Tempted by a Short Sale or Foreclosure

If you could buy your dream home and save $200,000 or more, would you be tempted? For many retirees, the news reports of homes selling for half what they were 3 years ago are interesting. In fact, in many areas of the country the prospect of a bargain-priced distress sale has become so attractive that sales of new homes have just about stopped. In case you are thinking about plunging in yourself, we have prepared some background on the issues involved in this topic for our Topretirements.com visitors. (more…)

Most baby boomers are currently in a “hold” mode. For them, waiting out the economic storm means postponing their retirement or second home purchase. To help you while away the time, we’ve come up with an armchair/dinner table exercise – what are the “must-have” features you (and your S.O.) must have in your new retirement home? (more…)

It’s not a contest anyone wants to win – whose housing crisis was the worst in 2008. The contenders: Phoenix, Las Vegas, South Florida – all with year over year price declines of 30% or more. (more…)

If you haven’t noticed, not every active adult community is created equal. Depending on the skill and commitment of the developer, the community can be interesting and an easy joy to live in – or boring and inconvenient. Some of the most interesting examples of the best community designs are evident in the 2008 Best in American Living Awards (BALA), which were just announced. The awards are sponsored by a panel of judges put together by Professional Builder, a division of the National Association of Home Builders. There are a number of categories (and all of the winners are worth looking at), but this article concerns the 2008 winners for the Communities division. Common (more…)

Ask any 4 people when they intend to start taking social security benefits and you might get 4 different answers. Ditto with how long should you keep working and how that work will impact your social security benefits (short answer: working longer is usually a good thing for your benefits). Even when to start with Medicare is not well understood (and this is the easiest one to answer: everyone should sign up 3 months before their 65th birthday).

The Social Security Administration is actually doing a very good job of helping to educate the public and remove the mystery out of the issue. As they point out, it is NOT a “one size fits all” kind of question – everyone’s situation is a bit different. To that end the SSA has come out with a short but informative podcast that will be an excellent overview for most people. You can download the podcast and other materials using this link at the Social Security Administration

Topretirements has also developed an extensive article, “A Surprising Answer to When to Start Taking Social Security Benefits“. Our article has some good background and a raft of excellent links for further reference.

Short Answer:
It all Depends!

Give us your opinion either here in our Comments section (below), or in the Topretirements Forum Topic: When to Start Taking Benefits