Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
January 30, 2008 -- Florida -- In a crushing 64% to 36% vote Florida voters overwhelmingly brought in a new wave of property tax reform in their state, passing Amendment 1. The amendment would lower property taxes. It increases the homestead exemption by $15,000, saving voters an average of $240. It also provides "portability" of protected assessed values for Florida residents, meaning that if they sell their homes and move to a new one they can continue to have a 3% cap on the assessed value for their "protected" amounts.
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Published on January 30, 2008
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
The real estate market in South Florida, one of the hardest hit regions of the country, affects thousands and thousands or baby boomers who are considering retirement communities there. Your Topretirements editor has been in the Sunshine State for the past several weeks - this report summarizes his microcosmic view of the Florida real estate market.
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Published on January 22, 2008
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Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
Note: This article has been updated with the top 2011 active communities trends.
With many baby boomers expecting their first social security checks in the mail soon, the next obvious question is.... where will all of these boomers live in retirement? Indeed, a favorite baby boomer cocktail party conversational gambit these days is "Where are you thinking about living in retirement?" With big events like this afoot, we thought we would try our hand at predicting 2008's top 10 trends for baby boomer retirement communities. One thing is certain - baby boomers are so diverse that just about every retirement will be different. Here goes:
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Published on January 7, 2008
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
January 2 - The new year might have just rung in, but the news for buyers of retirement real estate is the same - buyers are cautious as inventory piles up, sales slow down drastically, and prices come down only slightly. A dire New Year's Day front page headline in the Miami Herald screamed about "Home Sales and Prices" being in a "Nosedive". But aside from the softness in the market for retirement communities, another worry has emerged - unfullfilled promises and communities.
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Published on January 1, 2008
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Category: LGBT Retirement
December 17 -- Gays and Lesbians in America have overcome many barriers and achieved more tolerance in many areas of their lives. Society is generally more accepting, workplaces have changed to accommodate domestic partner rights, even the armed forces are less restrictive. But as baby boomer gays and lesbians (LGBTs) begin to retire in large numbers, they are finding that retirement communities are the next frontier.
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Published on December 17, 2007
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 16 -- It's a very exciting day for John Brady, owner of Topretirements.com: his Op-Ed feature on the need for Property Tax Reform, Time to Retire the Property Tax, was featured as an Op-Ed in the Connecticut section of today's Times.
The thesis in his Op-Ed is that archaic property tax laws are not only unfair, but that they also hurt education budgets.
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Published on December 17, 2007
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Category: General Retirement Issues
One of the benefits of retirement is it opens up new possibilities for gifts. Whether it is for yourself, a friend, or a loved one; here are some ideas for holiday gifts that are fun and appropriate for the retiree's new station in life. In fact, in case you get asked to make a retirement speech, your friend might like the present better than your speech.
Golf - Lots of people get more serious about golf in retirement. Check out these ideas:
- Medicus swing trainer. If you have a perfect swing this tool stays in one piece. If you are like me, it breaks in 2 pieces at the end of the backswing. Get it to stay in one piece and you have trained the perfect swing.
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Published on December 10, 2007
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
If you have been hankering to retire to a place where the great out of doors is, well, right out your door, there is a new book you might want to pick up. "Best Outdoor Towns" by Sarah Tuff & Greg Melville. The authors researched the best outdoor towns by looking at access to state and national parks; pristine outdoor areas; lakes and rivers; plus recreational activities like windsurfing, hiking, snowboarding, cross country skiing, fishing, and more. Just to make sure that these are outstanding communities from other viewpoints, they also factored in
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Published on December 3, 2007
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Authors Recommend Their Favorite Stores and Towns --
Baby boomers have begun the search for their ideal retirement communities. For many of them, the quality of the town's bookstore is a key selection criterion.
Goldengrain, a member at Topretirements.com, put it this way: “I need bookstores, colleges, lectures, discussion (and) a good active library We feel the same way - communities without good book stores are ghost towns. This article will review some of the top retirement towns in America - based on the quality of their bookstores.
The most fun part of this article is that we were able to enlist a helpful group of top authors to write about their favorite bookstore towns. Here is the list (and feel free to post blog entries to cover the ones we've missed):
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Published on November 25, 2007
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
November 18, 2007 (Updated April 2012) -- You guessed it: The most popular question asked at the Social Security Administration is "How much can I earn and still receive Social Security benefits". Fortunately the SSA has the answers to this question and many others at www.ssa.gov.
This question is an important one because many people living in retirement communities either need to or want to work in retirement. This question pertains to what is called the earning test. If you are under Full Retirement Age (FRA) when you start getting your Social Security payments (for example, you start taking benefits at 62), $1 in benefits will be deducted for each $2 you earn above the annual limit. For 2012 that limit is $14,640.
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Published on November 17, 2007
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