HOOOO_WAAAA!!!! Give this fellow a round of applause!
Last week police were called to investigate an attempted armed robbery: The 71-year-old retired Marine who opened fire on two robbers at a Plantation, FL, Sub shop late Wednesday, killing one and critically wounding the other, is described as John Lovell, a former helicopter pilot for two presidents. He doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, he works out everyday. Mr. Lovell was a man of action Wednesday night.
According to Plantation police, two masked gunmen came into the Subway at 1949 N. Pine Rd., just after 11 p. m. There was a lone diner, Mr. Lovell, who was finishing his meal. After robbing the cashier, the two men attempted to shove Mr. Lovell into a bathroom and rob him as well. They got his money, but then Mr. Lovell pulled his handgun, opened fire. He shot one of the thieves in the head and chest and the other in the head.
When police arrived, they found one of the men in the shop. K-9 units found the other in the bushes of a nearby business. They also found cash strewn around the front of the sandwich shop according to Detective Robert Rettig of the Plantation Police Department. Both men were taken to Broward General Medical Center, where one, Donicio Arrindell, 22, of North Lauderdale died. The other, 21-year-old Frederick Gadson of Fort Lauderdale is in critical but stable condition. A longtime friend of Lovell, was not surprised to hear what happened. The friend said, ''He'd give you the shirt off his back, but he'd be mad as hell if someone tried to take the shirt off your back''.
Mr. Lovell was a pilot in the Marine Corps, flying former Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He later worked as a pilot for Pan Am and Delta. He is not expected to be charged, authorities said. ''He was in fear for his life; '' Detective Rettig said, 'These criminals ought to realize that most men in their 70's have military backgrounds and aren't intimidated by idiots'. Something tells me this old Marine wasn't 'in fear for his life', even though his life was definitely at risk. The only thing he could be charged with is participating in an unfair fight. One 71 - year young Marine against two punks. Two head shots and one center - body- mass shot - outstanding shooting! That'll teach them not to get between a Marine and his meal.
Don't you just love a story with a happy ending? ( Florida law allows law abiding citizens to carry a concealed weapon.) SMART STATE!!!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Retirees, Followed By Boomers, Will Redefine Retirement
Some of us will likely never retire, or never get to retire!! As a business person, a marketer, and a market researcher, I found this data to be very interesting. As they state, consumption habits of aging Americans are likely to be very different from earlier generations.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Retirees, Followed By Boomers, Will Redefine Retirement
According to a report from The Media Audit, adults who are nearing retirement are now one of the fastest growing demographics in the country. 17.9% of all U.S. adults are now retired , a figure that has increased by 6% in the last five years and will rapidly increase as Boomers exit the workforce over the next few decades.
Consumption habits of aging Americans are likely very different from those of their predecessors because they are living longer, achieving higher levels of education, are wealthier, and redefining what it means to be retired.
83% of the retired adults in the U.S now own their own home
Thirty percent of retired adults have cash, stocks and CD’s valued at more than $100,000, the highest figure ever reported
13.1% of new automobile purchasers are retired, compared to 11.1% five years ago. 8.3% of adults who have a car loan are retired, compared to 6.4% five years ago, an increase of nearly 30%
16% of adults who frequently stay in hotels are retired, compared to 14.7% five years ago, a jump of almost 10%
Among frequent beer consumers, 13% are retired, compared to 11.3% five years ago
Adults who are retired are 6% more likely than the average U.S. adult to frequently dine out at a full service restaurant and retirees now make up nearly 20% of all adults who frequently dine out.
14.3% adults who plan to take an ocean cruise in the next year are retired.
Nearly one in five adults who plan to have lasik eye surgery are retired, and are 5% more likely than the average adult to be planning a lasik eye surgery procedure.
The report further reveals that adults who are retired today compared to the average U.S. adult:
Spend nearly 30% more time watching broadcast TV, 14% more time watching cable TV, 25% more time reading a daily newspaper
Retired adults today spend only 89 minutes per day online, a figure that is 26% less than the average U.S. adult who spends 123 minutes per day online. The next generation of retirees, though, is expected to be more computer and internet friendly, since Baby Boomers between the ages of 45 and 64 spend a considerably higher amount of time online - 123 minutes per day.
The most affluent retirees can be found in larger markets such as Washington, D.C., where the average retired adult earns $64,000 in household income.
San Jose, California, Fort Myers- Naples, Florida, San Francisco, California and Long Island, New York, follow behind with household incomes of more than $50,000.
And, currently the top ranking retiree markets are:
Ocala, Florida with the highest percentage of retired adults (36%)
Fort Myers- Naples, Florida (34%)
Daytona Beach, Florida (33%)
West Palm Beach, Florida (31%)
Melbourne-Titusville-Cocoa, Florida (29%)
For more information from the MediaAudit, please visit them here.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Retirees, Followed By Boomers, Will Redefine Retirement
According to a report from The Media Audit, adults who are nearing retirement are now one of the fastest growing demographics in the country. 17.9% of all U.S. adults are now retired , a figure that has increased by 6% in the last five years and will rapidly increase as Boomers exit the workforce over the next few decades.
Consumption habits of aging Americans are likely very different from those of their predecessors because they are living longer, achieving higher levels of education, are wealthier, and redefining what it means to be retired.
83% of the retired adults in the U.S now own their own home
Thirty percent of retired adults have cash, stocks and CD’s valued at more than $100,000, the highest figure ever reported
13.1% of new automobile purchasers are retired, compared to 11.1% five years ago. 8.3% of adults who have a car loan are retired, compared to 6.4% five years ago, an increase of nearly 30%
16% of adults who frequently stay in hotels are retired, compared to 14.7% five years ago, a jump of almost 10%
Among frequent beer consumers, 13% are retired, compared to 11.3% five years ago
Adults who are retired are 6% more likely than the average U.S. adult to frequently dine out at a full service restaurant and retirees now make up nearly 20% of all adults who frequently dine out.
14.3% adults who plan to take an ocean cruise in the next year are retired.
Nearly one in five adults who plan to have lasik eye surgery are retired, and are 5% more likely than the average adult to be planning a lasik eye surgery procedure.
The report further reveals that adults who are retired today compared to the average U.S. adult:
Spend nearly 30% more time watching broadcast TV, 14% more time watching cable TV, 25% more time reading a daily newspaper
Retired adults today spend only 89 minutes per day online, a figure that is 26% less than the average U.S. adult who spends 123 minutes per day online. The next generation of retirees, though, is expected to be more computer and internet friendly, since Baby Boomers between the ages of 45 and 64 spend a considerably higher amount of time online - 123 minutes per day.
The most affluent retirees can be found in larger markets such as Washington, D.C., where the average retired adult earns $64,000 in household income.
San Jose, California, Fort Myers- Naples, Florida, San Francisco, California and Long Island, New York, follow behind with household incomes of more than $50,000.
And, currently the top ranking retiree markets are:
Ocala, Florida with the highest percentage of retired adults (36%)
Fort Myers- Naples, Florida (34%)
Daytona Beach, Florida (33%)
West Palm Beach, Florida (31%)
Melbourne-Titusville-Cocoa, Florida (29%)
For more information from the MediaAudit, please visit them here.
Monday, June 23, 2008
More Seniors Filing For Bankruptcy
KISSIMMEE -- Elderly Americans have been filing for bankruptcy more than any other age group in the U.S. Medical bills, credit card payments and mortgages have become simply too much for a lot of seniors.
The American Association of Retired Persons released a new study that showed the rate of personal bankruptcy filings among those ages 65 or older jumped by 150 percent from 1991 to 2007, and the rate of seniors ages 75 to 84 jumped an astounding 433 percent.
Melvin Berman, 78, a retired post office worker in Osceola County, said he did not know what to do. Almost seven years ago, he filed for bankruptcy, but his debt has continued climbing.
Berman told News 13 he was two months behind on his mortgage payments, and could barely afford to pay his electric and grocery bills. His pension just is not enough anymore.
"You work all your life, and you want to have a nice retirement, and what happens when you do retire? You're out of luck," Berman said.
More and more, seniors like Berman are walking through the doors of buildings like the Osceola Council on Aging, because they are in financial trouble, and do not know where to turn.
"Is bankruptcy the right choice? Should I refinance my house? Should I take a reverse mortgage? We've had a whole lot of interest in those topics by people looking to get out of a problem," said Debi Wood, with the the Osceola Council on Aging.
Wood says there are solutions, including what Berman did: He contacted his local senior resource center.
"There's no end to it," Berman said. "If I could see the end of the rainbow, where it could help me, it would be better."
If you need help, you can get more information on where to turn by calling 211. Just ask the operator for your local senior resources, or financial assistance, and they can direct you to the appropriate person.
View Video
The American Association of Retired Persons released a new study that showed the rate of personal bankruptcy filings among those ages 65 or older jumped by 150 percent from 1991 to 2007, and the rate of seniors ages 75 to 84 jumped an astounding 433 percent.
Melvin Berman, 78, a retired post office worker in Osceola County, said he did not know what to do. Almost seven years ago, he filed for bankruptcy, but his debt has continued climbing.
Berman told News 13 he was two months behind on his mortgage payments, and could barely afford to pay his electric and grocery bills. His pension just is not enough anymore.
"You work all your life, and you want to have a nice retirement, and what happens when you do retire? You're out of luck," Berman said.
More and more, seniors like Berman are walking through the doors of buildings like the Osceola Council on Aging, because they are in financial trouble, and do not know where to turn.
"Is bankruptcy the right choice? Should I refinance my house? Should I take a reverse mortgage? We've had a whole lot of interest in those topics by people looking to get out of a problem," said Debi Wood, with the the Osceola Council on Aging.
Wood says there are solutions, including what Berman did: He contacted his local senior resource center.
"There's no end to it," Berman said. "If I could see the end of the rainbow, where it could help me, it would be better."
If you need help, you can get more information on where to turn by calling 211. Just ask the operator for your local senior resources, or financial assistance, and they can direct you to the appropriate person.
View Video
Thursday, June 19, 2008
How Not To Retire - Central Florida Community College
Central Florida Community College will offer “How Not to Retire" for seniors 50 and older from 9 a.m. to noon June 26 at the Ewers Century Center at CFCC, 3001 S.W. College Road.
The seminar is the third in the Living Well Series sponsored by CFCC’s Pathways Life Services, a program for adults in or nearing retirement.
Seating is limited.
The $15 fee includes refreshments.
To register, call 291-4444.
The seminar is the third in the Living Well Series sponsored by CFCC’s Pathways Life Services, a program for adults in or nearing retirement.
Seating is limited.
The $15 fee includes refreshments.
To register, call 291-4444.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
VA outpatient clinic coming to Villages in 2010
VA outpatient clinic coming to Villages in 2010
Christine Show Sentinel Staff Writer
June 16, 2008
THE VILLAGES - It's become a long trip for Harold Sievers to drive fellow veterans to Gainesville's Veterans Affairs' medical center.Now Sievers, 75, a volunteer transport driver, looks forward to shorter rides to a new regional VA outpatient clinic in The Villages that is expected to open in spring 2010.Groundbreaking on the 90,000-square-foot facility is set for 10 a.m. today at a ceremony on Mulberry Lane. U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, will be the keynote speaker. Stearns is deputy Republican leader on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.Sievers, president of the All Military Veterans Unit in The Villages, is excited.
"It's been a long time in the coming for us to be getting a clinic, which has been so desperately needed," Sievers said.The facility will be an expansion to the temporary VA clinic in the retirement community on Laurel Manor Drive, said Mary Kay Hollingsworth, public-affairs officer for the VA's North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System.Residents in east Lake County have recently been able to receive services from a VA hospital that opened in Orange City in Volusia County in early May.
WHO'S ELIGIBLE? The clinic will serve veterans in Lake, Sumter and Marion counties, who are among 125,000 Central Florida veterans. The Villages, and the surrounding Central Florida area, is deemed to be a prime location for veterans in need of medical treatment.
WHAT SERVICES WILL BE OFFERED? A 90,000-square-foot outpatient clinic is being built to support a number of services to veterans. Patients can receive treatment in areas such as audiology, dental, orthopedics, women's health, cardiology, eye care and podiatry. A diagnostics lab, a pharmacy and mental-health services will also be available.
WHERE IS THE CLINIC? The facility will be on Mulberry Lane in Marion County just off SE Highway 42. WHAT'S THE TIMETABLE FOR OPENING? After the groundbreaking today, The Hamstra Group Inc. is to begin building the facility in late June or early July. Construction is expected to be completed in early 2010, and the facility is to open in spring 2010.
Christine Show can be reached at cshow@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5917.
Christine Show Sentinel Staff Writer
June 16, 2008
THE VILLAGES - It's become a long trip for Harold Sievers to drive fellow veterans to Gainesville's Veterans Affairs' medical center.Now Sievers, 75, a volunteer transport driver, looks forward to shorter rides to a new regional VA outpatient clinic in The Villages that is expected to open in spring 2010.Groundbreaking on the 90,000-square-foot facility is set for 10 a.m. today at a ceremony on Mulberry Lane. U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, will be the keynote speaker. Stearns is deputy Republican leader on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.Sievers, president of the All Military Veterans Unit in The Villages, is excited.
"It's been a long time in the coming for us to be getting a clinic, which has been so desperately needed," Sievers said.The facility will be an expansion to the temporary VA clinic in the retirement community on Laurel Manor Drive, said Mary Kay Hollingsworth, public-affairs officer for the VA's North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System.Residents in east Lake County have recently been able to receive services from a VA hospital that opened in Orange City in Volusia County in early May.
WHO'S ELIGIBLE? The clinic will serve veterans in Lake, Sumter and Marion counties, who are among 125,000 Central Florida veterans. The Villages, and the surrounding Central Florida area, is deemed to be a prime location for veterans in need of medical treatment.
WHAT SERVICES WILL BE OFFERED? A 90,000-square-foot outpatient clinic is being built to support a number of services to veterans. Patients can receive treatment in areas such as audiology, dental, orthopedics, women's health, cardiology, eye care and podiatry. A diagnostics lab, a pharmacy and mental-health services will also be available.
WHERE IS THE CLINIC? The facility will be on Mulberry Lane in Marion County just off SE Highway 42. WHAT'S THE TIMETABLE FOR OPENING? After the groundbreaking today, The Hamstra Group Inc. is to begin building the facility in late June or early July. Construction is expected to be completed in early 2010, and the facility is to open in spring 2010.
Christine Show can be reached at cshow@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5917.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Freeway of the future?
Freeway of the future?
Why are retirees locking themselves away in leisureville?
William Hanley, Financial Post Published: Saturday, May 17, 2008
Had Walt Disney envisioned the housing development of 2008, he might easily have conjured up The Villages north of Orlando in central Florida. Had George Orwell envisioned the housing development of 2008, it also might have been The Villages, a sprawling age-segregated and gated retirement community that could have the motto: In Golf We Trust.
Indeed, after reading Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias, I'm inclined to believe The Villages is Disney's Magic Kingdom for the over-55s with an undertone of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, a place where utopia meets dystopia, where endless leisure coexists quite comfortably with numbing, autocratic conformity.
Author Andrew D. Blechman, a young New Englander, at first can't believe the descriptions of The Villages provided by a retired older neighbour who is moving there with his wife. They seem so over the top and kind of creepy. After all, the largest gated community in the world has 75,000 residents (with another 35,000 on the way), spans three counties, two zip codes and 8,000 hectares, sports three dozen golf courses and has 160 kilometres of trails for golf carts, which are the primary mode of transportation for the Villagers.
In this totalitarian gerontopia for retirees, residents can drive their golf carts to movies, supermarkets, churches, recreation centres, clinics, dozens of pools or two crime-free "village" centres. Just about everything can be found in this peculiar paradise except for one thing: children.
The Villages, like thousands of gated retirement (and non-retirement) communities across North America, offers residents not necessarily a world without children, but a world with children on demand. A person must be at least 55 to buy a home in The Villages and no one under 19 may live there. Children can visit, but their stays are limited to 30 days a year.
The rules of The Villages are strictly enforced:Weeds must be removed, lawns -- at least 51% sod -- edged and hedges over four-feet high are prohibited. So, too, are clotheslines and individual mailboxes. Pets are limited to two per house, window air conditioners are forbidden, Halloween trick-or-treaters are not allowed.
And big neighbour, like Orwell's Big Brother, is always watching. Golf-cart passersby are sure to complain if these and other covenants are broken. Further, the local newspaper, The Daily Sun, is a junior league Ministry of Truth of the corporation that runs The Villages, so bad news is no news.
Though Blechman was both dismayed and amused by descriptions of The Villages, he decided to visit with his older friends and find out for himself what the attraction is behind retirement community gates. Leisureville is not exactly an expose of age-segregated retirement living, but a lively and thoughtful account of a lifestyle that can be at once entertaining and appalling. The book is full of warm, appealing characters. It also has tinges of the sadness and wistfulness that often accompany the later years.
Blechman goes beyond The Villages -- "a retirement community on steroids" -- to Arizona and to the oddly named Youngtown, the first elders-only community, and to Sun City, which once bloomed in the desert but is now a half-century old and showing it. The many problems and issues that have caught up with Sun City, the butt of many an ageist joke in my youth, will likely one day visit The Villages and its smaller kin, he says. They include, most notably, a lack of tax-base support for local schools as retirees say they've paid their education support dues over their lifetimes. Blechman talked to many Villagers who said they'd also paid their share and were tired of giving back.
Blechman wonders what, exactly, they've given. "Blessed to be born into one of the richest generations in the history of the world, they've led a life that most people can only dream of. Such good fortune wasn't a matter of luck: it was given to them by previous generations who made untold sacrifices through two world wars and a devastating depression. ? Surely today's retirees have something more to pass on than a love of golf and perceived entitlement to lock themselves away
in leisurevilles. That's no citizenship; that's secession. It's a form of surrender, an acknowledgement of societal failure."
Hold on, Andrew. This is not the end of the world.
While there is something to worry about in the trend to leisurevilles, only a small percentage of retirees and Boomers will opt to lock themselves away. Indeed, well over half of Boomers say they're not going to retire. They and most others will stick around and work and coexist like the rest of society, possibly escaping for some R&R during the winter months.
In the meantime, many of those in The Villages and elsewhere will tire of the lifestyle, forgo the weather and head back home -- even if it is just for the summer or to visit family occasionally.
And those who stay the course will find their communities necessarily morphing over time into places resembling towns with the usual needs and problems.
The prospect of retiring to The Villages or any other gated retirement community doesn't interest me.
I've never even been in one, but I have this strong feeling that they're ghettos for the elderly --grey-ttos, if you will.
Yet, while I can't quite understand the desire some folks have to retire to such white-bread conformity, I respect the right of those who do. Even Andrew D. Blechman acknowledges that leisurevilles are "a powerful vision that has proved to be very appealing to a sizable segment of aging Americans."
whanley@nationalpost.com
Why are retirees locking themselves away in leisureville?
William Hanley, Financial Post Published: Saturday, May 17, 2008
Had Walt Disney envisioned the housing development of 2008, he might easily have conjured up The Villages north of Orlando in central Florida. Had George Orwell envisioned the housing development of 2008, it also might have been The Villages, a sprawling age-segregated and gated retirement community that could have the motto: In Golf We Trust.
Indeed, after reading Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias, I'm inclined to believe The Villages is Disney's Magic Kingdom for the over-55s with an undertone of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, a place where utopia meets dystopia, where endless leisure coexists quite comfortably with numbing, autocratic conformity.
Author Andrew D. Blechman, a young New Englander, at first can't believe the descriptions of The Villages provided by a retired older neighbour who is moving there with his wife. They seem so over the top and kind of creepy. After all, the largest gated community in the world has 75,000 residents (with another 35,000 on the way), spans three counties, two zip codes and 8,000 hectares, sports three dozen golf courses and has 160 kilometres of trails for golf carts, which are the primary mode of transportation for the Villagers.
In this totalitarian gerontopia for retirees, residents can drive their golf carts to movies, supermarkets, churches, recreation centres, clinics, dozens of pools or two crime-free "village" centres. Just about everything can be found in this peculiar paradise except for one thing: children.
The Villages, like thousands of gated retirement (and non-retirement) communities across North America, offers residents not necessarily a world without children, but a world with children on demand. A person must be at least 55 to buy a home in The Villages and no one under 19 may live there. Children can visit, but their stays are limited to 30 days a year.
The rules of The Villages are strictly enforced:Weeds must be removed, lawns -- at least 51% sod -- edged and hedges over four-feet high are prohibited. So, too, are clotheslines and individual mailboxes. Pets are limited to two per house, window air conditioners are forbidden, Halloween trick-or-treaters are not allowed.
And big neighbour, like Orwell's Big Brother, is always watching. Golf-cart passersby are sure to complain if these and other covenants are broken. Further, the local newspaper, The Daily Sun, is a junior league Ministry of Truth of the corporation that runs The Villages, so bad news is no news.
Though Blechman was both dismayed and amused by descriptions of The Villages, he decided to visit with his older friends and find out for himself what the attraction is behind retirement community gates. Leisureville is not exactly an expose of age-segregated retirement living, but a lively and thoughtful account of a lifestyle that can be at once entertaining and appalling. The book is full of warm, appealing characters. It also has tinges of the sadness and wistfulness that often accompany the later years.
Blechman goes beyond The Villages -- "a retirement community on steroids" -- to Arizona and to the oddly named Youngtown, the first elders-only community, and to Sun City, which once bloomed in the desert but is now a half-century old and showing it. The many problems and issues that have caught up with Sun City, the butt of many an ageist joke in my youth, will likely one day visit The Villages and its smaller kin, he says. They include, most notably, a lack of tax-base support for local schools as retirees say they've paid their education support dues over their lifetimes. Blechman talked to many Villagers who said they'd also paid their share and were tired of giving back.
Blechman wonders what, exactly, they've given. "Blessed to be born into one of the richest generations in the history of the world, they've led a life that most people can only dream of. Such good fortune wasn't a matter of luck: it was given to them by previous generations who made untold sacrifices through two world wars and a devastating depression. ? Surely today's retirees have something more to pass on than a love of golf and perceived entitlement to lock themselves away
in leisurevilles. That's no citizenship; that's secession. It's a form of surrender, an acknowledgement of societal failure."
Hold on, Andrew. This is not the end of the world.
While there is something to worry about in the trend to leisurevilles, only a small percentage of retirees and Boomers will opt to lock themselves away. Indeed, well over half of Boomers say they're not going to retire. They and most others will stick around and work and coexist like the rest of society, possibly escaping for some R&R during the winter months.
In the meantime, many of those in The Villages and elsewhere will tire of the lifestyle, forgo the weather and head back home -- even if it is just for the summer or to visit family occasionally.
And those who stay the course will find their communities necessarily morphing over time into places resembling towns with the usual needs and problems.
The prospect of retiring to The Villages or any other gated retirement community doesn't interest me.
I've never even been in one, but I have this strong feeling that they're ghettos for the elderly --grey-ttos, if you will.
Yet, while I can't quite understand the desire some folks have to retire to such white-bread conformity, I respect the right of those who do. Even Andrew D. Blechman acknowledges that leisurevilles are "a powerful vision that has proved to be very appealing to a sizable segment of aging Americans."
whanley@nationalpost.com
Touring America’s Retirement Communities
Touring America’s Retirement Communities
By Daniel ElkindThu. May 15, 2008
HAVING A BALL: Seniors enjoy lawn bowling at an Arizona retirement community.
Leisureville: Adventures in America’s Retirement Utopias By Andrew D. Blechman Atlantic Monthly Press, 256 pages, $25.
Del Webb’s Sun Cities in the Arizona desert; The Villages north of Orlando, Fla.; a new Catholic-themed town called Ave Maria: Home to nearly 12 million people, these are America’s largest and most popular gated retirement communities, or, as Andrew D. Blechman calls them in his new book, “Leisureville,” “America’s retirement utopias.” The Sir Thomas More reference is neither obligatory nor inapt; the guiding concern of Blechman’s inquiry is what this age-based phenomenon means for us as a society, and what its moral implications are for the future.
Historically, Jews have often been at the forefront of utopian movements — especially failed ones — and from Karl Marx to William Levitt, they have publicly staked their reputations in these places that, by definition, do not or cannot exist. Youngtown, the first retirement community in America, was built outside Phoenix in 1954 by Benjamin Schleifer, a Jewish immigrant from Minsk who, apparently, was inspired by Plato and the 71st Psalm: “Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort.” (After Youngtown, he went bankrupt trying to found a kibbutz for American retirees in the Arizona desert.)
The founder of The Villages in Florida, Harold S. Schwartz — whose ashes are permanently part of the statue erected to him in the “village” of Spanish Springs — was the grandson of Jewish immigrants from Hungary. But while many members of these communities are Jewish, too, and synagogues can be found amid their golf turf and sprawl, Blechman’s primary interest is not in the eerily false perfection of such places, but rather in the American psychology of segregation, radical individualism and the fears underlying the dreams of their residents: Who or what are these pleasant-villagers trying to keep out?
One obvious culprit is old age itself. Blechman is shocked by the total absence of Halloween at his uncle’s upscale community in central New Jersey, where children “aren’t forbidden so much as discouraged.” He remembers that the new hospital in The Villages will not include a maternity ward. And in a chapter on housing laws, he correlates class with race, showing how legislation against families with children is often intended as a barrier of entry for minorities and other low-income groups. It is clear that after religion and language, the multigenerational family has become the last casualty of immigrant life in America. With their children and grandchildren living scattered across all 50 states and various parts of the world, many of those wealthy enough to retire prefer the arrested development of age-segregated communities, with their health care facilities, private newspapers, elevator music stations and, in one case, the world’s longest golf cart parade of “nearly 3,500 low-speed vehicles” to the exigencies of a typical hometown. Yet in one sense their excesses and feelings of entitlement are only symptoms of our own.
The Villages, for example, is the largest gated retirement community in the world, spanning “three counties, two zip codes, and more than 20,000 acres […] subdivided into dozens of separate gated communities,” that share “two manufactured downtowns, a financial district, and several shopping centers, […] all of it connected by nearly 100 miles of golf cart trails.” Unlike Sun City, which has aged less gracefully than it promised to, The Villages is still relatively young and expanding. With 75,000 residents and room for 35,000 more, it comprises a kind of Disneyland for people who no longer want to pay taxes for schools they’ll never attend — though presumably their grandchildren will — and, just like Disney’s pet project in what once was Florida swampland and citrus, it is essentially a company state accountable only to Chapter 190, an umbrella law that gives developers jurisdiction over the land they’ve purchased at lucrative rates and over the homeowners who reside there in ignorance of how their villages are actually governed. Thus beloved by real estate developers, by the food and beverage industry and by such retailers as Wal-Mart, these retirement colonies are in many ways the reactionary offspring of late capitalism, utopias for tax-shy seniors who would rather turn their backs on a system that provided for them when they were “55-” and on its tradition of democratic representation in which the welfare of all citizens — not just the leisure class — is taken into account.
But not all retirees are deadbeats; some of them just want to live completely surrounded by people exactly like themselves. In their increasingly younger old age, more and more Americans prefer to be comforted by the predictability of a fabricated paradise where they can ultimately choose to ignore the world beyond. Living under a kind of voluntary siege, promiscuity and its consequences are the only things thriving in these “geritopias”: According to Blechman, seniors “are now one of the fastest-growing populations at risk of STDs,” because “more than sixty percent of sexually active older singles have unprotected sex.” As if on cue, he meets Mr. Midnight, a pot-smoking, Corvette-driving, 63-year-old former biology teacher from Illinois. Mr. Midnight tells Blechman that due to the favorable female-to-male ratio, a bachelor can have a memorable time in a retirement community, though he does have a couple of rules: not sleeping with anyone younger than his kids, and not falling in love.
Another resident bachelor, 73, tells him about the teenage waitresses, wife-swapping and a group of swingers allegedly posing as a wine club. Finally, a female retiree says, “The only problem with being a widow in The Villages is that you’re so busy you forget you are one,” and life, presumably, beats on at its electronically synchronized pace.
Part exurban exposé, part postmodern Roald Dahl parable, “Leisureville” reads more accurately like a dark Stanley Elkin novel — remember the mortuary ‘burbs of “The Rabbi of Lud” or Main Street, U.S.A. in “The Magic Kingdom”? — in which a satiric journalism of today’s lifestyle realities has replaced the journalistic satire of yesterday’s consumer fads. Only whereas Elkin’s novels ultimately reassured us by mocking the sincerity of human folly, the surreal humanity of characters like Mr. Midnight and Del Webb — the construction magnate whose experience in building planned communities before Sun City included internment camps for more than 25,000 Japanese — is often all too real, and close, for comfort.
Were the sun to have set on him in The Villages, even Ben Flesh — the Franchiser — might have run for the still-underdeveloped Florida hills.
Daniel Elkind is a writer and translator who lives in Brooklyn.
By Daniel ElkindThu. May 15, 2008
HAVING A BALL: Seniors enjoy lawn bowling at an Arizona retirement community.
Leisureville: Adventures in America’s Retirement Utopias By Andrew D. Blechman Atlantic Monthly Press, 256 pages, $25.
Del Webb’s Sun Cities in the Arizona desert; The Villages north of Orlando, Fla.; a new Catholic-themed town called Ave Maria: Home to nearly 12 million people, these are America’s largest and most popular gated retirement communities, or, as Andrew D. Blechman calls them in his new book, “Leisureville,” “America’s retirement utopias.” The Sir Thomas More reference is neither obligatory nor inapt; the guiding concern of Blechman’s inquiry is what this age-based phenomenon means for us as a society, and what its moral implications are for the future.
Historically, Jews have often been at the forefront of utopian movements — especially failed ones — and from Karl Marx to William Levitt, they have publicly staked their reputations in these places that, by definition, do not or cannot exist. Youngtown, the first retirement community in America, was built outside Phoenix in 1954 by Benjamin Schleifer, a Jewish immigrant from Minsk who, apparently, was inspired by Plato and the 71st Psalm: “Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort.” (After Youngtown, he went bankrupt trying to found a kibbutz for American retirees in the Arizona desert.)
The founder of The Villages in Florida, Harold S. Schwartz — whose ashes are permanently part of the statue erected to him in the “village” of Spanish Springs — was the grandson of Jewish immigrants from Hungary. But while many members of these communities are Jewish, too, and synagogues can be found amid their golf turf and sprawl, Blechman’s primary interest is not in the eerily false perfection of such places, but rather in the American psychology of segregation, radical individualism and the fears underlying the dreams of their residents: Who or what are these pleasant-villagers trying to keep out?
One obvious culprit is old age itself. Blechman is shocked by the total absence of Halloween at his uncle’s upscale community in central New Jersey, where children “aren’t forbidden so much as discouraged.” He remembers that the new hospital in The Villages will not include a maternity ward. And in a chapter on housing laws, he correlates class with race, showing how legislation against families with children is often intended as a barrier of entry for minorities and other low-income groups. It is clear that after religion and language, the multigenerational family has become the last casualty of immigrant life in America. With their children and grandchildren living scattered across all 50 states and various parts of the world, many of those wealthy enough to retire prefer the arrested development of age-segregated communities, with their health care facilities, private newspapers, elevator music stations and, in one case, the world’s longest golf cart parade of “nearly 3,500 low-speed vehicles” to the exigencies of a typical hometown. Yet in one sense their excesses and feelings of entitlement are only symptoms of our own.
The Villages, for example, is the largest gated retirement community in the world, spanning “three counties, two zip codes, and more than 20,000 acres […] subdivided into dozens of separate gated communities,” that share “two manufactured downtowns, a financial district, and several shopping centers, […] all of it connected by nearly 100 miles of golf cart trails.” Unlike Sun City, which has aged less gracefully than it promised to, The Villages is still relatively young and expanding. With 75,000 residents and room for 35,000 more, it comprises a kind of Disneyland for people who no longer want to pay taxes for schools they’ll never attend — though presumably their grandchildren will — and, just like Disney’s pet project in what once was Florida swampland and citrus, it is essentially a company state accountable only to Chapter 190, an umbrella law that gives developers jurisdiction over the land they’ve purchased at lucrative rates and over the homeowners who reside there in ignorance of how their villages are actually governed. Thus beloved by real estate developers, by the food and beverage industry and by such retailers as Wal-Mart, these retirement colonies are in many ways the reactionary offspring of late capitalism, utopias for tax-shy seniors who would rather turn their backs on a system that provided for them when they were “55-” and on its tradition of democratic representation in which the welfare of all citizens — not just the leisure class — is taken into account.
But not all retirees are deadbeats; some of them just want to live completely surrounded by people exactly like themselves. In their increasingly younger old age, more and more Americans prefer to be comforted by the predictability of a fabricated paradise where they can ultimately choose to ignore the world beyond. Living under a kind of voluntary siege, promiscuity and its consequences are the only things thriving in these “geritopias”: According to Blechman, seniors “are now one of the fastest-growing populations at risk of STDs,” because “more than sixty percent of sexually active older singles have unprotected sex.” As if on cue, he meets Mr. Midnight, a pot-smoking, Corvette-driving, 63-year-old former biology teacher from Illinois. Mr. Midnight tells Blechman that due to the favorable female-to-male ratio, a bachelor can have a memorable time in a retirement community, though he does have a couple of rules: not sleeping with anyone younger than his kids, and not falling in love.
Another resident bachelor, 73, tells him about the teenage waitresses, wife-swapping and a group of swingers allegedly posing as a wine club. Finally, a female retiree says, “The only problem with being a widow in The Villages is that you’re so busy you forget you are one,” and life, presumably, beats on at its electronically synchronized pace.
Part exurban exposé, part postmodern Roald Dahl parable, “Leisureville” reads more accurately like a dark Stanley Elkin novel — remember the mortuary ‘burbs of “The Rabbi of Lud” or Main Street, U.S.A. in “The Magic Kingdom”? — in which a satiric journalism of today’s lifestyle realities has replaced the journalistic satire of yesterday’s consumer fads. Only whereas Elkin’s novels ultimately reassured us by mocking the sincerity of human folly, the surreal humanity of characters like Mr. Midnight and Del Webb — the construction magnate whose experience in building planned communities before Sun City included internment camps for more than 25,000 Japanese — is often all too real, and close, for comfort.
Were the sun to have set on him in The Villages, even Ben Flesh — the Franchiser — might have run for the still-underdeveloped Florida hills.
Daniel Elkind is a writer and translator who lives in Brooklyn.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Is A "Phased Retirement" Your Best Option?
By Kent Johnson
There's been a lot of buzz lately about so-called "phased retirements," where older workers choose to work less -- and on their own terms -- rather than retire completely. This can ease the financial burden of having to live entirely off your retirement savings or social security, while still allowing flexibility and time to do the things you really enjoy in life.
And this doesn't mean you have to settle for working part- time in a fast food restaurant or as a greeter in a department store. More and more companies are using phased retirements as a way of retaining their older employees, which they see as valuable assets (which of course they are). Older workers often have decades of critical knowledge and experience that they can pass on to their younger co-workers, which benefits everyone concerned.
Easing into retirement can lessen the shock of suddenly having no place to go in the morning, a situation that many newly-retired workers have difficulty adjusting to. This is especially a problem for workaholic types who've been logging 50 or 60 hour work weeks for most of their adult lives. And for people who have no hobbies, outside interests, or children, the hours of the day can seem to stretch on and on.
There are also financial considerations with retirement. With people living longer than ever, and the ever-increasing cost of living, it's becoming harder to retire with a comfortable standard of living (especially if you want to travel, upgrade your home, buy expensive furnishings, etc).
Which is where phased retirements come in. In one recent survey, over 60 percent of workers between 50 and 70 years old said that they'd like to work part-time before they fully retire. These older workers also want retirement benefits, health insurance, and other benefits -- although most realize that a smaller paycheck will be part of the deal as well.
Not all employers are willing or able to allow their older workers to ease into retirement. In fact, formal programs of this type are rare, so you'll probably have to approach your boss or human resource department and make some sort of informal arrangement. If there are other older workers at your company already in a flex program, then you ask them about their arrangement, and how it was established.
One reason that formal phased retirement programs are rare is the fact that the Federal Government hasn't enacted legislation in order to define just how such programs should be administered. There are health insurance issues with some companies, and pension rules that prohibit some employers from giving partial retirement payments to workers who wish to trim back their hours before full retirement age.
But with the overall population aging, and the baby boom generation approaching 60, look for more companies -- large and small -- to implement some sort of phased retirement program.
After all, if done correctly, it can turn out to be a win- win situation for everyone.
Kent Johnson - author, publisher, career coach. "Helping people realize their dreams one career at a time." Your Dream Career.com - your source for career tips and info ==> http://your-dream-career.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kent_Johnson
There's been a lot of buzz lately about so-called "phased retirements," where older workers choose to work less -- and on their own terms -- rather than retire completely. This can ease the financial burden of having to live entirely off your retirement savings or social security, while still allowing flexibility and time to do the things you really enjoy in life.
And this doesn't mean you have to settle for working part- time in a fast food restaurant or as a greeter in a department store. More and more companies are using phased retirements as a way of retaining their older employees, which they see as valuable assets (which of course they are). Older workers often have decades of critical knowledge and experience that they can pass on to their younger co-workers, which benefits everyone concerned.
Easing into retirement can lessen the shock of suddenly having no place to go in the morning, a situation that many newly-retired workers have difficulty adjusting to. This is especially a problem for workaholic types who've been logging 50 or 60 hour work weeks for most of their adult lives. And for people who have no hobbies, outside interests, or children, the hours of the day can seem to stretch on and on.
There are also financial considerations with retirement. With people living longer than ever, and the ever-increasing cost of living, it's becoming harder to retire with a comfortable standard of living (especially if you want to travel, upgrade your home, buy expensive furnishings, etc).
Which is where phased retirements come in. In one recent survey, over 60 percent of workers between 50 and 70 years old said that they'd like to work part-time before they fully retire. These older workers also want retirement benefits, health insurance, and other benefits -- although most realize that a smaller paycheck will be part of the deal as well.
Not all employers are willing or able to allow their older workers to ease into retirement. In fact, formal programs of this type are rare, so you'll probably have to approach your boss or human resource department and make some sort of informal arrangement. If there are other older workers at your company already in a flex program, then you ask them about their arrangement, and how it was established.
One reason that formal phased retirement programs are rare is the fact that the Federal Government hasn't enacted legislation in order to define just how such programs should be administered. There are health insurance issues with some companies, and pension rules that prohibit some employers from giving partial retirement payments to workers who wish to trim back their hours before full retirement age.
But with the overall population aging, and the baby boom generation approaching 60, look for more companies -- large and small -- to implement some sort of phased retirement program.
After all, if done correctly, it can turn out to be a win- win situation for everyone.
Kent Johnson - author, publisher, career coach. "Helping people realize their dreams one career at a time." Your Dream Career.com - your source for career tips and info ==> http://your-dream-career.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kent_Johnson
The Workplace is going Grey
By Teena Rose
Article provided by SuccessfulResumes.com.
Leading executive resume writer to catapult your second career.
A popular perception in the workplace has always been that employers were all too eager to offer early retirement packages to encourage older workers to step aside because of their salary and benefit costs to the company. That perception may be on the way out, as the greying of the baby-boomer generation is poised to leave American companies short-handed.
Concern in the U.S. and abroad is quickly approaching a watershed moment as employers are staring a shortage of workers right in the face. In 2011, the Employment Policy Foundation expects there to be 4 million more jobs than workers. That number is expected to rise to 35 million unfilled jobs by the 2030.The outcome, experts say, will be more seniors remaining or returning to a job site that will include many more post-65 workers. The terms blue-collar and white-collar workers will be joined by a new adage. The silver-collar worker.
With 76 million people in the baby boomer generation (1946-64) and just 45 million Gen-Xers, the numbers define a clear gap that will need to be filled using various strategies, including extending the typical working life beyond 65 years as advocated for years.
The trend has become so pronounced, companies have formed partnerships with the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) to create a Featured Employers community, which highlights employers who are senior-friendly. Some of the companies include big names like Home Depot, Walgreen's, Verizon and MetLife. As demand increases, AARP expects the list of employers eager to hire older workers will grow substantially.
According to networking website ExecuNet, industries where seniors are seeing the biggest gains include health care, high tech, financial services, business services and defense/aerospace. And the three biggest industries where huge future gaps are expected, include retail sales, registered nurses and postsecondary teachers. Retaining or hiring older workers also gives employers the loyalty advantage. According to a recent study, workers age 55 to 64 have been in their jobs three times as long as their younger counterparts. The study, released late last year by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, revealed that 25-34 year-olds averaged 2.9 years at the same job, while 55-64 year-olds averaged 9.3 years. Since turnover is costly, and the glut of workers is expected to rise soon, the retirement-age worker may hold more advantages than the recent college graduate."We've definitely seen that older workers are more loyal," Astra Group consultant Sara Jung told Inc.com. "Younger workers are more likely to jump ship if they get a more attractive offer."Another trend focused on recently by Time magazine is the "bridge job."
Before going into full retirement mode, many workers over 55 are slowing instead of stopping their careers with part-time jobs of full-time jobs for typically less than a decade.
Not only will companies need older employees. Older employees will need the companies, and the income they provide.
"In the next five to 20 years, we're going to see a lot of people who think they're going to be ready for retirement, and all of a sudden they're going to work out the numbers, look at how much money they've saved and realize, 'I can't retire,' " Bouchey Financial Group CEO Steven Bouchey told the Albany Times Union in January. "I always say that everybody dreams about retiring on a hill overlooking a lake. Many people are going to be retiring in a trailer overlooking a swamp."
_____________________________________________________
Teena Rose, Book Author, Columnist,Resume Writer,Career Specialist, 1999 - Present. Provide resume writing and career services to an array of career professionals, ranking from new graduates and entry-level jobseekers to business owners and executives. Target advice and coaching services to give jobseekers a leg-up against "the competition."
Article provided by SuccessfulResumes.com.
Leading executive resume writer to catapult your second career.
A popular perception in the workplace has always been that employers were all too eager to offer early retirement packages to encourage older workers to step aside because of their salary and benefit costs to the company. That perception may be on the way out, as the greying of the baby-boomer generation is poised to leave American companies short-handed.
Concern in the U.S. and abroad is quickly approaching a watershed moment as employers are staring a shortage of workers right in the face. In 2011, the Employment Policy Foundation expects there to be 4 million more jobs than workers. That number is expected to rise to 35 million unfilled jobs by the 2030.The outcome, experts say, will be more seniors remaining or returning to a job site that will include many more post-65 workers. The terms blue-collar and white-collar workers will be joined by a new adage. The silver-collar worker.
With 76 million people in the baby boomer generation (1946-64) and just 45 million Gen-Xers, the numbers define a clear gap that will need to be filled using various strategies, including extending the typical working life beyond 65 years as advocated for years.
The trend has become so pronounced, companies have formed partnerships with the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) to create a Featured Employers community, which highlights employers who are senior-friendly. Some of the companies include big names like Home Depot, Walgreen's, Verizon and MetLife. As demand increases, AARP expects the list of employers eager to hire older workers will grow substantially.
According to networking website ExecuNet, industries where seniors are seeing the biggest gains include health care, high tech, financial services, business services and defense/aerospace. And the three biggest industries where huge future gaps are expected, include retail sales, registered nurses and postsecondary teachers. Retaining or hiring older workers also gives employers the loyalty advantage. According to a recent study, workers age 55 to 64 have been in their jobs three times as long as their younger counterparts. The study, released late last year by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, revealed that 25-34 year-olds averaged 2.9 years at the same job, while 55-64 year-olds averaged 9.3 years. Since turnover is costly, and the glut of workers is expected to rise soon, the retirement-age worker may hold more advantages than the recent college graduate."We've definitely seen that older workers are more loyal," Astra Group consultant Sara Jung told Inc.com. "Younger workers are more likely to jump ship if they get a more attractive offer."Another trend focused on recently by Time magazine is the "bridge job."
Before going into full retirement mode, many workers over 55 are slowing instead of stopping their careers with part-time jobs of full-time jobs for typically less than a decade.
Not only will companies need older employees. Older employees will need the companies, and the income they provide.
"In the next five to 20 years, we're going to see a lot of people who think they're going to be ready for retirement, and all of a sudden they're going to work out the numbers, look at how much money they've saved and realize, 'I can't retire,' " Bouchey Financial Group CEO Steven Bouchey told the Albany Times Union in January. "I always say that everybody dreams about retiring on a hill overlooking a lake. Many people are going to be retiring in a trailer overlooking a swamp."
_____________________________________________________
Teena Rose, Book Author, Columnist,Resume Writer,Career Specialist, 1999 - Present. Provide resume writing and career services to an array of career professionals, ranking from new graduates and entry-level jobseekers to business owners and executives. Target advice and coaching services to give jobseekers a leg-up against "the competition."
Friday, May 9, 2008
Boomers troll Net on sites of their own
Networking sites help people meet for fun, friendship, more
Associated Press
Rose Campbell was widowed after 26 years of marriage. John Souza's wife died after 44 years and five children together.
Both Campbell and Souza were looking for friendship and fun, not a second chance at love, when they bumped into each other online last October on a social network called Eons.
Soon they were chatting regularly. "There was a little flirtin' and a little serious conversation," said Souza, 70, who lives in Ocklawaha, Fla., across from the cemetery where his wife is buried.
The online encounters blossomed into a real-life meet about a month later. "It was a little awkward. I thought he didn't like me. He thought I didn't like him," said Campbell, 57, a retired schoolteacher and mother of two grown children in Ormond Beach, Fla.
"Then we just clicked," she said. Their wedding is planned for Sept. 6.
Eons is one of at least two dozen social networks aimed squarely at Baby Boomers, the population bubble born between 1946 and 1964 that has defied traditional perceptions of aging and retirement. Many boomers jumped into the Internet mashup to keep track of their kids on Facebook or MySpace, then moved on to their own networks in search of more common ground.
They're blogging about the virtues of oatmeal and the beauty of aging, posting video clips from their favorite old movies, and sharing ideas and support on grieving the death of a spouse, caring for a sick parent or sex after 50.
Besides Eons, other sites include BOOMj, BoomSpeak and BoomerGirl, along with Eldr, Secondprime and Growingbolder. "Being 50 and over we all grew up around the same things. The same TV shows, the same history. When I say Roy Rogers, they know who I'm talking about," said 61-year-old Didi Moe of Melbourne, Fla., who started Central Florida Singles, the discussion group on Eons where Campbell and Souza met.
The Boston-based Eons was founded by Internet pioneer Jeffrey C. Taylor in 2006, the year after he left his job-listings startup, Monster.
"People kind of laughed at me when I said I was launching a boomer Web site," said Taylor, 47.
Some of the boomer networking sites are loaded with staff content and expertise, or have a particular focus such as social change. Others, Eons included, are more user-driven, with hundreds of discussion groups, beginner widgets and age-specific applications like Eons' "LifePath," a way to plot a timeline of important personal events and future aspirations.
Associated Press
Rose Campbell was widowed after 26 years of marriage. John Souza's wife died after 44 years and five children together.
Both Campbell and Souza were looking for friendship and fun, not a second chance at love, when they bumped into each other online last October on a social network called Eons.
Soon they were chatting regularly. "There was a little flirtin' and a little serious conversation," said Souza, 70, who lives in Ocklawaha, Fla., across from the cemetery where his wife is buried.
The online encounters blossomed into a real-life meet about a month later. "It was a little awkward. I thought he didn't like me. He thought I didn't like him," said Campbell, 57, a retired schoolteacher and mother of two grown children in Ormond Beach, Fla.
"Then we just clicked," she said. Their wedding is planned for Sept. 6.
Eons is one of at least two dozen social networks aimed squarely at Baby Boomers, the population bubble born between 1946 and 1964 that has defied traditional perceptions of aging and retirement. Many boomers jumped into the Internet mashup to keep track of their kids on Facebook or MySpace, then moved on to their own networks in search of more common ground.
They're blogging about the virtues of oatmeal and the beauty of aging, posting video clips from their favorite old movies, and sharing ideas and support on grieving the death of a spouse, caring for a sick parent or sex after 50.
Besides Eons, other sites include BOOMj, BoomSpeak and BoomerGirl, along with Eldr, Secondprime and Growingbolder. "Being 50 and over we all grew up around the same things. The same TV shows, the same history. When I say Roy Rogers, they know who I'm talking about," said 61-year-old Didi Moe of Melbourne, Fla., who started Central Florida Singles, the discussion group on Eons where Campbell and Souza met.
The Boston-based Eons was founded by Internet pioneer Jeffrey C. Taylor in 2006, the year after he left his job-listings startup, Monster.
"People kind of laughed at me when I said I was launching a boomer Web site," said Taylor, 47.
Some of the boomer networking sites are loaded with staff content and expertise, or have a particular focus such as social change. Others, Eons included, are more user-driven, with hundreds of discussion groups, beginner widgets and age-specific applications like Eons' "LifePath," a way to plot a timeline of important personal events and future aspirations.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
The book "Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias"
By Shay Harris FOX 35 NEWS
LAKE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35, Orlando) -- The book "Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias" is heating things up in The Villages a retirement community near Ocala. According to author Andrew Blechmans book The Villages is a place where seniors go to drop out of society and live under legal segregation.
Some people who live there, like Harry Cook, say they disagree with it because The Villages is their idea of utopia. Cook said he enjoys being able to kick up his heels, with nothing pressing to do.
"We just love it here,” said Cook. “Its the best place in the world.”Cook said he's lived in The Villages for eleven years now and he disagrees with Blechman's view of his retirement community. "I think everybody has their own opinion,” he said. “Not everybody should live here, not everybody wants to live here.”
Others though, like resident Henry Anderson, said they agree with the author because The Villages is not the as perfect as you think."It’s a good place,” Anderson said. “But there’s a lot of things that need to be corrected.”
Anderson said every night turns into a party and there's always something to do. While he does enjoy golfing on the green here with friends, Anderson says Blechman is on to something.
"I call this Cuba,” he said. “They own all the land they control everything there’s a lot of people who’ve been here a long, long time old timers, they living just barely living and the villages keep raising the prices, nickeling and diming.”
The book is on display inside The Villages Barnes and Nobles book store. And you better believe its getting lots of attention.According to management at the store the buzz is not only picking up but helping the book’s sales as well.
LAKE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35, Orlando) -- The book "Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias" is heating things up in The Villages a retirement community near Ocala. According to author Andrew Blechmans book The Villages is a place where seniors go to drop out of society and live under legal segregation.
Some people who live there, like Harry Cook, say they disagree with it because The Villages is their idea of utopia. Cook said he enjoys being able to kick up his heels, with nothing pressing to do.
"We just love it here,” said Cook. “Its the best place in the world.”Cook said he's lived in The Villages for eleven years now and he disagrees with Blechman's view of his retirement community. "I think everybody has their own opinion,” he said. “Not everybody should live here, not everybody wants to live here.”
Others though, like resident Henry Anderson, said they agree with the author because The Villages is not the as perfect as you think."It’s a good place,” Anderson said. “But there’s a lot of things that need to be corrected.”
Anderson said every night turns into a party and there's always something to do. While he does enjoy golfing on the green here with friends, Anderson says Blechman is on to something.
"I call this Cuba,” he said. “They own all the land they control everything there’s a lot of people who’ve been here a long, long time old timers, they living just barely living and the villages keep raising the prices, nickeling and diming.”
The book is on display inside The Villages Barnes and Nobles book store. And you better believe its getting lots of attention.According to management at the store the buzz is not only picking up but helping the book’s sales as well.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Tax Rebate checks
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said tax rebates will start going out Monday, earlier than previously announced, and should help Americans cope with rising gasoline and food prices, as well as aid a slumping economy.
Democrats said they were glad the rebate checks were about to go out, but suggested that multinational oil companies were not among the businesses the stimulus package was originally designed to help.''Starting Monday, the effects of the stimulus will begin to reach millions of households across our country,'' Bush said Friday in remarks on the South Lawn of the White House.
Those first rebates will be directly deposited into people's bank accounts. The Internal Revenue Service had been saying direct deposits wouldn't start until next Friday. Bush said paper checks would begin going out on May 9, a week earlier than previously announced.
''The money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we're seeing at the gas pump, the grocery store, and also give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown,'' Bush said.
Bush's emphasis on fuel and food prices differed from other comments he's made since signing the economic stimulus legislation, intended to aid the economy by boosting overall consumer spending -- which accounts for roughly two-thirds of the nation's economic activity.
Bush has suggested the rebates could trigger a spending spree. ''When the money reaches the American people, we expect they will use it to boost consumer spending,'' he said last month.
By saying expressly that people could use these one-time checks to pay for such necessities as food and gas, Bush underscored the deepening challenges facing the economy.Democrats were quick to pick up on the change of focus.
''It's galling to think that taxpayers' stimulus checks will be lining the pockets of OPEC. The sad truth is that the average American family will spend almost their entire stimulus check on higher gas prices this year,'' said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.
OPEC is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.''Unless the administration gets OPEC to increase oil supply, American consumers are going to be in for a scorching summer of $4 gasoline with no relief in sight,'' Schumer said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., agreed that people ''need this rebate to cope with the rising cost of gas and groceries.'' She said that, while the rebates would help to get the economy moving, there was a need for a second stimulus package ''and we have begun some conversation with the administration and Republicans.
''As he had earlier in the week, Bush used the word ''slowdown'' to describe the state of the economy. He has denied that the nation is in a recession, although many economists say it is.
''It's obvious our economy is in a slowdown. But, fortunately, we recognized the signs early and took action,'' Bush said.The rebates -- up to $600 for an individual, $1,200 for a couple and an additional $300 for each dependent child -- are the centerpiece of the government's $168 billion stimulus package, enacted in February. Roughly 130 million households are expected to get them.Bush made the comments before boarding his helicopter at the start of a day trip to Connecticut.People must file a tax return for their 2007 income to be eligible for a rebate check.
The IRS now says all checks for those who filed tax returns on time are scheduled to be deposited or mailed by July 11.
The economy -- burdened by the collapse of home prices, a financial and credit crisis, and now rising energy and food prices -- grew at an anemic 0.6 percent in the final three months of last year and is believed to have gotten even weaker in the first three months of this year.
The government will report on the first quarter's performance next week.With the economy faltering, the nation's unemployment rate has climbed to 5.1 percent, the highest since September 2005, when it suffered from the devastating blows of the Gulf Coast hurricanes. Job losses in the first three months of this year neared the quarter-million mark.
Foreclosures have surged to record highs and financial companies have taken multibillion losses on mortgage investments that soured. The situation has sent a tremor through Wall Street and has sent the administration, Congress and presidential contenders looking for ways to provide relief.------
AP Economics Writer Jeannine Aversa contributed to this report.
-->
Democrats said they were glad the rebate checks were about to go out, but suggested that multinational oil companies were not among the businesses the stimulus package was originally designed to help.''Starting Monday, the effects of the stimulus will begin to reach millions of households across our country,'' Bush said Friday in remarks on the South Lawn of the White House.
Those first rebates will be directly deposited into people's bank accounts. The Internal Revenue Service had been saying direct deposits wouldn't start until next Friday. Bush said paper checks would begin going out on May 9, a week earlier than previously announced.
''The money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we're seeing at the gas pump, the grocery store, and also give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown,'' Bush said.
Bush's emphasis on fuel and food prices differed from other comments he's made since signing the economic stimulus legislation, intended to aid the economy by boosting overall consumer spending -- which accounts for roughly two-thirds of the nation's economic activity.
Bush has suggested the rebates could trigger a spending spree. ''When the money reaches the American people, we expect they will use it to boost consumer spending,'' he said last month.
By saying expressly that people could use these one-time checks to pay for such necessities as food and gas, Bush underscored the deepening challenges facing the economy.Democrats were quick to pick up on the change of focus.
''It's galling to think that taxpayers' stimulus checks will be lining the pockets of OPEC. The sad truth is that the average American family will spend almost their entire stimulus check on higher gas prices this year,'' said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.
OPEC is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.''Unless the administration gets OPEC to increase oil supply, American consumers are going to be in for a scorching summer of $4 gasoline with no relief in sight,'' Schumer said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., agreed that people ''need this rebate to cope with the rising cost of gas and groceries.'' She said that, while the rebates would help to get the economy moving, there was a need for a second stimulus package ''and we have begun some conversation with the administration and Republicans.
''As he had earlier in the week, Bush used the word ''slowdown'' to describe the state of the economy. He has denied that the nation is in a recession, although many economists say it is.
''It's obvious our economy is in a slowdown. But, fortunately, we recognized the signs early and took action,'' Bush said.The rebates -- up to $600 for an individual, $1,200 for a couple and an additional $300 for each dependent child -- are the centerpiece of the government's $168 billion stimulus package, enacted in February. Roughly 130 million households are expected to get them.Bush made the comments before boarding his helicopter at the start of a day trip to Connecticut.People must file a tax return for their 2007 income to be eligible for a rebate check.
The IRS now says all checks for those who filed tax returns on time are scheduled to be deposited or mailed by July 11.
The economy -- burdened by the collapse of home prices, a financial and credit crisis, and now rising energy and food prices -- grew at an anemic 0.6 percent in the final three months of last year and is believed to have gotten even weaker in the first three months of this year.
The government will report on the first quarter's performance next week.With the economy faltering, the nation's unemployment rate has climbed to 5.1 percent, the highest since September 2005, when it suffered from the devastating blows of the Gulf Coast hurricanes. Job losses in the first three months of this year neared the quarter-million mark.
Foreclosures have surged to record highs and financial companies have taken multibillion losses on mortgage investments that soured. The situation has sent a tremor through Wall Street and has sent the administration, Congress and presidential contenders looking for ways to provide relief.------
AP Economics Writer Jeannine Aversa contributed to this report.
-->
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Central Florida Community College gets Grant for +50 Students
New 'Plus 50 Initiative' By Community Colleges Reaches Out to Baby Boomers
15 Colleges Receive Grants to Develop Innovative Programs for Students
Over 50
WASHINGTON, April 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As 78 million baby
boomers approach retirement, their attention is turning to staying active
and re-focusing their careers -- and they're about to get some help from
America's community colleges, thanks to a new "Plus 50 Initiative."
Ten community colleges will launch new "demonstration" programs for
students over the age of 50, with the help of seed grants from the American
Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and The Atlantic Philanthropies.
They'll be aided with mentoring support from five "mentor" colleges that
already have established programs for baby boomers.
Organizers say the project is designed to help with one of the largest
generational shifts affecting our nation, as baby boomers approach
retirement and consider how to keep their lives active, healthy and engaged
in careers and projects that matter to them.
"The baby boomer generation wants to stay active in retirement and
holds a wealth of knowledge and experience that society cannot afford to
see leave the talent pool," said George R. Boggs, AACC President and CEO.
"By retooling educational programs and adjusting for the needs of plus 50
students, community colleges can empower baby boomers to continue give back
by leading the vibrant and fulfilling lives they desire."
The three-year program is sponsored by the AACC and is funded by a $3.2
million dollar grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies. The 10 demonstration
colleges receiving grants are:
Chaffey Community College, located in Cucamonga, Calif., will start a
new program for baby boomer volunteers to mentor and tutor under-prepared
students and help them be successful in college.
Clover Park Technical College, located in Lakewood, Wash., will offer
an environmental science program alongside a volunteer on-site project for
baby boomers exploring sustainability. The program will apply classroom
lessons while restoring wetlands, forests and an oak savannah.
Joliet Junior College, located in Joliet, Ill., will offer workforce
skills certificate programs to students over the age of 50 for new careers
in high-growth jobs in healthcare and education.
Luzerne County Community College, located in Nanticoke, Pa., will
provide courses and services that encourage new job skills development, as
well as entrepreneurship for plus 50 students wanting to start a new
business venture.
Northern Virginia Community College, located near Washington, D.C.,
will expand educational offerings targeting baby boomers and reach out to
senior facilities with programs on retirement, personal finance,
entrepreneurship, technology literacy and good health.
Richland College, which is part of the Dallas County Community College
District, and is located in Dallas, Texas, will assess learning needs for
baby boomers, develop life-enhancing curricula for plus 50 students seeking
to re-define their lives and offer opportunities to retrain experienced
workers.
Santa Fe Community College, located in Gainesville, Fla., will address
the critical nursing educator shortage by training baby boomer nurses to
become instructors for nursing education programs, enabling them to pass
their knowledge onto to others and serve a valuable mentoring role for
younger nurses.
St. Louis Community College, located in St. Louis, Mo., will establish
and pilot workshops on four campuses that will help plus 50 students who
see retirement looming ahead of them, but are unsure about how to make this
next phase of their lives all they hope it can be. Travel study tours, art
classes and many other topics, offered in a format for non-degree seeking
students, will enable baby boomers to re-connect with interests they may
have set aside decades before while raising children and working.
Wake Technical Community College, located in Raleigh, N.C., will
centralize coursework and activities offered by three separate divisions
under one organizational umbrella and offer afternoon college classes at
convenient times that cater to plus 50 students.
Western Dakota Technical Institute, located in Rapid City, S. D., will
develop and pilot a national training model for baby boomers who want to
become seasonal rangers and interpretive guides at national parks.
Colleges receiving grants to serve as mentors for the program are:
Cape Cod Community College, located in West Barnstable, Mass., has
conducted focus groups and extensive surveys with baby boomers to identify
courses and volunteer opportunities. They plan to expand their current
programs and develop a talent bank that matches plus 50 students with civic
and service opportunities.
Central Florida Community College, located in Ocala, Fla., will develop
course offerings that will lead to new employment opportunities for plus 50
students, including online business classes, individual and corporate tax
preparation courses, training in less physically demanding medical fields
such as medical transcription, and intergenerational computer courses.
Century College, located in White Bear Lake, Minn., will help baby
boomers retiring from professional and supervisory positions apply their
leadership skills as community volunteers. They will also help plus 50
professionals who've been downsized out of their current jobs with skill
development courses in healthcare and technology that enable them to
re-enter the workforce.
Clark College, located in Vancouver, Wash., will redesign its small
business development curriculum to offer second careers through business
ownership at a wine and cooking school for wine hobbyists and food
enthusiasts. In addition, a joint program with the Area Agency on Aging
will train in-home caregivers.
The Community College of Spokane, located in Spokane Wash., will help
plus 50 workers upgrade or gain new skills and receive re-training to fill
regional job vacancies. The college will also expand course delivery to
rural areas using distance learning, so that plus 50 students located
farther from campus can participate.
For 88 years, the AACC has been the leading advocate for the nation's
community colleges, which currently number more than 1,125 and serve more
than 12 million students annually. Its membership comprises 95 percent of
all public two-year colleges - the largest, most accessible, most diverse
sector of U.S. higher education. As institutions committed to access,
community service and lifelong learning, community colleges have
long-focused on the needs of adults who are already in the workforce, many
of whom are seeking new skills and knowledge for changes in their lives and
careers.
To learn more about successful efforts by AACC member colleges to
respond to students aged 50 and above, please contact Norma Kent at
nkent@aacc.nche.edu, or at 202-728-0200. To learn more about the AACC and
The Atlantic Philanthropies, visit http://www.aacc.nche.edu/ and
http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/.
15 Colleges Receive Grants to Develop Innovative Programs for Students
Over 50
WASHINGTON, April 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As 78 million baby
boomers approach retirement, their attention is turning to staying active
and re-focusing their careers -- and they're about to get some help from
America's community colleges, thanks to a new "Plus 50 Initiative."
Ten community colleges will launch new "demonstration" programs for
students over the age of 50, with the help of seed grants from the American
Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and The Atlantic Philanthropies.
They'll be aided with mentoring support from five "mentor" colleges that
already have established programs for baby boomers.
Organizers say the project is designed to help with one of the largest
generational shifts affecting our nation, as baby boomers approach
retirement and consider how to keep their lives active, healthy and engaged
in careers and projects that matter to them.
"The baby boomer generation wants to stay active in retirement and
holds a wealth of knowledge and experience that society cannot afford to
see leave the talent pool," said George R. Boggs, AACC President and CEO.
"By retooling educational programs and adjusting for the needs of plus 50
students, community colleges can empower baby boomers to continue give back
by leading the vibrant and fulfilling lives they desire."
The three-year program is sponsored by the AACC and is funded by a $3.2
million dollar grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies. The 10 demonstration
colleges receiving grants are:
Chaffey Community College, located in Cucamonga, Calif., will start a
new program for baby boomer volunteers to mentor and tutor under-prepared
students and help them be successful in college.
Clover Park Technical College, located in Lakewood, Wash., will offer
an environmental science program alongside a volunteer on-site project for
baby boomers exploring sustainability. The program will apply classroom
lessons while restoring wetlands, forests and an oak savannah.
Joliet Junior College, located in Joliet, Ill., will offer workforce
skills certificate programs to students over the age of 50 for new careers
in high-growth jobs in healthcare and education.
Luzerne County Community College, located in Nanticoke, Pa., will
provide courses and services that encourage new job skills development, as
well as entrepreneurship for plus 50 students wanting to start a new
business venture.
Northern Virginia Community College, located near Washington, D.C.,
will expand educational offerings targeting baby boomers and reach out to
senior facilities with programs on retirement, personal finance,
entrepreneurship, technology literacy and good health.
Richland College, which is part of the Dallas County Community College
District, and is located in Dallas, Texas, will assess learning needs for
baby boomers, develop life-enhancing curricula for plus 50 students seeking
to re-define their lives and offer opportunities to retrain experienced
workers.
Santa Fe Community College, located in Gainesville, Fla., will address
the critical nursing educator shortage by training baby boomer nurses to
become instructors for nursing education programs, enabling them to pass
their knowledge onto to others and serve a valuable mentoring role for
younger nurses.
St. Louis Community College, located in St. Louis, Mo., will establish
and pilot workshops on four campuses that will help plus 50 students who
see retirement looming ahead of them, but are unsure about how to make this
next phase of their lives all they hope it can be. Travel study tours, art
classes and many other topics, offered in a format for non-degree seeking
students, will enable baby boomers to re-connect with interests they may
have set aside decades before while raising children and working.
Wake Technical Community College, located in Raleigh, N.C., will
centralize coursework and activities offered by three separate divisions
under one organizational umbrella and offer afternoon college classes at
convenient times that cater to plus 50 students.
Western Dakota Technical Institute, located in Rapid City, S. D., will
develop and pilot a national training model for baby boomers who want to
become seasonal rangers and interpretive guides at national parks.
Colleges receiving grants to serve as mentors for the program are:
Cape Cod Community College, located in West Barnstable, Mass., has
conducted focus groups and extensive surveys with baby boomers to identify
courses and volunteer opportunities. They plan to expand their current
programs and develop a talent bank that matches plus 50 students with civic
and service opportunities.
Central Florida Community College, located in Ocala, Fla., will develop
course offerings that will lead to new employment opportunities for plus 50
students, including online business classes, individual and corporate tax
preparation courses, training in less physically demanding medical fields
such as medical transcription, and intergenerational computer courses.
Century College, located in White Bear Lake, Minn., will help baby
boomers retiring from professional and supervisory positions apply their
leadership skills as community volunteers. They will also help plus 50
professionals who've been downsized out of their current jobs with skill
development courses in healthcare and technology that enable them to
re-enter the workforce.
Clark College, located in Vancouver, Wash., will redesign its small
business development curriculum to offer second careers through business
ownership at a wine and cooking school for wine hobbyists and food
enthusiasts. In addition, a joint program with the Area Agency on Aging
will train in-home caregivers.
The Community College of Spokane, located in Spokane Wash., will help
plus 50 workers upgrade or gain new skills and receive re-training to fill
regional job vacancies. The college will also expand course delivery to
rural areas using distance learning, so that plus 50 students located
farther from campus can participate.
For 88 years, the AACC has been the leading advocate for the nation's
community colleges, which currently number more than 1,125 and serve more
than 12 million students annually. Its membership comprises 95 percent of
all public two-year colleges - the largest, most accessible, most diverse
sector of U.S. higher education. As institutions committed to access,
community service and lifelong learning, community colleges have
long-focused on the needs of adults who are already in the workforce, many
of whom are seeking new skills and knowledge for changes in their lives and
careers.
To learn more about successful efforts by AACC member colleges to
respond to students aged 50 and above, please contact Norma Kent at
nkent@aacc.nche.edu, or at 202-728-0200. To learn more about the AACC and
The Atlantic Philanthropies, visit http://www.aacc.nche.edu/ and
http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/.
Friday, April 11, 2008
The Villages Micropolitan Statistical Area ranks as fastest growing in the nation
By DAVID R. CORDER, DAILY SUN
THE VILLAGES — It doesn’t surprise Ron and Terri Benigno that recently released census estimates ranked The Villages last year as the nation’s fastest-growing nonmetropolitan community.
This historic achievement gave Ron and Terri, Village of Mulberry Grove residents who moved to The Villages about five years ago from Las Vegas, an opportunity to compare their experiences here with their visits to Pahrump, Nev., the third fastest-growing nonmetropolitan community.
“In The Villages, it’s about golf and people,” Terri said in explaining the difference between the 14 years the couple resided in Nevada’s southernmost region. “Everybody is so friendly here in The Villages. No matter where you go, people say hello to you. Now that we have all these stores here, I cannot imagine anybody moving away.”
The micropolitan statistical report the Census Bureau released earlier this month added a new perspective to population estimates the federal agency released about three weeks ago, which ranked Sumter County as the nation’s 11th fastest-growing county in 2007. It is the first time The Villages earned the No. 1 ranking since its designation in 2003 as a micropolitan statistical area.
“It is the fastest-growing micropolitan statistical area from 2006 to 2007,” confirmed Greg Harper, a Census Bureau demographer.
Quality versus quantity
In its definitions, the federal agency classifies a micropolitan area as one or more counties with an urban core of at least 10,000 people but less than 50,000.
That compares with a metropolitan statistical area — one or more counties with an urban core of at least 50,000 people. The Orlando-Kissimmee MSA, for instance, covers Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties.
The micropolitan classification is even more revealing, considering The Villages area includes only Sumter’s population. It does not count any of The Villages residents who live in Lake or Marion counties.
While the numbers impressed him, Sumter County Commission Chairman Dick Hoffman viewed The Villages Micropolitan Statistical Area’s population increases in much the same way as Terri and Ron.
Each considered the population gains in The Villages Micropolitan Statistical Area more in terms of quality of life than numbers.
“I have noticed we continue to attract a very experienced group of new residents who have a wide variety of backgrounds,” Hoffman said. “They’re adding a benefit to the entire county.
“These residents get involved in volunteer work even outside The Villages,” Hoffman offered as an example. “It’s real positive for our county. We have an outstanding group of residents, and they’re making the community even better.”
Still, it’s nice to have bragging rights, Hoffman acknowledged.
“I’m glad we’re among the top, but being No. 1 is even better,” he added.
Economic benefits
The value of such population estimates is considerable, said Rick Thrasher, executive director of the Sumter County Economic Development Council.
“Yes, it has real value in a number of areas, specifically with economic development,” Thrasher said.
This is particularly true, Thrasher added in agreement with Hoffman, when considering the nature of the residents in The Villages — a 55-plus age demographic known for its active and vibrant lifestyle.
“That means there are a significant number of highly talented and experienced retired people who are likely quite interested in part-time, productive employment,” Thrasher said.
Such a demographic gives Thrasher another tool in his business-recruitment effort, which ultimately benefits residents in terms of new products, services and employment opportunities.
“I also can tell you without any hesitancy whatsoever the work-force measurements have become one of the very prime measurement factors for companies starting, expanding or relocating into the area,” Thrasher said.
Having worked in Salt Lake City, Utah, Thrasher also possessed enough insight to make comparisons between The Villages MSA and the mostly western U.S. communities that populate the top 10 list of fastest-growing micropolitan areas. He was familiar with the two Utah communities that ranked in the top 10.
“Utah has two things,” Thrasher said. “No 1, it has one of the highest birth rates in the country. That’s largely generated by long winters. The other thing is they have one of the highest education attainment rates in the country.”
In comparison, Thrasher said, The Villages MSA possesses more in common with St. Marys, Ga., which ranked No. 10 on the top 10 list.
“Understand (The Villages MSA), is a lifestyle destination,” Thrasher said. “So is St. Mary’s. Some places out west are career destinations.”
What is happening in The Villages MSA in terms of population growth is similar to what is occurring in Florida and elsewhere, said Sean M. Snaith, Ph.D., and director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida.
“First, we’ve got a wave of population moving in at retirement age, the baby boomers,” said Snaith, referring to the U.S. population segment of about 80 million residents born between 1946 and 1964. “That’s going to continue to drive population growth in general.”
David R. Corder is a reporter with the Daily Sun. He can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 9066, or at david.corder@thevillagesmedia.com.
THE VILLAGES — It doesn’t surprise Ron and Terri Benigno that recently released census estimates ranked The Villages last year as the nation’s fastest-growing nonmetropolitan community.
This historic achievement gave Ron and Terri, Village of Mulberry Grove residents who moved to The Villages about five years ago from Las Vegas, an opportunity to compare their experiences here with their visits to Pahrump, Nev., the third fastest-growing nonmetropolitan community.
“In The Villages, it’s about golf and people,” Terri said in explaining the difference between the 14 years the couple resided in Nevada’s southernmost region. “Everybody is so friendly here in The Villages. No matter where you go, people say hello to you. Now that we have all these stores here, I cannot imagine anybody moving away.”
The micropolitan statistical report the Census Bureau released earlier this month added a new perspective to population estimates the federal agency released about three weeks ago, which ranked Sumter County as the nation’s 11th fastest-growing county in 2007. It is the first time The Villages earned the No. 1 ranking since its designation in 2003 as a micropolitan statistical area.
“It is the fastest-growing micropolitan statistical area from 2006 to 2007,” confirmed Greg Harper, a Census Bureau demographer.
Quality versus quantity
In its definitions, the federal agency classifies a micropolitan area as one or more counties with an urban core of at least 10,000 people but less than 50,000.
That compares with a metropolitan statistical area — one or more counties with an urban core of at least 50,000 people. The Orlando-Kissimmee MSA, for instance, covers Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties.
The micropolitan classification is even more revealing, considering The Villages area includes only Sumter’s population. It does not count any of The Villages residents who live in Lake or Marion counties.
While the numbers impressed him, Sumter County Commission Chairman Dick Hoffman viewed The Villages Micropolitan Statistical Area’s population increases in much the same way as Terri and Ron.
Each considered the population gains in The Villages Micropolitan Statistical Area more in terms of quality of life than numbers.
“I have noticed we continue to attract a very experienced group of new residents who have a wide variety of backgrounds,” Hoffman said. “They’re adding a benefit to the entire county.
“These residents get involved in volunteer work even outside The Villages,” Hoffman offered as an example. “It’s real positive for our county. We have an outstanding group of residents, and they’re making the community even better.”
Still, it’s nice to have bragging rights, Hoffman acknowledged.
“I’m glad we’re among the top, but being No. 1 is even better,” he added.
Economic benefits
The value of such population estimates is considerable, said Rick Thrasher, executive director of the Sumter County Economic Development Council.
“Yes, it has real value in a number of areas, specifically with economic development,” Thrasher said.
This is particularly true, Thrasher added in agreement with Hoffman, when considering the nature of the residents in The Villages — a 55-plus age demographic known for its active and vibrant lifestyle.
“That means there are a significant number of highly talented and experienced retired people who are likely quite interested in part-time, productive employment,” Thrasher said.
Such a demographic gives Thrasher another tool in his business-recruitment effort, which ultimately benefits residents in terms of new products, services and employment opportunities.
“I also can tell you without any hesitancy whatsoever the work-force measurements have become one of the very prime measurement factors for companies starting, expanding or relocating into the area,” Thrasher said.
Having worked in Salt Lake City, Utah, Thrasher also possessed enough insight to make comparisons between The Villages MSA and the mostly western U.S. communities that populate the top 10 list of fastest-growing micropolitan areas. He was familiar with the two Utah communities that ranked in the top 10.
“Utah has two things,” Thrasher said. “No 1, it has one of the highest birth rates in the country. That’s largely generated by long winters. The other thing is they have one of the highest education attainment rates in the country.”
In comparison, Thrasher said, The Villages MSA possesses more in common with St. Marys, Ga., which ranked No. 10 on the top 10 list.
“Understand (The Villages MSA), is a lifestyle destination,” Thrasher said. “So is St. Mary’s. Some places out west are career destinations.”
What is happening in The Villages MSA in terms of population growth is similar to what is occurring in Florida and elsewhere, said Sean M. Snaith, Ph.D., and director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida.
“First, we’ve got a wave of population moving in at retirement age, the baby boomers,” said Snaith, referring to the U.S. population segment of about 80 million residents born between 1946 and 1964. “That’s going to continue to drive population growth in general.”
David R. Corder is a reporter with the Daily Sun. He can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 9066, or at david.corder@thevillagesmedia.com.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
New Retirement Homes in Florida
New homes in Florida are those homes that have just recently been built either by a private contractor or by a large corporation as part of a wide-ranging set of new homes. These homes have never been lived in by another family or other type of resident. They are fully equipped with all the necessary add-ons you will need.
Florida enjoys a booming real estate market as people flock to the state for recreation, picturesque cityscapes and fine weather. Florida is an ideal locale for a new home.Florida offers a wide range of choices for dwelling, renting, investing, or even retirement requirements.
Florida has a line of New Home communities that allow the choice of condos, villas or single family homes. Many people dream of living on the beach, and some dreams come true with the purchase of some of Florida's beach homes. Luxury homes are also available in Florida with the prices ranging from $2 to $7 million approximately.Florida retirement communities have literally changed the definition of retirement. These are communities designed to cater to your retirement needs while you enjoy fun and recreation.
The manufactured communities in Florida, with their theme parks, schools, shopping complexes, and all forms of recreation and leisure, are a very sought after option in the new homes market. These communities have a variety of home styles to offer. Some of the dealers in manufactured communities are Sherwood Fortes and Mid Florida Lakes Yacht club. Investment in Florida real estate is considered a sound move by many.
Central Florida Retirement Real Estate: http://mysuncountry.com/realestate
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jimmy_Sturo
Florida enjoys a booming real estate market as people flock to the state for recreation, picturesque cityscapes and fine weather. Florida is an ideal locale for a new home.Florida offers a wide range of choices for dwelling, renting, investing, or even retirement requirements.
Florida has a line of New Home communities that allow the choice of condos, villas or single family homes. Many people dream of living on the beach, and some dreams come true with the purchase of some of Florida's beach homes. Luxury homes are also available in Florida with the prices ranging from $2 to $7 million approximately.Florida retirement communities have literally changed the definition of retirement. These are communities designed to cater to your retirement needs while you enjoy fun and recreation.
The manufactured communities in Florida, with their theme parks, schools, shopping complexes, and all forms of recreation and leisure, are a very sought after option in the new homes market. These communities have a variety of home styles to offer. Some of the dealers in manufactured communities are Sherwood Fortes and Mid Florida Lakes Yacht club. Investment in Florida real estate is considered a sound move by many.
Central Florida Retirement Real Estate: http://mysuncountry.com/realestate
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jimmy_Sturo
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Baby Boomer Generation Will Stay Active in Retirement
Artical From Baby Boomers Magazine - March 5th, 2008
While early Baby Boomers are entering retirement age, we intend on doing so having active fun. There is no shortage of fun activities for the Baby Boomer Generation. Fortunately for Baby Boomers times have changed since our parents retired. Nowadays there's definitely no shortage of fun activities for the Baby Boomer Generation. In fact, many of today's Baby Boomers believe that the best way to keep from growing old is to remain active. And they're right. While many of us are intending on working well past traditional retirement ages, we intend on fun doing so..
While early Baby Boomers are entering retirement age, we intend on doing so having active fun. There is no shortage of fun activities for the Baby Boomer Generation. Fortunately for Baby Boomers times have changed since our parents retired. Nowadays there's definitely no shortage of fun activities for the Baby Boomer Generation. In fact, many of today's Baby Boomers believe that the best way to keep from growing old is to remain active. And they're right. While many of us are intending on working well past traditional retirement ages, we intend on fun doing so..
Today's Baby Boomers enjoy most anything that's done outside the home in a group setting. Biking, swimming, tennis, golf, dancing, bowling, playing cards, eating out, exercising, shopping, traveling, indulging in the arts, and even dating are just a few of the many fun activities for Baby Boomers to choose from. Basically, when it comes to keeping active and entertained, nothing is off limits for today's Baby boomers!
As Baby Boomers grow older, many are choosing to move into communities that have been designed to serve our aging market. Whether they're called "over 55 communities" or "adult communities" or "manufactured home parks" and even "ALFs" the one thing all these communities have in common are lists of scheduled activities. These lists help keep members of the community informed of upcoming fun activities for Baby Boomers can participate.
Going online is another excellent way to find out about fun activities for Baby Boomers. No longer something to be afraid of using and learning, Baby Boomers are finding the Internet just as convenient a source of information and research as the rest of society. To help meet the growing demand of Boomer online users, local libraries and other community centers are marketing introductory classes on computer usage and safety to Baby Boomers. Classes are worthwhile and they're filled to capacity which further proves that fun activities for Baby Boomers know no boundaries.
Special Baby Boomer interest websites (such as BabyBoomer-Magazine.com) and Social networking sites are another valuable source of fun activities. What began as a way for the younger generation to make friends has caught the attention of the Baby Boomers. And why not? Social networking sites are a great way to meet others from across town or across the globe who share similar interests. Besides meeting others, visitors to these sites find plenty of scheduled activities with open invitations meaning that if you're interested in the activity, then you're invited.
Fun activities for the Baby Boomer Generation are out there and there's no limit to what we'll find once you start looking. Staying active and social are both not only enjoyable, they're great for our physical and mental well-being. With so many fun activities for Baby Boomers taking place every day, there's no longer any excuse for being bored!
Goals On The Wall
Surprisingly few people regularly make lists of their goals and even fewer put their lists where they can see them. This article suggests that it is worth doing both. It also takes a look at the life goals of Minnie Driver and Genghis Khan. A lot of money was once paid for the following famous goal setting advice given to a rich businessman:
Each night make a list of 6 things you need to do tomorrow and list the 6 tasks in order of priority.
When tomorrow arrives, start on the first task and complete it. Then move on to the second task. If you don't finish all your tasks add the unfinished ones to your list for the next day.
Goals could be listed for each day, each week, each month, each year and for life. You could even make lists for each project you are working on.
Recently, Minnie Driver, the singer was asked: "What drives you?" She gave a thoughtful reply:
� To live fully - to pursue every gift I've been given.
� To think what am I going to bring to this day as opposed to what I am going to get from it.
� I want to have kids and live by the sea and write records, have a great partnership with someone and maybe do some teaching.Very few people could have come straight out with such a clear life mission statement. Minnie is going to make the most of her singing talent and give rather than get. She wants kids and wants to live by the seaside and so on.Ask yourself what the main goals of your life are? Could you come up with a great list like Minnie Driver 's if someone put you on the spot? Do you plan:
� To become all that you can become?
� To help others become all that they can become?
� To live an extraordinary life?
� To help humans, animals and even insects?
� To see the wonders of the world?
� To love your neighbour as yourself? etc. etc.It is worth making a list and revising it regularly.
You can always change your mission statement or list of life goals whenever you wish to. In the mean time life goals will give you a guiding light for much if not all of your life.However, goals are soon forgotten unless you look at them and revise them regularly. Some people put their list of goals on post it notes and stick them on their computers. Some buy computer software that will parade their goals across their computer screen.
I put my goals on the wardrobe to my right where I can look at it all day. This reminds both my conscious and subconscious minds to focus on the goals. They are thus much more likely to be completed. They will also be finished with much less conscious effort.
Try sticking your goals list somewhere prominent where you have a bit of space. My walls are already covered with A4 sheets of things I need to remember so my wardrobe is the only space left.
One of my goals on the wardrobe list for today is to finish this article. I now have the satisfaction of crossing it off my list and moving on to my next goal which is to prepare for a class I am teaching this evening.
We all need to get a move on with our goals before our time runs out. Genghis Khan 's life goal was to conquer the whole world. In the end he conquered a huge space twice the size of the Roman Empire but he died too soon to fulfil his life mission. At the age of 65 on his death bed he said:
"I have conquered for you a large empire but my life was too short to take the whole world. That I leave to you."
Even after death, the power of his goal lived on.
His sons doubled the size of his empire. They invaded Russia, Poland and Hungary but as the Mongol armies approached Vienna in 1242, Ogodei Khan, the son of Genghis died and all his armies went back to Mongolia for his funeral. They did not return to Europe.
A century later his empire began to crumble. However, genetic studies suggest that 1 in every 200 men on the planet today are genetically related to Genghis.
Some goals will never die!
What do Minnie Driver and Genghis Khan have in common? They both set themselves clear life goals. The resemblance stops there. Minnie Driver 's goals are much, much greater than the goals of the Universal Ruler - Genghis Khan.
Each night make a list of 6 things you need to do tomorrow and list the 6 tasks in order of priority.
When tomorrow arrives, start on the first task and complete it. Then move on to the second task. If you don't finish all your tasks add the unfinished ones to your list for the next day.
Goals could be listed for each day, each week, each month, each year and for life. You could even make lists for each project you are working on.
Recently, Minnie Driver, the singer was asked: "What drives you?" She gave a thoughtful reply:
� To live fully - to pursue every gift I've been given.
� To think what am I going to bring to this day as opposed to what I am going to get from it.
� I want to have kids and live by the sea and write records, have a great partnership with someone and maybe do some teaching.Very few people could have come straight out with such a clear life mission statement. Minnie is going to make the most of her singing talent and give rather than get. She wants kids and wants to live by the seaside and so on.Ask yourself what the main goals of your life are? Could you come up with a great list like Minnie Driver 's if someone put you on the spot? Do you plan:
� To become all that you can become?
� To help others become all that they can become?
� To live an extraordinary life?
� To help humans, animals and even insects?
� To see the wonders of the world?
� To love your neighbour as yourself? etc. etc.It is worth making a list and revising it regularly.
You can always change your mission statement or list of life goals whenever you wish to. In the mean time life goals will give you a guiding light for much if not all of your life.However, goals are soon forgotten unless you look at them and revise them regularly. Some people put their list of goals on post it notes and stick them on their computers. Some buy computer software that will parade their goals across their computer screen.
I put my goals on the wardrobe to my right where I can look at it all day. This reminds both my conscious and subconscious minds to focus on the goals. They are thus much more likely to be completed. They will also be finished with much less conscious effort.
Try sticking your goals list somewhere prominent where you have a bit of space. My walls are already covered with A4 sheets of things I need to remember so my wardrobe is the only space left.
One of my goals on the wardrobe list for today is to finish this article. I now have the satisfaction of crossing it off my list and moving on to my next goal which is to prepare for a class I am teaching this evening.
We all need to get a move on with our goals before our time runs out. Genghis Khan 's life goal was to conquer the whole world. In the end he conquered a huge space twice the size of the Roman Empire but he died too soon to fulfil his life mission. At the age of 65 on his death bed he said:
"I have conquered for you a large empire but my life was too short to take the whole world. That I leave to you."
Even after death, the power of his goal lived on.
His sons doubled the size of his empire. They invaded Russia, Poland and Hungary but as the Mongol armies approached Vienna in 1242, Ogodei Khan, the son of Genghis died and all his armies went back to Mongolia for his funeral. They did not return to Europe.
A century later his empire began to crumble. However, genetic studies suggest that 1 in every 200 men on the planet today are genetically related to Genghis.
Some goals will never die!
What do Minnie Driver and Genghis Khan have in common? They both set themselves clear life goals. The resemblance stops there. Minnie Driver 's goals are much, much greater than the goals of the Universal Ruler - Genghis Khan.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Retirees, Followed By Boomers, Will Redefine Retirement
According to a report from The Media Audit, adults who are nearing retirement are now one of the fastest growing demographics in the country. 17.9% of all U.S. adults are now retired, a figure that has increased by 6% in the last five years and will rapidly increase as Boomers exit the workforce over the next few decades.
Consumption habits of aging Americans are likely very different from those of their predecessors because they are living longer, achieving higher levels of education, are wealthier, and redefining what it means to be retired.
83% of the retired adults in the U.S now own their own home
Thirty percent of retired adults have cash, stocks and CD's valued at more than $100,000, the highest figure ever reported
13.1% of new automobile purchasers are retired, compared to 11.1% five years ago. 8.3% of adults who have a car loan are retired, compared to 6.4% five years ago, an increase of nearly 30%
16% of adults who frequently stay in hotels are retired, compared to 14.7% five years ago, a jump of almost 10%
Among frequent beer consumers, 13% are retired, compared to 11.3% five years ago
Adults who are retired are 6% more likely than the average U.S. adult to frequently dine out at a full service restaurant and retirees now make up nearly 20% of all adults who frequently dine out.
14.3% adults who plan to take an ocean cruise in the next year are retired.
Nearly one in five adults who plan to have lasik eye surgery are retired, and are 5% more likely than the average adult to be planning a lasik eye surgery procedure.
The report further reveals that adults who are retired today compared to the average U.S. adult:
Spend nearly 30% more time watching broadcast TV, 14% more time watching cable TV
25% more time reading a daily newspaper
Retired adults today spend only 89 minutes per day online, a figure that is 26% less than the average U.S. adult who spends 123 minutes per day online.
The next generation of retirees, though, is expected to be more computer and internet friendly, since Baby Boomers between the ages of 45 and 64 spend a considerably higher amount of time online - 123 minutes per day.
The most affluent retirees can be found in larger markets such as Washington, D.C., where the average retired adult earns $64,000 in household income.
San Jose, California, Fort Myers- Naples, Florida, San Francisco, California and Long Island, New York, follow behind with household incomes of more than $50,000.
And, currently the top ranking retiree markets are:
Ocala, Florida with the highest percentage of retired adults (36%)
Fort Myers- Naples, Florida (34%)
Daytona Beach, Florida (33%)
West Palm Beach, Florida (31%)
Melbourne-Titusville-Cocoa, Florida (29%)
Source
Consumption habits of aging Americans are likely very different from those of their predecessors because they are living longer, achieving higher levels of education, are wealthier, and redefining what it means to be retired.
83% of the retired adults in the U.S now own their own home
Thirty percent of retired adults have cash, stocks and CD's valued at more than $100,000, the highest figure ever reported
13.1% of new automobile purchasers are retired, compared to 11.1% five years ago. 8.3% of adults who have a car loan are retired, compared to 6.4% five years ago, an increase of nearly 30%
16% of adults who frequently stay in hotels are retired, compared to 14.7% five years ago, a jump of almost 10%
Among frequent beer consumers, 13% are retired, compared to 11.3% five years ago
Adults who are retired are 6% more likely than the average U.S. adult to frequently dine out at a full service restaurant and retirees now make up nearly 20% of all adults who frequently dine out.
14.3% adults who plan to take an ocean cruise in the next year are retired.
Nearly one in five adults who plan to have lasik eye surgery are retired, and are 5% more likely than the average adult to be planning a lasik eye surgery procedure.
The report further reveals that adults who are retired today compared to the average U.S. adult:
Spend nearly 30% more time watching broadcast TV, 14% more time watching cable TV
25% more time reading a daily newspaper
Retired adults today spend only 89 minutes per day online, a figure that is 26% less than the average U.S. adult who spends 123 minutes per day online.
The next generation of retirees, though, is expected to be more computer and internet friendly, since Baby Boomers between the ages of 45 and 64 spend a considerably higher amount of time online - 123 minutes per day.
The most affluent retirees can be found in larger markets such as Washington, D.C., where the average retired adult earns $64,000 in household income.
San Jose, California, Fort Myers- Naples, Florida, San Francisco, California and Long Island, New York, follow behind with household incomes of more than $50,000.
And, currently the top ranking retiree markets are:
Ocala, Florida with the highest percentage of retired adults (36%)
Fort Myers- Naples, Florida (34%)
Daytona Beach, Florida (33%)
West Palm Beach, Florida (31%)
Melbourne-Titusville-Cocoa, Florida (29%)
Source
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
5 Ways To Become A ‘Giver’ Now!
By Todd March 4, 2008
About Todd Goldfarb
Todd Goldfarb is a business consultant and entrepreneur living in Manhattan, New York. Over the last several years, Todd has developed and implemented award-winning marketing programs for a successful network of financial planning firms, CPAs and attorneys.
A few weeks ago I was eating lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in downtown Manhattan. Seated next to me were two very well-dressed men in their late 50’s/early 60’s who were having a conversation about their recent retirements. Given that seating in New York restaurants is ridiculously tight and I was dining alone, I heard most of their talk.
One of them asked the other “so what are you going to do now”? The other sat for a moment contemplating, then looked up and said questioningly: “Give back”? They both hooted in laughter at the response, and began perfunctorily yapping about the stock market, recent travels, and other typical conversation.
The dialogue bothered me ever since hearing it. It is so common in our society for people to work their whole lives with the primary goals of making money and becoming “successful”, and then retiring to a life of leisure where they can potentially “give something back”.
I am not saying there is something wrong with working hard, creating wealth, and making a success of yourself. But when the end result of 30 or 40 years in a profession implies: “OK, now I am ready to show compassion outside the realm of my family, friends and immediate situations” then something is fundamentally off.
I say we should seek to have it all: A successful, abundance-filled life in conjunction with a caring attitude about the people and world at large! With this said, here are 5 excellent ways you can begin your giving ways well before retirement:
Become Conscious of Your Desire to Help Others
I am aware that I painted a pretty negative picture of the two gentlemen I sat next to at lunch. For all I know both these men spent their entire professional lives helping other people. However, the tiny slice of conversation I heard extrapolated a bigger issue in my mind, and I wonder how many people in the world wake up each morning and say to themselves: “what can I do to help today” or “how can I serve today”. I imagine that a much more significant number of people think “what can I do to get ahead today” when they wake.
But when we are able to step outside our socially conditioned roles, the more basic human traits shine through: to help, to give and to love. If you go deep enough, you will remember these are the most important qualities to have. So get out there NOW, even while you are ensconsed in your “life”, and become a giver.
Help Children
Recently I became aware that 60% of the world’s population is under the age of 25 (isn’t that amazing)! Unfortunately, many of the problems our society has created will fall on the leaders of tomorrow. Ask yourself: what can you do to help cultivate exceptional human beings who will make wise decisions in the future? If you have kids, raising them well and providing love is obviously the #1 thing you can do. But I challenge you to think outside the box and devise a few ways you can help make a difference to children beyond the realm of your own home!
Become a Mentor
Another great way to give back is to educate. What are your best skills, and how did you become a success? There are people who want to know and can benefit from your expertise. And there are a myriad of ways you can do this; perhaps you can use your contacts within your profession and let it be known that you want to help others. Maybe you can give a class. Nowadays you can mentor people online. Either way, teaching your most valued skills for the betterment of others is a great way to give back. And do it while your in your prime!
Volunteer Your Excess Funds
Do you remember the end of Schindler’s List when Schindler (Liam Neison) had a breakdown when he realized that he could have done so much more to save people? Even though he was a hero, the perspective of time made him realize that life will always be infinitely more valuable than possessions. So yes, I am suggesting to give money to groups, charities and individuals that represent wonderful causes. I love the fact that there are so many high level individuals across the globe giving away their fortunes to make the world a better place. It is awesome, and we should all follow their lead. Why wait until later? Start giving NOW!
Volunteer Your Time
Choose a few causes that you care genuinely about, and become involved. There are hundreds of millions of people in the world who are hungry, poor and need some form of help…and your actions will make a difference. The great thing about volunteering is that there are no obligations: you can do it on your time, give only what you can (although you may be compelled to start giving more once you feel the benefits), and no one will debunk you for your effort. Don’t be like the men in the restaurant and wait, do it now!
About Todd Goldfarb
Todd Goldfarb is a business consultant and entrepreneur living in Manhattan, New York. Over the last several years, Todd has developed and implemented award-winning marketing programs for a successful network of financial planning firms, CPAs and attorneys.
A few weeks ago I was eating lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in downtown Manhattan. Seated next to me were two very well-dressed men in their late 50’s/early 60’s who were having a conversation about their recent retirements. Given that seating in New York restaurants is ridiculously tight and I was dining alone, I heard most of their talk.
One of them asked the other “so what are you going to do now”? The other sat for a moment contemplating, then looked up and said questioningly: “Give back”? They both hooted in laughter at the response, and began perfunctorily yapping about the stock market, recent travels, and other typical conversation.
The dialogue bothered me ever since hearing it. It is so common in our society for people to work their whole lives with the primary goals of making money and becoming “successful”, and then retiring to a life of leisure where they can potentially “give something back”.
I am not saying there is something wrong with working hard, creating wealth, and making a success of yourself. But when the end result of 30 or 40 years in a profession implies: “OK, now I am ready to show compassion outside the realm of my family, friends and immediate situations” then something is fundamentally off.
I say we should seek to have it all: A successful, abundance-filled life in conjunction with a caring attitude about the people and world at large! With this said, here are 5 excellent ways you can begin your giving ways well before retirement:
Become Conscious of Your Desire to Help Others
I am aware that I painted a pretty negative picture of the two gentlemen I sat next to at lunch. For all I know both these men spent their entire professional lives helping other people. However, the tiny slice of conversation I heard extrapolated a bigger issue in my mind, and I wonder how many people in the world wake up each morning and say to themselves: “what can I do to help today” or “how can I serve today”. I imagine that a much more significant number of people think “what can I do to get ahead today” when they wake.
But when we are able to step outside our socially conditioned roles, the more basic human traits shine through: to help, to give and to love. If you go deep enough, you will remember these are the most important qualities to have. So get out there NOW, even while you are ensconsed in your “life”, and become a giver.
Help Children
Recently I became aware that 60% of the world’s population is under the age of 25 (isn’t that amazing)! Unfortunately, many of the problems our society has created will fall on the leaders of tomorrow. Ask yourself: what can you do to help cultivate exceptional human beings who will make wise decisions in the future? If you have kids, raising them well and providing love is obviously the #1 thing you can do. But I challenge you to think outside the box and devise a few ways you can help make a difference to children beyond the realm of your own home!
Become a Mentor
Another great way to give back is to educate. What are your best skills, and how did you become a success? There are people who want to know and can benefit from your expertise. And there are a myriad of ways you can do this; perhaps you can use your contacts within your profession and let it be known that you want to help others. Maybe you can give a class. Nowadays you can mentor people online. Either way, teaching your most valued skills for the betterment of others is a great way to give back. And do it while your in your prime!
Volunteer Your Excess Funds
Do you remember the end of Schindler’s List when Schindler (Liam Neison) had a breakdown when he realized that he could have done so much more to save people? Even though he was a hero, the perspective of time made him realize that life will always be infinitely more valuable than possessions. So yes, I am suggesting to give money to groups, charities and individuals that represent wonderful causes. I love the fact that there are so many high level individuals across the globe giving away their fortunes to make the world a better place. It is awesome, and we should all follow their lead. Why wait until later? Start giving NOW!
Volunteer Your Time
Choose a few causes that you care genuinely about, and become involved. There are hundreds of millions of people in the world who are hungry, poor and need some form of help…and your actions will make a difference. The great thing about volunteering is that there are no obligations: you can do it on your time, give only what you can (although you may be compelled to start giving more once you feel the benefits), and no one will debunk you for your effort. Don’t be like the men in the restaurant and wait, do it now!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Central Florida Retirement
Central Florida Retirement Communities
Central Florida retirement communities are known for a country lifestyle. An active lifestyle for baby boomers can be enjoyed at the many horse farms, lakes, boating and fishing facilities, and walking trails. Some communities offer a small town atmosphere.
Depending on what part you are in, it is generally about 90 minutes to the Atlantic Ocean beaches and 40 minutes to the golf. The great theme parks are also in this area. Some people feel it offers a lower cost of living than other areas of Florida.
The only way to know if it is right for you is to visit. There are many visitor programs at the retirement communities here so you can get to know the area.
Central Florida Retirement Communities in Ocala
Ocala is 90 minutes to the Atlantic Ocean beaches and 40 minutes to the Gulf beaches. Also, it is 90 minutes to the theme parks. Ocala has 4 area hospitals and nearby Gainesville has a regional VA hospital. A sportsman's paradise with lake fishing and boating. This is also horse farm country.
On Top of the World Communities at Ocala - One of the oldest builders in Florida specializing in active adult communities. Four new neighborhoods are currently under development. Radio controlled flying at the community field. 3 golf courses - Villas, single-family and estate homes. Fitness center and spa, indoor heated therapy pool, restaurants, hair salon, yoga and tai chi classes, tennis and more. See their website for details on their Visitors Program.
Home prices starting as low as $157,680's which includes standard features.
On Top of the World Communities
Stone Creek by Del Webb - Ocala - resort-style amenities for retirees - one of largest Del Webb active adult communities in Ocala. Not only does it have a golf course it allows golf cart accessibility throughout this gated community. Single-family or attached. Pedestrian trails and 4000 senior residences planned. Duplex and single family homes. Duplex price starts $169,900.
Stone Creek by Del Webb
The Villages of Lady Lake Lady Lake - Large and well-known community. Patio homes, villas, single family ranch and premier homestyles. Lifestyle Preview Visit Program - 24 miles to Ocala. Prices start affordable. The Villages of Lady Lake
Summer Glen Golf Club 15 minutes to Ocala - affordably priced Central Forida retirement communities by Florida Leisure Communities. 18-hole championship golf course (open to public-please verify this information.) Prices start mid $180's for cottage series (some discount pricing now offered--see builder's website for details). Summerglen
Oak Run Country Club Ocala - by Decca Gated luxury resort living - 2 golf courses and clubhouses with dining. Pro shops. Bocce ball, pools, fitness, activities and more. Some home prices do not include home sites pricing--please verify pricing. Oak Run Country Club
Hardwood Trails - Ocala. Wooded homesites. Only 65 homes. Concrete and block construction with many options included in price. Clubhouse and heated pool. Gated in country setting. Prices affordable. Website states 2 model homes left at special prices. (may be sold by now) See builder for details. Hardwood Trails
Ocala Palms Golf and Country Club - Ocala - Next phase of construction features Palm Isle Townhomes. Lots of amenities. By Venture Associates Corp. Gated active adult golf community. Prices affordable Ocala Palms Golf and Country Club
Central Florida Retirement Communities in Gainesville
Oak Hammock Retirement Community Affiliated with the University of Florida. Lifecare program available but emphasis on an active lifestyle as we age. Entrance fee and a monthly fee. Physical and financial assessments before entrance.
University environment accessible to lifelong learning. Upscale lifestyle with many amenities. You do not have to be an alumni of U of Florida. 29 residences of apartments, free-standing homes and villas. Pet friendly. Please verify all information. Oak Hammock
Central Florida Retirement Communities in Winterhaven
Traditions Cottage Collection by Lennar - From $160's - Other collections are Homestead start $194's and Plantation start $213's. Gated. 60 minutes to Orlando. Boat launch and slips on Lake Ruby. Landscaped homes, clubhouse, walking trails, pool and more. Resort-style. Traditions Cottage Collection by Lennar
Central Florida Retirement Communities in Mount Dora -a charming town worth investigating for a slower pace and 90 minutes to Coast:
The Lakes at Mount Dora In Mount Dora by Pringle
The Lakes at Mount Dora
Central Florida Retirement Communities in Sebring
Highlands Ridge Retirement Community - Sebring - Preview to Purchase Program - Fishing lake and golf - 1 hr to Tampa, Orlando, Palm Beach. Heartland Medical wellness programs. Priced affordably. Highlands Ridge Retirement Community
Other Central Florida Retirement Communities
Cascades at Groveland at Groveland - Levitt and Sons has filed Chapter 11. Please call them for more information. 30 minutes to Orlando. Cascades at Groveland
Near Orlando The Plantation at Leesburg Leesburg - Visit Program - Purchase plus monthly fee - minutes north of Orlando The Plantation at Leesburg
Arlington Ridge Leesburg. 30 minutes to Mount Dora, quaint town known for antiques, quaint cafes. Single family retirement homes. Village Green concept is desirable feature. Arlington Ridge
Cottages of the Heritage by Pringle near Leesburg - old Florida style - charming quaint cottage style homes and protected wetlands distinguish this community.
Also see by Pringle in Leesburg: Legacy of Leesburg Gated community features town center. Historic downtown with shopping. 7 miles of nature trails. A nature theme and bordering conservation areas makes this community unique. The Pringle family of developers has been in Lake County for more than 80 years. They specialize in Florida and active adult communities. They offer a free book entitled Florida Living. Pringle's website shows a 2-year deferred home construction program and other creative programs. Pricing from $100's to $500's. They also have a Lifestyle Preview program (to visit) for some communities. See their website for details. Pringle Developers
Solivita at Poinciana near Orlando. Gated. Village center. Also offering a Discovery Experience for visits. They have a pickle ball court which is becoming very popular. Large variety of price ranges starting low $100's and up. Solivita over 55 Community
La Cresta Davenport near Orlando. Del Webb quality and amenities. Located within the master planned community of Ridgewood Lakes. Indoor walking track, golf, fitness, 3 pools and spa. Prices from mid $209,900. La Cresta at Ridgewood Lakes
Heritage Hills By Lennar coming to Clermont near Orlando.
Mt. Olive Shores CRF Community between Tampa and Orlando. This over-55 central Florida retirement community is a deeded lot development not rentals. RV enthusiasts community. An RV community is where a place is provided to store your RV. Currently they are offering a visitor package to stay in a motorcoach for 3 days to "try-out" the community. This gated senior community is lakefront offering freshwater fishing. Prices start mid $100's. Mt. Olive Shores
Vienna Square - Another CRF community combines "elegance and affordability." Start upper $100's. Vienna Square Community
Lake Ashton by CRF Communities - Lake Wales - Premier community on 1200 acres of ranch land fronting waters of Lake Ashton. Gated and many amenities. Some homes have garages for motor coach. Priced from $200's. Lake Ashton by CRF
Note: Prices and terms of Central Florida Retirement Communities are subject to change without notice. Any prices or information given need to be personally verified by you as these can change frequently. Many price adjustments are occurring in the current market.
Central Florida retirement communities are known for a country lifestyle. An active lifestyle for baby boomers can be enjoyed at the many horse farms, lakes, boating and fishing facilities, and walking trails. Some communities offer a small town atmosphere.
Depending on what part you are in, it is generally about 90 minutes to the Atlantic Ocean beaches and 40 minutes to the golf. The great theme parks are also in this area. Some people feel it offers a lower cost of living than other areas of Florida.
The only way to know if it is right for you is to visit. There are many visitor programs at the retirement communities here so you can get to know the area.
Central Florida Retirement Communities in Ocala
Ocala is 90 minutes to the Atlantic Ocean beaches and 40 minutes to the Gulf beaches. Also, it is 90 minutes to the theme parks. Ocala has 4 area hospitals and nearby Gainesville has a regional VA hospital. A sportsman's paradise with lake fishing and boating. This is also horse farm country.
On Top of the World Communities at Ocala - One of the oldest builders in Florida specializing in active adult communities. Four new neighborhoods are currently under development. Radio controlled flying at the community field. 3 golf courses - Villas, single-family and estate homes. Fitness center and spa, indoor heated therapy pool, restaurants, hair salon, yoga and tai chi classes, tennis and more. See their website for details on their Visitors Program.
Home prices starting as low as $157,680's which includes standard features.
On Top of the World Communities
Stone Creek by Del Webb - Ocala - resort-style amenities for retirees - one of largest Del Webb active adult communities in Ocala. Not only does it have a golf course it allows golf cart accessibility throughout this gated community. Single-family or attached. Pedestrian trails and 4000 senior residences planned. Duplex and single family homes. Duplex price starts $169,900.
Stone Creek by Del Webb
The Villages of Lady Lake Lady Lake - Large and well-known community. Patio homes, villas, single family ranch and premier homestyles. Lifestyle Preview Visit Program - 24 miles to Ocala. Prices start affordable. The Villages of Lady Lake
Summer Glen Golf Club 15 minutes to Ocala - affordably priced Central Forida retirement communities by Florida Leisure Communities. 18-hole championship golf course (open to public-please verify this information.) Prices start mid $180's for cottage series (some discount pricing now offered--see builder's website for details). Summerglen
Oak Run Country Club Ocala - by Decca Gated luxury resort living - 2 golf courses and clubhouses with dining. Pro shops. Bocce ball, pools, fitness, activities and more. Some home prices do not include home sites pricing--please verify pricing. Oak Run Country Club
Hardwood Trails - Ocala. Wooded homesites. Only 65 homes. Concrete and block construction with many options included in price. Clubhouse and heated pool. Gated in country setting. Prices affordable. Website states 2 model homes left at special prices. (may be sold by now) See builder for details. Hardwood Trails
Ocala Palms Golf and Country Club - Ocala - Next phase of construction features Palm Isle Townhomes. Lots of amenities. By Venture Associates Corp. Gated active adult golf community. Prices affordable Ocala Palms Golf and Country Club
Central Florida Retirement Communities in Gainesville
Oak Hammock Retirement Community Affiliated with the University of Florida. Lifecare program available but emphasis on an active lifestyle as we age. Entrance fee and a monthly fee. Physical and financial assessments before entrance.
University environment accessible to lifelong learning. Upscale lifestyle with many amenities. You do not have to be an alumni of U of Florida. 29 residences of apartments, free-standing homes and villas. Pet friendly. Please verify all information. Oak Hammock
Central Florida Retirement Communities in Winterhaven
Traditions Cottage Collection by Lennar - From $160's - Other collections are Homestead start $194's and Plantation start $213's. Gated. 60 minutes to Orlando. Boat launch and slips on Lake Ruby. Landscaped homes, clubhouse, walking trails, pool and more. Resort-style. Traditions Cottage Collection by Lennar
Central Florida Retirement Communities in Mount Dora -a charming town worth investigating for a slower pace and 90 minutes to Coast:
The Lakes at Mount Dora In Mount Dora by Pringle
The Lakes at Mount Dora
Central Florida Retirement Communities in Sebring
Highlands Ridge Retirement Community - Sebring - Preview to Purchase Program - Fishing lake and golf - 1 hr to Tampa, Orlando, Palm Beach. Heartland Medical wellness programs. Priced affordably. Highlands Ridge Retirement Community
Other Central Florida Retirement Communities
Cascades at Groveland at Groveland - Levitt and Sons has filed Chapter 11. Please call them for more information. 30 minutes to Orlando. Cascades at Groveland
Near Orlando The Plantation at Leesburg Leesburg - Visit Program - Purchase plus monthly fee - minutes north of Orlando The Plantation at Leesburg
Arlington Ridge Leesburg. 30 minutes to Mount Dora, quaint town known for antiques, quaint cafes. Single family retirement homes. Village Green concept is desirable feature. Arlington Ridge
Cottages of the Heritage by Pringle near Leesburg - old Florida style - charming quaint cottage style homes and protected wetlands distinguish this community.
Also see by Pringle in Leesburg: Legacy of Leesburg Gated community features town center. Historic downtown with shopping. 7 miles of nature trails. A nature theme and bordering conservation areas makes this community unique. The Pringle family of developers has been in Lake County for more than 80 years. They specialize in Florida and active adult communities. They offer a free book entitled Florida Living. Pringle's website shows a 2-year deferred home construction program and other creative programs. Pricing from $100's to $500's. They also have a Lifestyle Preview program (to visit) for some communities. See their website for details. Pringle Developers
Solivita at Poinciana near Orlando. Gated. Village center. Also offering a Discovery Experience for visits. They have a pickle ball court which is becoming very popular. Large variety of price ranges starting low $100's and up. Solivita over 55 Community
La Cresta Davenport near Orlando. Del Webb quality and amenities. Located within the master planned community of Ridgewood Lakes. Indoor walking track, golf, fitness, 3 pools and spa. Prices from mid $209,900. La Cresta at Ridgewood Lakes
Heritage Hills By Lennar coming to Clermont near Orlando.
Mt. Olive Shores CRF Community between Tampa and Orlando. This over-55 central Florida retirement community is a deeded lot development not rentals. RV enthusiasts community. An RV community is where a place is provided to store your RV. Currently they are offering a visitor package to stay in a motorcoach for 3 days to "try-out" the community. This gated senior community is lakefront offering freshwater fishing. Prices start mid $100's. Mt. Olive Shores
Vienna Square - Another CRF community combines "elegance and affordability." Start upper $100's. Vienna Square Community
Lake Ashton by CRF Communities - Lake Wales - Premier community on 1200 acres of ranch land fronting waters of Lake Ashton. Gated and many amenities. Some homes have garages for motor coach. Priced from $200's. Lake Ashton by CRF
Note: Prices and terms of Central Florida Retirement Communities are subject to change without notice. Any prices or information given need to be personally verified by you as these can change frequently. Many price adjustments are occurring in the current market.
Caring for those elderly that need public assistance
By TRAVIS REED
Associated Press Writer
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Caring for the elderly is one of Florida's growth industries -- nearly a quarter of the state's population is over 60 and almost 10 percent is at least 75. But caring for the poor among them is a different story -- particularly when a patient becomes unable to make his or her own decisions.
To take care of them, Florida, like many states, has a public guardianship system -- a government entity that works through the courts to appoint guardians for those without the means to pay for their own. But it's a skeleton entity, and only about half of Florida's 67 counties are covered. And even in those, there's a waiting list -- 254 people, according to the most recent figures from the Statewide Public Guardianship Office. That was up from 225 in the office's 2007 annual report and 132 people waiting in 2006. Even then, that might just be a fraction of the problem -- the state public guardian estimated in 2004 that 5,000 to 10,000 people who needed its services weren't getting them.
That population of endangered adults is expected to rise as more Baby Boomers age and head here for retirement. A guardian is essentially a surrogate decision-maker, appointed by a judge after someone is found incompetent to care for him or herself. To qualify for public help, a person must have limited means and no willing or able familyor friends. "It's really the office of last resort for the most vulnerable of the vulnerable," said Michelle Hollister, executive director of the SPGO. "They're incapacitated, they have no money and they're basically alone." There are success stories. In 2006, a 69-year-old from Immokalee was suffering potentially fatal septic shock while his wife was out of the country. An emergency guardian was appointed, approved treatment and the man recovered. A 63-year-old woman with dementia and mild retardation was saved from an abusive caregiver after an Adult Protective Services investigator found her hiding in some bushes. She was appointed a public caregiver and placed in a safe home. But cases have to be referred into the system, and that only happens if someone thinks an individual is exhibiting signs of incapacity. Because the state's wards are by definition alone, the first call often isn't made.
Florida's public guardian system is also chronically underfunded, relying on a county-by-county melange of charities, partnerships and sheer good will. Some, like the Guardianship Program of Dade County, are almost entirely funded by the county. Others, like the Fifth Circuit Public Guardian Corp., which serves Marion County, rely heavily on the United Way, despite being a "public" agency. The localities with waiting lists can't simply accept an additional ward or two, because state law limits how many people each guardian can have. The SPGO is asking for a $1.3 million increase over its roughly $2.3 million budget this year, which would enable it to care for an extra 150 people. It isn't even trying to get the estimated $24 million it would annually take to serve everyone who needs help. The most severe cases can be taken on by Adult Protective Services, but there are real effects of the waiting list limbo. Perhaps the most tangible is higher public health care costs, because hospitals must keep some patients until the system can accept them. "As long as we know that they're taken care of," said Andrea Wolfkill, a case manager in Marion County. "If they're in a facility, I don't move as quickly -- if they're in a hospital. They've had people two or three months because they don't have a guardian."
That problem -- and expense -- prompted Martin Memorial Health Systems in Stuart to initiate its own public guardian program for Martin County. Linda Hake, a senior attorney for the hospital who now oversees it, said she had been trying since 1999 so start a public entity. It opened in 2006, with no county funding. "Trying to find guardians for people who have no money is impossible," Hake said. "And those are the people that need them, because they're the ones typically that don't have the family resources. They're estranged from their family, they're alcoholics."
Terry Hammond, a Texas attorney who also serves as executive director of the Pennsylvania-based National Guardianship Association, said Florida was ahead of states that had no program at all. But without legislative support, Hammond said it amounted to an unfunded mandate that raised equal protection concerns. Hammond said he knew of only one other state, New Mexico, with a waiting list for public guardians. "The question ultimately is, 'What are we willing to pay in human cost to save money for the budget?"' Hammond said. "And if the government isn't willing to spend money on people who need assistance, what is the purpose of that government?"
Associated Press Writer
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Caring for the elderly is one of Florida's growth industries -- nearly a quarter of the state's population is over 60 and almost 10 percent is at least 75. But caring for the poor among them is a different story -- particularly when a patient becomes unable to make his or her own decisions.
To take care of them, Florida, like many states, has a public guardianship system -- a government entity that works through the courts to appoint guardians for those without the means to pay for their own. But it's a skeleton entity, and only about half of Florida's 67 counties are covered. And even in those, there's a waiting list -- 254 people, according to the most recent figures from the Statewide Public Guardianship Office. That was up from 225 in the office's 2007 annual report and 132 people waiting in 2006. Even then, that might just be a fraction of the problem -- the state public guardian estimated in 2004 that 5,000 to 10,000 people who needed its services weren't getting them.
That population of endangered adults is expected to rise as more Baby Boomers age and head here for retirement. A guardian is essentially a surrogate decision-maker, appointed by a judge after someone is found incompetent to care for him or herself. To qualify for public help, a person must have limited means and no willing or able familyor friends. "It's really the office of last resort for the most vulnerable of the vulnerable," said Michelle Hollister, executive director of the SPGO. "They're incapacitated, they have no money and they're basically alone." There are success stories. In 2006, a 69-year-old from Immokalee was suffering potentially fatal septic shock while his wife was out of the country. An emergency guardian was appointed, approved treatment and the man recovered. A 63-year-old woman with dementia and mild retardation was saved from an abusive caregiver after an Adult Protective Services investigator found her hiding in some bushes. She was appointed a public caregiver and placed in a safe home. But cases have to be referred into the system, and that only happens if someone thinks an individual is exhibiting signs of incapacity. Because the state's wards are by definition alone, the first call often isn't made.
Florida's public guardian system is also chronically underfunded, relying on a county-by-county melange of charities, partnerships and sheer good will. Some, like the Guardianship Program of Dade County, are almost entirely funded by the county. Others, like the Fifth Circuit Public Guardian Corp., which serves Marion County, rely heavily on the United Way, despite being a "public" agency. The localities with waiting lists can't simply accept an additional ward or two, because state law limits how many people each guardian can have. The SPGO is asking for a $1.3 million increase over its roughly $2.3 million budget this year, which would enable it to care for an extra 150 people. It isn't even trying to get the estimated $24 million it would annually take to serve everyone who needs help. The most severe cases can be taken on by Adult Protective Services, but there are real effects of the waiting list limbo. Perhaps the most tangible is higher public health care costs, because hospitals must keep some patients until the system can accept them. "As long as we know that they're taken care of," said Andrea Wolfkill, a case manager in Marion County. "If they're in a facility, I don't move as quickly -- if they're in a hospital. They've had people two or three months because they don't have a guardian."
That problem -- and expense -- prompted Martin Memorial Health Systems in Stuart to initiate its own public guardian program for Martin County. Linda Hake, a senior attorney for the hospital who now oversees it, said she had been trying since 1999 so start a public entity. It opened in 2006, with no county funding. "Trying to find guardians for people who have no money is impossible," Hake said. "And those are the people that need them, because they're the ones typically that don't have the family resources. They're estranged from their family, they're alcoholics."
Terry Hammond, a Texas attorney who also serves as executive director of the Pennsylvania-based National Guardianship Association, said Florida was ahead of states that had no program at all. But without legislative support, Hammond said it amounted to an unfunded mandate that raised equal protection concerns. Hammond said he knew of only one other state, New Mexico, with a waiting list for public guardians. "The question ultimately is, 'What are we willing to pay in human cost to save money for the budget?"' Hammond said. "And if the government isn't willing to spend money on people who need assistance, what is the purpose of that government?"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
