Tag Archives: Retirement

Retirement the Margaritaville Way | The New Yorker

At the active-living community for Jimmy Buffett enthusiasts, it’s five o’clock everywhere. Letter from Daytona Beach…

By Nick Paumgarten, March 21, 2022

“We like the idea of being happy,” the head of the Jimmy Buffett-branded communities said of the residents’ attitude.Illustration by Nada Hayek

The first person I met at the Bar & Chill was a bald guy in a black T-shirt, black drawstring shorts, and flip-flops, with a Harley-Davidson tattoo on his right arm and a claddagh ring on his left hand. He was drinking and laughing with a few friends. He gestured to the empty stool next to him and said, “We don’t bite.”

I offered an expression of if-you-insist, and he said, “Bring it.” His tone was cheerful, as you might expect at the Bar & Chill, the principal drinking-and-dining establishment that looks out on the town center of Latitude Margaritaville, an active-living community for Jimmy Buffett enthusiasts, aged “55 and better,” in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The Bar & Chill was open to the evening. A gentle breeze fanned the lanai. On a flat-screen, the Providence Friars led the Vermont Catamounts by a few buckets. A bartender brought a Perfect Margarita in a plastic cup.

The bald man, drinking a vodka soda, said his name was Phil. Phil Murphy, from Arlington, Massachusetts, aged sixty-four. Formerly a research director at Forrester, retired since 2015. “I was in the air for twenty years,” he said. He looked and sounded less like my idea of a Parrothead, as Jimmy Buffett’s diehard fans are called, than like Mike Ehrmantraut, the melancholic fixer in “Breaking Bad.”

Standing off his left shoulder, his wife, Betty, red hair cut short, added a dash of urbanity, a spritz of Allison Janney. Phil and Betty had organized an emergency fund for the restaurant’s staff during its Covid shutdown. One of their friends declared them “the king and queen of the Bar & Chill.”

Source: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/28/retirement-the-margaritaville-way/

Life Advice for Book Lovers: Finding Joy in Retirement ‹ Literary Hub

Book Recommendations for the Troubled Soul

By Dorothea, January 19, 2023

From article…

Dear Dorothea,

I’m sixty. I just took my pension after having worked in the Quebec health system for forty-two years. Yes, I survived COVID. I saw a lot of my old patients die, and I had to work under less than ideal conditions. We were forced to wear masks, scrubs and gloves all day.

Moreover, there was a lack of personnel because many employees got the bug. Therefore, the rest of us had to work like dogs but did not sleep like logs, afraid as we were of falling sick too. It was a time of distress.

So, I should feel joyous not going to work anymore, but not as much as I think I would. I’m telling myself that I will finally be able to finish and polish the sci-fi series of adventure novels I began years ago. However, in the morning I feel a little bit depressed. I have trouble believing that the whole time of each new day (or at last a big part of it) can be spent pursuing my heart’s desires.

It’s like Society is whispering in my utilitarian programmed brain: do something useful, start a garden, cook with your wife, find a part-time job, study theology, etc. How can you believe that what you write will interest anybody?

Should I read positive thinking books, although most of them are written by Republican car salesmen?

Thank you, Morning Hope, Morning Sadness

Source: Life Advice for Book Lovers: Finding Joy in Retirement ‹ Literary Hub

These are the best places to retire in the U.S. – CBS News | Moneywatch

By Megan CerulloNovember 1, 2022 / 12:01 AM /

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

The state of Florida no longer has a lock on having the most cities ranked in the top 10 best places to retire in the U.S., according to the latest rankings from U.S. News and World Report.

Instead, metropolitan areas in Pennsylvania dominated the top spots on the list, with Lancaster earning the number one slot for its quality health care for seniors, retiree tax rates and overall happiness of residents. Last year, the city was ranked the fifth best place to retire. The shift towards Pennsylvania comes as Americans increasingly prioritize housing affordability in their golden years, making it the most heavily weighted category in the retirement rankings. For most retirees, housing is the largest expense. …

Here are the top 10 place to retire for 2022-2023:

  1. Lancaster, PA
  2. Harrisburg, PA
  3. Pensacola, FL
  4. Tampa, FL
  5. York, PA
  6. Naples, FL
  7. Daytona Beach, FL
  8. Ann Arbor, MI
  9. Allentown, PA
  10. Reading, PA

To be sure, Florida remains a highly desirable state for retirees, with a total of nine areas ranking in the top 25 places to retire, according to U.S. News and World report. More than two-thirds (68%) of the top 25 metro areas to retire are either in Florida or Pennsylvania. 

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source: These are the best places to retire in the U.S. – CBS News

Q&A: Columnist Steve Lopez and the ‘spiritual side’ of retirement | CNBC

Published Sat, Oct 22 20229:00 AM EDT, Aditi Shrikant@Aditi_Shrikant

Courtesy of Steve Lopez

Steve Lopez knows he is running out of time.

Lopez, a Los Angeles Times columnist and four-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, isn’t collapsing into the grave just yet, but he is 69, with two artificial knees and a pacemaker.

“Although this is a scary thought, when you get to where I am, statistically speaking, you’re in the last quarter of your life and most of it is behind you,” he said. 

But there are still so many bullets on his to-do list.

He could retire and start crossing some off, but he is hesitant. “Being a columnist I’ve had a quasi-public life,” he said. “After that, who am I going to be?” 

He wanted to find out before the health problems that affected his parents interfered. 

“I mentioned it to everybody who I considered a peer age-wise, and they were all having the same conversations with themselves and others about when is the right time to go.” 

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/22/columnist-steve-lopez-and-the-spiritual-side-of-retirement-.html

The number of baby boomers and Generation X who plan to work past age 70—or forever—is stunning | MarketWatch

‘Retirement risks faced by workers are greater than ever before’

Last Updated: Oct. 15, 2022 at 6:26 p.m. ET First Published: Oct. 12, 2022 at 11:32 a.m. ET

By Jessica Hall

Getty Images

Almost half of baby boomers and more than one-third of Generation X expect to work past age 70 or do not plan to retire at all, highlighting the need for backup plans in case life’s unexpected events get in the way of such goals.

According to a study by nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies in collaboration with the Transamerica Institute, 49% of baby boomers expect to, or already have, extended their working lives past 70 or do not plan to retire. Their reasons for doing so are most as likely to be their health (78%) or their finances (82%). 

Source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-shocking-number-of-baby-boomers-and-generation-x-plan-to-work-past-70or-forever-11665588758

Coach K on Retirement, Redeem Team, Dream Team, North Carolina

Even without his whistle, it turns out that the greatest hoops coach of all time still likes to let you know who’s in charge.

By Brady Langmann, Published: Oct 7, 2022

“In retirement, although I’m not retired,” clarifies Krzyzewski, “I’m doing all the things I want to do.”
Tom Pennington//Getty Images

Exactly 142 days after Coach K became Mr. K for the first time in nearly 50 years, Mike Krzyzewski is telling me about his MasterClass. John Legend did one! So did Robin Roberts. The next day, he’ll jet off to Vegas, speak at a convention, play video poker, and take his wife, Mickie, out to eat. When Krzyzewski returns to Durham, you’ll find the man in his yard, pruning trees and handing out kibbles to his puppy—named . . . wait for it . . . Coach—who, of fucking course, “is actually a really good athlete.” Retirement! It happens. Even for a guy who won 1,202 college basketball games.

“In retirement, although I’m not retired,” Krzyzewski, 75, clarifies, “I’m doing all the things I want to do.” I’d take a wild guess that talking to me wasn’t numero uno on his post-Duke bucket list. But he picked up the phone to promote Netflix’s The Redeem Team, out now, which gives the Last Dance treatment to the 2008 men’s U. S. basketball team. In a documentary with mega personalities like Carmelo Anthony wisecracking throughout, it’s the team’s head coach, Krzyzewski, who gets all the holy-shit moments—like, for example, scaring LeBron James straight by bringing in Iraq vets to talk to the squad about their idea of service. “I was very emotional at different points,” Krzyzewski says of reliving it all, “obviously in watching the footage of Kobe and his little girl and his wife.”

Source: https://www.esquire.com/sports/a41456545/coach-k-interview-retirement/