The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Baby boomers concentrate on keepin’ on during the coronavirus pandemic

I’m working on my book about my journalism career, so these days of staying at home are going by quickly for me. I have plenty of food (and toilet paper) and just found out I can order groceries, expect frozen food, from my local food co-op. I was ready to try Safeway or Fred Meyer thinking eating nonorganic food would be a lesser risk than going to the co-op to shop.

Then, I wrote about the Dirty Dozen, a list of the produce with the highest pesticide residues offered yearly by the Environmental Working Group. Topping the list are strawberries, spinach, and kale. The EWG recommends that whenever possible, consumers purchase organic versions of produce on the Dirty Dozen list.

Raisins, which hadn’t been tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture since 2007, had the most pesticide residues. The EWG recommends eating organic raisins or prunes. Prunes, USDA tests found, had much lower pesticide residues than either conventional and organic raisins.

Meanwhile, boomer bloggers are writing about:

Baby boomers dealing with the strange new world

Things have changed dramatically for Americans due to the coronavirus. Most baby boomers are sheltering in place and waiting to see what happens next. What will it be? It’s all unknown.

Meanwhile, boomer bloggers are writing about ways to cope with it all. Articles include:

• How to manage anxiety and to meditate.

• The benefits of a stacation.

• The importance of avoiding charity scams.

• A nature walk in the neighborhood to break up self-isolating at home.

• Tips for dealing with isolation.

• New things to try at home.

• Good things that have come from the pandemic.

Carol Cassara of Heart•Mind•Soul writes about these articles in the Best of Boomer Blogs #642. Click here to get the links to the articles. And be sure to join in the conversations. It cheers up boomer bloggers to chat with their readers.

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Baby boomers are being impacted by COVID-19

Like most people for now, the coronavirus is turning my life upside down.

I wanted to get my new glasses Monday, but a delay caused an error in one of my glasses prescriptions, I’m getting regular glasses and computer classes, screwed everything up. By the time the ophthalmologist’s office said they had faxed the correct prescriptions to Costco, Costco had closed its optical department.

So, instead of shopping at Costco, I went to my local co-op and Safeway to stock up again. I wore my face mask and disposable gloves.

In addition to the canned goods shelves being nearly bare, the sugar and flour shelves at Safeway were empty, too.

People age 60 and older are to stay home, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee said. So that’s what I’m doing now.

The baby boomers in our blogging group are being impacted by the coronavirus. They’re writing about:

What’s in a name? The most popular names for girls and boys for 2020

Lannie or Fairley for boys or Judith or Sharron for girls? No, those aren’t names for 2020. Those names were popular names from the 1940s.

Names.org, a website all about names, has released predictions for the Most Popular Baby Names of 2020. New entries in the top 10 for boys this year are Henry and Alexander, while Mila made the top 10 list for girls.

The rankings were determined by analyzing the most recent data from the Social Security Administration, trends from the past five years, and current user interest from millions of visitors to the Names.org website.

Here are the Top 10 Girl Names for 2020

Baby boomers contemplate grief, quarantine, hoarding, and love

You never know what's going to happen next in life. One day, you could lose someone you love or you could be in the middle of a pandemic. So, enjoy every day to its fullest.

That's the recommendation of our boomer blogging group. This week's articles are as follows:

Over at A Healing Spirit, Carol Cassara wants to counteract the negativity in the world by doing her version of random acts of kindness. Cassara calls them "love bombs" and offers a variety of ideas you can easily use to make the world more loving in "How To Love Bomb Someone for Free."

For Laurie Stone of Musings, Rants & Scribbles, it’s hard to believe almost four years have passed since her dad died. Four winters, springs, summers, and falls have come and gone. He was a good father and they were close. She thought his death would become easier with time, but instead it gets harder. Numbness eventually turned to grief, but each time she thinks of him the sadness goes deeper, the loss is more real. Here are eight things she misses…

It has been a busy week with presidential primaries and a possible pandemic dominating the news. The prospect of being quarantined got Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting pondering whether, and how, to prepare. Baer remembers a past brief time spent at home while contemplating future confinement.

The snowbird season is over. At least it is for Tom at Sightings Over Sixty. March is here, and so in his post "Homeward Bound" he says goodbye to the southern beaches and turns his sights to the north . . . and to the season ahead.

When a hoarder passes away, his or her family is left to sort out the mess. Rebecca Olkowski, with BabyBoomster.com, has been spending time getting rid of stuff so she can move. It’s amazing what a person can collect who has trouble letting things go. 

This is the Best of Boomer Blogs #639. Click on the links to read these informative articles. And be sure to leave a comment. Boomer bloggers enjoy communicating with readers. 

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Baby boomers write about family issues, finances, and candy

Last week, I spent days looking through my photo collections for photos for a funeral. It was a huge, huge trip down memory lane. Marriages, kids, divorces, travel, deaths, and more. I feel like I’ve been through an emotional wringer. However, through it all, I had an additional realization, again, that I need to work on getting my photos better organized.

I have 50 notebooks full of photos, and I have about that many more that need to be put in archival sleeves. Also, I could take more photos out of my digital chronological files and put them in the named files so I could have them handy to use.

Anyway, above is one of the photos I found, which is now properly identified.

Meanwhile, my baby boomer blogger friends are busy, too, continuing to write great articles. Topics for this issue of the Best of Boomer Blogs are:

Happy Valentine’s Day

Americans love to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The page views on my blogs have been climbing since the beginning of February. Today, they’re reaching record numbers.

Total holiday spending for the Valentine’s Day this year is expected to reach $27.4 billion. Men will spend more than women on the holiday. Husbands plan to spend an average of $358, 74 percent more than wives plan to spend on their husbands.

I hope you’re going to have a great celebration with your partner – a nice dinner, wine, a movie or play, and above all chocolate. Like many people, I love chocolate.

If you’re single and feeling lonely, plan a nice treat for yourself – an outing, wine, chocolate, or pie.

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Watch out: Romance scams rising sharply

Consumers reported losing $201 million to romance scams in 2019 – up nearly 40 percent since 2018, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Romance scammers prey on consumers who are looking for love, converting what feels like a budding relationship into an ask for money to help the scammer get out of some manufactured crisis. The stories and feelings can be compelling, and the losses can be huge.

In 2019, more than 25,000 consumers filed a report with the FTC about romance scams, and over the past two years total reported losses to romance scams were higher than to any other scam reported to the FTC.

If a new romantic interest asks you to send money, don’t do it. It’s a romance scam.

Here are tips from the FTC to avoid romance scams:

• Stop communicating with the person immediately.
• Search online for the type of job the person says they have. See if other people have heard similar stories. For example, you could do a search for “oil rig scammer” or “U.S. Army scammer.”
• Do a reverse image search of the person’s profile picture. If it’s associated with another name or with details that don’t match up, it’s a scam. 
• Never wire money to a stranger, or pay anyone with gift cards. If someone asks you to wire money or pay with gift cards, report it to the FTC at ftc.gov/complaint.

More information on romance scams is available on the FTC’s romance scam page and in a video. Information about FTC complaint data can be found at ftc.gov/exploredata, and consumers can file a complaint at ftc.gov/complaint.

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Facts and figures for Valentine's Day 2020

Shoppers plan to spend more than $27.4 billion on Valentine's Day this year. That makes Valentine’s Day the second most expensive holiday on the calendar for U.S. consumers. About 31 percent of people expect their Valentine to spend at least $50 on a gift, according to WalletHub’s 2020 Valentine’s Day Survey. More than four in 10 people in the survey said they'd break up with their significant other if he or she spent irresponsibly.

Source: WalletHub

 

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Boomers boggers write about tough issues, travel, and dining

Sometime it takes strength to be human. As we brave the cold weather and wait for spring, baby boomer bloggers are writing about difficult topics. They include:

• The loss of a partner of 15 years due to cancer.
• The skyrocketing rate of suicide for children.
• What to do if you’re traveling during the current coronavirus outbreak.

Topics on the lighter side include:

• A tour of the aquarium in Charleston, South Carolina.
• A trip north to help with the grandkids in Vermont.
• The eight most challenging things about restaurants.

Laurie Stone of Musings, Rants & Scribbles writes about these articles in the Best of Boomer Blogs #636. Click here to get the links to the articles. And, be sure to join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers appreciate getting your comments.

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist