Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
November 23, 2009 - It's impossible to see into the minds of our readers to try to assess their motivations in finding their best place to retire. We do, however, have some evidence based on which of our articles get read the most. No surprise, articles on low-tax states and most affordable always attract many readers. As in that rude truism, "It's the Economy, Stupid".
One of our pet peeves is the overemphasis that many people place on low taxes as a retirement criteria. In this article we will argue
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Published on November 23, 2009
Comments 8
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Editor's note: This report was originally written in 2009. There have been several new articles since then, notably "Worst States for Retirement, 2014", which are more up-to-date.
Deciding which state you ought to retire to is hard enough. First you have to find the right climate, tax structure, environment, culture, crime, etc. But with the economic recession of the last few years another factor enters in - is your state in financial trouble so deep it might not be able to dig itself out (think worst states to retire)? The Pew Center on the States issued a report last week that should be enough to
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Published on November 16, 2009
Comments 24
Category: Retirement Real Estate
Nov. 5, 2008. Much to the glee of builders, bankers, and real estate agents, the bill to extend the tax credit for new home buyers was passed by both the House and the Senate. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation very soon.
But wait, there's even better news! Under the new law existing homeowners, not just first-time buyers, will be eligible. The legislation is expected to help keep recent economic momentum going, perhaps not at Cash for Clunkers levels, but positive nevertheless.
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Published on November 10, 2009
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Category: Active adult communities
Updated Sept. 2016 - This updates our 2009 article on Home Owner Associations, the introductory piece of a 3 part series about these important, but controversial organizations (often called Community Associations). The 2nd in the series features an insightful interview with Joe West, CEO of the Community Associations Network about the issues buyers should know about Home Owners Associations before they sign on the dotted line. Part 3 focuses
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Published on November 9, 2009
Comments 94
Category: International Retirement
Nicaragua CoastIf you believe the marketing hype you can retire to any number of offshore paradises and live like a prince on social security - or less. In our opinion it certainly is possible, but there might be some important trade-offs along the way. Forbes just had a a great article, Americans Find a Retirement Haven in France, that raised several important things to consider about expatriate retirements. Here are our 10 tips to consider
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Published on October 27, 2009
Comments 10
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
October 26, 2009 - (Editor's Note: There are several articles in this "Affordable Places to Retire" series. See "Further Reading" at end for links to the rest in the series)
In our recent article, "Whackiest Best Places to Retire List", we poked a little fun at some of the "Best Places to Retire" lists our big named publishing brethren keeping come up with. In so doing we promised to come up with our own "Best Affordable List", and here it is.
St. Petersburg Harbor
The exercise of identifying our "Affordable" List proved to be very interesting, and challenging, on many levels (see end of article for further explanation). The major challenge was exactly what criteria would we apply? Would
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Published on October 26, 2009
Comments 109
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Readers love best places to retire (or live) lists. Publishers are crazy about them because... (read first sentence again). But good grief, is there is no end to zany lists?
Consider three such lists put out recently. First one from U.S. News, another in a long string of "best places to live" from this magazine.
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Published on October 19, 2009
Comments 3
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
October 15, 2009. It's official, there will be no social security COLA (Cost of Living Allowance) increase in 2010, the first time this has happened since 1975. The reason is simple, this year there was no increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) from the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009, hence no need for a payment.
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Published on October 15, 2009
Comments 9
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
Note: This is the 3rd in a 3 article series about baby boomers and their retirement real estate plans. Part 1 featured the differences (and similarities) of boomers' retirement housing preferences and the homes builders are building. Part 2 explored the conflict between baby boomer desire to retire in suburbia vs. reality.
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Published on October 12, 2009
Comments 54
Category: Retirement Real Estate
It's been a rough couple of days in the retirement real estate market. Fortunately, not all the news was bad, depending on your perspective. Here are few news stories crossing our desk:
- Prices are falling in many active adult communities, which is stimulating sales to at least some degree. According to a report in the Press-Enterprise, Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, a real estate research firm, prices in Del Webb's Solera Diamond Valley recently ranged from $170,000 to $291,000. Back in January 2008, similar houses were priced from $246,000 to well over $300,000.
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Published on October 12, 2009
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