because it has several new requirements. As it spells out clearly, failure to meet them is a breach of an officer’s and director’s fiduciary relationship to the unit owners. Sadly, jailhouse humor going round is that it could cause mass resignations of board members across the state. Even if you are not a board member, you should make sure that your board is working on this issue.
Nov. 10, 2022- A disturbing statistic emerged in 2021. In that year 10.7% of America’s over 65 population lived in poverty, up from 9.5% in 2020. While that is a lot better than the third of elderly Americans who were in poverty before Medicare came along, it is an alarming trend. Although poverty among the elderly in the U.S. is low by historical standards, we have one of the highest rates in the developed world, per the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Unfortunately, there is a long list of reasons why so many older people face economic hardships.
The pandemic was a big reason for the poverty rate uptick in 2021. People lost their jobs and businesses. One person in the marriage might have died from Covid, or they faced big and unexpected medical expenses. But there are many other reasons beyond the pandemic too. People retiring today are much less likely to have a pension than in the past. Some might not even had had a chance to participate in an IRA or 404(k), or make enough to amass significant savings. Think of someone who made the minimum wage or just above it, how were they going to even get by, much less save for retirement? Many other workers were doing OK, only to find their jobs ending well before they wanted to retire. Debt, medical problems, having to take care of elderly parents or adult children, etc. can mean a retirement in poverty for others.
November 9, 2022 — Even though the Sunshine State typically adds 900 new residents every day, it still has plenty of detractors. You have probably run into many of them, often at a party where people are discussing retirement locations. “I hate the bugs, the humidity, the hurricanes, the sprawl, and the traffic”; that’s a pretty good summary of the usual complaints. So if you are one of those who wants to avoid a Florida retirement, where else should you consider?
One of Florida’s obvious attractions is the warm winters it provides. For those who have to have that climate requirement, geography creates some limitations. Fortunately there are some possibilities, which we will discuss here, along with some of tradeoffs and comparisons with Florida.
November 2, 2022 – Thanks to everyone who took the time to take last week’s instant poll on spousal compatibility around retirement decisions. The good news is that the vast majority of you all are either extremely compatible (25%) or mostly compatible (41%). Luckily, only a handful are extremely incompatible. Many of you added insightful comments to explain your particular situation, and offer lessons learned to others. We have incorporated some of those into this article, along with ones from previous articles. (see Further Reading below to see all of them).
The worst situation
The biggest problem is when two partners disagree on major issues about retirement. If they can’t agree on when and where to retire, how much money to spend, how close to family, or what is the right climate, somebody might end up extremely unhappy. Let’s hope that didn’t happen to you. But if it does, here are some tips on how to make the best of it, along with some of the common pickles that couples find themselves in.
October 29, 2022 — The sad fact is, many men don’t do so well in retirement. After a lifetime of working, the loss of purpose can lead to depression and inactivity. So when our guide in Scotland last month started telling us about the Shed movement, and the Shedders who use them, we got pretty excited. “The Shed What?”, we said. Then, as she told us how men’s sheds have been proliferating in the British Isles because of the enjoyment, as well as improvement to their mental and social health, they provide to retired men (mostly) and women. The movement seems to have a lot of potential here in the U.S. Here is what the Shed movement is all about.
Men’s sheds or community sheds are non-profit local organizations that provide a space for craftwork and social interaction. Think of it in some ways as a YMCA for retirees, without the gym. Precursors to the movement originated in Australia around the 1980s as a way to improve the health and wellbeing of older men. Since then many sheds have expanded to anyone regardless of age or gender, with similar aims and functions to hackerspaces. There are over 900 shed located across Australia, with thousands of active members. Men’s sheds can also be found in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, United States, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, and Greece. Objectives of Men’s Sheds include advancing the health and well-being of the participating men and creating opportunities for the men to contribute to their local communities.
October 26, 2022 – The topic of spousal compatibility around retirement planning is an intriguing topic. We are not talking about how you and your spouse or partner get along day to day, but more specifically about retirement planning. Did you/do you have the same ideas about when and where to retire, what to do everyday, climate, real estate…. everything to do with retirement decisions. To that end we have prepared this one question poll, asking you to rate your spousal compatibility on retirement planning. If you are not married or don’t have a significant other, answer the quiz if there is a close friend or relative you are considering retiring with or near.
Just click the box that best describes your answer.
Please feel free to enter your own answer, and add Comments below. There is nothing better than the actual experiences of our Members, so please contribute your experiences below. In the next weeks we will provide a summary and additional comments from previous articles. Thanks!
Note that in 2013 we had a more extensive survey on this topic, detailed results below. Where to live and money issues were the biggest areas of trouble (but most people were very happy together).
Our thanks to the NY TImes best-selling author HALLIE EPHRON for allowing us to reprint this amazing story from JungleRedWriters.com. Decluttering, ridding out, downsizing, whatever you want to call it, is hard. This is a wonderful and touching tribute, thank you! Note: Jerry, with whom I share a birthday, was one of the most interesting people I have ever met.
HALLIE EPHRON: My husband and I reached a detente early in our marriage. He could go to all the yard sales and buy whatever he wanted (mostly books), and I wouldn’t nag him about it, as long as I didn’t have to look at his piles of stuff.
He celebrated this arrangement in one of the anniversary (our 30th) cards he drew for me.
When Jerry died, with my daughters’ help I gave away his clothes. I enlisted a used book dealer (of Antiques Roadshow fame, Ken Gloss) to take his sizeable and variable book collection.
