A Year in Review: The Most Popular Articles of 2016

December 27, 2016 — In many ways 2016 was one of the craziest years we can remember. Fortunately Topretirements’ 10th year was interesting, but not full of upheaval. As an annual tradition we like to see which articles grabbed the attention of the Topretirements.com community during the year. As always, there are at least a few surprise articles that generate more readership and Comments than we expected. Here is our annual review of the best of Topretirements for 2016.

We Do Appreciate
This seems to be a great time to note our appreciation to the Topretirements community. So many of you read our articles, take the time to post Comments to Blog articles, suggest new topics to cover – thank you. Special thanks to our loyal advertisers who make this site possible. Many have been with us almost since our beginnings in 2007 – thank you for your support of this vibrant online community.

Overall
So far in 2016 Topretirements had over 1.8 million visitors (more…)

December 12, 2016 — Baby boomers have finally got to the age where senior centers actually are meant for us… oh perish the thought! Sadly it is true, the oldest of us baby boomers turned 70 this year and tens of millions are in our 60s.

Which brings us to one of favorite pet peeves. In our Connecticut town there was a proposal to build a new “Senior” Center. The old one was a mess and not big enough for the number of people that wanted to use it. We lobbied, unsuccessfully, to build a “Community”, rather than a “Senior” Center. The Community Center would have had all the facilities and resources that aging boomers want and need. But in our view, freeing it from the “Senior” stigma would have boosted attendance and been a resource that the entire community could enjoy. Happily, a beautiful and (more…)

August 16, 2018 – 10 years ago this month Topretirements.com came out of the ether and appeared on the world wide web. It didn’t look like much, but there was some pretty good (if limited) information. Since that time we’ve had several redesigns and make overs, and the new content keeps coming. As of 2016, there are reviews of over 1000 towns and 3200 active and 55+ communities. Plus thousands of Blog articles and 10s of thousands of Comments. Based on the feedback we get, it looks like we have helped a lot of people along the way with their retirements. That makes us feel good!
This was our first logo.

Today there is a profile and Q & A about Topretirements.com over at JungleRedWriters.com, the website for a group of women authors. If you are interested, it will tell you how we got started with the idea and some of the challenges and successes along the way. Here is the link to the article “Lunch with Mr. Topretirements.com:

Do you have ideas for our 10th Anniversary Edition?
Before the year ends we would like to mark the anniversary with a celebratory issue. Do you have ideas on the kinds of things we might include? We were thinking along the lines of “Best of”, “Worst of”, “Funniest of”, but would love to hear your ideas. Also, any feedback you have would be great to include – thinks that helped, didn’t help, things you wished for we don’t have. Please add your thoughts in the Comments below!

The image below is what the current “Best Places” tab looked like in the first year.

February 1 Update: Since we published this post more of the Topretirements site has gone mobile friendly. The City Reviews, over 1000 of them, are now much easier to view on your mobile. Please also check out our 2nd video, which is a quick one on “How to Get Started Finding the Best Communities at Topretirements”

January 3, 2016 — If you are viewing Topretirements on a tablet like an Ipad or a smartphone, there is a different look from you would have seen a few days ago. The world is moving more and more to mobile phones and ipads, and Topretirements.com is trying to meet that demand. To that end we are pleased to announce that after a long and demanding upgrade process, our site is now much easier to use and better looking on the small screen.

Stats by device type
The trend is pretty clear – Internet users are moving from desktop computers to tablets and mobile phones. In the last 6 months (more…)

December 30, 2015 — As 2015 begins to float away in the eddy of the busy holidays, it is interesting to see which articles grabbed the attention of the Topretirements.com community during the year. There are always at least a few surprise articles that generate more readership and Comments than we expected. Here is our annual review of the best of Topretirements for 2015.

We Do Appreciate
Before we list the best articles, we need to mention some other bests here. For one, we appreciate the loyal advertisers who make this site possible. Many have been with us almost since our beginnings in 2007 – thank you for your support. Our members are tops too; we love your insightful and thought-provoking comments and suggestions (please keep both coming!) It is fun to produce this site for such an engaged group of people.

Most Read Articles of 2015
The first few articles are no strangers to this list – our (more…)

December 29, 2014 — It’s always fun to see which of our Blog articles grab the attention of our dear Members and Visitors. Sometimes it is the unexpected ones that generate the most comments and/or readership, while usually any article that includes “Best Place to Retire” in the title does pretty well. Here is our annual review of the best of what we’ve come up with for 2014.

But first the stats
Thanks to our members, Topretirements had its highest readership ever in 2014. Over the last 12 months we had over 1.5 million unique visitors and 7 million page views. We can’t prove it, but we are pretty sure that no other website in the retirement sphere gets this kind of traffic or engagement. This site wouldn’t exist without the valued contributions of so many people who share their experiences and expertise – thank you! We also greatly appreciate our loyal advertisers, many of which have been with us for 5 or more years, who make all of this possible.

Most Read Articles of 2014
The first few articles are no strangers to this list. We write annual editions of the “Worst (and Best) States to Retire in” and these are always list toppers. Likewise our annual list of the “Most Popular Active Communities” attracts a lot of attention. But many others on our Top 10 were one -offs – and we are so glad you liked them! Interestingly enough, more than half of the most read articles in 2014 were originally (more…)

September 23, 2014 — We recently had a suggestion from Charlene, who wrote that she “…would love to see some comments about people who have retired in place, why they made that decision, and how they are handling retirement without moving”. We think that is a great suggestion, so this article is part 3 of a series on that subject. Part 1 profiled “The Snowbirding Innkeepers“, while Part 2 took a look at the busy lives of a “Jane and Jack: Staying in Place and Very Busy”.

Rather than focus on just a few people, this article takes a different (more…)

September 12, 2014 — Our recent article about downsizing and hitting the road sparked a side discussion on pets and pet friendly communities. Since several members have asked us to provide more on that topic, we have created this post for everyone to wag their tails on the subject. Please remember to be civil – people have strong opinions on the subject, so let’s keep it friendly! Also, if you are looking for a pet-friendly active adult or 55+ community, you can select that as an Amenity in our Advanced Search feature.

We have re-posted the comments from the “Downsizing” article here (more…)

March 3 — This winter has been so beastly in the midwest and northeast that it has tipped many folks into seriously considering becoming snowbirds. A study from Trulia confirmed that, finding that for every temperature drop of 10 degrees there is a 4.4% increase in searches for homes in warm winter climes. This article will continue our series on the snowbird life in retirement, with the emphasis on more considerations you should keep in mind if you are thinking about heading south for the winter (see end (more…)

December 24, 2013 — It’s always fun to see which of our Blog articles find the most resonance with our dear Members and Visitors. Sometimes it is the unexpected ones that generate the most comments and/or readership, while usually any article that includes “Best Place to Retire” in the title usually does pretty well. Here is our annual review of the best of what we’ve come up with for 2013.

Most Commented Upon
We like to think we’ve done our job when an article sparks a lot of comments. Your comments are so valuable because they are so real, so different, each with their own kind of truth. (more…)