-
Forget the Sunbelt: Colder Areas Top New List of Best Cities for Seniors
Tweet Share on Facebook September 29, 2011 Comment (7)While sunny locales in the West and South often top retirement destination lists, a new survey of the best places for older residents found that many colder-weather areas actually offer the highest quality of life for seniors.
[In Pictures: Top 10 Cities for Senior Living.]
Using health, economic, and other quality-of-life measures, the survey named the folliwng 10 metro areas:
-
Ways to Save During Medicare Open Enrollment
Tweet Share on Facebook September 28, 2011 Comment (6)In normal years, few seniors change their Medicare elections in the program's annual open enrollment period. According to studies of past consumer choices, sticking with existing coverage plans may be a comfortable choice. But it costs consumers billions of dollars and saddles many with inferior health coverage at a bad price.
This year, a reeling economy, health reform, and shifting insurer business priorities make the upcoming open enrollment period anything but normal. For starters, it begins and ends earlier than normal, running from October 15 to December 7. This shift will allow consumer choices to take effect when the new program year begins January 1. That's a welcome change, but it means new and existing Medicare beneficiaries have little time to prepare for their 2012 coverage decisions.
-
How Credit Counselors Can Help Mend Your Finances
Tweet Share on Facebook September 27, 2011 CommentSeeking help with personal financial problems is no sign of weakness in today's miserable economy. While many Americans have dealt with excessive credit card debt and other debt problems, millions more have put off that day of reckoning and are just scraping by. If you have problems or can see them forming, consider working with a consumer credit counselor.
[See 10 Smart Ways to Improve Your Budget.]
Good counselors have seen lots of people like you before. They have developed solid suggestions on how you can overcome your current problems—and perhaps a wee bit of financial paralysis. A counselor can help you build a new financial plan that reflects current economic realities and is right for you. Finding the right counselor may be far easier said than done. Here are some steps to help increase your odds of sitting across the table from someone who just might make your life a lot easier:
-
4 Ways to Trim Your Housing Costs Now
Tweet Share on Facebook September 26, 2011 Comment (3)When prospects for rising household incomes are dim, as they are today, it's time to redouble your efforts to cut expenses wherever possible. That's especially true of housing, which remains the biggest expense for many retirees. Weak housing values and economic uncertainties have put a big damper on housing activity. But with interest rates at record lows, it may make sense to seek a lower-cost housing solution.
[See America's Least Expensive Housing Markets.]
Refinance your existing mortgage. Mortgage rates were already near record lows when the Federal Reserve Board acted last week to further reduce long-term interest rates in general, and included a targeted effort to push down mortgage rates even more. Many Americans are unable to refinance their homes regardless of how attractive interest rates may be. They either owe more on their homes than they're currently worth, don't have enough income to qualify for refinancing, or both. But if you can qualify for a lower mortgage rate, consider refinancing.
-
How Annuities Can Shine in Risky Markets
Tweet Share on Facebook September 9, 2011 Comment (1)In booming markets in which all investments seem to move upward, fixed annuities fall by the wayside. Fixed annuities promise modest returns and may have costly fees. The products offer guaranteed returns of principal, and thus function in part as a life insurance policy. But such guarantees can be cheaply secured with low-cost term life insurance, freeing up investment funds that can be placed in more attractive holdings.
[See 10 Steps to Fine-Tune Your Retirement Plan.]
Today, of course, investment markets are limping, not booming. They also are prone to large swings. Interest rates are so low that other safe, yield-based investments are unappealing. Low rates also reduce the promises that insurance companies can make on annuity returns. Even so, sales of these "plain vanilla" annuities have been rising.
-
Older Clients Require Special Financial Planning Help
Tweet Share on Facebook September 8, 2011 Comment (5)Financial planning software has improved enormously in recent years. The ability to deliver powerful advice over the Internet has created a new market for inexpensive advisory services. But for now, at least, such software can't look you in the eye and make informed judgments about your physical and mental well-being. Such judgments, it turns out, are critically important to the financial health of older investors and their families.
[See 10 Steps to Fine-Tune Your Retirement Plan.]
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) and AARP recently updated an earlier version of their jointly sponsored publication, A Financial Professional's Guide to Working With Older Clients.
-
9 Rules for Retiree Jobs and Social Security
Tweet Share on Facebook September 7, 2011 Comment (3)As the jobless recovery threatens to once again become the jobless recession, quick and easy solutions have yielded to common-sense rules for surviving the prolonged downturn. Most advice involves variations of cutting your spending and increasing your income. Big surprise, right? But these truisms are, of course, much easier to say than to achieve.
For many people already receiving Social Security, getting a part-time job makes sense. It might be an attractive solution from an employer's perspective as well. After all, companies are also looking for ways to cut expenses these days. Finding an experienced employee eager for part-time work and who, thanks to Medicare, does not need health insurance, would be an ideal hire for lots of employers.
-
5 Steps to a Family Caregiving Agreement
Tweet Share on Facebook September 6, 2011 Comment (4)More than 65 million Americans provide more than $375 billion a year in uncompensated care to friends and family members. Now, with older populations growing rapidly, the need for caregiving is rising, just as a brutal economic downturn is making money increasingly tight. In response, some family caregivers are being paid for their work, usually by an aging parent. And while authoritative numbers aren't available, family-care attorneys and consultants say they're seeing more families creating caregiver agreements.
[See Social Security's Long-Term Outlook.]
Experts caution that agreements need to be extensively documented and must stand up as arm's length contracts. Furthermore, family members involved in the process need to be sensitive to how the arrangement might affect relationships among family members. Here are five tips from elder care attorney Kerry Peck of Peck Bloom LLC in Chicago, and Linda Fodrini-Johnson, who provides geriatric-care consulting in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a past president of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers:
-
Target-Date Funds Proving a 'Set and Forget' Choice
Tweet Share on Facebook September 2, 2011 CommentEmployees with 401(k) holdings in target-date funds seldom move out of them, even during tumultuous market swings, according to a new study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
"Once [target-date funds] are used, they are very likely to continue to be used for a number of years afterward," EBRI said. "Consequently, the auto-enrollment of participants into [target-date funds] appears likely to stick, which means that the asset allocation within the [funds] is likely to be the asset allocation these participants will have while they remain in their 401(k) plan."
