Three great websites for boomers and retirees
Baby Boomers love to read. Why? Because we were raised with newspapers.
Most of us remember the days when every city not only had a morning newspaper, but also an afternoon or evening newspaper, which we referred to as PMs. (I was raised in Northern New Jersey with the Newark Star-Ledger and the Newark Evening News.)
Those afternoon newspapers are gone. (Many of the morning ones are gone as well, but that's another story). Still baby boomers adapt better than we are given credit for.
As newspapers have disappeared, we too flocked to the web. There are some great sites that cater to baby boomers and cover issues including retiree financial planning, retirement living, retirement homes and boomer health.
I don't mean to overlook sites like AARP.org and Social Security.gov, which are wonderful sites loaded with useful data and information. But here I wanted to focus on a few that may be new to you. These are three of my favorites:
• NextAvenue.org (Where grown-ups keep growing)
Conceived and developed by Twin Cities Public PBS in St. Paul, Minnesota, Next Avenue is the first effort by PBS to be launched on the web, rather on television. It offers high-quality journalism and features on a wide range of topics - from careers, to personal finance and retirement planning to health.
"Nextavenue.org, a site for people 50+, features a Money & Security channel and a Work & Purpose channel, with articles aimed at helping readers manage their finances and make smart decisions about working full-time and part-time, before retirement and during retirement," Managing Editor Rich Eisenberg says. "We're finding a strong appetite for these pieces both on our site (which often has roughly 2 million visitors a month) and from our media partners at Forbes, MarketWatch and Huffington Post 50, which often republish these pieces.
Among the top stories recently: Is an Alzheimer's vaccine on the horizon; How boomer parents can stop babying their millennials financially; and 7 interview tips for older workers to get temp jobs.
• On Retirement
U.S. News & World Report retirement-focused section offers retirement planning ideas and advice from top personal finance and lifestyle bloggers, including Money Ning, Live and Invest Overseas, Good Financial Cents, Cash Money Life and more.
Recent featured articles include: 10 costs to include in your retirement budget; The pros and cons of hiring a financial adviser, 5 mistakes that are reducing your retirement savings and 4 ways to botch your retirement plan.
• The Retirement Cafe by Ernie J. Zelinski (Where you get the best retirement advice for the twenty-first century and retirement information that you won't get from your financial adviser.)
Zelinski is the author of the book "How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free."
Not as pretty and polished as some of the others, but packed with information and links to stories on other websites, ranging from the AARP, U.S. News & World Report and others. From the website: "This website addresses the 'new retirement' including topics such as why you should retire early, where to retire, how to preserve retirement savings, how to generate retirement income, how to find fun retirement jobs and how to get involved in fun retirement activities.
"The purpose of The Retirement Café is to help the retired and the soon-to-be retired to better understand their lifetime aspirations, to help them minimize the complexity and uncertainty associated with retirement, and to allow them to concentrate on what matters most in retirement planning."