Single Women Don\’t Find All Homes Equally Desirable: To Attract Them, New Home Builders Need to Learn the Importance of Two Things: 3 BR & Women-Centered Design By Jan Cullinane NABBW’s Associate for The New Retirement Single women are the second-largest group of homeowners after couples, and they purchase almost twice as many homes on a first-time and repeat basis than single men do, reports the National Association of Home Builders. More women than men live alone, and single women are more likely to own their homes than single men (56 percent compared to 47 percent). Recognizing... Read More

Wacky Retirement Words you Won’t Find in Webster’s By Jan Cullinane NABBW’s Associate for The New Retirement Retirement is changing, and choice is the new normal. Continue to work? Start a new career? Relocate? Stay? Have adult kids live with you? Women and men approach this transition in different ways, so it’s not surprising that new retirement lingo has blossomed. Here is a baker’s dozen of words/acronyms you won’t find in an ordinary dictionary. Related to Relocation: Fanby (find a new backyard) – People looking to relocate. Some are “serial relocators,” perhaps... Read More

Take A Hike! By Jan Cullinane NABBW’s Expert on The New Retirement I live in a state with swaying palm trees, the second longest coastline (after Alaska), no state income tax, and a place that made the expression “hanging chads” popular.  Yup, you guessed it – Florida.  My husband and I love the warmth, glittering sea, and verdant greenery of the Sunshine State, but the mighty West, with its desert beauty and incredible rock formations beckoned.  So, off we went in late June/early July on a ten-day trip to tour the “Big 5” national parks of Utah: 1.       Capitol Reef 2.      ... Read More

New Study: What Do People Want in Retirement? By Jan Cullinane NABBW’s Expert on The New Retirement A new study by Merrill Lynch in partnership with Age Wave, which  involved 6,300 people age 45 and over was recently released, providing interesting insights into what pre-retirees and retirees think about retirement.  Ten of the major findings:  What’s the most important thing to pass on to future generations?  Answer: 74% said values and life lessons; 32% said money and real estate.  Are you worried about outliving your assets?  47% said yes.  What do pre-retirees think they will... Read More

By Jan Cullinane NABBW’s Expert on The New Retirement I confess: In the secret recesses of my mind, I believe I’m immortal.  I don’t think I’ll ever succumb to heart disease, diabetes, atherosclerosis, or any of the lifestyle-related diseases that bedevil so many of us.  And, I like to eat junk food.  Not all the time, but much more than I should (I just devoured two large chocolate covered marshmallow cookies as I sat down to write this). Yet, as a mature woman, my “numbers” —  blood pressure, glucose, “bad” LDL, triglycerides, creatinine levels, and the other results... Read More

All the Single Ladies By Jan Cullinane NABBW’s Expert on The New Retirement Did you know that there are more than 25 million single women over the age of 45 in the United States, and that this demographic is growing? And, even if you\’re a happily married woman now, there\’s an 80-90% chance you\’ll be single at some point, and be responsible for all decisions, including where you\’ll live? I attribute the growth of this powerful group to what I call the “5Ds”: Divorce, Death of a spouse, Delayed marriage, Dumped (or did the dumping), and just Don\’t... Read More

Katie Holmes and her “First Love”: No Big Surprise By Jan Cullinane NABBW’s Expert on The New Retirement It\’s been hard to avoid the recent frenzy over the news that Katie Holmes has reunited with her self-proclaimed “first love” Joshua Jackson, her Dawson\’s Creek co-star. Guess what? When you look at the research of Dr. Nancy Kalish, an expert in this field and professor of psychology at California State University, it\’s almost a no-brainer. As I discuss in my new book, The Single Woman\’s Guide to Retirement, Kalish found that those... Read More

Three Sites that are Fun, Free, and Do Good for Others! By Jan Cullinane NABBW’s Expert on The New Retirement “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” John Bunyon “Giving back” is a worthy and laudable goal for many women. During these challenging economic times, wouldn\’t it be nice to be able to help others by doing something that is free, enjoyable, good for your brain, and can be done on your own terms and schedule? Here are three online games that accomplish that goal: Free Rice For each correct multiple... Read More

Finding More Time and Saving More Money with PERK By Jan Cullinane NABBW’s Expert on The New Retirement We can all use more time and more money, right? Well, I stumbled across an acronym that can help us do both. The acronym is PERK, and credit goes to Robert Pagliarini, an author, a certified financial planner, a columnist, and the President of Pacifica Wealth Advisors. Here\’s how it works: Think about all your activities and all your expenses (current and upcoming). Write them down. For each activity and expense, apply “PERK”: Postpone: Want a new car, but still... Read More

“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” By Jan Cullinane NABBW’s Expert on The New Retirement If you haven\’t seen “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” I\’d recommend you get yourself to a theater and luxuriate in this gem of a film. It\’s the perfect movie for Boomer women (men, too – my husband really liked it). In addition to impressive acting by such notables as Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, and Judi Dench, it explores the concepts of challenge, transformation, hope, and resilience through humor and drama. I visited exotic and memorable India a few... Read More