In the Seattle area where I live, signs of spring are coming. We had a couple of days in the 70s, even though we had three feet of snow about a month ago, unusual for here. Crocuses are beginning to poke up through the ground as are tulip leaves.
So, boomers are thinking spring. They’re writing about:
Spring finally arriving.
What retirement means for woman.
How thoughts about life and mortality have significantly changed over the years.
CBD as an alternative for pain medication.
How to reduce the use of plastic.
Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting writes about these articles on the Best of Boomer Blogs #588. Click here to get the links to the articles. And be sure to join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers love to hear from readers.
Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Personal Finance Writer
As the baby boom generation gets older with 22 percent of the nation now 60-plus, the number of older adults renting, rather than owning their own homes, is increasing. Renters households aged 60 and up increased 43 percent, from 6,550,000 in 2007 to 9,370,000 in 2017. This growth was more than younger renter groups.
In more than 300 cities analyzed, 24 cities have larger numbers of older adult renters over 60-plus years of age than young renters under 35 years of age.
In a study analyzing the growth of renters 60-plus across the United States since 2007, RENTCafe.com, an apartment news website, found:
The legislature in my state is debating whether to get rid of day light savings time. Arguments include it doesn’t save energy, some people have health effects, and it costs money due to reduced productivity.
For me, my opinion is to keep daylight savings time. I like the increased daylight in the evening. And, while it takes me a couple of weeks to go through the time change, I don’t notice it after that.
Whether daylight savings time or standard time, baby boomers keep on writing. Last week’s articles include:
Whether baby boomers are leaving the world a better place than they found it.
The benefits of taking walking tours.
The challenges of replacing an old TV set.
The ups and downs of quitting jobs in Connecticut and moving to Florida.
How to buy a winter coat.
Carol Cassara of Heart·Mind·Soul writes about these articles on the Best of Boomer Blogs #587. Click here to get the links to these articles. And be sure to join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers love to hear from readers.
Copyright 2018, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist
International Women's Day, March 8, is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
International Women's Day has occurred for more than a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. Prior to this the Socialist Party of America, United Kingdom’s suffragettes, America’s suffragists, and other groups campaigned for women’s equality.
This year’s theme is Balance for Better. The IWD website explains the theme this way:
Every year I write about the Academy-Award nominated movies and evaluate them for violence, ageism, sexism, and diversity. The results this year? Movies are more diverse, but still too violent. And more films are needed where women and older adults are the leads.
While I’ve spent hours this week finishing up my marathon movie watching, my baby boomer writing friends are continuing to write great articles such as the following:
Travel is high on Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting’s list of favorite things to do. Her latest adventure found her on a South American adventure. Although not a professional photographer, she enjoys taking photos of the sights. In this week’s post, she shares photos of some of the natural wonders of the Southern Hemisphere.
Tom Sightings at Sightings Over Sixty has been snowbirding in Charleston, South Carolina, for the month of February, where the weather isn’t tropical, but more like April or May in the north. In his post this week he takes us on a tour of the city from the vantage point of its historic harbor. So hop aboard “Sightings of Charleston” to see . . . what else, the sights.
Carol Cassara at A Healing Spirit wonders why some people don’t get the message no matter how obvious it is. Such was the case at a recent lecture, after which some of the attendees acted out in ways directly opposed to the message of the lecture. Cassara offers a helpful way to view tone-deaf people in “What Tone Deaf People Are Really Telling You.”
Laura Lee Carter of the Adventures of the New Old Farts writes that growing up a boomer wasn’t as easy as many today think. Most boomers are under serious financial strain today, worrying more often than their parents did about money, and suffering stress-related illnesses as a result. Boomers are also feeling financially stretched because they’re supporting both their children and their aging parents. More than half of boomers still provide financial support to at least one adult child. See “Boomers: Not the American Generation Who Has Had It So Easy as You Think” for details.
This is the Best of Boomer Blogs #585. Be sure and take a look at our boomer group’s articles this week. And, do join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers love to hear from readers.
Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist
Fortunately, my daughter urged me to start watching movies earlier this year. I usually wait for the list of Academy Award-nominated movies before I begin my marathon watching. I review the top movies every year to see if there’s a reduction in the amount of violence, ageism, and sexism in the latest movies. I think movies, like television, are too violent, and consumers need to take action to reduce the violent images that bombard children.
I’ve seen almost all of the movies with the most nominations. Last night, I saw the documentary short subjects. All were very good.
I have several foreign language films to watch: “Capernaum,” “Cold War,” and “Never Look Away.”
The winter storm we had in the Seattle area was our worst in decades. On the first night of the storm, my power went out at 11:30 p.m. I spent the night in the cold, then barely got out of the driveway the next morning to find someplace warm.
I drove north until I found a Starbucks with power. Then I decided to spend two nights in motels.
When the power came on, it was snowing heavily. When I was shoveling the driveway, my car got covered in snow again.
Despite all the bad weather throughout the nation, our group of baby boomer bloggers keeps on writing. Their latest articles include:
Boomer bloggers are in escape mode whether it’s from the cold, from their comfort zones, or from doing things that don’t benefit them.
They’re remedying their situations by being a snowbird and going to South Carolina and Florida, going on walking tours to reduce stress, mastering the art of career change, and remembering to take care of themselves, too.
Rebecca Forstadt-Olkowski of Baby Boomster writes about these articles in the Best of Boomer Blogs #583. To get the links to the articles, click here. And be sure to leave a comment. Boomer bloggers love to hear from readers.
Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist
Drinking two or more diet drinks daily was associated with an increase in the risk of having a stroke caused by a blocked artery, especially small arteries, among post-menopausal women, according to research published in Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association.
While this study identifies an association between diet drinks and stroke, it doesn’t prove cause and effect because it was an observational study based on self-reported information about diet drink consumption, said Yasmin Mossavar-Rahmani, Ph.D., lead author of the study and associate professor of clinical epidemiology and population health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
Compared with women who consumed diet drinks less than once a week or not at all, women who consumed two or more artificially sweetened beverages per day were:
Fewer people are celebrating Valentine’s Day this year, 50 percent which is down from 55 percent last year.
Of those celebrating, 18 percent are giving the gift of jewelry; 34 percent, an evening out; 18 percent, clothing; 35 percent, flowers; 52 percent, candy; 15 percent, gift cards; 44 percent, greeting cards; and 25 percent, a gift of experience, such as an event or a trip to a spa.
