AHEAD OF THE CURVE AT MIDLIFE » Financial Health

How Empty is Your Nest?

Kathleen Daniel — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 05:01:32 +0000

Are you the chief cook and bottle washer of a “multi-generational boarding house”? A recent survey by VibrantNation.com shows that nearly 2/3 of boomer women report that one or more of their adult children have returned home to live – and that nearly half of them have brought one or more of their own children along. And this, by the way, is on top of the 13% of women who report that their parents or in-laws are living with them. According to Stephen Reily, founder of Vibrant Nation, the recession is making the “empty nest” a historical relic, at least for boomers.” They are footing the bill for their children, grandchildren and in some cases, parents who have moved into their homes, assuming multi-generational housing responsibilities not seen since the Great Depression.

According to the survey:

• 63% have an adult child living with them now, and most expect them to stay for more than a year
• Only 41% of these women report having returned to live at home as adults themselves
• 27% have grandchildren living under the same roof
• 13% have parents or in-laws living with them as well
• 70% blame the economy as the reason for this outcome.

How do these midlife mothers feel? Well, many are feeling stressed. 39% report that the experience has either strained or worsened their relationship with the adult child living with them. They also continue to make personal sacrifices: 71% report that living in a multi-generational household makes it harder for them to achieve their personal goals.

Uncertainty Drives Boomers to Retire at Home, in Cities, and to Keep Options Open

Kathleen Daniel — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:25:10 +0000

Early census data is confirming a trend we noted earlier, that those of us looking towards retirement are opting to age in place rather than retreating to the Sunbelt. In fact, we’re choosing to live closer to cities to keep work options open. Boomers helped fuel growth in retirement destinations, now we’re playing a role in their decline. By 2016 seniors will make up nearly 25% of the working population, holding onto jobs to offset decreased home values and stock portfolios. Yet - as if to underline uncertainty as the sign of the times – this analysis reported by the Boston Herald says that after 2018 there will be jobs shortage in key sectors because of baby boomers’ retiring. Huh? I don’t know if there’s a better case to be made for living in the ‘now’ and following your own heart to find your purpose. Information and guideposts on trends from external sources are way too risky to bank your future on.

Finding Balance and Opportunity in Economic Crisis and Uncertain Times

Kathleen Daniel — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:00:39 +0000

As a veteran global fund-raiser for the Hunger Project, consultant to the Nobel Women’s Initiative to leverage the influence of women Nobel Peace Laureates to advance peace, justice, and equality, and as a trustee of the Fetzer Institute, whose mission is to foster awareness of love and forgiveness and the power of letting go, Lynne Twist has long observed how our relationship to money governs, dominates, and stresses each of our lives. Her Soul of Money Institute is dedicated to helping people find peace and sufficiency in their relationship with money. The video excerpt (below) provides an empowering perspective on how to see what’s unraveling all around us: “We’re living in a time when the economic system, the money system itself, the markets are unraveling …. It’s is a very frightening time … {but it’s important to} recognize that what is unraveling is that which has no viability. What is unraveling is that which is not sustainable. … If we can see that what’s happening is a truing, is a recalibration, it helps us see how to deal with it on a personal basis. It’s a difficult time…{and} it can also be a beautiful time. Because … we can move towards thrift rather than accumulation; we can move toward appreciating what we love rather than being afraid of what we’ve lost. We can focus our attention and intention not on what we’re losing, but on what we already have that’s so valuable and nourishing to us. And we can stop clamoring for more of what we don’t really need and take care of what we have.”

For more on Lynne Twist’s perspective on the origins and purpose of money and the source of our upset about it, as well as her Unleashing the Soul of Money: Finding Sufficiency, Freedom and Purpose and Through Your Relationship with Money audio workshop, click here.

Leasing Low Cost Solar Power Now an Option for Homeowners

Kathleen Daniel — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:23:42 +0000

A new financing plan called a residential solar lease, may make going solar affordable by bypassing the high initial cost of installing a system. Popular in California, the world’s third largest solar-power market, twice as many people filed for solar power permits in 2009 than in 2008, much of the demand driven by solar leasing. Solar City, a Silicon Valley pioneer in residential solar leases, offers a no-money-down, low-monthly plan. Instead of investing from $20,000 to $50,000 to purchase and install a rooftop solar array, you can lease one for around $100 a month with the option of extending your lease or buying the panels at the end of your contract. SolarCity says customers can typically expect to start shaving 15% off their electricity bill from day one, and to see increased savings as standard electricity costs continue to rise.

Sabotaging Prosperity with Self-Talk About the Meaning of Money

Kathleen Daniel — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:20:41 +0000

During my ritual beginning-of-the-year cleansing of files, bookmarks and the like, I came across this short reflection about money called: Are You a Reverse Money Snob? from the Barefoot Executive’s site for At Home Professionals. Its musings on our attitudes towards wealth seem germane as we continue evaluating the meaning and role of money in our lives.

“We developed our attitude toward wealthy people from the messages we received while growing up and we all have some bias toward wealth or the lack of it. Women tend to be almost twice a biased against the wealthy as are men, believing they are greedy, snobby, selfish, and self-centered. I’ve heard this myself when talking with women who praise themselves for being able to survive on so little and feel superior because of it. Because they view the wealthy with such disdain, they will never allow themselves to become one of them – they are reverse snobs.

Your ability to become wealthy depends largely on your view of wealthy people. If you see them as inherently frivolous, unhappy, and lacking in values, you are not likely to allow yourself to become one of them. You might console yourself in your misery by feeling that you are somehow “above” those people. Its false flattery and a trap that will keep you perpetually mired in debt and lack. Don’t fall for it.

Choose wealth.

You will not become a different person simply because you become wealthy. If you are stingy now, you will be stingy then. If you are generous now, you will be generous then – probably more so. And if you live a life of moral righteousness, what on earth makes you think that your morals can just be bought with money? If you are morally upstanding now, you will continue to be so when you are wealthy. But then, you will also be a more visible model for others to follow.

If you have allowed yourself to be an under-earner and under-achiever, making far less than you are worth simply because it alleviated any guilt you might feel for being wealthy, you are also a reverse snob.

You have given yourself permission to feel superior by being poor. This is simply ridiculous.

Do you think you were brought into this world to be average or content with mediocrity? You are blessed with the ability and the opportunity to prosper so that you could go out and do more good in the world. Live up to your life. Would you want any less for your own children?

Now go be a millionaire!”

Suze Orman’s 2010 Financial To-Do List

Kathleen Daniel — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:16:26 +0000

If you’re one of the less than 25% of women feeling “very well prepared” to handle financial matters, make 2010 the year to build your financial confidence. A Prudential study also found that while 78% of women don’t want to become a financial burden to loved ones, only 24% feel they can pull it off. Take action to get rid of that free-floating anxiety by checking out Suze Orman’s 3-step Financial To-Do List in January’s O Magazine. As usual, she is simple, sensible and concrete, with a systematic mini-plan to get a grip on where you stand, find hidden savings and build security. P.S. You’ll find Suze’s Insurance, Will and Trust, Identity Theft and Ultimate Protection Kits in our Money and Retirement shop enormously helpful aids in creating a system that helps to simplify and organize what you need to track the nuts and bolts your financial life.

Women Speak Truth to Power on Money and Financial Reform

Kathleen Daniel — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:14:31 +0000

Speaking of feminine power and women’s leadership in all the very diverse roles and forms it takes, this very interesting piece is part of the Roosevelt Institute’s even more interesting ‘Feminomics’ series exploring women’s changing roles in the economy. The author celebrates five courageous women who have spoken truth to power and helped to illuminate as well as dig us out of the worst financial mess since the Great Depression. “In case you haven’t heard, women are leading the charge on financial reform,” he begins. He names:
* Yves Smith’s ‘must-read blog, Naked Capitalism” for its good overview of the financial crisis.
* Elizabeth Warren, Professor of Law at Harvard law professor, author of The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke, for being a strong and energetic public advocate as head the Congressional Oversight Panel for monies being handed over to banks.
* Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times business writer, for some of the best coverage of the financial crisis in the mainstream media, including how AIG met its demise.
* Sheila Blair, head of the FDIC, for taking on Paulson, Bernanke, Geithner, and Summers, for stating repeatedly the banking crisis is not over, trying to slow foreclosures, and insisting that Citi needs to be placed into receivership.
* Meredith Whitney, head of the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, for being “the Anti-Geithner”, appearing on CNBC to say that the Citi banks’ profits were “manufactured” by the government.

The Changing Face of Retirement: From Sun City to Aging in Place

Kathleen Daniel — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:19:02 +0000

With the debut of the first ‘modern’ retirement facility in Sun City, Arizona in 1960, replete with golf courses, recreation centers and activities clubs, it’s been 50 years that Americans’ ideas have shifted about retirement. Sun City recast the idea of retirement as a non-working life of limited opportunity to one of possibility and productivity. Now a new Sun City Festival has opened, but with a difference: most people living there are either employed, active or doing some kind of community service. And they have internet cafes, continuing education classes, and lots of singles. But with more choices now, only about 6% of homeowners over 65 live in communities like these. Instead, the tide is turning to “aging in place,” to living in the house you’ve lived in for the last 20 or 30 years and to make it work there. Some 70% of seniors spend the rest of their lives in the place where they celebrated their 65th birthday.

Indeed there are many initiatives and resources for communities and individuals for aging in place, including:

Aging in Place “The “E-cyclopedia” of housing options and information for
retirement, finance, insurance and care.” An practical resource to start you thinking about what you need to know and may need to age in place.

National Aging in Place Council. A support network of collaborative professional service providers that includes home health care companies, geriatric care managers, food and product delivery services, architects, interior designers, remodeling contractors, home maintenance professionals, landscaping contractors, transportation providers, financial planners, insurance companies, elder specialists and more.

Age in Place. Assitive technology assistance on the kinds of home and lifestyle modifications you’ll need to think about – from remodeling to technology and gadgets to how to finance it. Refers to things that can assist people with a variety of things, including communication, mobility, learning, recreation, overcoming or dealing with physical or mental challenges, and help dealing with daily life activities to enhance quality of life.

Aging in Place Initiative Aging in Place is an initiative of Partners for Livable Communities (Partners) and the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging to improve the livability of communities by promoting quality of life, economic development, and social equity by using community and economic development resources, and building public/private coalitions.

Partners for Livable Communities. Download their Technical Assistance Guide for Aging in Place to see a state- by-state breakdown of some of the local community initiatives they’ve helped support.

Certified Aging in Place Specialists. This program teaches the technical, business management, and customer service skills in the residential remodeling industry for home modifications for the aging-in-place. Search the directory to find professionals who hold CAPS certifications.

Conscious Money Teleseminar Series Starts on January 11

Kathleen Daniel — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:15:29 +0000

I want to insert this quick post here for anyone who may have getting control of your financial life high on your to-do list this year – anyone? Vicki Robin, well-known coauthor, with Joe Dominguez, of Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence, is hosting a series of 12 speakers and activists on money, life, the economy and the future. The teleseminar is inexpensive, you can listen to the series, or sign up individually, and the first class is free. You also have an opportunity to dig deep with your own questions. Guests include Bill McKibben, David Korten, John Robbins, Lynne Twist, Olivia Mellon, and Victoria Castle, among others. The core messages are how we exchange our life energy for money, how to discover how much is enough, and how to get out of the money trap of purchasing products to solve problems to a life of financial freedom. Watch Vicki’s introduction here.

“Social Security and Divorce: What You Need to Know”

Kathleen Daniel — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:34:27 +0000

Though a bit dazed from combating ‘evil-doers’ who corrupted our files and left us with an unfathomable mess to sort out for the last month, we’re feeling triumphant: there are few things more empowering than learning something new! Nevertheless we’re glad it’s over and more glad to be back!

And speaking of learning, if you are divorced – and no matter how long you’ve been divorced – if you were married for more than ten years, read this update from WISER.org, the Women’s Institute For A Secure Retirement, of the basics of what you need to know to make sure you collect all the benefits for which you’re eligible.

“Although more and more women are in the workforce, many can still receive a larger Social Security benefit based on their husband or ex-husband’s work record than they can on their own. When you decide to take those retirement benefits, the Social Security Administration will calculate the benefits for which you are eligible—your own as a worker, yours as a spouse or ex-spouse (or widow or ex-widow). You will always receive the amount of the highest benefit for which you qualify—not the benefits added together. The good news is that a divorced woman can receive Social Security benefits without filing any special papers at the time of divorce, and it doesn’t matter if her ex-husband has remarried.”