APRIL 2015
“I have found
that if you love life, life will love you back.”
- Arthur Rubenstein
TRAVEL TIP Carry on whenever
you can
Unless you are really going on extended jaunt, consider getting by with
carry-on luggage. With a carry-on, you have less to lug around, no precious
vacation time lost waiting for bags at the carousel, and fewer check-in luggage
fees.
BRAIN TEASER Sibling
Stumper. How can you be
behind your brother when he is behind you?*
DID YOU KNOW?
A fruit that makes you radiant
Bananas contain a miniscule amount of Potassium-40, meaning that they
are naturally radioactive. Not to worry, though: eating one banana per day means
you are receiving radiation exposure roughly akin to that you would get living
within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant.5
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BEWARE OF LETTING YOUR CHILDREN DELAY YOUR
RETIREMENT
Families that provide
financial support to adult children tend to be families in which parents retire
later. How much later? According to Hearts and Wallets (a market research firm
focused on retirees and retirement trends), a mom or dad aged 65 or older whose
grown kids need no financial support is more than twice as likely to be retired
(52%) than a parent 65 or older who provides money to a child
(21%).
Just how many such
households are lending financial support to millennials? A whopping 15.8
million, Hearts and Wallets indicates (16.6% of households in this demographic).
Financial assistance for “boomerang” offspring aside, 12.6% of these families
are financially supporting minor children and another 4.2% provide some money
help to relatives. Looking at the same issue in fall 2014, LIMRA Secure
Retirement Institute found that 23% of parents are helping adult children with
either rent or mortgage payments, and 24% are picking up some of the tab for
college loans or education expenses. For those parents who want to retire sooner
rather than later, setting some firm money boundaries with the next generation
might be a plus. 1,2
HEFTY AT 55, MENTALLY HEALTHY AT
65?
Contradicting earlier
research that linked obesity and senility, a new large-scale study published in
the Lancet Diabetes
and Endocrinology Journal contends that those who are
greatly overweight in midlife are less prone to memory loss and confusion in
ensuing years.
Spanish medical research
firm Oxon Epidemiology spearheaded a study of more than 2 million patients with
an average age of 55, more than 45,000 of whom became afflicted with dementia
within the next nine years. Subjects whose weight was lower than normal had a
34% higher chance of developing signs of dementia compared to markedly obese
individuals, whose risk of symptoms were 29% lower. The study’s assertions seem
authoritative given its huge scope (a previous one published in Neurology in 2008 had a sample size of just 6,000). Of course, being obese at 55 makes
simply aging that much harder.3
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE
Assumptions that retirees need to live on 80%
of their end salaries may be flawed. Last year, T. Rowe Price Group polled 1,507
recently retired Americans (median net worth: $473,000) and found them living on an
average of 66% of their end salaries; 57% said their quality of life had not
suffered at all.4
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