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Geriatric Help Eases Family Discord
Family harmony and your parent’s desires are the top priorities during their final years of life – not long-simmering sibling arguments or what you may feel is best for him or her. That’s why it’s...
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Credit Unions a Popular Antidote to Fraud
The 1980s featured bankrupt Texas savings and loans. Then, in the mid-2000s, Countrywide failed to clearly disclose to customers the spike in their subprime mortgage payments in year 3. In 2016, 5...
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Tiny House Fixes Millennial’s Money Woes
Sky-high city rent, college loan payments, and the low-paying days of an early career are a bad combination for today’s Millennial. Liz Patterson Liz Patterson has solved all that. The carpenter built...
View ArticleReaders Like a Travel Twist on Finances
Two of our readers’ favorite articles so far this year connected difficult bread and butter issues – personal finance and retirement – with a far more pleasant topic: travel. The most popular blog...
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Book Review: the Middle-class Squeeze
Marketplace recently estimated that a family’s common expenses have increased 30 percent since the 1990s. This was based on the inflation-adjusted prices for 11 necessities and small luxuries, from...
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Divorce Very Bad for Retirement Finances
When a marriage ends in divorce, there are no fewer than seven ways that it could damage a person’s finances. Divorce can rack up costly legal fees; force a house or stock sale in a down market;...
View ArticleUS Increasingly Polarized – by Geography
Rich or poor, old or young, white or black, red or blue – our differences cut many ways. But a new divide has opened up, one based on geography. Stark new evidence shows that well-paid, highly educated...
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Granny Pods: Financial and Care Solution
JoAnn George Kathy Barker already was having concerns that her elderly father’s dementia made it increasingly difficult for him to manage his life. When his doctor said he could no longer drive,...
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Subprime Crisis Lingers for Minorities
As Americans were riveted to the spectacle of teetering Wall Street behemoths in 2008, another ruinous tragedy was beginning to unfold: a national foreclosure crisis. Black and Hispanic homebuyers were...
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Senior Housing Shortage is Getting Worse
Nearly 10 million seniors are having difficulty paying for housing – and the problem is growing. Housing experts typically recommend that people keep their housing costs below a third of their income....
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Home Equity Offers Big Boost to Retirees
Retirees’ primary sources of income are the usual suspects: Social Security and employer retirement plans. They rarely use a third option: the equity locked up in their homes. The Urban Institute...
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Hispanic Retirement Outlook Gets Worse
One thing really stood out in a recent study: the deterioration in Hispanics’ retirement prospects since the 2008-2009 recession. Workers’ success at saving for retirement is becoming increasingly...
View ArticleWomen’s Wealth Gap Exceeds Pay Gap
If the difference in men and women’s pay is a gap, then the wealth difference can only be described as a chasm. Women earn 80 cents for each dollar a man earns. But a woman has 32 cents of net worth to...
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Social, Economic Inequities Grow with Age
Retirement, as portrayed in TV commercials, is for indulging a passion, whether tennis, enjoying more time with a spouse, frequent socializing, or civic engagement. Boston University sociologist...
View ArticleClass of 2019: Low Rent Key to Survival
The first and arguably most important decision a new graduate will make is how much to pay for rent. If it’s too high, the rent – on top of those annoying student loans – will push out other priorities...
View ArticleBoomers at 80: Housing Issues to Grow
The baby boom generation is continuing to work its way up the age ladder. The number of Americans over 80 will more than double to nearly 18 million over the next two decades. And that’s partly because...
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More Retirees Today Have a Mortgage
In one significant way, retirement is materially different than it used to be: far more retirees are still trying to pay off their houses. Thirty years ago, just one of every four homeowners in their...
View ArticleMost Older Americans Age in their Homes
Retirees are apparently unpersuaded that it’s a good idea to convert their substantial home equity into some retirement income. One way to tap this home equity is through state programs that defer...
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Retirement Research Presented Virtually
Like much in life under a pandemic, the research presentations for the Retirement and Disability Research Consortium’s annual meeting are going virtual. This year’s online meeting will also be scaled...
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700,000 Retirees are Behind on Mortgages
In the second half of 2020, the number of retired homeowners who fell behind on their mortgage payments doubled to about 1 million per month. By July of this year, it had dropped to 680,000 retirees....
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