Seniors and Retirement

Seniors, Baby Boomers, and Retirement

2008-06-07T15:20:00.000-07:00

Retirement means the end of work
But it's not a reason to go berserk
There's still a lot in life to do
So cheer up now and work it through

You can do part time jobs or work from home
Or travel the world and visit Rome
You can make more money than you ever did
By investing wisely, so place your bid

You can spend more time with your love
Enjoying life to the fullest with your angel dove
Or if you're not attached, do not despair
It's not too late to have a love affair

Think about it for a second and you will see
That life has changed to some degree
Not only are you still fully alive
But no more work from nine to five!

So go enjoy your life for a change
Maybe an afternoon at the golf range
And listen to my advice if you want to be
As energetic and happy is Big Z!

That's my contribution to the English literature. A funny poem by Big Z. Well maybe not very funny, but hey ... at least it rhymes :).

Everybody has a blog now, so I am starting one of my own. It's not my first one really, but it's the first one I setup that tackles retirement and seniors. So I'll me adding a new topic to it every few days based on my research, my experience, and the stories I hear from friends and acquaintances. Basically, I am looking to list various websites that are helpful to middle-aged adults, baby boomers, seniors, and retired people. Things like managing your money, investing, travel, living comfortably, etc.

The pages I have so far are:

I am looking to keep adding new topics on a weekly basis.

If you would like to help me write some pages for this blog, please feel free to do that. You can always email me at bigz65@hotmail.com.

Seniors Dating Services

2008-06-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

Top Dating Services for Seniors and Middle-Aged Adults

Online dating sites have both simplified the dating scene and made it more complex at the same time. While it is easy to sit behind your monitor and search for profiles for a person that seems compatible, you really never know what you get. In many cases, the profiles are either old or bogus. For the genuine ones, you may pour your heart out only to get no response in return. It can be frustrating, but once you get the hang of it, you will be able to filter the good from the bad. Just keep in mind that common sense rules apply.

Below are 3 dating services that I have profiled. They are Senior Friend Finder, Match.com, and eHarmony. Of the 3, Senior Friend Finder is the one specalized in matching middle-aged and senior adults. The other 2 are for general dating and matchmaking, but they have senior members as well.

Senior Friend Finder
SeniorFriendFinder.com is the largest senior dating service on the Internet and is generally considered one of the best.

Overview
The Senior Friend Finder site is an attractive, well-organized and extremely user-friendly online dating site. There is a good Help section that includes answers to frequently asked questions and provides easy access to Senior Friend Finder customer service representatives, who can help with more complex or less typical situations.

According to the website: “The purpose of the Senior FriendFinder site is to make it as easy as possible for you to meet people, using the power of the internet. At Senior FriendFinder, you'll find a community of people using the site as a tool to make connections and find partners for dating, romance, friendship, and a variety of encounters.”

How Much Does it Cost?
Standard membership in Senior Friend Finder is free and provides a package of basic services that allows you to test the waters before diving in to an upgraded Senior Friend Finder membership.

Standard membership includes:

posting your profile on Senior Friend Finder is free of charge
access to chat rooms and instant messaging
limited use of the Senior Friend Finder search tools
access to the interactive Senior Friend Finder magazine
the ability to respond to 10 emails from interested members every 24 hours

If you’re serious about using Senior Friend Finder to help you meet someone special, chances are you will want to upgrade to one of the premium Senior Friend Finder memberships.

Silver and Gold status both offer many additional services, including:

unlimited communication
faster technical support
better placement for your profile
free use of powerful search tools that enable you to search for other members by location, sex, age or favorite activities

According to Senior Friend Finder, premium memberships can cost as little as 25 cents per day, but they are more likely to run between $20 and $25 per month.

How Safe is Senior Friend Finder?
Senior Friend Finder advertises its service as “free and safe,” but, just as in the real world, your personal safety is your responsibility. The only information Senior Friend Finder requires of new members is a valid email address, and Senior Friend Finder does not screen potential members.

On the other hand, Senior Friend Finder has an Abuse Team that follows up on member complaints about abusive email or other problems. Anyone found violating the Terms of Use or abusing other members will be banned from the Senior Friend Finder site.

Visit the Senior Friend Finder website

Match.com
Match.com is one of the largest general interest dating sites on the Internet and one of the most successful at bringing people together. According to the website, every year more than 200,000 people find the person they were seeking by using Match.com. And Match.com reports that people 50 and older represent its fastest growing user segment.

Overview
Founded in 1995, Match.com offers many user-friendly features to make online dating easy, rewarding and fun, whether you are a newcomer or a veteran. The large number of Match.com members increases your chances of finding many more interesting matches close to home, and allows you to be as selective as you want.

Having a large membership also makes Match.com a good choice for baby boomers and seniors because its huge user base guarantees that you will find someone your age in your geographical area.

How Much Does it Cost?
It is free to post a profile, browse and search for matches on Match.com. This is a good way to ease into online dating, because it lets you get a feel for what kind of people are on Match.com looking for potential matches, and gives you an idea of what kind of potential matches you could make before you pay a membership fee.

To contact someone, however, you have to be a paying member. Joining Match.com will also let you take advantage of the full range of services available on the site. Match.com offers a variety of subscription packages and discounts to meet the diverse needs of its members. A basic, one-month subscription costs $29.99, which is in the typical monthly fee range for most large dating websites.

How Safe is It?
Match.com has a well-deserved reputation for protecting member privacy and for going the extra mile to make using the site as safe and worry-free as possible for its members.

According to Match.com, “What happens at Match.com stays at Match.com. We use a double-blind email system to preserve your privacy. It replaces your real email address with your username and "talkmatch" domain (ex: sportsgirl@talkMatch.com), then forwards your messages to the members you’re emailing.”

All other forms of communication between member, such as instant messaging, video and audio also have built-in features that allow members to remain anonymous.

Match.com reviews all profiles and photos before they are posted to make sure they are appropriate and free of suggestive or profane images and language.

Visit the Match.com website

EHarmony
eHarmony claims to take the guesswork out of matchmaking by using a scientific approach to help people find not only good matches and potential mates, but soul mates, and it seems to be working.

On average, 90 eHarmony members get married every day, and the site is filled with testimonials from happy couples who found love at eHarmony, including couples over 50. On the negative side, some members felt some discrimination based on their physical appearance

Overview
Founded in 2000 by Dr. Neil Clark Warren, a clinical psychologist and author of books about creating healthy relationships that last, eHarmony was the first online dating site to use psychology and science to assess a potential couple’s compatibility and to match them accordingly.

According to eHarmony, its mission is “to empower people with the knowledge and inspiration needed to grow and strengthen their most important relationships for a lifetime of happiness.” They say that using research to help people find their “soul mates” works, citing “recent research presented at the American Psychological Society, which found that eHarmony married couples are significantly happier than couples married for a similar length of time who met by other means.”

With 15 million registered members from all 50 U.S. states and 200 countries, and members of every race and religion, eHarmony claims to be building a relationship site that “serves a world community.”

eHarmony is also unusual in that its membership reportedly includes about twice as many women as men, flipping the more typical ratio found on other dating sites.

How Much Does it Cost?
It doesn’t cost anything to fill out the eHarmony questionnaire, receive your Free Personality Profile, and be matched up with prospective partners. You only pay when and if you want to communicate with one or more of your matches. eHarmony offers four subscription rates:

$59.95 for one month
$110.85 for three months ($36.95 per month)
173.70 for six months ($28.95 per month)
$251.40 for 12 months ($20.95 per month)

With all four options, the subscription is auto-renewed and charged to your credit card at each new billing period until you cancel your membership.

eHarmony costs more than most other online dating services, but the company defends its price by saying that it is a unique relationship service that helps people find their soul mates and “fall in love for all the right reasons.” According to eHarmony, comparing their prices to those of other online dating sites is an “apples and oranges” comparison.

How Safe is eHarmony?
eHarmony protects the anonymity of its members until they are ready to share personal information with someone they want to know better. The Guided Communication option offers an added layer of protection, allowing you to get to know a match pretty well before every revealing your identity.

eHarmony also offers a page with common sense safety tips for online dating and a special email address where members can report any concerns they have about a match or another member’s conduct.

Visit the eHarmony.com website

Conclusion
If you want a website that is dedicated for seniors and middle aged adults, then Senior Friend Finder is your best bet.

Retirement Income by Working From Home

2008-06-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

Big Z's Guide to Retirement Income Activities

Let me tell you this straight out. Most of the ads you see out there for making money online are just scams. Be especially wary of the ones that ask you to pay first. Last year, I paid $49.95 to buy a book that was supposed to help me make an easy income online. You know what the book said? It told me to buy more of the same book and resell it to others. And that was not the only scam I fell for either.

But now I know better. Most of the work from home and get rich quick schemes are just that. Empty schemes. So unless you know that something is reliable, don't bother.

Nevertheless, the idea of working from home is appealing to someone like me. I mean I am retired. I am home all day, so it would be perfect to have a supplemental income. Being able to work online to make an additional income to supplement your retirement savings is convenient and doable.

So I have tried many things for the past year, and here are some activities that I found:

Foreign Exchange Trading and Stock Trading
OK, so this one is not for the faint at heart. You can make money, but you can lose money too. While I have done my share of quick stock trading like everyone else, I have never actually tried foreign exchange trading (they call it Forex). As I said, it is not for the faint at heart. My old buddy Don said it is not for people like me. But he has been at it since last Christmas and he has managed to stay on the winning side. Whenever he is in a cranky mood, I knew he lost some, but overall, he says he is making quite the second income. And Don is not the only one. I know 4 others, all retired, who have been trading currency. Only one of them gave it up because she could not handle biting her nails all day long.

Don explained the concept to me, so I will try to summarize: Currency is like stock. The values keep changing all the time. But, unlike stock, you can trade huge amounts at a time, up to 100 times your balance. So, if you have $500 in your account, you can trade $50,000 in currency. For example, you can buy $50,000 worth of Euros or British Pounds. So basically you are converting currencies from one (the Dollar) to the other (Euro or Pound or Yen) multiplied by 100. Now, if the Euro goes up by just one cent, you double your money. Of course, if it drops by 1 cent, then you lose half your money. And the market is so volatile that prices keep changing all the time, so you can do many trades in one day and make (or lose) a lot of money. There are graphs and trends that you can follow to kind of put the odds in your favor, and that's how you can end up with a profit at the end of the day. Don says it is easy to spot trends because you have a real-time graph on the screen in front of you, so you can see the price going up or down. He buys when he sees a trend going up, and he sells after he makes $20. Sometimes he misses, and ends up losing $10. He tries to keep it so that half the time he makes $20, and half the time he loses $10. On a good day, he does this for a couple of hours and makes around $50 to $100. He says he averages about $250 a week. But that is Don. He has patience. If you are short tempered, then this is not for you.

Because there is a lot of money involved, naturally there are many companies that offer forex services. Don uses one called Easy Forex. He says he tried others, but he found this one to be the easiest and it offers a lot of information and help to newcomers. Other reputable services are Oanda and Forex.com. If you want to try Easy Forex, please click here. I signed up as an affiliate with them to try to make some extra money myself. So if you want to help me out a bit, please click on this link.

Selling on eBay
This one works if you have something interesting you sell. The product can be something you make, or it can be something you buy and a low cost and resell for profit. Either way, it has to be interesting enough for people to want it and at a low enough price so people will buy it. And it is not just enough to be able to sell it. You also need to be able to deliver it. So you have to make sure you can produce the products fast enough if you have to, and you can ship them to the buyers. Many people make a lot of money selling on eBay. But there is a lot of competition, so make sure that you do your research first. Find out if someone else is selling the same products you are selling, and at what price. There are a lot of articles and books out there about selling on eBay, so I will not go into details. I am mentioning it here though because I know it works.

Resell Someone Else's Products or Services
Basically, you need to connect suppliers with buyers. Most of online services and products are sold this way. Company X wants to sell something, so they offer web users a finder's fee for the customers they bring in. It is commonly called affiliate or referral programs. You see them all over the web.

The easiest way is to find a product or service to market. You can do that easily at specialized websites like Commission Junction, LinkShare, or InnerSell. These sites tell you the products and services available, how much of a commission you will get for selling, and how well they sell.
Now that you have found a good product or service to market, you need to build a website or a blog around it. This will bring traffic to your site, and make users interested in reading what you have to say about it. Your site or blog will have a link to whatever it is you are trying to sell. Whenever someone clicks on the link and buys, you get the commission. The easiest way is to setup a blog, just like this one you are readying. Go to http://www.blogger.com/ and signup for a free blog, and start writing.

There are more ways you can make money online, like writing articles and blogs for companies, filling surveys, and promoting websites. However, I have not tried them, so I am not willing to recommend them at this point. You can do your own research and find out more, but take what you read with a grain of salt. Lots of scams out there.

Financial Planning for Retirement

2008-05-29T15:39:00.001-07:00

For those of us who are retired or are close to retirement, savings is a very important factor. When you were 25, you did not care how much money you had saved away. But now, with savings being you main source of income and comfort, things are different. You've been preparing for retirement all your life. But there are two important factors you should keep in mind:

1. This is not your parents' retirement. 30 years ago, things were VERY different. Gasoline was practically free. (Or at least it seems that way in hindsight.) Older folks relied on Social Security, pension checks, and savings to get them throughtheir golden years. Retirement didn't last too long because life expectancies didn't go far beyond the age of 70. The average male didn't even make it that far.

Your retirement will be very different. Inflation is skyrocketing. Life is way more expensive and demanding. You will live longer, and you'll have a more active (and EXPENSIVE) lifestyle. Your parents may have survived on 70% of their pre-retirement income (perhaps you've heard this common rule of thumb?). But that's probably not enough for you.

2. No one is watching your back. If you rely on tradictional retirement income, then you are going to find it difficult. Why? Social benefits are decreasing all the time, and your personal savings are the only factor that you really have control over. How yoy manage these savings will have the greatest impact on your post-retirement life.

Your savings and their continued growth is what really matters now. Inflation is on the rise with gas and food prices are record levels. So, unless invested properly, your money is losing its value. You need your money to continue growing to be able to maintain your comfortable lifestyle.
So invest wisely and carefully. It is not just important to keep the money you have now, but you need it to keep growing to ensure a steady income in the future.

If you are not up to the task of investing, please consider getting advice from a professional investment advisor.

Retirement Investment Tips

1- Invest convervatively, especially if you have no sources of steady income other than your savings and investment porfolio. Make sure all your investments are sound, do not gamble or take risks, and play it safe.

2- Be tax-savvy in both your investments and cash withdrawals. Know the impact of the moves you make with your money on your taxes. You need to minimize your taxes and maximize your savings

3- Be wary of scams. I know this has been said a thousand times, but fraudulent schemes targeting seniors are on the increase. if someone comes to you with an investment that is too good to be true, then it most probably is.

4- Seek guidance from a professional investment advisor if you don't know what to do. Make sure this professional is certified and has good experience. In most cases, you really do not need an advisor and having will will cost you more money than it is worth. But if you feel you need help with your savings, then do not just ask anyone. Get a professional's advice.