Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Although it is true that most baby boomers feel poorly prepared for retirement on a financial basis, millions of them are very well heeled. Bank of America released its latest Merrill Lynch Affluent Insights Quarterly in January, which was based on a survey examining the values, financial priorities and concerns of affluent Americans. The survey found that the vast majority (84 percent) of affluent baby boomers (in this survey, boomers aged 46 - 64 who had investment assets of $250,000 or more) believe that their "retirement" will differ from that of their parents. These baby boomers see those differences as positive - 86 percent intend to live a more active lifestyle, and 72 percent believe they will enjoy a higher
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Published on February 8, 2011
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Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
February 8, 2011 -- Having left the prized 18-45 year old marketing demographic, baby boomers might be justified in feeling a little bit like yesterday's donuts - not all that appealing and a bit stale. But thanks to our sheer numbers (as in 76 million), sales hungry marketeers appear to be putting baby boomers back in their sights. And believe it or not, that's probably good news for us (but more about that later). This Sunday's New York Times talked about the phenomenon in its "In a Graying Population, Business Opportunity" article. The Wall Street Journal weighed in
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Published on February 8, 2011
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
The inadequate consolation of losing our parents is that our loss is usually associated with the prospect of receiving an inheritance. As baby boomers age and their parents start to reach old age, the inevitability of that happening grows ever more imminent. In 2007, 58% of baby boomers had at least 1 living parent.
The Center for Retirement Research of Boston College completed an intriguing research project not too long ago - "How Important Are Inheritances for Baby Boomers". In the study a panel of subjects born before 1954 were asked about the probability of and how much they might expect for an inheritance in the next 10 years. The results of the survey indicate that about two-thirds of baby boomers expect to receive an inheritance of some amount. Obviously, the wealthiest
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Published on February 1, 2011
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
February 1, 2011 -- As many of us have discovered, the glamour queen (or king) we might be first attracted to often doesn't turn out to be as enchanting in the long term as the quiet beauty in the back of the room. A similar phenomenon happens with best places to retire lists, so last year we came out with a list of "The Most Under-Rated Places to Retire". Our readers seemed to like the concept, so here we go again with our 2011 list: More Under-Rated Places to Retire. Part 3 in the series was published in 2014 (see bottom of article for link).
We started with our search for this year's list by using the Topretirements "Retirement Ranger". There we specified these criteria:
1. Lower than average cost of living
2. Average January temperature above 40 degrees (F.), (we'll do a similar list
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Published on February 1, 2011
Comments 66
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
We've got to hand it to Yahoo, nobody comes up with more "best" and "worst" lists than the search giant. This week they announced their "10 Winter Wonderlands Retirement". Their chief criteria were the likelihood of having lots of snow on the ground for most of the winter, along with cost of living, access to medical care, and availability of other amenities.
Here is their list:
Juneau, AK
Aurora, Colo.
Burlington, Vt.
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Published on January 25, 2011
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Note - October, 2016 -- This article still has a lot of good information in it, but some is outdated, particularly as it pertains to spousal benefit strategies like "File and Suspend" and "Restricted Benefit". See "Filing for Social Security: 5 Reasons Why It Is More Complicated Than You Think" for more up to date information.
January 25, 2010 -- If your quick response to this question was 62, you might want to think a little harder. More and more information is coming out that supports the idea that you should wait as long as possible, particularly if you or your spouse had a high earning career. If you responded that you weren't sure, that was a good answer, because the question is a surprisingly complex one and highly personal too. This article will review some of the key considerations you need to take into account before reaching your decision. Note: See our 2011 article, "10 Things You Need to Know Before You Start Taking Social Security".
First, to recap: For people born between 1943 and 1954, your full retirement age is 66 (for people born earlier it is few months younger; or older if you were born in a later year). If you were in born in 1946 and elect
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Published on January 24, 2011
Comments 131
Category: Home and Garden
Thanks to the economic downturn, it's become a lot more common to have 2, sometimes 3 generations living in the same home. In some cases it's the adult child who comes home to live with parents in an effort to save money during a career change/challenge. Other times it's a decision to keep elderly parents nearby - either as a cost cutting move or because the parent doesn't want to move to an assisted living facility. Occasionally, all 3 generations are living under the same roof.
Fortunately, builders and architects are taking note of this trend, and designing some helpful solutions to its many challenges. Professional Builder ran a recent article, "Design Trends in Multi-Generational Housing" that should be required
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Published on January 18, 2011
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
The most frequent comment on all of the websites that have been covering our "Worst States for Retirement" article has been this one: "How can the same state be on the best and the worst list?" A typical comment is the one made by "stylesb" on the AARP.com site: "Real credible info. Connecticut is on both the Best and Worst ranked states for retirement."
The main reason why a state might show up on both lists is that the lists were prepared by different organizations using different criteria. That's the situation with Connecticut, which is #9 on the Topretirements' list of worse states, and #8 on the Money-Rates' list of best states for retirement. The lists use different rating criteria. Topretirements used the fiscal health of the state, taxes, and climate as its 3 criteria for choosing the worst states. Money-Rates used climate, crime rate,
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Published on January 17, 2011
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Category: Active adult communities
January 17, 2011 -- Both buyers and sellers in the 55+ market have been marking time for the past few years, waiting for some positive sign that the worst of the bleeding is over. A new report, using data from the 2009 American Housing Survey and reported on by the Met Life Mature Market Institute and the National Association of Home Builders, contains some findings that might indicate things could finally start to turn around. Not that they, or we, are predicting anything like the crazy times of 2004-2006, when buyers slept on floors to be the first to bid on new homes, sight unseen. But perhaps a steady 55+ market where the long-predicted pent-up demand matches supply, and buyers can sell their existing homes and start...
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Published on January 17, 2011
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
It used to be that the cheapest places to live in the USA were in the interior of the country and in the southeast. If you just got away from the coasts, prices went down and it was easy to buy a lot of home for relatively little money.
While that is still true - the median home price in Oklahoma City was $135,500 in 2010's 3rd quarter (National Association of Realtors) - now there are bargains in south Florida and Nevada as well (Cape Coral/Ft. Myers was $100,000, Las Vegas was $138,100 in the same period). Forbes Magazine just came out with their list of the "Best Places for Bargain Retirement Homes", based on taxes, price of real estate, and stable home prices. The prices in these bargain communities show
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Published on January 11, 2011
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