Category: Travel
Travels with Lucy, John, Yoda, and Tonka
May 2, 2016 -- The heart of this article was originally posted on JungleRedWriters.com by Lucy Burdette, who you might recognize as the better-half of Topretirements. We have appended an additional section at the end on the traveling issues that snowbirders have, with pets or not.
Lucy Burdette: John and I have always been a little smug about
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Published on May 2, 2016
Comments 28
Category: Retirement Real Estate
April 29, 2016 -- One of the biggest considerations most Americans face is determining if, and when, it makes sense to buy a home. In retirement, however, the question becomes a different one: “Should I remain a homeowner?” For all Americans, one recent study by Trulia.com found it is more cost effective to buy than rent. But what about for retirees? Trulia found that it is 41.8% cheaper for retirees to buy than rent in all major US metros. The issue is not quite that simple though, as there are emotional and practical considerations as well as financial ones.
We were very pleased that Trulia reached out to Topretirements for this article, providing us with custom data for our Top 10 Most Popular Places to Retire. This data, presented
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Published on April 29, 2016
Comments 38
Category: Home and Garden
April 19, 2017 -- Just about everybody has an iPhone, smart phone, or at least a vintage flip phone. If you own one of the former two devices, you have made a significant investment, one that would hurt if you lost it. Unfortunately you could experience that pain all too easily if you lose it (done that several times!), take it swimming (that too), or have it stolen. This article will focus on what to do if you lose your phone, and why you have pretty good odds of finding it again, if you take the right steps.
Although Apple claims in advertising that the iPhone 6 starts at $200, higher performance models can easily go to $400 (plus a $450 subsidy from your carrier). But by the time you attach it to a 2 year plan, your total cost will probably not be less than $500 and could go over $1000 (See ZDNet article on costs). Models from other manufacturers are also expensive.
Ouch
So when your editor lost his
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Published on April 19, 2016
Comments 7
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
April 11, 2016 -- We love hearing stories from real people about their adventures in finding the perfect place to retire. So we were very fortunate recently to get an in depth interview from 2 old friends, Sandy and Ann, who shared their retirement search adventures. We hope you will find it interesting and instructive. (Don't miss the Further Reading section at the end - over the years we have interviewed a whole lot of people about their retirement search experiences - and the links to those stories are all there!)
Prior to retirement the pair lived in a comfortable New York suburb, from which they commuted to successful careers in the Big Apple. Their enviable lifestyle included frequent ski trips to Vermont in winter and a busy social life at a country club the rest of the year. But when it came time for retirement, both were interested in a change of scenery. They agreed on two main motivations: to have easier access to outdoor recreation opportunities like hiking, biking, and skiing; and to escape New York's expensive cost of living and real estate taxes.
Looking down south
Like so many others, they were faced with a big
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Published on April 11, 2016
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
April 6, 2016 -- Are any of the Best States to Retire" lists you see so frequently worth the few minutes it takes you to read them? That is a pretty good question, since A: there are so many to read, and B: they seem to contradict themselves more than they agree. This article will illustrate the many ways that 2 recent lists differ from one another, along with the few ways they coincide. We will also see how these lists best and worst selections compare with the last 2 editions of Topretirements "Best (and Worst) States" lists. All of which has us shaking our heads at the general lack of agreement!
Every time we publish one of these types of lists we can count on a few readers taking a shot at why we picked this or that place, or why we didn't include yet another. That is understandable, as even when objective criteria are used to make the
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Published on April 5, 2016
Comments 38
Category: Adventurous retirement
Editor’s Note: This announcement of her 7th Key West food critic mystery is from Lucy Burdette, aka Mrs. Topretirements.com April 5, 2016 — Killer Takeout by Lucy Burdette takes place during Fantasy Fest, a zany ten-day festival beginning with the unofficial zombie bike ride, and ending with an enormous,…
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Published on April 5, 2016
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Category: Uncategorized
April 2, 2016 — We were recently quite flattered to be asked to be featured in a podcast for RetirementJourneys.com. Ted Carr, its President, asked some very helpful questions. It was a good challenge to re-think many of our positions on and reasons for choosing a place to…
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Published on April 1, 2016
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
March 29, 2016 — Due to popular requests we periodically update our extensive series of “Dueling Retirement States”. The latest to be updated is the comparison of retirement in Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware. The previous version of this comparison was from 2010. Since then most trends and…
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Published on March 29, 2016
Comments 18
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
March 26, 2016 — If you asked most people to name the fastest growing Metro in the U.S., we think many would not be able to come up with the right one. The answer is a most surprising one – The Villages, the sprawling community of 119,000 in Central…
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Published on March 25, 2016
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Category: Singles and Retirement
March 23, 2016 -- Although the quest for a suitable partner or companion is an age old quest, there are some new twists - the tools for finding that person. A study from the Pew Research Center found that the share of 55- to 64-year-olds who use online dating has doubled in just the past few years, from 6% in 2013 to 12% in 2015). And interestingly enough, it is us baby boomers, along with the youngest adults, who are leading the charge into online dating on sites like Match.com. About 15% of the total U.S. population reports having used used online dating. The youngest adults are more likely to have used mobile apps for dating or meeting people. Some dating sites such as go binder, have achieved a certain level of notoriety, such as Tinder and Ashley Madison.
As we boomers age there is more need for a dating solution. Gray divorce is increasing, spouses unfortunately die, and many people never got married in the first place. Now as online dating becomes more acceptable and familiar, many are turning to it. About 41% of all American adults say
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Published on March 22, 2016
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