-
Boomerater™ Report: Good Thoughts for Bad Times
Tweet Share on Facebook February 9, 2009 Comment (9)The Boomerater™ Report is our weekly collaboration with Boomerater.com, the online Q&A Website for Baby Boomers. In each report, we will feature a selection of helpful tips and advice from Boomerater’s collection of financial, consumer, and lifestyle content.
We also post a question of the week. Last week we asked readers for their feelings on the current economic crisis, and what positives may come out of the situation. Here are a few of the responses:
-
The New Rules of Reverse Mortgages
Tweet Share on Facebook February 9, 2009 Comment (17)Reverse mortgages allow qualified borrowers to tap the equity in their home, pay off their existing mortgage balance--and all the while live in their home as long as they're able. Now, recent changes in a federal loan program may make reverse mortgages attractive to millions more senior homeowners by raising the dollar value of homes that qualify for the program and extending it to the purchase of new homes. The federal program allows consumers to pay a one-time insurance premium, which guarantees that they'll receive the stream of income they are promised when executing the reverse mortgage. With retiree nest eggs hurt by declining investments and continuing weakness in home values, backers of the program see it as an increasingly attractive way for cash-strapped seniors to remain in their homes while receiving income from the properties. However, reverse mortgages sold without the federal guarantee have created image problems for the industry in the past. Even with federal involvement, the products are still complex and carry high fees, which is why it's important for consumers to understand what they're getting. Here are some things to carefully consider when deciding if a reverse mortgage is right for you.
-
Why Seniors Need Their Own Stimulus Program
Tweet Share on Facebook February 4, 2009 Comment (58)Now that the stimulus bill is up for grabs in the Senate, perhaps it's time for AARP to seek a deal with the government on behalf of the nation's older citizens. Here's the pitch:
There is near-universal agreement that senior entitlements--Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid--must be scaled back. None of them have enough money to meet their future obligations. In business, when you're paying out more money than you take in and you have no prospects of making money in the future, it's called bankruptcy. In our look-the-other-way government accounting, it's called an unfunded obligation. Whatever name you give it, the Entitlement Blob is huge. It dwarfs the federal budget and is roughly six or seven times our total national debt. And, like its namesake, it's growing uncontrollably.
-
The Boomerater™ Report: Week Ending Feb 8
Tweet Share on Facebook February 2, 2009 Comment (90)We launched The Boomerater™ Report last week--our collaboration with Boomerater.com, the online Q&A website for Baby Boomers. Each week, we will feature a selection of helpful tips and advice from Boomerater’s collection of financial, consumer and lifestyle content. We also want to hear what’s on your mind, so go to Boomerater and add your questions. You may even see it featured next week on The Best Life!
Last week we asked readers to share their experiences with multi-generation households. Here are two responses:
-
How to Set Up a Caregiving Agreement
Tweet Share on Facebook January 30, 2009 Comment (34)More than 50 million family members provide more than $300 billion a year in uncompensated care to 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. But 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 such caregiver agreements.
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 Austriaco & Koenig in Chicago, and Linda Fodrini-Johnson, who provides geriatric-care consulting in the San Francisco Bay Area and is president-elect of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers:
-
What's Your Elixir for Recovery?
Tweet Share on Facebook January 28, 2009 Comment (113)The Best Life primarily deals with facts and advice: specific, black-and-white information. Life, however, is mostly lived in countless shades of gray, and today is a gray day.
What many of us are doing on this day, as we've been doing for some time, is trying to figure out how bad things are going to get and what it means for us. While we may be encouraged by the energy of a new administration taking office in Washington, it doesn't stop us from groping to find new foundations on which to stand.
Those foundations may be called by different names: a floor for the stock market, a reliable set of asset values for troubled financial institutions, a level of business expenses matched to a sobering declines in sales, or a lower balancing point for household income and expenses. We're looking for a secure living standard, and we might readily accept a smaller income figure than last year so long as we had confidence we could count on it.
-
The Boomerater™ Report: Week Ending Feb. 1
Tweet Share on Facebook January 26, 2009 Comment (12)It’s time to speak up and out! As the online community grows, boomers and retirees are sharing their knowledge and experiences as never before. We’re partnering with one new collaborative site, Boomerater.com, that provides answers to questions across financial, consumer, and lifestyle categories. Check out some current posts below and then join the community by clicking on the highlighted links, adding your own answers, or posing new questions. Each week The Boomerater Report will feature a selection of the best posts. Say that The Best Life sent you!
Financial
Q. I've heard there are some expenses you can pay directly for a family member without being subject to paying a gift tax. I am especially interested in tuition for my children and medical expenses for my parents
A. You can pay for college tuition as long as you pay the bills directly to the college.A. School and medical bills are OK - but some other expenses are not. For example, if you pay for your grandson's music lessons or help pay to have an addition built on your daughter's home, the amount you contribute will be subject to the gift tax.
-
3 Cautionary Tales of Target-Date Funds
Tweet Share on Facebook January 23, 2009 Comment (30)Target-date retirement funds, designed as age-appropriate portfolios to help investors achieve their retirement goals, have been widely slammed for their poor performance during the stock-market meltdown. Funds designed for people who will reach retirement age in 2010--just a year from now--fell by roughly 25 percent in 2008. That may be less than the 38 percent drop for all-stock mutual funds, but the 2010 funds include large percentages of bonds and were viewed as more conservatively managed. On the face of it, a guilty verdict is the right call.
Or is it? Here are three things investors should keep in mind when it comes to target-date funds:
Not all funds are created the same. "The funds did work," says Vanguard economist John Ameriks. "Younger investors were exposed to more risk, while older investors were exposed to less risk." Distant target-year funds contain more equities and are thus more exposed to short-term market risk. "Target-date funds are a very, very reasonable way to achieve your retirement income and funding needs," notes Rod W. Bare, director of asset allocation strategies at Morningstar. "Some people are quick to paint the divergence in 2010 [fund] returns as a case that something is broken, but not all 2010 funds should perform the same." Because people have different needs and income goals, fund companies offer target-date choices that employ different risk profiles. -
5 Ways to Pay It Forward
Tweet Share on Facebook January 19, 2009 Comment (95)My oldest son, 27, had just finished an extended holiday stay prior to moving to a new state, hopefully a new job, and the next chapter in his life. At the airport, I watched from the curb as he strode purposefully with his bags into the terminal, head held high in anticipation, and quickly disappeared.
It is becoming my son's world now, just as in Washington, it is becoming the world of Barack Obama and many new, younger public leaders. As we prepare to inaugurate a new president, that world is marked by deep recession, war and terrorism, and enormous climate and energy challenges. As retirees and older Americans, we must deal with looming financial and health concerns and highly uncertain—as well as personally risky—futures. Increasingly, we will also be deciding what we will do to shape the world we will leave behind for our sons and daughters and for their children.
-
Top Travel Trends, Tips, and Destinations for 2009
Tweet Share on Facebook January 16, 2009 Comment (26)If you can travel in 2009, welcome to a world of bargains, last-minute deals, and relatively uncrowded hotels, resorts, and beaches. According to a recent survey from Travel Leaders, the new corporate name for Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates, more than 90 percent of travel agents working out of hundreds of the company's offices say they're seeing customer cutbacks in travel. Agents also say nearly half of travelers are booking their 2009 trips later than in previous years to take advantage of last-minute deals and other concessions. Here are the five ways leisure travels are saving money, according to the survey:
- Flexible travel dates 75.7%
- Using all-inclusive resort packages 71.0%
- Using frequent flyers miles 63.5%
- Taking a cruise 56.3%
- Booking only if a promotion or deal is offered 50.9%
