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Try It NOWCategory: Health and Wellness Issues
October 13, 2021 – The Open Enrollment Period for Medicare starts this week on October 15 and ends December. 7. It is an important event for eligible people not currently enrolled in the plan, or who want to change plans or some component of their current plan. During…
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
October 11, 2021 -- Moving to a new state when you retire is not a decision to be made lightly. Only a tiny percentage of retirees make a move that significant, but when they do they usually do it for important reasons. Often they trade in a valuable home in a high-priced market for a less expensive but nicer one in the Sunbelt somewhere, getting warmer winters and a friendlier tax environment in the bargain. They might move to a more age-appropriate home in a state where they can live the lifestyle they dreamed about. Or they might change states to be near family or friends.
If you choose to move or not, this is a very personal decision. Consulting lists of the “best states for retirement” might give you some ideas, but ultimately you need to choose based on the lifestyle, cost of living, taxes, politics, and culture, that will lead you to a happy retirement.
The most popular states for retirement
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Category: Retirement Planning
October 6, 2021 -- The results of last week's survey on snowbirds are in. Many thanks to the community spirited folks that filled it out! While we can all speculate about snowbird behavior, it is satisfying and interesting to find out what people like you do in the real world. The results are roughly consistent with our 2018 survey on this topic, which had a much larger response rate. You can compare those results as well as find a link to Part 2 of that report, which lists ideal snowbird pairings and many comments from people who snowbird, here.
Overall
Most of the people who completed it are snowbirds, which reflects a natural interest in the topic. The results show a great variety of when people leave for the winter and how long they stay. Some of the most interesting results were comments about how people found their winter place, and how Covid has affected their plans. We have summarized the results for each question below, which we hope might be useful in your own snowbirding lives.
Will you go somewhere warm this winter (be a snowbird), and for how long.
Most of the people taking the survey were snowbirds. There were roughly equal numbers who will go away for periods from 1 to six month. One fourth plan on snowbirding for less than a month.
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Category: General Retirement Issues
October 3, 2021 — Subscribers to our Daily Alert were probably confused on Sunday, Oct. 3 when they received 3 copies of the same email. We are sorry about that. Probably as a result of our server being bombarded by someone try to index our content, the Oct 1 and…
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
October 1, 2021 -- No one wants to wear a hearing aid. They can be unsightly, embarrassing, and usually don't work well in noisy situations. They are also very expensive ($2,000 to $12,000 a pair), and generally not covered by any kind of insurance, including Medicare. Unfortunately, if your hearing is bad enough, not wearing one leads to being shut out of the conversation and social isolation. Fortunately there might be less expensive, and more effective ones coming on the market.
Jane Brody recently wrote an article in the NY Times that promises some hope: "Will Hearing Aids Ever Be Hip". While two thirds of people over 70 suffer from hearing loss, only 20% of adults who could benefit from a hearing aid use one. Clearly there is a demand for a better product.
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Category: Retirement Planning
September 28, 2021 — Among retirees a popular conversation starter is always – where, when, if, and how you are going somewhere warm for the winter season. We are curious about your plans for this winter, including if Covid has had any impact on your plans. Please take this very…
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Category: Retirement Planning
September 24, 2021 — Retirement is a modern concept. Not that long ago you worked until you dropped, or couldn’t do the job. The invention of pensions changed that for many people. Then, when Social Security started paying benefits in 1937, retirement became possible for almost everyone.
Until recently, once you retired you lived where you always did, moved in with your children, or, when you could no longer take care of yourself, transitioned to an old folks or nursing home. The landscape changed mightily in 1960 when Sun City opened with its active adult lifestyle and extensive amenities. Suddenly the idea of having fun in retirement became popular, and ever since people have been figuring out new ways to enjoy retirement.
Co-housing, Continuing Care Retirement Communities, and 55+ communities all have their devotees. But most of the innovation has come from the retirement industry, whose retirement offerings are geared to put money in their coffers when you buy into their dream.
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
September 15, 2021 - Members in a recent Topretirements poll gave us their number 1 considerations for choosing a place to retire. Atop the list by a large margin was climate, followed by affordability, being near friends and family, and good medical. Much further down the list were taxes and political environment.
These are all important things to think about when choosing a place to retire. But there are other, less obvious considerations that are even more critical. Here are 5 overlooked considerations that we think deserve special attention.
Do you really know the area where you about to relocate?
“Rose”, who retired to Myrtle Beach (SC), listed a perfect example of this situation in our recent poll: “Never retire where you like to visit. There are so many tourists and so much traffic it is unbearable. There is very little here that I was looking for, such as classes and like minded people.”
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Category: Retirement Planning
September 9, 2021 — Thanks to the 300+ folks who responded to last week’s instant poll, which asked what your #1 reason for choosing a place to retire would be. Although we realize most people have multiple factors affecting their choice, the poll tried to identify the single most important.
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
September 8, 2021 — The latest Trustees report for Social Security shows that the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 recession are affecting the future of this popular program, but no one is certain exactly how that will play out. One thing the report does lay out is that the Trust…
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