Small towns with strong economies still exist. Along with a good economy, you can also find great schools, affordable homes, and low crime in these towns.
Here’s Money magazine’s list of America’s best small towns:Last fall, fall I bought Kiplinger’s Retirement Planning 2008 magazine. With articles such as "Retire Worry-Free," "Protect Your Nest Egg," "Plan Now," and "Live the Dream," I thought there would several articles I could blog about. However, when I picked up the magazine a few weeks after I purchased it, I was disappointed. The information didn’t fit the current financial crisis. I know the deadline for magazine articles is often three months before publication date. Kiplinger’s Retirement Planning magazine certainly was out of date.
This year’s Kiplinger’s Retirement Planning 2009 magazine is much better.
Helpful articles for boomer consumers include: “Rebuild Your Savings,” “Rethinking Retirement,” “Get Back on Track,” “The Best Financial Advice,” “New Rules for Investing Your Money,” “In Search of Health Insurance,” “Life After a Layoff,” and “Reverse Mortgages Keep Getting Better.”
Here are five ways the magazine suggests for consumers to rebuild after the Great Recession:
1. Contribute at least enough to your 401(k) plan to capture your employer’s match – assuming you still get one – and bump up future contributions automatically.
2. Make additional “catch up” contributions – up to $5,500 in 2009, if you’re 50 or older.
3. Don’t raid your retirement accounts early. You’ll lose the benefits of compounding and could lose as much as 40 percent of your distribution to taxes and penalties.
4. Plan to work a few years longer to fatten your retirement savings and your Social Security check.
5. Reduce your annual withdrawals until the stock market bounces back, if you’re already retired.
Other retirement tips include:
Resources to help consumers in retirement planning offered in the magazine include:
To get a copy of Kiplinger’s Retirement Planning 2009, see newsstands, bookstores, or libraries.
Or you can order the magazine through Kiplinger’s Web site.
It’s worth the $5.95 price.
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:
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.
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:
My next post will be on the opinions of others on the best beaches in the world.
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.
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”:
Here are some ideas on how boomers could be impacted by global warming: Boomers:
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.
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:
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.
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.
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