Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 9, 2015 -- For a surprising number of baby boomers the ideal retirement is not in an active community with a golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool, or clubhouse. Neither is it a small town, nor a postcard pretty burg with a college as its centerpiece. Instead, many surprise their friends by moving from the suburbs to of all places - a city. While an unexpected choice, there are any number of good reasons to make this move, akin to a salmon swimming upstream. This article will explore the many advantages and disadvantages of an urban retirement lifestyle, and then we will provide a list of 10 great cities where you can retire.
As we are fond of saying, retirement is a chance at a do-over on life. Lets say you have regrets about some choices you made during adulthood - like where you chose to live or what you did for a living. Now that you are
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Published on December 8, 2015
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Category: LGBT Retirement
By Dave Hughes
December 7, 2015 --When it comes to choosing a place to live during retirement, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people want the same things that everyone else wants – someplace safe, reasonably priced, agreeable climate, cultural and recreational amenities, and good healthcare. LGBT people, however, have a few additional factors to consider. Those include: how tolerant an area is, the presence of a gay community, and healthcare providers that are welcoming towards LGBT people. Sadly, instances in which LGBT patients are treated poorly and same-sex partners are denied visitation rights or decision-making rights in hospitals and nursing homes are still all too common.
How can straight people benefit from a list of LGBT-friendly retirement cities?
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Published on December 7, 2015
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 6, 2015 -- If you have a 401(k) and/or an IRA, and you turned 70 and 1/2 in 2014 or earlier, you have a very big deadline coming December 31. That is the date by which you must take your annual Required Minimum Distribution (RMD), or face significant penalties. A surprising number of people fail to take these distributions. All of the money taken from regular
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Published on December 5, 2015
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Category: Active adult communities
December 1, 2015 -- We are very happy for the folks who find their perfect place to retire -it is wonderful that you can live your dream. But we know there are many others who haven't found their Goldilocks place, yet anyway. For those who haven't, perhaps your experience is something like... the right community is too old... HOA fees are too high or restrictive... they have amenities you don't want... too many young people... or, it would be perfect, except it's in the wrong place. But maybe the problem is that your community hasn't been invented yet. Perhaps it is up to you to build it yourself.
Nextavenue.com had an interesting article, "Not Your Mother's Retirement Home", that discusses different
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Published on December 1, 2015
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Category: Green Retirement Communities
November 30, 2105 -- We have just seen the most interesting idea for productive, sustainable retirement living yet. The idea is from an architectural firm called Spark, which won first prize for Future- Experimental Project at the 2015 World Architecture Festival held in Singapore. Their winning project, HomeFarm, is a sustainable residential development for seniors with these clever features:
- Urban apartments in sizes that allow multi-generational living
- Vertical aquaponic farming on the building's exterior walls
- Curvilinear building with central courtyard
- Soil based garden plots on staggered terraces and rooftops
- Use of collected rain water and grey water for farming purposes
- Fruits and vegetable marketplace where residents can sell their wares
- Fish waste as fertilizer
- Agricultural waste is fed into an onsite biomass power plant
Spark hopes to have the first HomeFarm up and running by 2030 in the crowded urban nation of Singapore. The productive garden feature provides a modest income for its elderly residents. HomeFarm was designed to keep its residents connected to the wider community through its public facilities that include a clinic, nursery/child care, farm shop and food court. It also intends to provide a familiar caring family environment for those who require medical care in their later years. It aims to provide a cross section of accommodation for single residents through to
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Published on November 30, 2015
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Nov 30 Update: It is a little tricky to get the ebook for free, but you can do it. Use this link and find the link that says 0.00 to Buy. Click on that, not the Amazon/Kindle unlimited option (you have to be a subscriber for that). Then…
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Published on November 28, 2015
Comments 11
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
November 24, 2015 -- There are many classic examples of the kind of mistake made by your Topretirements.com editor. They include experts who don't listen to their own advice: the cobbler with holes in his soles, the doctor who still smokes, the plumber with a leaky faucet - you get the picture. We're sharing our mistake - the kind you would think someone who has a good grip on retirement matters wouldn't make - so you don't make the same one. Our mistake was not to sign up for Part D, prescription drug coverage, when we originally enrolled in Medicare. If you don't currently have prescription drug coverage, consider yourself forewarned: you still have time to take corrective action during the current Medicare enrollment period, which ends December 7, if that is what you decide after reading this article.
2 very serious consequences
Failing to sign up for Part D insurance when you first become eligible can have two serious, even disastrous consequences:
1. You pay a penalty of 1% a month for every month you do not have "creditable" prescription drug coverage. In our case, it means a 30% penalty on our monthly premiums - forever!
2. Inability to get coverage immediately. There is an open enrollment period every year from Oct. 15 - Dec. 7 where you have the option to sign up for Part D insurance (or change your Part B or C plans). But let's say you don't take that option, and next February you are diagnosed with a serious medical condition that requires $25,000 worth of drugs, taken immediately, to treat it. Even if you register for Part D on Oct. 15 you are out of luck until January 1 - that's the earliest your new plan can kick in. Although the odds are low of this (or something worse) happening - it is possible!
To Part D - Or Not
When you hit age 65 and sign up for Medicare you have many choices. Part A is the hospital component, Part B or C cover doctor and outpatient type claims, and then there is Part D - prescription drugs. Part C programs typically include prescription drug coverage, so you don't need Part D if it is included there. In our case, at age 65 we signed up for Part A, Part B, and an commercially available Medigap policy from Anthem. When it came to Part D, we were like a lot of people we know - we don't currently take any prescription drugs, and our insurance agent didn't
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Published on November 24, 2015
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
November 22, 2015 -- Over the years we have heard from many of our Members who were considering retirement in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We know there are many more who are tempted by the amazing scenery, mild 4 season climate, and outstanding recreational opportunities in this area. So it seems like this might be an ideal time to put together a compilation of comments that we have received from people who have either lived in the area, or explored it for possible retirement. We look forward to hearing from other folks who have an interest or experience in retiring to this area - please share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
All about the Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a chain of mountains running northeast from Georgia to
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Published on November 21, 2015
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
November 16, 2015 — The biggest change affecting Social Security benefits in at least 15 years is about to go into effect on April 30, 2016. It is a change that could cost certain beneficiaries $50,000 over a lifetime. As with any major change to a benefit program there has been a lot of confusion over who is affected and how - this article will explain how it will affect you.
We were fortunate to have Kurt Czarnowski, a 34 year veteran employee of the Social Security Administration and leading expert on the subject, explain the changes to us in practical terms. Here is what we learned from Kurt about how various groups are affected.
File and Suspend and Restricted Benefit
The Budget Bill passed by Congress and signed by the President in early November included changes to
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Published on November 16, 2015
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
November 12, 2015 -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced the 2016 premiums and deductibles for the Medicare inpatient hospital (Part A) and physician and outpatient hospital services (Part B) programs.
Part B Premiums/Deductibles
Most people with Medicare Part B will not see any increase in their premiums in 2016, which will remain at $104.90/month. Since there will be no Social Security cost of living increase for 2016, the law requires that most beneficiaries must be “held harmless” from premium increases.
Beneficiaries not subject to the “hold harmless” provision will pay $121.80,
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Published on November 12, 2015
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