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Try It NOWCategory: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 15, 2021 — The reality is most people don’t want to retire too far away from where they live now. The tug of familiar friends, relatives, and institutions can be very strong for some, even more powerful than wanting to be in a warmer climate. Yet their current abode…
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 13, 2021 — Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s one question, instant poll on retirement location happiness. The bottom line is that the majority of people responding are happy with their choice of a place to retire. A certain minority is less satisfied, or had to move more…
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
by Lucy Burdette
If you are a regular follower of TopRetirements, do you take the website’s advice? Maybe you’ll have read the article from November 21 discussing Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s The Five Secrets of Super Agers. Having watched my father’s mental faculties wane under the onslaught of dementia, I’m definitely interested in keeping my brain healthy as I age. I’m pretty good at his number one, exercise, though I don’t try to keep up with my hub, Mr. Top Retirements. Number four, a Mediterranean-style diet and number five, staying connected, have been important to me for a long time.
Trying something new was number three on the list. At first I thought: I write most days, and all the words are new, so I have this one down cold. On the other hand, in the mystery world, I’m mostly known for my series featuring a food critic living in quirky Key West. I’m comfortable writing that series—I know the characters and the setting, and I love talking about restaurants and food. Even though this is a long-running series, every book is new in some way. Each story has a new plot, usually some new characters, and often new layers in the relationships between the regulars.
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Category: Active adult communities
December 8, 2021 --
This is an updated version of Part 1 of a 2 Part series. Part 1 covers competitors in the West, while Part 2 discusses the 12 Largest Communities in the East.
Many people are excited (and sometimes appalled) by The Villages, the giant active community in Central Florida. They often wonder, are there any other age-restricted communities that approach The Villages' size, which approaches 150,000 residents and sprawls over 3 counties? And, do any other communities offer a similar range of amenities?
Although no community in the west is quite as large as The Villages, there are many that have more than 5,000 residents. This article highlights some of the ultra-large active communities in the West. We invite you to explore over 3500 active communities of all sizes in our State Directories at Topretirements.
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
We are curious – how happy are you with your decision where to retire? If we get a good response to this we will have a quick survey letting people tell us where they retired and how and what they like about it. Thanks for participating – you will see…
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Category: Home and Garden
December 4, 2021 -- There is a free resource in your town in your town you might be missing out on. One that you can actually tap from your home or phone for instant service. It is called your Library!
A few years back many people predicted that libraries were a thing of the past. That no one will bother going there anymore, thanks to the Internet. Well, a trip to your local library will prove that one a bad call. Libraries today are usually amazingly busy, filled with people of all ages doing all kinds of different things. It reminds us of Mark Twain's famous comment - "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated!"
Libraries have evolved into much more than loaning books and answering research questions. In this article we will highlight some of the services that you might not know about, things that could both save you money and enrich your life.
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 1, 2021 — Last week in “Slanted Best Places to Retire List” we reported on the US News list of best places to retire. The creators of that one seemed to have not realized that the Mississippi is not the western border of the U.S. Many of the…
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Category: Estate Planning
November 30, 2021 — It is amazing how many times this question comes up, usually from people who we consider very proactive about their retirements. There are no easy answers to the question, but there are some guidelines. Adding to the mix, if the provision of the Build Back Better…
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
November 26, 2021 -- When it comes to lists of Best Places to Retire, one of the most consistent and "best" sources is US News. Their lists usually make sense, and rarely include bizarre choices in North Dakota or other places that don't take into account that most retirees looking to relocate want to move to somewhere where winter temperatures are warm. While their new Best Places for 2021-2022 lists uphold their sterling reputation for the most part, the fact that they left off the entire western half of the country seems like a very serious omission.
Florida came out on top on both of their new lists this year - "Best Places" and "Most Affordable Places to Retire". The Sunshine State garnered 8 of 10 spots on the Best Places to Retire list, and with 4 of the Most Affordable selections. Two of those Florida cities, Daytona Beach and Pensacola, made it onto both lists.
How they were chosen, along with our quibbles
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
November 2021 -- In Dr. Sanjay Gupta's book, "Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age", the neurosurgeon states early on that "you can make your brain better, faster, fitter, and yes, sharper". That is good news - we are not stuck with an aging brain that diminishes every day thanks to old age, too much drinking, or other bad habits. His book is about propagating brain cells and making our existing ones more efficient. Not to make us smarter, but to help us "navigate life" better. (Note: Topretirements earns a commission from some links to Amazon).
People tend to think that memory loss is something that comes automatically with old age, which is not the case. Cognitive decline is not inevitable. Just about everyone worries about memory lapses, like forgetting the name of the person you have known for years, but that is not as worrisome as some might think. "Keep Sharp:" is dedicated to the idea that you can have your own "sharp brain" program to improve your thinking and memory, no matter what your age.
The book has several sections, and the most important is probably his 5 pillars of brain health. We will venture to say that you will not be able to guess which pillar is number one.
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