Home Equity & Senior Housing
Bob Carlson’s ideas and strategies for managing home equity and choice of housing to maintain a budget
Found 127 Articles.
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Secrets to Aging in Place
You need a plan if you want to stay in your home for as long as possible. Most older Americans say they want to stay in their homes, or age in place, for as long as possible. An AARP survey in 2015 said almost 90% of those age 65 or older want to stay in […]
Retirement Locations to Consider
Longtime readers know that I caution against using lists of “best places to retire.”What’s appealing and important to the editors of a list might not be to you. I link to them, however, so you can see a sampling of what’s available and the reasons people give for favoring different places. This list is a […]
Cost of Living Across the States Compared
Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis used 2015 data to determine the cost of living in each state and ranked the states according to the cost of living. The survey is unique because it uses a new set of data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis to make the comparisons. It’s no […]
Nursing Home Arbitration Agreements are Binding
Nursing homes have been joining the list of companies that require customers to sign agreements waiving their rights to go to court. Any disagreements must be taken to arbitration. A Kentucky court had found that the agreements weren’t binding when an agent for a nursing home resident signed the agreement on the resident’s behalf, unless […]
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Retirement Exodus to Sun Belt Accelerates
After pausing for a few years due to the financial crisis and other factors, the number of Americans moving from the Northeast and Midwest to the South increased in 2016. The number of people moving south still is a small amount of the Baby Boomer population, and most people stay near their long-time residences after […]
Best and Worst Cities for Successful Aging
The Milken Institute’s rankings of localities is different from others directed at retirees. MI ranks areas based on successful aging. Unlike the others, it looks at a wide range of data that costs a lot to gather and process. It doesn’t focus on weather and activities, though those can be factors. A key distinction of […]
Best Places to Retire
Most people don’t move after they retire. But if you’re thinking of moving and can go anywhere, consider this list of best places to retire from Forbes.com. It includes the home of one of my alma maters, Clemson, South Carolina. Unlike most such lists, it doesn’t rank the locations. Instead, it lists the editors’ top […]
Reverse Mortgage Strategies to Avoid
I’ve discussed in Retirement Watch some situations in which a reverse mortgage can be a good financial tool. But there are other situations in which reverse mortgages aren’t appropriate. A recent settlement reported in the Boston Globe describes one of those cases. A couple was urged to take out a reverse mortgage and use the […]
