Category: Health and Wellness Issues
January 3, 2023 - Tom Brady, QB of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (or cousin Tom as we call him in our family), is 45.5 years old, having a pretty darn good season, with his team atop the NFC South standings. By all historical measures, he is a freak, performing as well or better than his peers who are 10 and 20 years younger. But he is not the only "older" person who is breaking records in a younger person's field. How about you, are you still going strong in some vocation or avocation, astounding your peers with your ability to hang in there?
The NY TImes just profiled a group of senior aged citizens who are doing great in some physically and mentally demanding jobs. They wrote about Jesse Izaguirre - a paramedic who is 70, an 84 year old NYC City tour guide, a doctor who is 85, and a 95 year old artist, among others. Earl Pollock, who at 82 is still in the logging business, summed it up this way: “I keep the job on my mind 24/7, I guess I’ll stay till I can’t get up in the morning." The Times used Census Data to help identify these outstanding specimens of tenacity.
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Published on January 2, 2023
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Category: General Retirement Issues
December 27, 2022 -- In many ways 2022 was better than 2021, and far superior to the pandemic ruined bust that was 2020. People finally got to take all of their postponed trips from years before, so traveling is back. Fear of dying from Covid relaxed a bit, although all was not joy due to inflation and stock market worries. Here are our favorite things and articles from the past year.
We are hoping is that you will add your favorites from the various categories in the Comments section below. It could be your favorite anything! It is always amazing to see how rich and interesting your suggestions are, and how different people's tastes are.
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Published on December 27, 2022
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Category: General Retirement Issues
December 20, 2022 - There is a new crush of retirees coming to town, and they are not Baby Boomers. Generation X, those born from 1965 to 1980, are finally getting their turn in the retirement spotlight, a very big demographic shift in the making. The eldest GenX-ers will turn 58 in 2023, the age when many people start retiring in earnest. But how ready for retirement will this new generation be, and how will it differ from the baby boomers before them?
Confident?
Fortunately, many in the Gen X generation have been preparing for retirement. Most have been saving for that day, confident about their money skills, but worried that they might fall short of what it takes to maintain their working day lifestyles. Of course, either from choice or necessity, not all of they will retire early, or ever.
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Published on December 19, 2022
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Category: Active adult communities
December 13, 2022 — Way back in 2011 our faithful correspondent Jay Michaels shared his adventures from visiting the most famous active adult and 55+ communities in the Williamsburg, VA area. His reviews of the area and those communities have definitely stood the test of time – still relevant and…
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Published on December 12, 2022
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Category: Downsizing
December 11, 2022 -- One of the best pieces of advice we have heard is to think about downsizing in retirement. Finding a smaller, lower maintenance place to retire can unlock equity in your home so you can maintain a great lifestyle with less income. It can also simplify your life. Less maintenance and yard work, smaller utility bills, lower property taxes, and more time to enjoy retirement, are just some of the benefits. But downsizing is not always quite as easy as it seems. Here we outline some of the costs and headaches that many people do not consider when they start the downsizing process.
Costs to fix up your home for sale. Either you or the buyer might decide to make costly improvements before the sale, such as radon mitigation, roofing, HVAC, structural, etc. These expenses can cost a lot more than you imagined when you put the home on the market.
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Published on December 10, 2022
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Updated Feb. 2025 (Dec. 7, 2022) -- For the people who see red when they think about paying taxes, the good news is that there are plenty of tax friendly states to retire in. There are enough choices that they can pick a state for retirement based on other factors as well, such as climate, environment, proximity of family, etc. This article will cover the states that have the lowest taxes for retirees. But first, let's discuss what kind of taxes you need to consider in retirement.
Kinds of Taxes
Unfortunately, there are multiple kinds of state taxes that can affect retirees. Some will affect different people in different ways:
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Published on December 6, 2022
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 4, 2022 -- Folks who were born in 1950 face their first Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from their IRAs and 401(k) type plans. The SECURE Act of a few years ago fixed the age for RMDs to kick in at age 72, starting with folks born after July 1, 1949. This first year the 1950 folks have until April 1, 2023 to take the distributions, but they will have to take their regular 2023 distribution by the end this year too. Slightly younger people born before 1950 had to start taking their RMDs at age 70 and 1/2, and they have to take their distributions by Dec. 31, 2022.
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Published on December 3, 2022
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
November 27, 2022 -- Researchers at The John Hopkins Sex and Gender Clinic have a message for people over 50: "It's not just for young people." In an article at AARP, Kate Thomas, Director of Clinical Services says that "“It can strengthen our relationships, promote self-esteem, and improve our sense of identity.” Beyond that, the article listed other ways researchers have found sex is beneficial to older people.
8 ways sex is good for you
Boosts Immunity. Apparently a romp in the hay is also good at improving your response to disease, possibly even Covid. People who had more sex showed more immunity than others according to a study by researchers at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania.
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Published on November 26, 2022
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
November 22, 2022 -- So you've done your research and found the best town and state for your retirement - great! But before you pull that trigger, here is one last checklist to go over. This last bit of research will help to make sure that even if the climate and the location and the community are just perfect, that something unexpected doesn't come in to play to spoil your decision.
A lot of people do decide to move far away once they retire. According to the website hireahelper.com, 234,000 American retirees moved last year, up slightly from the pandemic reduced 2020. Being close to family and cheaper/better housing were the top 2 reasons for moving. Florida was the number 1 state for retirees who moved out of state (12% moved there), with the mid Atlantic Coast coast region (Melbourne) area attracting the most. Other states in the top 5 were North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia. Oregon and Maryland were the top 2 states retirees moved away from.
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Published on November 23, 2022
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Category: Active adult communities
November 16, 2022 — With people more and more willing to travel these days, some of those trips will be to explore active adult or 55+ communities as potential places to retire. We have just updated a popular article of a few years back with that in mind. It explains…
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Published on November 15, 2022
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