★★★☆☆ | Finance | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
I read this because of the “happy” aspect in the title — are there things I should be doing that that I’m retired to improve the overall quality of my life as a retired person? But, in fact, the book is much more focused on the financial aspects of retirement. To that end, it helped me make sure I haven’t missed anything important in our own retirement planning.
Are You Ready to Retire?
Whatever you decide to do in retirement, your plan should have one main objective: to keep you mentally and physically active and in close contact with other people. That is the way to achieve a successful retirement. (location 210)
Work is a habit that is hard to break. (location 258)
A turf battle can arise when a woman who views the home as her domain finds that her retired husband is underfoot all day and interferes with her routine. She may feel that her territory has been invaded. He may feel that he is unwelcome in his own home—and be unable to understand why. (location 363)
Saving for Retirement
Ideally, wise or foresighted individuals will begin to save regularly at age 30, putting aside as much money as he or she can, month after month and year after year, for 30 or 35 years. Then, if the financial markets do what they have done for the last 75 or 83 years, the savers should reach retirement age with a sizable pot of money—enough to pay for a comfortable retirement, even if it lasts for 20 or 25 years. (location 512)
almost half the people who apply for retirement benefits do so at age 62. (location 737)
Long-term Care Insurance
According to AARP, research suggests that about half of today’s older people will spend some time in a nursing home—from as little as a few weeks to as much as five years. (location 2333)
Neither Medicare nor Medicaid pays for the costs of an assisted-living facility. However, a long-term-care policy may help to pay for assisted-living care. (location 2238)
But what happens if you are so ill that you have to stay in a nursing home indefinitely? It’s no secret. Inevitably, you’ll eventually go on Medicaid, a medical program for the poor that allows you to remain in a nursing home without paying. But to become eligible for Medicaid, you have to pay the nursing home until you virtually run out of money. (location 2231)
If you’re interested in long-term-care insurance, remember that the younger you are when you buy a policy, the less it will cost per year. (location 2243)
Aging Successfully
This ability to concentrate, retain information, and recall it, Albert said, is a key measure of the difference between benign and serious memory lapses. “When people are in the early stages of Alzheimer’s,” she said, “even if they make an extra effort to learn something, they will forget it.” (location 3119)