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Generations Faring Well in Expanded Households
Tweet Share on Facebook April 11, 2012 CommentMore than 50 million Americans, including rising numbers of seniors, live in households with at least two adult generations, and often three. That's approaching 1 in 6 Americans—a significant percentage. The increases were driven largely by the Great Recession, with most of the gains occurring between 2007 and 2009. At the same time, economic and housing problems have resulted in low rates of migration and new household formation.
[See Should Seniors Live Alone or With Family?]
The big unknown is whether the slow and uneven economic recovery will halt or even reverse the rising numbers of multigenerational households. The stakes are big, especially for the housing industry and makers of home furnishings and appliances. There is roughly a two-year data lag, so the most current reports are still based on 2010 information. And they do not show any slowdown in the growth of multigenerational households.
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Why the Early-Retirement Trend Reversed in 2011
Tweet Share on Facebook April 10, 2012 Comment (1)Americans sharply reduced their rate of claiming Social Security benefits last year, thus reversing—at least temporarily—one of the more dramatic retirement consequences of the Great Recession. According to an analysis by the nonprofit Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., the Social Security claiming rate hit a 35-year low in 2011 after soaring 25 percent during the 2007-2009 period.
[See 20 Funds That Have Weathered Downturns.]
Most experts viewed those high claiming rates as evidence that older workers were hammered by the recession and rising unemployment. As a result, people felt forced to file for early Social Security benefits prior to reaching the traditional retirement ages of 65 or 66, which is now defined as the program's full retirement age (FRA).
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How Delaying Retirement Can Help You
Tweet Share on Facebook April 9, 2012 CommentDelaying retirement has been one of the most consistent pieces of financial advice for older Americans reeling from the recession. The major financial benefits of deferring retirement are the ability to continue earning money, adding to your retirement assets, deferring drawing down those assets, and delaying the date you begin to receive Social Security benefits.
Situations differ, of course, but here's a rough look at the impact of deferring retirement for five years, from age 65 to 70. Use this finding to see how your own situation would be affected if you were to delay your own retirement.
The assumptions of such an exercise are crucial. My hypothetical 65-year-old earns $50,000 a year, which is also the figure we'll use to calculate the person's Social Security payments. The person also contributes $3,000 a year to a 401(k) and the employer matches half of that, or $1,500. The person has a nest egg of $250,000 when he or she turns 65. I am making no assumptions about how a five-year retirement delay affects housing or healthcare expenses.
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8 Ways to Improve Senior Housing
Tweet Share on Facebook April 6, 2012 Comment (1)Retirement income and healthcare affordability have been widely cited as growing challenges to an aging society. Now, according to a new report, housing should also take its place as an enormous unmet need for rising numbers of older Americans. "Housing an Aging Population—Are We Prepared?", a report by the nonprofit Center for Housing Policy in Washington, says the answer in most cases is a clear "No."
[See Top 10 U.S. Places for Healthcare.]
"Considerable attention is focused on the rising healthcare costs of an aging population—and rightly so," the report says. "But the housing and supportive services needs faced by the very same people receive comparatively little notice. Even today, federally subsidized rental programs meet the needs of only about one in four eligible households regardless of age."
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Senior Centers Export Services to People at Home
Tweet Share on Facebook April 4, 2012 Comment (2)Senior communities have been hammered by an extended recession, depressed real estate values, and changes in healthcare reimbursement rules. Now, communities throughout the country are exploring new business models and exporting their skills and services to individuals who decide, through choice or necessity, to continue living in their own homes.
[See Top 10 U.S. Places for Healthcare.]
The changes often aren't the stuff of dramatic news headlines. But their cumulative effect, many participants feel, will amount over time to a revolution in the way health and wellness services are provided to the nation's rising population of older citizens. The delay or even overturning of the health reform law will influence only the timing of this shift. Its inevitability is driven by the need to find more cost-effective ways to help surging elderly populations, enabled by electronic health technologies.
