The Best Life
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10 Best Places for Lifelong Learning
Continue reading… 11 CommentsLifelong learning programs are not only a rich source of activities for seniors; they're an enriching business opportunity for a growing roster of colleges and universities, retirement communities, travel companies, and cultural institutions. U.S. News searched for the nation's best places for lifelong learning, using the 2,000-city database of our partner, Onboard Informatics, and interviews with education and other learning experts. (You can find your Best Place to Live using our new search tool.) We looked for cities with lots of people with undergraduate and graduate degrees; heavy employment at higher education institutions; concentrations of schools, libraries, and museums; and plenty of literary and cultural activities nearby. Areas of particular focus are those containing all three branches of higher education: universities, colleges, and community colleges. The last of these has long reached out to nontraditional learners. Most places in the United States have plenty of lifelong learning choices. Our top 10 have more. They tend to be smaller places adjacent to large urban areas, and they often benefit from that proximity. But they also have their own homegrown programs.
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Summer Recess for Health Reforms is Welcome
Continue reading… 10 CommentsHealth care reform has hardly left the starting line. Yet many self-appointed pundits are calling the effort a failure by the Obama Administration. They say Congress is stuck in an ideological quagmire. Many also characterize Democrat proposals as a government takeover of health care and as a socialist attack on the U.S. private free enterprise system.
Puhleeaasee! Give me a break. -
Tips to Maximize Social Security Benefits
Continue reading… 15 CommentsThe Boomerater™ Report, our weekly collaboration with online baby boomer resource Boomerater, this week discusses various tips to help you maximize your income from Social Security.
[See Billions in Social Security Not Being Claimed.] -
A Dozen Retirement Community Bargains
Continue reading… 0 CommentsContinuing care retirement communities provide lifetime housing and medical-care packages to retirees. But brutal housing and economic realities may be making the industry wish someone was providing it with lifetime care. The housing market meltdown of 2007 and 2008 dried up demand for CCRC living units because potential residents either couldn't sell their homes or sell them for enough money to fund the up-front entrance fees required by many CCRCs. There also are rental CCRCs, but they, too, require a substantial financing commitment over time. In both cases, the sale of a primary residence is the typical funding source for CCRC residency.
[Slide Show: Best Affordable Places to Retire.]
As housing woes mounted, the 2008-2009 stock market collapse devastated many retiree investment accounts, removing yet another source of financial support for retirement-community living. And because this bad dream comes in three installments, on came the ensuing recession—the deepest since the Depression—that continues to take a deep toll. Here, the impact may not be so much on retirees as on their family members, who may be facing prolonged unemployment.
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How the 'Old Old' Can Have Best Lives
Continue reading… 5 CommentsAmericans 65 and older are projected to grow from 13 percent to 20 percent of the nation's population by 2050, when one in four older people will be 85 years of age or older. That's 5 percent of the entire country -- one in 20 people. That's the Age Wave getting ready to wash over us. Yet surprisingly little attention is being focused on the "old old." How are we going to take care of them? The ranks of geriatric medicine have been thinning, not growing. How are our communities going to accommodate and treat them? And, most important to older people, what does a high quality of life look like at that age and how can they attain it?
[See Growing Older, Getting Mellower, Feeling Good.] -
List of Flight Health Risks is Growing
Continue reading… 4 CommentsAdd health risks to the list of concerns that plague commercial air travel these days. We've been worried about paying for a piece of checked luggage or getting chiseled on a meager snack. But it turns out the medical and scientific community sees an airline cabin as a big petri dish -- and one that carries many threats.
[ See America's Best Healthy Places to Retire.] -
Estate Taxes are a Nice Problem to Have
Continue reading… 7 CommentsWith the federal deficit galloping its way to a post-WWII high, as a share of economy activity, anyone who seriously believes the estate tax will be allowed to disappear next year can take his rightful place on Fox's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Outright repeal of the tax would represent an estimated $800 billion drain on the Treasury over 10 years, at a time when even a spare $100 billion is being treated as real money in Washington. More likely, we will see a continuation of this year's taxes, which exempt the first $3.5 million ($7 million per couple) and tax the rest at 45 percent. The big fight, if Congress is not exhausted by all the other Big Fights in store for it, will be over whether that threshold should become permanent or be rolled back to generate more tax revenues.
[Find the Best Places to Retire.] -
4 Steps to Prepare for Losing a Paycheck
Continue reading… 0 CommentsThe Boomerater™ Report, our weekly collaboration with online baby boomer resource Boomerater, this week explores things you can do financially to prepare yourself for a possible loss of income. Here is the question from a Boomerater member: “What are steps I should take to make sure I am in good financial shape? My wife’s job may be eliminated next year and I want to make sure we are prepared in case it happens. Also, should I continue to contribute to a 401(k)? We could use the extra money now.”
[See How to Get Your Finances Back on Track in 6 Steps.] -
15 Top Office and Home-Based Jobs for Seniors
Continue reading… 16 CommentsAnyone looking for work knows the job market is tough and likely to stay that way for a long time. To help retirement-age job seekers, RetirementJobs.com has put together what it says is a carefully developed list of attractive positions outside the home and for those seeking at-home jobs. According to its chief career counselor, Bob Skladany, the list is based on numbers of projected job openings, the likelihood that the industry is "age friendly," whether the jobs are age appropriate (in terms of their physical demands, schedule flexibility, and providing social interaction), and whether they offer an attractive mix of pay, benefit, and advancement opportunities. While RetirementJobs.com normally charges a membership fee to access parts of its site, it has provided open access to its national list of employers with senior-friendly workplaces.
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How to Use New Medicare Hospital Tools
Continue reading… 3 Comments
There are about 5,500 hospitals in the U.S. I can name perhaps 20 to 30 of them, maybe a few more if you gave me a lot of time and even more hints. Which Minnesota hospital has the same name as the shortened name of a popular sandwich condiment and potato salad ingredient? Even in my own back yard, my hospital name recognition prowess is putrid. In part, that's because I have a pitiful memory but it's also because I've been lucky enough over the years to largely avoid hospital visits. However, as I get older, I spend increasing amounts of time at various hospital offices either getting tested, having appointments with medical practices located in hospital complexes or having outpatient procedures to attend to the aches and pains I've come to associate with my very own special aging process.
[ See Low CPI Creates Medicare Winners and Losers.] -
Eat Less Food and Play More Bridge
Continue reading… 4 CommentsIt's been a dream month for the Calorie Restriction Society. The private group was begun about 15 years ago and is devoted to the increasingly likely proposition that people can significantly extend their life spans through extremely low-calorie diets. That belief got a major nudge last week from a University of Wisconsin study using rhesus monkeys, who are genetically close to humans and the most advanced test subjects to date for looking at the impact of such diets.
News outlets around the world gave 15 minutes of fame to two of the research subjects, Canto and Owen. They are about the same age but Canto has been on a restricted-calorie diet while Owen has not. Photographs show Canto to be trim, Owen not so much. Canto looks more alert but perhaps that's my wishful thinking. Yet, study findings did report that low-calorie test subjects not only lived longer but also showed more mental acuity and fewer signs of aging than monkeys fed a normal diet. At least Owen is still alive. Many of his normally fed peers haven't been so lucky, although it will be many years before all the research monkeys live out their lives and final research results can be tallied. -
Are Seniors Being Targeted as Bad Drivers?
Continue reading… 4 CommentsTougher licensing rules for older drivers are being seriously proposed in Massachusetts following a rash of tragic auto accidents involving older drivers. There is more than a little rush-to-judgment response where senior driving problems are concerned, and it is hardly unique to Massachusetts. Similar scenarios occur around the country from time to time, and when they do, the facts often don't get in the way. I call it ageism but that word needs to be used carefully because there is very little sympathy when an old driver hits and kills a young child, regardless of the statistical rarity of such an event.
[Take a Road Test of Your Driving Skills] -
Tips To Help Parents Who Want To Age In Place
Continue reading… 10 CommentsThe Boomerater™ Report, our weekly collaboration with online baby boomer resource Boomerater, this week explores some of the issues involved in helping your parents age in place.
Here is the question from a Boomerater member: “My mom and dad are in their 70's and are in good health. They have told me they would never consider leaving the home they have lived in since they were married and raised all five of their children. With the high cost associated with assisted living and the loss they will probably take in the real estate market, I can also see the financial benefit of their staying in their home. I’d like to hear from other boomers who have helped their parents stay in their homes successfully. What are the modifications to make the home safe and what else should be considered?” -
Target Date Fund Quarterly Return Details
Continue reading… 0 CommentsIbbotson Associates, a unit of Morningstar, analyzed investment results of 312 target-date funds that have been in operation for at least a year. Here are their returns for the quarter ended June 30, broken down by the target year of the funds. Income funds are conservatively managed funds used by older target-date funds once investors have been retired for some time and have moved into the most conservative phase of their fund's glide path.
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Target-Date Funds Finally Showing Solid Gains
Continue reading… 0 CommentsTarget-date mutual funds, which are designed to produce optimal returns based on a planned retirement date, are moving closer to their moment of truth. Will they be scapegoats for nearly universal disgust over last year's Wall Street collapse? Or will they prove to be the right idea for retirement investing?
[See 4 Myths About Target-Date Funds.]
The funds have become increasingly popular since a 2006 law encouraged employers to offer "automatic pilot" default choices in their retirement plans. That's what target-date funds are designed to do: automatically shift investment holdings away from stocks into more conservative investments as their owners age. But critics complain that the funds' heavy losses last year (funds designed for 2010 retirees lost, on average, 25 percent of their value) revealed they were too heavily invested in stocks. Another critique: The funds failed to adequately disclose their underlying risks. However, with few exceptions, fund managers have strongly defended the design and performance of target-date funds.
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Nation's 10 Least Expensive Medicare Markets
Continue reading… 2 CommentsThe nation's most expensive Medicare markets were highlighted in an earlier article. Today, you'll be introduced to the cheapest markets. Now, cheap doesn't necessarily mean the care is poor. Just the opposite. According to the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, which generated this information, low-cost medical markets may actually be good for your health. To better understand why this might be the case, it's helpful to think of the cost of medical care as having three components:
1. Price. What are the prices charged by hospitals, doctors and providers of drugs and other medical equipment and services? -
The Nation's 10 Costliest Medicare Markets
Continue reading… 10 CommentsAs the friction over healthcare reform has intensified, the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice has become the gold standard of information about the costs of health care. Its studies—which look at variations in the cost, frequency, and outcomes of medical procedures—have taken center stage in a debate that could lead to substantial changes in the healthcare sector.
[Use our new, online search tool to find your best place to retire.]
The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care 2008 contains some amazing and counterintuitive findings about healthcare. First, the amount of healthcare provided in the United States is not related as strongly to patient need as it is to the available supply of healthcare. Using identical patient profiles and medical needs, Dartmouth found that markets with more hospital beds, doctors, and high-end diagnostic equipment provided what amounted to excess healthcare. The primary reason, it said, is that government and private health insurance plans are based on compensating healthcare providers for the procedures they perform, not for the rate at which they cure patients or make them healthier.
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Boomer Entrepreneurs Make New Best Lives
Continue reading… 1 CommentThe Boomerater™ Report, our weekly collaboration with online baby boomer resource Boomerater, this week gives you some tips to consider before starting up your own small business. A Boomerater member was looking for advice about turning her part-time business into a full-time venture and members weighed in with their advice about things to consider before taking the plunge.
[See It's Time for Some Life Planning.] -
Will More Reverse Mortgages Mean More Fraud?
Continue reading… 5 CommentsThe rising popularity of federally insured reverse mortgages attracted 1,500 new lenders into the program last year, more than doubling the total of participating lenders. And while reports of consumer abuse and fraud are infrequent, legislators and regulators are calling for strengthened oversight to protect seniors from aggressive or outright unscrupulous lenders.
The federal Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program allows homeowners aged 62 and up to borrow money against the equity in their homes. The funds are available as lump sums, regular payments or lines of credit. Borrowers can remain in their homes as long as they're able without making further mortgage payments. They do, however, need to pay property taxes and insurance and keep up the home. The interest payments on the money they borrow are paid to lenders out of the remaining equity in the home. If borrowers stay in the home long enough to use up all their equity, they generally face no further financial obligation to the lender.
