The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Top 10 list of the top 10 beaches in the world

Baby boomers love the beach and the exercise opportunities beach activities provide.

Going to the beach is relaxing. The beautiful water, sandy beaches, blue sky, and the soothing action of the waves draw millions of people a year.

What are the best beaches in the world?

I read dozens of Web sites and blogs and selected what I thought were the best lists of the top 10 beaches.

For my top 10 list, I picked the beaches mentioned most often on these lists. They are:

1. Ipanema Beach, Rio de Jariero, Brazil
2. Clifton Beach, Cape Town, South Africa
3. Pink Sands Beach, Harbor Island, Bahamas
4. Poipu Beach, Kauai, Hawaii, U.S.A.
5. Paradise Beach, Mykonos, Greece
6. South Beach, Miami, Florida, U.S.A.
7. Bondi Beach, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
8. Maroma Beach, Yucatan, Mexico
9. Nungwi, Zanzibar, Tanzania
10. Whitehaven, Whitsunday Islands, Queensland, Australia

Here are the 10 lists that I selected these 10 beaches from:

“Top 10 Beaches of the World” – Guardian.co.uk

“Top 10 Beaches” – Maps of the World

“Top 10 Beaches in the World” – Uptake Beaches Blog

 “Top 10 Beaches We Love” – msnbc

“Top 10 Best Beaches in the World” – Trifter

“Top 10 Beaches” – lovetoknow.com

“10 Most Beautiful Beaches in the World” – Listphobia

“Top Best Beaches in the World” – TravelUnderCost

“Top Best City Beaches in the World” – Travel + Leisure

“Top 10 Exotic Beach List” – Hotels by City.net

Let me know your thoughts on the beaches you enjoy most.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

What are your favorite beaches?

With the rain tapping on my roof, I’m thinking about summer and sunny beaches.

What are the beaches that you think are the greatest? The beaches that draw you and your family and friends back again and again?

Here’s a list of the top 10 beaches that my family and I have enjoyed:

• Cannon Beach, Oregon – Giant rock monoliths and nine miles of sandy beaches.

• Florida – Favorites include Miami Beach beaches, Bahia Honda State Park, the Florida Keys, Sanibel Island, and Southwest Florida Coast beaches.

• Mazarron, Spain. Picturesque beaches with great swimming and water sports, with 315 days of sunshine a year.

• Playa de los Genoveses near San Jose, Spain. A kilometer long with shallow waters and rocky headlands at each end.

• Playa de las Catedrales Beach, Galicia, Spain. A magnificent beach with rock formations like the arches in a cathedral.

• Paradise Island, Bahamas. Beautiful beaches and warm water.

• Dubrovnik, Croatia. A variety of nice beaches for swimming and sunbathing.

• Santa Cruz, California. A series of sandy beaches great for swimming and surfing.

• Sydney, Australia. Favorites include Bondi Beach and Manly Beach.

• Ocean Shores and Westport, Washington. Great beaches for a brisk walk in the fresh ocean air.

My next post will be on the opinions of others on the best beaches in the world.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Getting the retirement you want in these tough economic times

These difficult economic times are changing retirement plans for many baby boomers.

Some boomers are delaying retirement. Others are looking at options for retirement that they hadn’t considered before, such as moving to a lower cost community or working part time.

Regardless of your situation, it’s more important than ever to set retirement goals, study options, visualize scenarios, and come up with the best workable plan that you can devise.

Here are ideas to help you with retirement planning:

Where to live

“Best Places for Baby Boomers to Thrive in U.S.” – A list of 20 towns based on criteria such as health care, dining out, low crime, cultural activities, weather, active lifestyle, average cost of living, and a range of home sizes and prices.

“How to Pick the Best Place to Retire” – Items to consider to select the best community for your retirement.

“15 Great Places to Reinvent Your Life” – A list of 15 appealing places selected by AARP for you choose from, then look for a way to earn a living there.

“The Dream of Retiring Where It’s Warm in the U.S.” – Basic steps for determining if you can afford to retire where the weather is better.

“The Dream of Retiring Where It’s Warm Abroad” – Things to consider if you want to retire overseas.

Employment

“AARP’s List of Best Employers for Workers Over 50 Offers Helpful Information for Baby Boomers” – A list of firms that may hire retired boomers.

“Boomers Looking for Jobs With Meaning in Retirement Years” – Encore jobs combine income and an opportunity to make a difference.

“Baby Boomer Women Looking for Options in Retirement” – How boomer women can have periods of work and leisure in retirement.

“Five Things Baby Boomers Need to Do Before Starting an Internet Business” – Tips to think about before you take the plunge and become an Internet entrepreneur.

“Boomers Head for Exotic Locations to Work Instead of Retire” – A job overseas offers a way to travel and earn money.

“Job Hunting Tips for Boomers” – A list of articles and Web sites to help boomers find jobs.

Housing

“What Are the Housing Needs of Baby Boomers as They Grow Older” – Different types of housing that will help boomers age in place.

“Plan to Age in Place, But Consider Backup Options, Too” – The benefits of being able to stay in your own home as you grow older and the importance of thinking through other options.

Retirement planning

“10 Top Retirement Tips for Boomers” – Important items to think through in preparing for retirement.

“Familiar Retirement Planning Techniques Fit This Financial Crisis, Analyst Says” – Steps to take to help prepare for retirement.

“New Retirement Ideas Shake Old Beliefs” – A new way look at retirement because people are living longer and are healthier and more vigorous in old age.

“Baby Boomers Putting Their Retirement at Risk by Helping Adult Children” – Why it’s important to take a look how much you’re helping your family financially.

“Life Coaches Are Helping Baby Boomers Create Better Lives” – How a life coach can help you figure out what you want to do in retirement or improve your retirement living.

Health

“How’s Your Health? Study Says Boomer Health Worse Than Previous Generation at Same Age” – Why taking care of your health is important to the quality of your retirement.

“Optimizing Your Retirement: Health, Financial Tips for Boomers” – What boomers can to do about their health and finances to have a better retirement.

These are the retirement topics I’ve been writing about since January 2008. Are your boomer consumer retirement challenges covered here?

If not, let me know what retirement information you’d find helpful.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Top 10 reasons for baby boomers to be optimistic

Yesterday’s post on the “Top 10 Baby Boomers Challenges” wasn’t upbeat. In these tough economic times, the problems can be great.

Here’s the other side of the coin, ways baby boomers can embrace new thinking and opportunities during the recession:

1. Reinventing yourself

A job loss or downsizing at your workplace can lead to the opportunity to look at what you really want to do in your work life. Doing research and finding companies or agencies that are hiring rather than only responding to ads are techniques that work even during a recession.

2. Reducing spending

Buying less and having fewer things often lead to a simpler and happier lifestyle.

3. Focusing your business

A recession offers the opportunity to slow down, examine your business, and make plans for the future.

4. Thinking positively

It promotes positive solutions and can draws things to you as in the Law of Attraction.

5. Investing opportunities

The financial crisis offers investment bargains if you have any new money to invest. Be sure to work with a financial planner to help you make wise choices in these unusual economic times.

6. Making different retirement decisions

Delaying retirement may have its advantages. You may be able to come up with a plan, such as moving to a lower-cost community with fantastic part-time employment opportunities, which will be better able to meet your retirement needs.

7. Improving health

Job changes and spending less may free up more time for exercising, walking, running, cooking nutritious meals, and learning relaxation techniques such as yoga. 

8. Contributing to the community

With the economy sagging and unemployment at record levels, you have the opportunity, through various community programs, to help those who have lost their jobs and homes.

9. Experiencing a more progressive society

With an administration in the White House that believes in pro-work, health-promoting policies and consumer protection, boomers can benefit from a federal government that serves them better.

10. Getting greener

Green projects and organic food sales are on the upswing. It’s a good time to consider green jobs, goods and services, and volunteer opportunities. Check green Web sites such as Green America, formerly Co-op America, Worldchanging, and Global Exchange for information on what’s happening. You won’t find many reports about green activities in the media.

Let me know your opinions. What do you see as opportunities for baby boomers today?

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Top 10 baby boomer challenges

What are the top 10 difficulties baby boomers face today?

With the recession continuing, many boomers are stressed about money, jobs, and housing.

Here’s my take on the top 10 things worrying boomer consumers these days:

1. Setting a retirement date

With investment returns and housing prices down, many boomers are postponing retirement.

2. Keeping a job

Older workers are often the first to be laid off, so boomers have concerns about being able to remain in the workforce. Or, they’re unemployed and looking for work.

3. Declining health

As boomers get older, the chances of becoming ill – including developing a serious illness or having a heart attack – increase. 

4. Rising health care costs

Health care spending has risen about 2.4 percent faster than GDP since 1970. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services project that by 2018 health care spending will be more than $4.3 trillion or $13,100 per resident and account for 20.3 percent of GDP. Meanwhile, the quality of health care diminishes, including an increased risk of getting an infection when you go to the hospital.

5. Dwindling home values

In 2008, home sales prices fell an average of 9.5 percent, the largest annual decrease in 39 years.

6. Handling family relationships

Tough economic times make it more difficult to visit with adult children and their families who are spread across the country. Or, adult children may need to move back home due to job losses and financial setbacks. 

7. Increasing costs and the inability to pay off debts

Costs are continuing to rise while raises and promotions disappear, making it more difficult to pay off credit card debt.

8. Decreasing leisure activities

With money tight, the opportunity for vacations and health club memberships are reduced. 

9. Increasing stress levels

More demands at work, less time to spend with family and friends, and the intrigues of social networking make it difficult to find a time to relax.

10. Increasing declines in environmental quality

Although the Obama Administration has plans to turn around the environmental destruction of recent years, the sweeping changes needed aren’t yet in place.

Let me what’s of concern to you as a baby boomer. 

Tomorrow’s post will discuss “Top 10 Reasons for Baby Boomers to Be Optimistic.”

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Baby boomers and global warming

How will global warming affect baby boomers?

I thought about it a lot in the last 24 hours as I watched the snow pile up as I blogged in the library, scraped three to four inches off my car, and slogged my way to the food co-op.

Last year, when it snowed in late March, unusual for the Pacific Northwest, I wrote “Late Spring Snow Storms a Surprise.”

I wondered in the post if global warming could be causing the strange weather. It’s possible, I learned.

I found a report from the Washington State Department of Ecology that indicated recent climate modeling results indicate that “extreme” weather events may become more common. Rising average temperatures produce a more variable climate system, the report said.

For boomers, what does global warming mean?

Say, for the sake of simplicity, that boomers will live to be age 90. That means they’ll be exiting the planet between 2036 and 2054.

What changes will boomers see in that time frame?

Baby Boomer Magazine.com makes this prediction in the article “Baby Boomers Concerned About Global Warming”:

If the warming continues, we can expect catastrophic consequences. Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide. Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense, droughts and wildfires will occur more often, and the Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050. More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.

Here are some ideas on how boomers could be impacted by global warming: Boomers:

• Will need to change their consumption habits, such as buying fewer things, using less energy in their homes, driving greener cars, using public transportation, and living in walkable and other types of eco-friendly neighborhoods and communities.

• Will need to get used to erratic weather patterns and possible storm damage to their homes or in their neighborhoods or cities.

• Will become eco-activists in greater numbers.

• Face the possible collapses of living systems in their lifetimes, such as food, energy, and materials, as the world scrambles to respond to climate change and the water crises.

• Will need to use their personal, social, economic, and spiritual assets as they get older to craft ways to use their resources to respond to a changing world.

That’s a hefty list, but something to think about as the innovative Boomer Nation, who've changed every decade they've lived in, approaches the future.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Best places for baby boomers to thrive in U.S.

What are the best places for baby boomers to live in America?

According to the Best Boomer Towns for the Rest of Your Life, the greatest towns are:

• Aiken, South CarolinaAsheville, North Carolina

• Ashland, Oregon

• Athens, Georgia

• Austin, Texas

• Bend, Oregon

• Camarillo, California

• Chapel Hill, North Carolina

• Charlottesville, Virginia

• Columbia, Missouri

• Danville, Kentucky

• Fort Collins, Colorado

• Las Cruces, New Mexico

• Maryville, Tennessee

• Paso Robles, California

• Pinehurst, North Carolina

• Prescott, Arizona

• Reno, Nevada

• St. George, Utah

• Tucson, Arizona

• Villages, Florida

Best Boomer Towns spent 14 months doing research and compiling a Web site. The 20 U.S. towns have the following key criteria: excellent health care, university, airport access, fine dining, low crime, cultural activities, beautiful weather, active lifestyle, average cost of living, and a range of home sizes and prices.

Note: The photo is Paso Robles, California.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

More baby boomers delaying retirement, planning to work after retirement for health care benefits

Fifty-four percent of American workers will delay their retirement by at least one year due to the current economic situation, with 24 percent saying they’ll need to work more than five years.

The current economic climate is adversely impacting the American workforce, according to research by the U.S. Division of Sun Life Financial as reported on the Boomer Café. While the number of Americans who expect to work at least 20 hours a week after age 67 is largely unchanged, their reasons for continuing to work have dramatically changed.

Over the last 90 days, the most popular reason cited by American workers for why they’d continue to work past the traditional retirement age of 67 shifted from “to stay mentally engaged” to “earn enough money to live well.” While staying mentally engaged fell to the second most popular reason, the number of Americans who cite they’ll continue working “for health care benefits” rose from the sixth primary reason to the third most common answer, with 64 percent now listing it as a reason to postpone retirement.

See the article “Earning Enough to Live Well” for more information.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Orman’s 2009 action plan offers great tips for baby boomers

When I was at the drug store, I couldn’t resist. I bought a copy of “Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan: Keeping Your Money Safe and Sound.”

Although the book offers many of the recommendations you see Orman make on her TV appearances, the book is a small, 209-page, easy to read guide with a question-and-answer format on what to do in these complex, stressful financial times.

She begins the book with a brief history on the financial crisis, saying it was caused by greed. I certainly agree with that.

Orman’s first recommendation is to pay off your credit cards. Then she recommends investment strategies, including her familiar warnings about not using your investments to pay off credit card debts or a mortgage.

Orman also repeats her familiar mantra about saving money. Make a budget and do it.

Her action plan also includes tips on what to do about your home, college costs, and a job loss.

I love Suze Orman. She emphasizes the basics of financial planning that I’ve written about for years. And she does it with passion and a great deal of caring about people.

Orman’s action plan book is one I recommend strongly.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Help available for baby boomers selecting nursing homes for family members

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has launched a new rating system for nursing homes. The five-star rating system made its debut yesterday.

Newspapers across the country responded with articles on whether nursing homes in their cities or states were among the highest or lowest rated.

This is helpful information for boomers to use when they need to select a nursing home for family members.

Other useful tips include:

“How to Select a Nursing Home” – eHow

“How to Choose a Nursing Home: The ‘Do’s’ of Due Diligence” – AARP

Copyright 2008, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist