Here is the article on baby boomer fears of outliving their retirement for your review.

Take care and enjoy this article on retirement and tell me what you think.

What about you? Are you delaying retirement? If yes, why?

Well, I think it is worth exploring.  In 2005, there was a story told about a woman who was observed living on a cruise line.

Active Living Newsletter makes a very convincing argument for retireing on a cruise line.

Now, there is actually a small cruise line who has established a plan for retirees. I am sure this is not the only company considering this viable option. But did I say viable? Many of us are hard pressed to afford assisted living for our senior parents. Yet, as baby boomers we are considering long term care and now cruise ship lodging?

I don’t know, I am now convinced I must keep working, keep finding ways to increase revenue  without doing the lottery, or taking the gold out of my husbands mouth.

But we both like the notion of living on a cruise ship. We pray for good health to enjoy it if we do. What about you?

Is your town there? Maybe we should move?

Vienna, Va. – Steve Gurney is 43 years old, exactly half the national average age of residents living in assisted living communities. On Feb. 9, Gurney will experience first hand what it is like to move into one of these communities by taking up temporary residence at Paul Spring Retirement Community in Alexandria, Va. The independent living community that offers assisted living services will be the first many for Gurney.

Nearly 20 years ago, Gurney founded the Guide to Retirement Living SourceBook, a comprehensive resource that provides details on all of the senior living options in the mid-Atlantic. He said, “I realized that I have spent my entire career helping families and elders make these choices, but I have never experienced the transition first hand as a resident. I will be using this experience to help families better understand this important life transition.”

Gurney will not be utilizing this experience to evaluate the level of care and amenities or to determine if a specific community or option is “good” or “bad.” Instead, he will be focusing specifically on the feelings and emotions that an individual faces when moving to a new and different living environment.

The inspiration for this project began last September when Gurney was taking his children to their first day of school. He said, “When I give my kids encouragement about their first day of school, it’s authentic because they know I have been through the same experience. This made me realize that I need to be more authentic by going through the same experiences that the readers of our publication and website are facing.”

Gurney recognizes that his experience will be somewhat artificial due to his age and the fact that he will not be a permanent resident. However, by focusing specifically on the emotions accompanying the transition of leaving his home, he feels that he will be able to share important insights with others.

After his stay at Paul Spring, Gurney plans to take up residence at a continuing care retirement community, nursing home, an independent living community for low-income seniors, and an Alzheimer’s-specific community. “Most people don’t recognize the wide variety of choices,” said Gurney. “By living as a resident in five different types of communities, I hope that this experience will also help families better understand the options.”

Gurney plans to document his experiences through a blog at Pro Aging and in articles in Guide to Retirement Living SourceBook.

###

About Guide to Retirement Living SourceBook
Guide to Retirement Living SourceBook is a comprehensive resource to help individuals, families and professionals identify every option in the mid-Atlantic (VA, DC, MD, DE, PA, and NJ). Each issue and the robust website at http://www.guidetoretirementliving.com detail the costs, services and amenities of all retirement communities, assisted living communities, nursing homes and services helping individuals age in place. Free copies or more information can be obtained by visiting http://www.guidetoretirementliving.com or calling 1-800-394-9990.

When Can I Retire?

My wife (53) and I (49) have been married for 20 years and live in the San Francisco Bay area. We live simply, have no children, have no debt, own our home (3,000 sq. ft. in a nice area), are in good health, have a long-term care policy, and have $1.2 million in cash equivalents and tax deferred investments. At age 65 I will be eligible for Social Security and approximately $43 thousand a year in pension benefits. At age 56 my wife will qualify for $43 thousand a year in inflation-adjustable pension benefits.We have listened to your specials on KQED and have benefited from your wisdom. Lately we ask ourselves, “When can we realistically retire?” Do you have any advice?

Whether or not you’re ready to retire depends on the answers to two questions. One is emotional; the other is financial. The emotional question is, Do you know how you want to spend your time after you stop defining yourself by your career and start identifying yourself by who you are? Thinking this through is more difficult than most people imagine. Please give it a lot of thought.

Now to the financial part. Since the average life expectancy of a person in good health extends in to the late 80′s, many of us will spend more years in retirement than we spent working. For you, right now, retirement might mean a period of 30 to 35 years or longer. So the following question has to be asked and answered: How long will your retirement income last? Will it last for 35 years-or for 45 or 50 years if you’re one of the growing number of people who live into their 100s? Twenty-five years from now, will you and your wife still be able to live on a combined $86,000 in pension income, plus Social Security and the conservatively estimated interest income that can be taken from your investments? I say that this interest income must be “conservatively estimated” because I want you to calculate your future income based on interest from very safe investments, and also to be sure that you project a level of interest that it’s realistic to believe you can obtain. In this environment, I would not project above 6 percent a year. Please also be sure that you won’t have to invade your principal.

About your tax-deferred accounts: Take into consideration that, if and when you start withdrawing money from those accounts, you must first pay taxes on that money. After taxes, how much will really be left to generate income for you and your wife? Also, take into consideration what would happen if one of you were to die. Would one pension stop or be reduced? Finally, please remember to calculate that the one who remains will also be losing one social security check.

So this is how to figure out whether and when to retire. Calculate your true living expenses today and what you project into the future. Remember to add in expenses that you may not be incurring now, such as medications, additional help around the house, etc., and take into consideration future inflation of at least three percent a year. Next calculate your income and expenses if one of you should die. Bottom line: If the surviving spouse or life partner has more than enough money to meet the bills today and 30 years or more into the future, happy retirement, my friend! If not, keep a working and saving.