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Try It NOWCategory: Financial and taxes in retirement
March 24, 2014 — Chances are your Social Security benefit is one of the most important components of your retirement. But in our experience there is a fairly shocking lack of knowledge about this subject. To help you get the most out of your benefit we have prepared an 11…
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
March 14, 2014 -- President Obama is set to sign a new bill passed by the Senate and House that rolls back planned flood insurance increases. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) welcomed the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, saying: "Flood insurance legislation will provide much-needed certainty to home owners and financial stability for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
Home builders believe the reform will provide an important boost to home building and remodeling. People who own homes affected by the 2012 Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act are relieved that they will not have to face huge premium spikes and impacts on
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Note: The tax bill signed into law in late 2017 will have a great impact on the worst states for retirement. In Feb. 2018 we updated this article: "Worst States for Retirement - 2018".
March 11, 2014 -- Finding the best place to retire in is a little bit like looking for a mate. There are lots of attractive ones out there. But for you - which state has the most appealing features and a minimum of not so desirable attributes. To help weed out the more unattractive ones, we present our 3rd annual (we skipped 2013) list of the worst states for retirement. There is one main point we want to emphasize - everyone's retirement situation is different, so a one size fits all approach won't work. If your grandchildren live in one of these states and you want to be near them - that makes it a great retirement state for you. Our goal for this article is to give you the tools to help you figure out what states aren't a good fit for your retirement. See this article's counterpoint: "Best States for Retirement - 2016".
Factors we considered
In this year's list we have tried to simplify
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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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Category: General Retirement Issues
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
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
February 26, 2014 -- What used to be described as the "beleaguered" housing market has entered a new phase these days. This week it received more great news. But, if that is good for you as a potential buyer in the retirement housing market is another question.
First, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller price index housing prices in the 4th quarter of 2013 rose 11.3% compared with a year earlier. Home prices haven't recovered everything they gave back from 2008 -2011, but they are getting closer in most markets.
Second, the Commerce Department reported that sales of single family homes surged in January. They rose 9.6% from the previous month, reaching their highest level since July 2008. Economists were
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Note: Our 2015 List has been published. See Most Popular Places to Retire 2015.
February 25, 2014 – When it comes to the best places to retire two things are very clear: the Sunbelt is where people want to go, and there is almost no interest in the Northeast or Midwest. The Sunbelt, with 77 towns on Topretirements.com's 8th annual list of the 100 most popular retirement spots, continues to be prime territory for retirement dreams. Only 3 states in the Northeast (and none in the Midwest) made the cut: Virginia, Delaware (Lewes and Rehoboth Beach), New Jersey (Cape May), and Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh). Most of the remaining cities on the top 100 list were from the Pacific Northwest and Colorado.
Florida Rules
Florida dominates the list of best places to retire, with 23 cities and towns (2 less than in 2013), followed by North Carolina (11), South Carolina (8), Arizona (7), California (6) and Washington (6). Tennessee had 5 cities in the top 100. The highest ranking non-Sun Belt city on our list was Charlottesville (VA) at #15. Note: To make sure you don’t miss new lists like this, sign up for our free weekly “Best Places to Retire” newsletter. See also "The Worst States for Retirement - 2014".
11 New Towns Join as Popular Places to Retire
Eleven new towns moved onto the 2014 list, about the same number as in 2013. Eight of the 11 were from the Sunbelt. Of the remaining,
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Category: Travel
February 19, 2014 -- Thought about visiting Key West as a possible retirement spot? With this winter's weather in the northern part of the U.S. it might not be such a bad idea! You can get a good feel for what the southern-most town in the continental U.S. is like from the newest mystery from Lucy Burdette, "Murder with Ganache". For the record, Lucy Burdette is the pen name
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
February 18, 2014 -- Now that all of us have assumed responsibility for our own retirements, conducting due diligence has become part of our job description. That responsibility extends to vetting the financial advisers and providers of financial services that we might hire to help with our retirement finances. If you decide to buy an annuity, which many experts believe most retirees should have a portion of their retirement in, you need to be especially careful.
The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article last week entitled "Who's Training Your Financial Advisor". The piece brings up how financial advisers
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Downtown Sarasota
Updated March, 2020 (originally published February, 2014) -- All of us have our biases. And, even with the best of intentions, we probably hold our share of stereotypes too. Not just about the rest of humanity, but also food, cars, brands of soda and beer, sports teams, movie stars, and yes - places to retire too. Just as being close-minded about people gets in the way of appreciating them as individuals, dismissing places out of hand could get in the way of finding your retirement town.
Biases and Stereotypes about PlacesLet's first discuss the various types of biases that we have heard people bring up at Topretirements. For each one we will name
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