Category: General Retirement Issues
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.
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Published on December 23, 2013
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Category: Adventurous retirement
December 17, 2013 -- Ah the life of the RVer, free to move about the countryside in quest of perfect weather, scenery, and ambiance. When you get bored, gas-up and get going. But another, lesser known attribute of the "Turtle Life" is the ability to find seasonal employment. Just this week an Associated Press article, "Campers help Amazon keep up with holiday rush", detailed how Amazon.com in particular relies on its "Camper Force" to bang out millions of Christmas season orders from its far-flung distribution centers. The online behemoth has warehouses in some unlikely places in Kentucky, Kansas, and Nevada - areas that lack sufficient local
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Published on December 17, 2013
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 16, 2013 -- A while back we wrote an article about retirement in the great American Southwest - "Retirement 101: A Guide to Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah". Recently the comments to this article were rejuvenated when member Mike T volunteered to add comments from his experiences looking for his best place to retire in the region. Ultimately he and his wife settled in Green Valley (AZ), where they have lived for the past 14 years. Mike is a former writer; he not only has a great eye for details but he succeeds in that most difficult of tasks, providing a balanced view. Here we provide a roundup of his recent posts to the original article (we made some minor edits to make it flow into a single article), along with some of the member questions to him from the Comments section of that post. Thanks so much Mike for taking the time to share your thoughts - your insights are incredible!
Mike T: We looked all over Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico in a four year search in most
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Published on December 16, 2013
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 10, 2013 – If you are a woman we would like to know more about your experiences with financial planners. Do you have one now? How did you find him or her? What would you like them to accomplish for you? What prevents you from going to one? Have…
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Published on December 10, 2013
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
Updated August 25, 2015 (originally published December 10, 2013) -- The horrible Arctic weather the northern half of the USA experienced in the last 2 winters had at least one major effect - it made a lot more people interested in finding a snowbird rental for the winter! This article will give you suggestions on how to narrow your choices on where to live, give some tips on how to go about finding a winter rental, and provide a list of reader-suggested snowbird destinations from earlier this year. Note that the reader Comments made to both this article and the related ones in the "Further Reading" section are at least as helpful as those in the article itself!
Keys to Success
The keys to success in finding a good snowbird rental are quite simple: get started early, and explore plenty of avenues. Hoping to luck into something is not very likely.
Many Advantages
We think there are many advantages to
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Published on December 10, 2013
Comments 122
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 3, 2013 -- We received this question from a member recently and thought it was worth publishing, along with our answer.
Q: Have decided that I want to soon retire to FL but unsure about finding a place to live near one of the coasts or in the interior, such as the Orlando and Ocala areas. Am hearing lots of scary stories about the costs of homeowners and flood insurance if living near the coast, but part
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Published on December 3, 2013
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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: Financial and taxes in retirement
November 25, 2013 -- Over the past week we saw numerous reports reminding us of yet another way that our hard-earned retirements can run onto financial shoals. This time the culprit is one that most of us don't think that much about - medical expenses. We will explain more about the problem here, along with some ideas on how to prepare your retirement against bankrupting medical expenses.
Fidelity, the mutual fund company, estimates that a couple in average health will spend over $220,000 during their retirement for medical
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Published on November 25, 2013
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Category: International Retirement
November 19, 2013 -- Note: Since this article was written we have added more country guides to the original 10, and will continue to add them here.
There is an intrepid group of people out there whose dream for retirement involves moving far away to an exotic location in a foreign country. For citizens of the US and Canada, that often means retiring to Mexico, Costa Rica, Central America, or a country in South America. Retirees in Europe and the UK tend to favor southern Europe or even Southeast Asia. Such retirements bring with them a number of challenges, along with advantages. Today we are pleased to announce new mini-guides to international retirement in 10 countries. We plan to add more
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Published on November 19, 2013
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Nov. 18, 2013 -- Everybody nearing retirement should have their own criteria for choosing a place to retire. For many, it's warm weather. Plenty of others want to be close to family, culture, or a favorite kind of recreation. Taxes on retirement income and distributions are often a key consideration. But for the millions of baby boomers whose meager savings are paired with tiny 401(k)s and social security benefits, finding an affordable place to live is consideration #1. This article provides a list of the most affordable places to retire in the USA, sliced
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Published on November 18, 2013
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