Lifestyle

Voyagers Complete 3-year Trip Around the World in a Polynesian Canoe With No Modern Technology

Lifestyle, Travel

Thanks to all our modern conveniences — GPS, Google Maps, self-driving cars, automatic pilot — traveling around the world has become easier than ever before. But what if all that went away? Would humanity still be able to figure out how to get from point A to point B?For one group of explorers, the answer is yes: Using absolutely no modern-day technology, they navigated a Polynesian canoe all the way around the globe.

As the Associated Press reported, the ship, which started its trip in 2014, had about a dozen crewmembers onboard for each leg of the global journey. The crew used their knowledge of currents, birds, wind, and the stars to sail nearly 40,000 nautical miles, making stops in 19 countries.

Read the entire article: Voyagers Complete 3-year Trip Around the World in a Polynesian Canoe With No Modern Technology | Travel + Leisure

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Pauline Frommer: 13 Expert Budget Travel Tips | Money

Lifestyle, Travel

Before you lock in those summer travel plans, make sure you’re getting the most bang out of your travel buck. Here are are 13 favorite tips from Pauline Frommer of travel-guide company Frommer’s on where to scrimp and splurge when planning a vacation and how to get the best rates on airfare, car rentals and lodging.

1. For airline tickets, check Momondo first. Frommer’s compared prices quoted by airfare search engines, aggregators and booking websites on 25 popular routes, both for last-minute flights and those booked six weeks ahead. The results? Momondo is the best place to find the cheapest airfare. Skyscanner came in second. Frommer’s ran a similar test for hotel booking sites and found that Booking.com came out on top, especially for travelers looking for city-center spots under $200 a night.

2. Accept a little discomfort in the air. “I think it is a huge waste of money to buy business class or first class unless you’re 6’4″ and will be in incredible agony,” says Frommer, co-president and editorial director of Frommer’s. “People concentrate too much on the flight. It is a couple of hours and then you’re in this wonderful destination. So if it is between getting a business class seat and eating a meal in a spectacular restaurant or seeing a show, the hell with business class.

3. Always carry on. “You do not want to be a slave to your suitcase. I only own carry-on luggage and that forces me to pack less than I would have normally and you just wear things over and over,” says Frommer. Packing light delivers three big advantages: You avoid costly airline baggage fees, skip wasting time waiting at baggage claim, and can use public transit easily to get from the airport to your destination or from one city to another.

Read the entire article: Pauline Frommer: 13 Expert Budget Travel Tips | Money

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Americans Aren’t Loving Retirement Like They Used To — Here’s Why

Lifestyle, Retirement

Retirement is a time to shake off years of employment and enjoy life, right? That might be the goal, but many Americans aren’t feeling it. Dwindling satisfactionA 2016 Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) study analyzed retirement satisfaction trends between 1998 and 2012. Respondents who said they were “very satisfied” with their retirements dropped by 11.9 percentage points, those “not at all” satisfied increased by 2.6 percentage points, and the middle-of-the-road “moderately satisfied” response saw a gain of 9.2 percentage points.

Read the entire article: Americans Aren’t Loving Retirement Like They Used To — Here’s Why

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Healthy Lifestyle Important to Retirement Planning

Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Retirement

Retirement has become an active stage of life—one people have positive ideas about. For example, they aspire to stay socially connected, participate in their communities and remain economically active, according to the 2016 Aegon Retirement Readiness Survey.

Globally, the majority (72%) of people associate positive words with retirement, including “leisure” (46%), “freedom” (41%) and “enjoyment” (31%). People ages 65 and older have more positive associations with retirement than do younger people, ages 18 through 24.

The two most widely held retirement aspirations among respondents are traveling (62%) and spending time with friends and family (57%). Twenty-six percent mention some form of paid work as a retirement aspiration.

Achieving retirement aspirations requires more than saving, investing and planning, however; it also depends on staying in good health, the survey report notes.

Read the entire article: Healthy Lifestyle Important to Retirement Planning

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Alleged Jackson Pollock goes to auction June 20

Lifestyle

Jackson Pollock spent nearly all of his youth in Arizona and California. He even left a tiny bit of himself in Phoenix, close to what is now Sky Harbor International Airport.The 20th-century artist, internationally known for abstract, splatter and “drip” paintings, became a sensation in the New York art world starting in the 1940s until his death in 1956. So how is it that one of Pollock’s paintings might have found its way into a Sun City garage?

Read the entire article: Alleged Jackson Pollock goes to auction June 20

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Your Money: 3 moves you should make in the 3 years before you retire – Twin Cities

Lifestyle, Retirement

Life’s major milestones — graduations, births, weddings and cross-country moves — all require a certain amount of preparation.Retirement is no different. That’s why we believe it’s important for people to meet with a financial adviser several years before they retire so you can jump right into the retired life once you’re ready.

Read the entire article: Your Money: 3 moves you should make in the 3 years before you retire – Twin Cities

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Pass On Your Assets Wisely: How To Choose The Right Beneficiaries

Financial Planning, Lifestyle

I’m often asked by clients about who should be named as beneficiaries on their IRAs versus their retirement plans and other assets. This article provides a starting point. I have more detailed information if you wish… just ask. -Jeff

When you pass away, what you leave to your loved ones is important, but so is how you leave those assets. Determining the right assets to leave to different beneficiaries is an absolutely critical part of effective estate planning.

Read the entire article: Pass On Your Assets Wisely: How To Choose The Right Beneficiaries

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5 New Realities of Retirement – US News

Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Retirement

My experience has been that the happiest and healthiest retirees that I know find ways to stay socially and emotionally engaged in life all around them. For some, working or scheduled volunteering forces them to do this. Worth the read. -Jeff

Our parents were able to retire and collect full Social Security at age 65. Most baby boomers have to wait until 66. People born after 1959 have to wait even longer – until age 67 – before reaching what Social Security defines as “full retirement age.” And while the younger generations can still start collecting Social Security as early as 62, they will suffer a bigger penalty – a 30 percent cut to their full benefit, rather than 20 percent for those eligible under the old 65-year-old rule.

Read the entire article: 5 New Realities of Retirement – US News

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Average Americans May Never Retire, But That's Okay

Average Americans May Never Retire, But That’s Okay

Lifestyle, Retirement

Average Americans May Never Retire, But That\'s OkayMost people don’t set out to be average but at some point a new study or poll may lump them into that category. Unfortunately, for those classified as “average,” it is becoming increasingly difficult to feel secure about their potential to ever retire in the traditional sense.

Recently the Social Security Administration disclosed that the average American took home roughly $44,500 in net compensation. While that’s a 3.5% increase from 2013, when combined with other American averages, such as having less than $60,000 saved for retirement and predictions of spending upwards of $245,000 on healthcare during retirement, it’s easy to see why people are leery about reaching their golden years.

Some quick calculations confirm what many people are worried about. Using the Social Security Administration’s Quick Calculator Tool, the average American baby boomer age 62 and claiming benefits in 2015 would receive approximately $982 per month (less than $12,000 per year). […]

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Life lessons from a life-affirming heart attack

Life lessons from a life-affirming heart attack

Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Retirement

Life lessons from a life-affirming heart attackYou can’t judge the real impact of a life-changing event until you’ve lived some life afterwards. Only then can you take stock and measure the size of and commitment to the change.

Five years ago last week, I suffered a heart attack, caused when a building clot broke free, floated downstream until it got stuck, and created a 100% blockage in the artery known by cardiologists as “the widowmaker.”

The changes I expected in the immediate aftermath and a year after the event are, in some respects, different from the reality I live with today. (Read the column I wrote upon first returning to work) , and the column I wrote a year later.)

But life itself is a series of life-altering events. For example, a divorce completed early this year — after 30 years of marriage — was every bit as unexpected as the heart attack; it just wasn’t as […]

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Are You Emotionally Ready for Retirement?

Lifestyle, Retirement

635689537398459416-ThinkstockPhotos-84214601Finally, it’s time. The long-anticipated day has arrived. You loosen your tie (or kick off your heels), sink into your leatherette desk chair one last time, and spin around for a final 360-degree view of the cubicle farm horizon before waltzing down to the parking garage and saying “sayonara” to your 9-to-5 working days (after turning in your security badge and boxing up your terrarium of mixed succulents, of course).

Ahhhh, retirement. Aaaaargh! Retirement! It may be time, and you may be financially ready. But there’s a key part of the retirement readiness equation that isn’t captured by asset allocation models and withdrawal-rate simulations: Are you emotionally prepared for retirement? “You mean, no more being woken by a shrieking alarm clock?

Entire Article: Are You Emotionally Ready for Retirement?

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15 Ways to Retire Early | GOBankingRates

Lifestyle, Retirement

slide_213987_777918_freeThe word “retirement” and number “65” are as linked in the American psyche as “bacon and eggs.” Then again, that all depends on how fast you want your eggs, right?

Retiring early — or leaving the work force for the golf course, if you like — might sound like an unattainable goal. That’s especially true if you look at the challenge from a pure cash paradigm. But there are many ways to make it, so long as you take numerous approaches into account.

Source: 15 Ways to Retire Early | GOBankingRates

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The Old Strategies Retirees Need to Unlearn – The Experts – WSJ

Health & Fitness, Lifestyle

Interesting read about how many of us have to learn to “shed our skins” to really, truly enjoy retirement. -jrs

SARA LAWRENCE-LIGHTFOOT: Many of us in our third chapters, who leave the well-worn, highly ritualized paths of our careers—where we have enjoyed status and standing, authority and expertise—to pursue new adventures, often find that part of making a successful transition requires that we explore new ways of learning.We discover, in fact, that the processes and products of our learning that assured our academic success and that advanced our careers can inhibit our development and adventurousness as older adults.In my interviews with dozens of women and men between the ages of 50 and 75 who were embarking on new vocations and avocations after retiring, I was struck by the contrasts and contradictions that they drew bet

Source: The Old Strategies Retirees Need to Unlearn – The Experts – WSJ

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