March is Women’s History Month. This is a time to focus not just on women’s achievements, but on the challenges women continue to face. In the 21st century, more women work, pay Social Security taxes, and earn credit toward monthly retirement income than at any other time in our nation’s history. Knowing this, you can…
There appears to be strong evidence that – in a reversal of a decades-old trend – an increasing number of Americans are choosing to live in multigenerational housing. There’s “a growing change in the way Americans, including older people, are choosing to live,” according to this recent article from the New York Times. Demographers have…
Hey, all you baby boomers who are still actively engaged in the workforce: you think the last decade has brought an avalanche of change and disruption? Well, according to a newly-released workplace study, you haven’t seen anything yet. That’s the conclusion we drew as we read this article just published on the website NextAvenue. The…
No doubt you’ve heard the expression, “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.” That axiom is usually used in a business setting, but here at AgingOptions we suggest it applies in spades to the arena of retirement planning, especially as it pertains to your later years. That’s often when health crises will strike,…
One of the most frequent retirement questions we get at our AgingOptions LifePlanning Seminars and on our weekly radio program is “when” – as in, “When will I be able to retire?” Many enticing articles continue to be written about the so-called secrets of retiring early. But millions of retirees have no desire to leave…
Here on the AgingOptions blog we’ve frequently used the sad tale of pop music celebrity Casey Kasem as an example of a wealthy person whose poor estate planning triggered a pathetic end-of-life spectacle. (Click here to read our blog article, published a few years ago, that described the sad affair of Casey Kasem.) By failing…
Doctors and nutritionists have long suspected that the Western diet of highly processed foods, high in sugars and chemical additives, is bad for our health. Now for the first time a comprehensive medical study has shown what could be an alarming correlation between ultra-processed foods and some kinds of cancer. The study, described in this…
We discovered this article just a few days ago on the website of USAToday, and it represents a bit of unexpected good news for seniors in the tax reform package recently passed on Capitol Hill and signed by President Trump. According to finance columnist Susan Tompor, “Some retirees are grumbling that young families are getting…
Just about everybody knows that having an optimistic outlook tends to make life more enjoyable. After all, who wants to wallow in pessimism? You could say – generally speaking – that optimists have more fun, but there’s much more to being a positive person than simply enjoying life. In fact, according to an article that…
It has been called “a bombshell,” “a perfect storm” and “a tsunami.” No matter what you call it, it’s one of the leading topics of conversation here in the Puget Sound area where AgingOptions is based. What’s causing all this conversation and consternation? In two words, “property taxes” – or, more to the point, it’s…