Posted on May 31, 2006 by Jason
For retiring Baby Boomers, staying active is about more than just having fun
MSNBC, May 30th, 2006
In Bluffton, newly retired schoolteacher Andrea Flanagan and her husband, Mark,
have some big decisions to make. Not about what to do with the rest of their
lives, but what not to do.
“I see other people settling down,
and I feel like we are just starting up,” Andrea Flanagan says.
For the Flanagans — both 60 and
born in the first year of the baby boom — retirement means activity. They’re
learning new skills — picking up new sports from biking to volleyball — a long
way from the traditional rocking chair.
That’s par for the course for
boomers who have reshaped America at every turn, says Marc Freedman, author of
“Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform
America.”
“This new generation is not only
expanding the definition of activity and expanding the definition of retirement,
they are actually creating something entirely new — a stage of life that hasn’t
existed before,” Freedman says.
Read more…
Posted on May 31, 2006 by Jason
The New York Times, May 30th, 2006
Depression afflicts people of all ages, but it can be particularly devastating for older
people, who are less likely to seek treatment and more likely to commit Suicide
than younger adults similarly afflicted. The problems include the failure to
recognize the symptoms of depression in the elderly and the belief that nothing
can be done for people with ample reason to be depressed.
Some elderly people continue to regard depression as shameful or a sign of
weakness that should not be acknowledged even to physicians. Physicians, in
turn, often fail to ask the questions that will find depression in their older
patients.
The elderly came of age when little could be done for depression or when the
only treatments caused serious side effects. These are some of the quite
different facts about the problem:
•Depression is an illness of the brain, no different from diseases of other
organs. It should be diagnosed and treated just like any other disease.
•Regardless of health, treating depression is as effective in the elderly as
in younger people.
Read more…
Posted on May 31, 2006 by Jason
Variation of the classic insurance product can provide retirement security
MSNBC, May 24th, 2006
It’s not news that the
employer-funded pension, once a major component of a worker’s retirement plan,
is fast becoming a thing of the past. But for those looking to recreate a
pension’s security and life-spanning regularity, there is hope with a variation
of a classic insurance product — the so-called “fixed” annuity.
Also known as single-premium
immediate annuities, this retirement vehicle will not help the critically
under-saved or be of much use to the affluent, says Rande Spiegelman, vice
president of financial planning with the Schwab Center for Investor Research.
But he says “for the vast middle” they may offer relief from the dual fears of
out-living one’s savings and making bad investment decisions.
“With a single premium immediate
annuity you are done,” says Bob Rockwell, a certified financial planner with
Clackamas County Bank in Sandy, Ore. “You’ll get guaranteed payments for life or
whatever period you contract for. There are no moving parts.”
Read more…
Posted on May 31, 2006 by Jason
The Jewish Exponent, May 25th, 2006
A reverse mortgage can be a powerful tool for converting home equity into cash
that can help you make ends meet. However, reverse mortgages also present some
financial risk.
The following information, provided by the Pennsylvania Institute of
Certified Public Accountants, can help you determine if this financial
strategy is right for you.
• How They Work. Reverse mortgages work like traditional mortgages,
only in reverse. Rather than paying your lender each month, the lender pays you.
These payments are cash advances against the equity in your home.
The maximum amount that can be borrowed is usually based on the age of the
homeowner, the appraised value of the home and the current interest rate.
Generally, the more equity you have in your home, the older you are, and the
lower the interest rate, the more you can tap into it for cash.
Read more…
Posted on May 26, 2006 by Jason
Parade Magazine, May 21st, 2006
The average size of a house in the U.S. increased from 1,905 square feet in 1987
to 2,450 in 2005. Still, some home buyers—young families as well as
empty-nesters and retirees—are deciding that bigger isn’t always better. Here’s
why four families started thinking smaller:
Less Financial Stress
“We realized that our house was consuming us,” says Gene Sloan of
Moorestown, N.J. “My wife, Nicole, was coming home late from work and never
seeing the kids. And for what? A guest room we never used and a massive
backyard?” The Sloans sold their five-bedroom, three-story Victorian for
$765,000—twice what they paid for it. Without the expense of their “monster
mortgage,” Nicole can afford to work fewer hours. The couple and their three
young daughters now live in a three-bedroom, one-story 1950s house just four
blocks from their old place. “Nicole and I are 37, and we have no mortgage,”
Gene says with relief. “We have a house at no cost for the rest of our
lives.”
Read more…
Posted on May 26, 2006 by Jason
SF Gate, April 30th, 2006
Need cash?
Despite the sharp run-up in short-term interest rates, borrowing against the
equity in your home is still one of the cheapest ways to get money.
Indeed, the number of Americans using their homes as a piggy bank shows few
signs of abating, although the way they are doing it has changed.
Fewer are using variable-rate lines of credit, which are tied to short-term
rates, usually prime. These rates follow the federal funds rate, which has gone
up 15 times since June 2004. The average interest rate on a line of credit was
7.9 percent last week, compared with 4.7 percent two years ago, according to
Bankrate.com.
More borrowers are taking out fixed-rate home-equity loans or refinancing
their homes with a new fixed-rate loan and borrowing more than their old balance
– known as a cash-out refi.
Read more…
Posted on May 17, 2006 by Jason
Lawmakers trade swipes as cutoff for drug benefit enrollment passes
MSNBC, May 16th, 2006
Bush administration officials say a last-day flurry of registration for the new
Medicare drug benefit could lead to 90 percent of elderly Americans having
insurance coverage for their medicine.
“We’ve seen a real surge,” said
Mark McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“The deadline is making a difference.”
McClellan said about 40,000 to
50,000 people were on the agency’s Web site — www.medicare.gov — at any given moment
Monday. Operators at 1-800-Medicare were also experiencing a rush of calls, and
most callers were having to wait a few minutes to reach an operator.
Read more…
Posted on May 17, 2006 by Jason
Fidelity poll shows 83% of workers say they aren’t putting enough away, but firm
says that could be a good thing.
CNN Money, May 12th, 2006
An increasing number of Americans agree they are not saving enough for
retirement, according to a new poll, but the firm that commissioned the survey
says the results could herald a change in future saving habits.
The survey, produced by Fidelity Investments, revealed that 83 percent of
American workers said they are not socking enough money away for retirement, an
increase from 78 percent in the previous year.
The poll results, said Fidelity’s chief operating officer Robert L. Reynolds,
could herald a change in how they save for retirement.
“We are hopeful that these findings reflect the beginning of a shift within
the American mindset from low awareness and significant inertia in addressing
the nation’s retirement crisis to growing levels of understanding, acceptance
and action,” Reynolds said in a statement Thursday.
Read more…
Posted on May 12, 2006 by Jason
Senate Rejects Bill on Low-Cost Insurance for Small-Business Employees
WebMD.com, May 12th, 2006
The Senate turned away a bill Thursday that would have let small
businesses join together to buy lower-cost medical insurance for
workers.
The bill garnered 55 votes on a procedural vote that would have required 60 supporters to pass.
Nearly half the nation’s 46 million uninsured people own or work in
small businesses. Owners have long complained that existing laws put
them at a disadvantage when trying to negotiate for better coverage
rates the way big companies do.
The Republican-backed measure would have let small firms band
together across state lines for the purposes of purchasing coverage.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that policy could extend insurance to about 900,000 Americans who now lack it.
Read more…
Posted on May 12, 2006 by Jason
As pension plans dissapear, responsable companies digging deeper
MSNBC, May 10th, 2006
Whether you view it as a betrayal of workers
or as an economic necessity, the traditional pension plan appears
destined for extinction as more companies move to reduce their future
financial obligations to retirees.
One
can rail against the apparent hypocrisy that these decisions are made
by well-paid executives with posh retirement benefits, of course. But
digging deeper, some companies are being more responsible than others,
sculpting pension alternatives to reduce the risk that future retirees
won’t have enough savings.
As
of last year, just 37 of the nation’s 100 largest companies were still
offering a traditional pension plan for newly hired workers, down from
42 the previous year and 50 in 2002, according to Watson Wyatt
Worldwide. Even the government is getting in on this act, as evidenced
by the Department of Energy’s decision to tell contractors it will no
longer pay for pensions for new hires.
Read more…
