Laughing with Mary all the way to the beach

Candidates are visiting The Villages in Florida

It seems the celebrities and political candidates love The Villages, a retirement community of 85,000 residents located 20 miles south of Ocala, Florida on route 441 with a total of 504 holes of golf. Murray recently sent his e-mail list this item about their visitors. "In the past 2 years we've had Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck (twice), Bill O'Rielly, and Sean Hannity visiting us. This week we had Rick Santorum and John McCain with Newt Gingrich tomorrow and Mitt Romney Monday. Also the Tea Party Express bus will be here tomorrow." In fact, he adds, they've even had Occupiers show up to protest.

"One thing you can be sure of and that would be Obama will NOT be coming to The Villages. He already knows that The Villages special interest group is not potential supporters. They consist of the old and wise. He avoids these people plus most of the middle class that he's trying to screw and doing a dam good job of it!"

Is There a Retirement Crisis?

The idea of working until the end—or closer to it—isn’t new. Many of today’s retirees have enjoyed decades of relaxation financed by company pensions and Social Security, but for most of history, voluntary retirement was the exception, not the rule. “Up to the end of the nineteenth century, people generally worked as long as they could,” Munnell writes. “At the end of their lives, they had only about two years of ‘retirement,’ often due to ill health.”

Is There a Retirement Crisis? by Nicole Gelinas, City Journal Autumn 2011

Beginning a new year when you're old

Taken from “Can I Begin Again?” by J. Oswald Sanders:

“When we were younger, most of us who are Christians earnestly sought to discover God’s plan for our lives, especially when we came to the crossroads of career and marriage. Are we equally diligent in seeking his plan for our old age, or are we just drifting along with no definite aim or goal? With more time to review the past, it is not difficult to become discouraged as we recall opportunities missed; a lessening of zeal in God’s service; a mediocre prayer life; or perhaps actual sins of which we have reason to be ashamed. It is at moments of introspection that we need to turn our eyes outward and upward to our loving and understanding Father. What balm a verse like Romans 5:20 can bring! “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” The wonderful thing about God’s abundant grace and favor is that it is never too late to discover and follow God’s plan for the remainder of our lives, never too late to make a new start, even if we have missed his plan till the present time. To his disillusioned compatriots, the prophet Joel brought an inspiring message of hope - the hope of a New Beginning. God delights in giving his failing children a chance to begin again...”I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:25).

Shared from cousin Gayle's weekly newsletter

Generations and the Great Recession

The generations are taking care of each other, according to the Pew Research Center.

Section 5: Generations and the Great Recession | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

It may not be glamorous, but the retirement pay is good

The base pay for a California state prison guard is $73,728, and with overtime many guards earn up to $100,000 annually. Five years ago Los Angeles Times reported that 6,000 guards were earning more than $100,000. One lieutenant raked in $252,570. Besides generous salaries and benefits, prison guards in California can retire as early as age 50. In retirement they are eligible to receive as much as 90 percent of their income: According to the state retirement formula, guards over 50 receive a percentage of their last year’s salary equal to three times the number of years worked. The prison population is growing 3 times faster than the state population--more jobs for union guards?

The price of prison guard unions

Too Much Debt to Retire

Although you can blame the economy, this part of the article makes more sense--what was going on for the now 60 year olds in the mid-decade.

"The combination of easy credit, low interest rates and a consumption-oriented culture helped fuel a spending binge for Americans until the financial crisis. People with problems aren't just those who took subprime loans or spent foolishly on lavish lifestyles. They are people from all backgrounds, including some with six-figure incomes."

Too Much Debt to Retire - SmartMoney.com

Valuing Seniors' Lives - Investors.com

"A commercial showing granny being pushed over a cliff by a person resembling Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was recently put out by the Agenda Project, implying that the Ryan budget will kill old people by changing Medicare.

For the sake of accuracy, granny should have been dispatched by a character resembling Cass Sunstein, President Obama's head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

The Ryan budget attempts to curb the explosive growth of entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security so they are there for granny without burdening the grandchildren with unconscionable debt. Sunstein, as was pointed out during congressional testimony last Friday, literally believes granny should be sacrificed in favor of the kids.

In testimony before the House energy and commerce subcommittees on oversight and investigations, the 56-year-old Sunstein tried to walk back comments he made in a 2003 paper, "Lives, Life-years, and Willingness to Pay," written while he was a professor at Obama's one-time home, the University of Chicago."

Valuing Seniors' Lives - Investors.com

How to travel a lot without being a millionaire | Lifecruiser

You'll find some good tips from a blogger I've followed for many years. She lives cheap at home so they can afford to travel.

How to travel a lot without being a millionaire | Lifecruiser

Your Retirement Checklist for Your 70s and Beyond

Take a look at this check-list, you might need to reevaluate. Includes a link to long term care.