If retirement is on your horizon, you’ve probably been spending a lot of time wondering how well your finances will hold up once you cut the ties to full-time work. For many retirees, the financial transition to retirement turns out fine. However, that’s not always the case, according to this recent article from Motley Fool.…
Here’s a question: if you’ve made it clear in your will which of your heirs should inherit money from your estate, how it is possible that those funds will end up going to someone else? The answer is simple: if you’ve forgotten to update the beneficiary information on a life insurance policy, retirement plan, or…
When most of us plan for our retirement, we typically concentrate on how we want to live. However, at some point it’s important that we also plan how – and where – we would prefer to die. Surveys shown a very large majority of Americans want to take their last breath at home, in their…
When we at AgingOptions ask people why they want to retire, we often hear a familiar laundry list of reasons. They may not like their job, or their boss. They may be tired of the 8-to-5 routine or weary of the long commute. They might be fed up with the house they live in or…
Knee-replacement surgery is becoming more and more commonplace. A decade ago, surgeons operated on more than 600,000 people in the U.S. alone, a number that is projected to increase six-fold by 2030. But does the procedure result in the pain-free, active life that marketers suggest? For many the answer appears to be no. Knee Replacement…
Do you remember the scene in the blockbuster movie Jurassic Park when the intrepid hunter took to the woods to hunt down a pair of escaped raptors? He was so busy focusing on the hungry dinosaur he could see right in front of him that he completely missed the danger coming from the side. It…
For most of modern American history, it has been axiomatic that each generation would enter old age in better financial shape than their parents. Not anymore. Today’s retiring baby boomers are re-writing history, and not in a good way. The Least-Prepared Retirees in Decades “Americans are reaching retirement age in worse financial shape than the…
Every few weeks, it seems, we encounter a new article or two trying to provide a definitive answer to a familiar question: when is the best age to begin taking Social Security benefits? Two such articles came to our attention recently, articles we found notable because the authors disagree pretty strongly with each other’s recommendations.…
Hoarding is one of those little-understood habits that people sometimes laugh about or make light of (or even feature on so-called reality television shows). But you are the adult child of a hoarder, you know the issue is no laughing matter. This article that appeared a few months ago on the NextAvenue website, written by…
The New Year is here, and every year it seems the top New Year’s resolution involves going on a diet. But just as many doctors recommend a “food diet,” some financial planners say people getting ready for retirement need to go on a financial diet, trimming wasteful spending in order to get themselves better prepared…