Category: Health and Wellness Issues
April 4, 2017 -- Most people including your editor would be very pleased to live to 100. That assumes of course we have most of our wits about us and are able to escape afflictions that cause a lot of pain or difficulty managing daily life. So it seems worth asking - what are the keys to living to age 100?
The number of Americans who are 100 or over is increasing rapidly. The number went from 32,000 in 1980 to 77,000 this year. We baby boomers will swell those ranks even further, starting in 2046. The absolute best advice for living to centenarian status is simple - choose your grandparents wisely!
Your editor's mother lived to 102 and was doing
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Published on April 4, 2017
Comments 12
Category: Uncategorized
April 3, 2017 — Our recent article about the Proposed Obamacare Replacement Bill generated some consternation among some of our Members. We had a few emails and comments to the Blog that wished we had remained apolitical (and some more colorful). Many more people were probably upset but did…
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Published on April 2, 2017
Comments 16
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
By Flo Williamson
Part 2 South Carolina (link to Part 1: The Carolinas Revisited - North Carolina)
April 1, 2017 -- After an interesting and enlightening visit to coastal North Carolina, we made a bee-line towards Charleston, SC. As we entered South Carolina, Route 17 took us through the Myrtle Beach area. Myrtle Beach was never on our retirement relocation radar, as it struck us as being too large, sprawling, and “touristy”. The traffic, even in February, bore that out. We passed through the small beach towns of Murrells Inlet and Pawleys Island, and stopped 35 miles south of Myrtle Beach, in Georgetown.
Georgetown, population 9,000, is a town on the Winyah Bay. It is golf cart friendly. Site of the 2nd largest seaport in SC, Georgetown is also home to an abandoned steel mill and a working paper mill that is located
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Published on April 1, 2017
Comments 75
Category: Family and Retirement
March 28, 2017 -- Golf carts are an increasingly popular way to get around. They are inexpensive, easy to park, generally environmentally friendly, and fun too. But just because they are cute doesn't mean you can't get hurt in one.
In communities like The Villages in Central Florida the golf cart is THE transportation mode of choice - with 65,000 carts in residents (1 for every 2 residents!) Many have been customized to look like a Rolls Royce or other exotic car. The Villages has 42 miles of paths which golf carts share with pedestrians and bicyclists. Peachtree City near Atlanta is another community where
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Published on March 28, 2017
Comments 5
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
March 27, 2017 -- The authors of the Milken Report on Successful Aging have identified the best places in the country to retire for successful aging. In fact they have two different lists - larger Metros and smaller Metros (we will focus on the smaller Metros). Their selection process is the most rigorous of any we know of; it actually has 83 different criteria including access to good healthcare, transportation, security, employment and recreation opportunities, livability, community engagement, and livability.
Most boomers live in Metropolitan areas, and plan to stay there
The authors of the report refer to this as the "anti-retirement" list of
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Published on March 26, 2017
Comments 42
Category: Home and Garden
By Patricia Kennedy
March 21, 2017 -- I am pretty tech savvy for an old lady. This isn’t an idle boast because even way back in 1984, I began learning all-things-computers by helping my husband setup a network to link our home offices. It turned out that my organizational skills and compulsion to “follow the logic” were great advantages when mastering new software or installing the latest laptop. I remember that itchy-fingers feeling when downloading a new program finding great satisfaction when everything was finally up and running smoothly.
But that was then.
Now is more complicated. Especially with all the inter-connected “devices” that we rely
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Published on March 21, 2017
Comments 17
Category: Health and Wellness Issues
Update May 5: The latest version of this bill was narrowly passed in the House on May 4. The bill has most of the same features as the original, with some additional money thrown in to help people with pre-existing conditions, whose insurance can now go to market rates. The bill allows rates on people aged 50 -64 to increase dramatically. Now it is on to the Senate, which will probably produce its own version.
March 22, 2017 - The Republican controlled Congress and our new President have come out with their proposed replacement to the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. Unfortunately for its proponents, the new bill, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), has run into considerable headwinds. The American Medical Association (AMA), hospital groups, the Heritage Foundation,the AARP, as many as 18 Republicans in the House and Senate, several Republican governors, and virtually every Congressional Democrat do not like the bill. In this article we will review how the proposed bill would affect baby boomers 50-64 who are not eligible for Medicare. Unfortunately, many of the folks in this group are retired (often involuntarily) and have very low incomes.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 14 million Americans of all ages would lose health insurance coverage in 2018 under the bill, rising to 24 million by 2026. On the plus side, about a third of a trillion dollars would be saved during that period, mainly because subsidies to lower income folks would be replaced with less generous tax credits. Although younger people would probably see net health premiums (after tax credits) go down with the Republican plan, people age 50-64 would see increases in premiums that are so high
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Published on March 18, 2017
Comments 218
Category: Uncategorized
March 17, 2017 — We have some good news for our many Daily Alert subscribers! When we switched from Aweber to Mailchimp to send out our e-newsletters, one of the casualties was anchor links. Here is an example that will explain anchor links. In the Daily Alert what was happening…
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Published on March 17, 2017
Comments 0
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Updated April. 2020 - Originally published March 14, 2017 (see the many interesting Member suggestions for walkable towns in the Comments section).
Think how great it would be if you could retire to a place where you didn't have to own a car. You wouldn't have to climb in your vehicle, fight traffic down busy streets, or hunt endlessly for a parking place every time you wanted to go someplace. Here are 10 retirement towns where you can trade your car for a bike, golf cart, public transit, or - best of all - your own two feet.
In this search we are not mentioning the largest American cities, where having a car is more of a burden than a blessing. For example in New York City, where a surprising percentage of residents don't even have a driver's license, you can easily pay $500/month just to garage your car. In Gotham you can almost always get there faster on a subway, bus, taxi, Uber, or by
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Published on March 14, 2017
Comments 47
Category: Active adult communities
March 11, 2017 -- Jimmy Buffett fans, not known for worrying, can keep relaxing. In fact they can now find that last shaker of salt in their very own active adult community. The first one of many to come, dubbed Latitude Margaritaville, will go online next year in Daytona Beach, Florida. Press releases say the sales center there will be open later this year with the first models available in early 2018.
Topretirements must have seen 10 press reports about this new community - there is a lot of excitement about it. Here is what John Cohlan, chief executive officer of Margaritaville said about the new communities: “With Minto’s (the developer) expertise in creating master planned developments and Margaritaville’s inherent ability to deliver fun and escapism, Latitude Margaritaville has the exact coordinates for those looking to live the Margaritaville
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Published on March 10, 2017
Comments 11
