Managing Money

A quick Google search shows just how polarized our opinions about reverse mortgages are. If you start to type in “Reverse Mortgages,” you will be greeted with the following auto-completion options: Read More

At a local meeting on health care financing, a lawyer neighbor of mine, “Sam,” offered a free half-hour consultation on estate planning at the large law firm on whose staff he serves.

Being hopelessly naïve, and forgetting the rule “there is no such thing as a free lunch,” I signed up, also thinking I’d be doing him a favor as he’d get a little credit from his colleagues for having gotten an enrollee. Read More

Are reverse mortgages simply a way for greedy lenders to take the homes of unsuspecting seniors? Or are they a legitimate tool that can help people our age to stay in their homes, while having a better quality of life in retirement? These are the questions that ran through my head as I watched the new American Advisors Group (AAG) commercial, featuring Tom Selleck. Read More

It’s interesting to note how governments are universally at pains to promote the employment of the over 50’s. They aim to keep them working as long as possible. Is this to prevent governments having to pay pensions? Or are they beginning to understand that people over 50, are no longer old?

It’s no secret that baby boomers are one of the most powerful consumer groups in the world. As a result, marketers are constantly looking for ways to sell to us. Right about now, I can probably hear you saying, “Who cares?” As Seth Godin’s book says, “All Marketers Are Liars.” Why should we care if they know how to market to us? Read More

Why on Earth would you want to tell advertising agencies how to talk to you? Isn’t marketing to baby boomers something that only companies who want to sell something should care about? Absolutely not! Read More

Ok, let’s get the obvious out of the way. Marketing for seniors is tough. For starters, the term “seniors” covers a huge age range. You could argue that 20 years ago most people over 60 had similar lives. No more! Read More

Do you suffer from financial shame? I ask this question because financial shame is far more common than most of us would like to admit. I was shocked – and I think you will be too – when I read the article, The Secret Shame of Middle Class Americans. Nearly half of Americans would have trouble finding $400 to pay for an emergency. I’m one of them…

The choices you make today will affect your Social Security payment amount later on. This is true, even if you are in your 60s and are rapidly approaching retirement age. It’s especially true for our daughters and granddaughters, who still have several decades to go before retirement age. I always thought that everyone got the same amount for Social Security. Like many women, I was very naïve…

Being unemployed as an older woman is a stressful, frustrating experience. It’s also a situation that few of us imagined we would be in just a few years ago. Read More