The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Baby boomers coping during weeks of staying at home due to the pandemic

Things are going well for me as I stay home under Washington state’s stay home order. I’m willing to do it for a long time more. I don’t think it’s worth it to get my hair cut or eat in a restaurant and get the coronavirus.

It’s so upsetting that protesters are risking the lives of others by coming out to state capitals, crowding together, and in some states, even carrying guns.

My yard is beautiful this time of year. I have 40 rhododendrons in many colors of pink plus red, yellow, orangey, and purple. I’m making a bouquet a day because the beautiful blossoms will soon be gone. Since my main interest in my yard is growing vegetables, I rely on all the rhododendrons, and about a dozen azaleas, planted by previous owners.

But the main thing I’m doing is working on the book about my journalism career called “Follow the Money: My Life as a Financial Journalist.” It’s a lot of work to go through the hundreds of print articles I’ve written, but it makes the time fly by. I’m almost finished with the print articles. Next, I’ll need to figure out a way to write about more than 6,000 blog articles.

Meanwhile, baby boomer bloggers are writing about:

New website offers details for consumers on mortgage and rent relief during the coronavirus pandemic

A consolidated website providing information for consumers on mortgage and rent relief during the COVID-19 pandemic is now available, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Tuesday. The consolidated site will make it easier for consumers to get current information about their options as Congress and the Trump administration consider additional measures during the national emergency.

“Getting the right information to consumers with a website that links to all of the federal government’s relief efforts is a good step forward,” said Barry Zigas, a senior fellow at the Consumer Federation of America. “It should help reduce confusion among consumers and make it easier for them to get reliable information about their options.”

The website is hosted by the CFPB and sponsored by the bureau, HUD-FHA, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Bank system. It provides links to specific areas of interest to consumers faced with challenges paying their mortgages or their rent.

Court orders mortgage relief fraudsters to pay $18.5 million

A federal court ruled in favor of the Federal Trade Commission Monday in a case against the operators of a scheme that deceived financially distressed homeowners by falsely promising to make their mortgages more affordable. The defendants also charged consumers illegal advance fees and unlawfully told consumers not to pay their mortgages to or communicate with their lenders.

The case was filed by the FTC in January 2018, and the court issued a temporary restraining order against the company then.

In granting the FTC’s motion for summary judgment, the court found that the defendants’ practices violated the FTC Act and the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule.

Errors on criminal background checks continue to keep consumers from getting jobs, housing, report shows

Passing a criminal background check is usually required to get a job or housing, however, employers and landlords are making decisions based on inaccurate reports. 

A report, “Broken Records Redux: How Errors by Criminal Background Check Companies Continue to Harm Consumers Seeking Jobs and Housing,” from the National Consumer Law Center, finds that problems with accuracy in criminal background check reports are still wide spread.

“Unfortunately, many background screening companies still seem to prioritize profit over accuracy, leading to reports that cost consumers’ jobs and housing,” said Ariel Nelson, center staff attorney and author of the report.

Number of retirees with mortgages increases dramatically

Retirement is different than it used to be. Many more retirees are still trying to pay off their homes.

One of four homeowners 30 years ago who were in their late 60s and 70s still had a mortgage. These days, nearly half have one. When people turned 80, mortgages used to be unusual, with just 3 percent being mortgage holders. These days, one in four of these older seniors have mortgages, according to “Housing America’s Older Adults 2019,” a report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. 

Seniors who have paid off their homes have more money to spend, which improves their standard of living in retirement.

Change the batteries on your smoke detector and CO alarm Sunday

Now that you've figured out Sunday is Daylight Saving Time and you'll be setting your clocks back one hour, it’s a good time to change the batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

“Early warning is crucial to getting out of a house fire alive and for surviving CO poisoning,” Robert Adler, acting chair of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, said in an agency blog article. “I encourage everyone to check and change the batteries in their smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Doing this can save you and your family in a fire or CO emergency.”

The CPSC estimates that in 2016 nearly 352,000 residential structure fires resulted in about 2,410 deaths, 10,370 injuries, and $6.36 billion in property damage in the United States.

Facts and figures for Halloween 2019

Source: WalletHub

 

Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

What are baby boomers doing these days?

Baby boomers are living much longer than their great-grandparents or even their grandparents. The average 65-year-old American today can expect to survive well past 80. So the question is: are boomers using the additional time constructively?

That’s one of the topics our boomer blogging group is writing about this week. Other topics include:

• House sharing when you’re single.
• Ways to make a transition work for you.
• A mother’s sayings make warm memories after she’s gone.
• A rightsized way to travel.
• The joy in finding a lost car key.
• The arguments couples have over and over.
• How to reduce the amount of plastic you eat.
• What you need to set your air conditioner at in the summer.

Tom Sightings of Sightings Over Sixty writes about these articles on the Best of Boomer Blogs #611. Click here to get the links to the blog posts. And be sure to leave a comment on the articles you like or find thought provoking. Boomer bloggers love to hear from readers.

Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

iBuying costs sellers more, study shows

What is iBuying? iBuyers purchase homes from sellers at a lower than market price based on proprietary algorithms, pay the seller almost immediately, make any needed improvements, then re-sell the homes.

The total cost of using iBuying for home sellers is 13-15 percent of a home’s sale price, according to research by Collateral Analytics.

That compares to a 5-7 percent commission, plus the costs of any needed home repairs or preparation, for a seller working with a traditional real estate agent. In addition, iBuying sellers are freed from the uncertainty of selling their home.

Where are baby boomer living now?

By Florentina Sarac, Guest Blogger

Researcher for RENTCafé

As a generation that values individual choice and can easily adapt to change, baby boomers are known to favor certain parts of the country when it comes to retiring.

No longer tied to a particular city, many prefer to pack up their bags and leave for sunnier places. But while some only take a nice climate and entertainment options into consideration when choosing their next destination, others might want to move closer to family. Affordability also plays a big part in their decision as choosing a city with lower taxes can help them save money.

A study by the apartment search website RENTCafé shows that along with popular retirement zip codes in warm states such as Florida and California, baby boomers also prefer living in lively zip codes in New York or Las Vegas.