Category: Work and Volunteering
August 23, 2016 -- One of the often overlooked challenges of retirement is how you will stay busy and engaged over time. You might think that you'll be happy just by kicking back and relaxing, but that is not generally how humans are built. In that regard we are a lot like working dogs, happiest when we have a job or activity that keeps our minds and bodies busy.
Volunteering is an obvious and rewarding way to keep a focus in retirement. There are so many possibilities: mentoring children, helping a small business on a project, assisting at the library or hospital, trading work for free space at a national park, helping a local volunteer group or community association, or
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Published on August 22, 2016
Comments 17
Category: General Retirement Issues
August 16, 2018 – 10 years ago this month Topretirements.com came out of the ether and appeared on the world wide web. It didn’t look like much, but there was some pretty good (if limited) information. Since that time we’ve had several redesigns and make overs, and the new content…
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Published on August 18, 2016
Comments 8
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
August 17, 2016 -- Note: We are pleased that MarketWatch published a version of this story on their site with beautiful photos - "10 Prettiest Places to Retire".
Talk about job for King Solomon, how could anyone judge the 10 prettiest retirement towns in America? There are just so many pretty towns, so many different ways to judge beauty - the task is impossible. That said, we are still going to make a good effort in this article to list some incredibly beautiful towns that make good places to retire. In fact we have 2 lists for you: 10 towns that we selected on our own and using some research from CNTraveler, plus 12 more that came in as great suggestions from your fellow Topretirements members. We welcome more
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Published on August 16, 2016
Comments 33
Category: Retirement Planning
August 9, 2016 -- If you are retired or just about to retire, congratulations - this retirement survival guide is for you! You have earned your retirement - and we wish you the greatest happiness. This survival article will give you some basic guidelines for making it the happy and successful time it was meant to be. We have tried to take a broad approach to retirement survival, going beyond the financial component that is the focus of many 'survival" books. If you search online you will find lots of "retirement survival kits" for sale - the gag gifts they contain are fun, but this piece is meant to be a little more practical! You will note that for each topic we have included a link or two to more articles that give you more depth.
Make a Plan
Everything goes better with a plan. Having a thought out approach with specific
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Published on August 9, 2016
Comments 3
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
August 3, 2016 -- Sometimes you visit a possible retirement town that is just so darn pretty you can't stand it. Edenton, North Carolina is one of those.
Here is where you can find our more detailed review of Edenton. But it proved to be such a charming place to retire on a recent visit that we wanted to give you more of a description and photos too.
Where it is
Edenton is in northeastern North Carolina, about an
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Published on August 3, 2016
Comments 47
Category: Family and Retirement
August 3, 2016 - Two weeks ago your editor became a grandparent for the first time. Having just about the most beautiful, precious child in the universe made us think - how can we help her become the best and happiest person she can be, and what can we do to support the new parents? In this article we’ve tried to include the major grandparenting topics, and for each of them some of the best tips we’ve heard or read about. However, our experience is very limited - under two weeks! We are hoping that our Members will chime in with their best ideas in the Comments section below - making this a shared community where we are all help each other enjoy the experience.
All of our friends and relatives rave about the grandchildren experience, whether they are retired or not. Life-changing and joy are two of the words that come up most
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Published on August 2, 2016
Comments 12
Category: Retirement Planning
July 26 , 2016 — A recent study of those who are about to retire vs. people who have already retireed reveals a sobering fact - pre-retirees tend to dramatically underestimate when they will retire. That underestimate is huge - between 5 and 7 years. While it displays a healthy desire to keep working, it does not appear to be realistic, given the experience of those who have retired before them.
The main finding of the study is that in the USA actual retirees saved, on average, 28 years for retirement. Pre-retirees, however, say they will save for 35 years, 7 years higher. To some extent the higher figure reflects caution and better savings intentions. But for most of them, the study concludes, it is wishful thinking.
The survey, “Future of Retirement – Generations and Journeys” was done by HSBC and covers many other retirement issues. While some people are happy to retire before their planned start date, many are not. A big reason why is that missing out on years of work means more meager retirement savings, 401(k) balances, Social Security payments, and pension payouts. And that usually results in a retirement that is not as financially secure as planned.
Many reasons why you might retire sooner than you think
This is not the first study that reports people tend to retire sooner than they say the plan to (see Further Reading below). The reasons for earlier than planned retirement are often beyond
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Published on July 26, 2016
Comments 21
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
Note: This is a followup to the Reunion Survey and results article we published in 2015. In that poll we found an even split between those looking forward to their 50th reunion, and those who said they either had no plans to attend, or were undecided. Many who said they would not come based their decision on bad memories or a need to move on from those days of old. Here is the link to the original article, Baby Boomers Look Forward to Their 50th Reunions with Optimism and ...
— July 26, 2016. Your editor just had the pleasure of experiencing his 50th high school reunion. And, for how he felt about it, he agreed with the 62% in our previous survey who rated their reunion experience as
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Published on July 24, 2016
Comments 18
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
July 20, 2016 -- The decision on when to start taking your Social Security retirement benefits is a very personal matter. Our members report a wide range of answers - from "as soon as I can" to "waiting until the maximum age of 70". This article will give some highlights from a recent survey by Nationwide Insurance on how 50+ adults feel about those Social Security decisions, particularly after they have made them.
The Nationwide Retirement Institute Consumer Social Security PR Study polled 3 different groups: people who have been retired 10 years, those who have
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Published on July 19, 2016
Comments 43
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
July 20, 2016 -- The oldest baby boomers, those born in the first post WWII year, are turning 70 this year. To which the IRS is probably saying, "Happy Birthday Boomer", because the U.S. Treasury is about to get billions in tax presents. That's about to happen because Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from your retirement funds are required in the year you turn 70 and 1/2. To do the math for you, if you were born in 1946 and your birthday is prior to July 1, you will be 70 and 1/2 in 2016.
If that describes your situation, you must start taking your annual Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from your IRAs and 401(k)s. This year (the year you turn 70 and 1/2) you could wait until April 1, 2017 to take it, but if you do you will also have to take your 2017 RMD by December 31, 2017.
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Published on July 19, 2016
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