The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

How to track your spending

Tracking your spending lets you know where your money is actually going. At the end of the month, you’ll know where you are with your finances. That’s what you need to know: how far ahead or behind you are at month’s end.

Most consumers have a good idea about the cost of their fixed monthly expenses – bills that stay the same each month. It’s those expenses that may change from month to month that can be disruptive.

For consumers having a difficult time figuring out where their money goes, there are many ways to track their spending:

How to choose a financial advisor

In these complex financial times, it’s good idea to have a financial advisor on your team. You need to pick out one as carefully as you would a doctor or dentist.

A financial advisor will review your total financial picture and offer advice on how to invest money. The advisor will take into consideration income, goals, objectives, and attitude toward financial risk.

A certified financial planner is a good choice because requirements for certification include training, an exam, and continuing education.

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.

Baby boomers discuss what you should do when you’re older

One of my favorite things to do these days as an older adult is to travel. My daughter lives in Madrid, and I go there twice a year – once for the end-of-year holidays and again in May to celebrate our birthdays, Spanish Mothers’ Day, and American Mothers’ Day.

The photo is of my daughter and me at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao during my latest trip to Spain. I’ve always wanted to go there since I love museums.

But with limited funds when baby boomers retire, what should they be spending money on? Do they need a budget or a money manager? What about their interpersonal lives?

On Sightings Over Sixty, Tom Sightings writes about how to bring your retirement expenses into line with a more modest retirement income. See his article, “How to Live Within Your Means,” for suggestions such as selling items you no longer need, canceling country club and gym memberships, and stopping credit card spending.

A rocky air flight got Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting to thinking about the future as her flight bounced about. Specifically, her future. How long could she continue to enjoy her current lifestyle? Her mind wandered to an intriguing future home alternative for when she and her husband are older. Assuming the trip ended on a positive note, it may be worth researching. See if you agree in “My Here and After.”

Another thing boomers need to think about as they grow older is how they see themselves. We boomers set great store by our achievements...it's the way we grew up. But, maybe something got lost along the way, suggests Carol Cassara of A Healing Spirit in her post, “You Don't Need to Shine.”

Rebecca Olkowski with BabyBoomster.com thinks that whatever is going on a boomer’s life, they need laughter. With all that’s coming at us these days, it’s good to have a belly laugh once in a while. See Olkowski article, “How Having a Sense of Humor Will Improve Your Health and Longevity,” for a list of the health benefits of laughing.

For Jennifer Koshak of Unfold and Begin it’s collaboration that lifts her up these days. Koshak has always been interested in creativity and studies it, tests it, and tries to find new ways to increase it. In her latest post, she looks at “How Collaboration Inspires Creativity” and provides some tips on how to find different ways to create with others.

This is the Best of Boomer Blogs #597. Be sure to let the boomers know your opinions about their posts. Nothing makes boomer bloggers happier than to get comments on their articles.

Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Personal Finance Writer

Baby boomers learn life skills over time

Baby boomers have learned how to navigate life through all its obstacles and challenges. Each time something happens, a new life skill is learned. Sometimes new knowledge comes from nowhere and is greatly appreciated. It’s what makes life interesting and how boomers survive and thrive.

Our baby boomer bloggers have been picking up life skill because they’ve had to involuntarily or have passed milestones that require them.

Rebecca Forstadt Olkowski of Babyboomster reports recent boomer bloggers articles are:

What baby boomers have on their minds

As my yard is bursting into spring, I’m reading the articles of my baby boomer blogging buddies that are bursting with ideas on their blog sites.

Their recent posts include:

• Solutions to ease neck and shoulder tension.
• Comments on the Democratic presidential candidates.
• Which companies have the cheapest car insurance.
• What to say when your sister is dying.
• Whether people leave home when they grow up and don’t come back, or they never leave, or they do leave, but return to retire.
• How to make quick chicken soup from chicken broth to help with healing.

Carol Cassara of Heart•Mind•Soul writes about these articles in Best of Boomer Blogs #594. Click here to get the links to the articles. And be sure to join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers enjoy hearing from readers.

Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Personal Finance Writer

Baby boomers on travel, retirement, and finances

Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting returned from a week in the Boston area watching her son and his friends run in the Boston Marathon, celebrating Easter, and visiting Martha’s Vineyard, a resort just waking up from a long, sleepy winter. The island is famous for many reasons, one of which is the location for the 1975 movie “Jaws.”

Arriving home tired, it was too early to go to bed because it was still light outside. Baer and her husband ended their week’s journey watching that classic movie, scrutinizing scenes for places recently seen. 

Another boomer blogger writes about Egypt while a third tells us the benefits of going on walking tours in your community.

How to improve your finances during Financial Literacy Month

It’s a good time during April’s Financial Literacy Month to take a look at how you handle your finances.

What is financial literacy? It’s knowing how to manage your personal finances.

How are Americans doing with financial literacy? In a survey of 1,500 people, respondents estimated that lacking knowledge about personal finances cost them an average of $1,230 in 2018, according to a study by the National Financial Educators Council.

What can you do to improve your financial literacy?

Take a look at your finances.

If you don’t have one, you need a budget. It’s a financial plan that will help you reach your goals. To develop a budget, you’ll need to keep track of your spending. Write down what your fixed monthly expenses are such as car payments and rent or mortgage payments. Determine what your periodic expenses are. They include items such as vacations and tax payments. Then you’ll need to track your variable expenses – food, clothing, transportation, and entertainment, costs that probably change every month.

Baby boomers discuss techie and fuzzy topics

 

Tom Sightings of Sightings Over Sixty generally resists diving the world into parts – rich and poor, black and white, male and female.

However, he believes in one distinction. It’s O.K. to divide the world into "fuzzy" and "techie." Fuzzy people study the humanities and social sciences and they read books and go to the theater. Techies pursue math and the physical sciences, and they love numbers and tinker with machines and other hard bits.

For this week, boomer bloggers are writing about techie topics: airline quality ratings and the new WordPress Gutenberg editor. And fuzzy topics: noticing the landscape while driving, living in the country, eating seafood by the sea, getting through grief, and redefining success and happiness in the 21^st century.

Sightings writes about these topics in the Best of Boomer Blogs #592. 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

Baby boomers say goodbye to March winds

While my baby boomer colleagues were busy writing articles at home, I was on a seven-day cruise in the Caribbean. It was fantastic. The weather was good, the food fantastic, the excursions interesting, and the seas not too heavy. I’ll be writing about how to pick out a cruise and top tips for first-time cruise goers. So, stay tuned.

Meanwhile, my fellow boomer bloggers were writing about:

• Spring through photos.
• The secret of retirement.
• The greater meaning of the hard things that have happened in people’s lives.
• Why granny pods are becoming popular with baby boomers.
• How to find your rhythm and flow.
• The problems women are experiencing from breast implants.

Jennifer Koshak of Unfold and Begin writes about these articles in the Best of Boomer Blogs #589. 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