Lifestyle Center
Many boomers are finding life grand in retirement communities in the south. When you were younger, you might have wondered why so many people head south for their older years. Perhaps you thought it was because they don’t have to work and were thus looking for a place that is friendly to outdoor activities year round. Now you know better. You now know that the biggest motivation for flying south has much more to do with the aches and pains that winter cold brings.
Today’s retirement communities offer so much more than proximity to a beach and shuffleboard. Boomers can find a place to live, shopping, entertainment, activities, health care, and even romance in these large and luxurious boomtowns. Visionaries realized in the last decade that people will be living longer and will need low maintenance residences with access to their every need. These modern communities offer everything you need, and it can all be accessed via a golf cart.
Give us your opinion in the comment box below:
Is living in one of these communities like living in a well-appointed terrarium?
Am I foolish to give up the home I’ve worked for all my life?
Are there 50 women for every man in these communities?
What’s it like to be around so many older people all the time?
November 10th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
I’ve attended a couple of gravesite ceremonies lately and believe that’s really the way to go. Have a couple of hours of visition at the funeral home, then head off to the cemetary and have a short ceremony. THEN get everyone together somewhere for a meal. It’s so much easier on everyone.
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:54 pm
I totally agree that too much is spent on funerals and flowers. But how do you get away from it? Some people would actually consider it to be uncaring if you did not have a lovely casket spray of some sort…they would judge you for it. I sometimes think that my mother had the expense in mind when she wrote that she wanted pink carnations on her casket; they are much less expensive than roses. She died right before my daughter went to college. When my daughter went out for sororities, she was very uncertain at first about whether she had picked the right one, and then we found out the sorority’s flower was a pink carnation. By the way…it was the perfect sorority for her, as it turned out.
I think the best thing you can do is write out what you want, and if you want to keep the cost down, write that in your request. Your family can’t feel guilty if they believe they are doing what you want. Funeral homes, no offense, make a lot of money off of guilt.
September 27th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I am way too practical to allow my family to spend thousands of dollars to bury me. I have told my husband I have opted for cremation. You can pay about 1500 and that includes a nice bronze urn. Then I can be placed in his family grave plot. Another rip off….the flowers for the top of the casket and the sprays at the ends of the casket. About 1500 dollars wasted in my opinion. Money much better used to make up for the cut in monthly income that comes from the loss of a family member. I think many people spend way too much on funerals…they feel that someone might think less of them if they don’t send their loved one off in an expensive casket, with elaborate rose blanket on top….we spend out of guilt….I don’t even want a service…it is hard on the family. My parents paid ahead for cremation. It made it so much less painful and so much less expensive.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:37 am
I agree with Topper… Ted is dead, and hopefully this government takeover of healthcare.
Had Kennedy had the government run healthcare now being proposed, he wouldn’t have lived the nearly year and one-half since being diagnosed with a brain tumor. He would have been denied treatments such as the surgery he underwent, radiation and chemo, as he was 77 years old and had inoperable cancer. He would heve been told to “take some pills” to relieve the pain and would heve been dead in two months.
Think about that.
August 20th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Hey Lois! Re your trip to The Villages, are you going back this winter? Is that a little weird? I get creeped out just going to the grocery on Senior Citizen discount day, trying to weave my way through the ailes past the Hover-rounds (sp?) and the oxygen carts. I don’t know if I’d want to vacation on the “Great Gray Way.”
July 23rd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Not sure the government should get involved. They usually make things worse.
I think if I were snookered by a funeral home, I’d do my best to get word out to friends, family and community…then let the funeral home know I’m letting everyone know what they did. Their business would fall off and they’d not make that mistake again. Sometimes we forget our own power as citizens…we don’t need government regulation for everything.
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:28 am
My auntie paid the funeral home to arrange her funeral but when she died, the people at the funeral home said they couldn’t honor her pre-payment because she paid for it when the funeral home had other owners. So we had to come up with the money to bury her. So her funeral was paid for twice.. She’d been better off to buy a insurance plan as the insurance guy had tried to tell her. Why doesn’t the goveronoment stop this?
July 22nd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
It’s better to have what is called “final expense” insurance that will cover your funeral costs, be it traditional or cremation. If you purchase insurance or “pre-arranged” services from a funeral home, iand should that funeral home sell or closes, you will be out of SOL. Most funeral homes today are owned by large corporations… EVEN THOUGH THEY KEEP the established name (usually a local family that had been in business for years AND usually keep on the family members as employees).. and they do not honor any previous agreements and are under no legal obligation to do so.
So buy an inexpensive final expense policy from a reputable insurance company that will cover 6, 8, 10 15 or 20 thousand dollars. You’ll be glad you did when the time comes…
July 21st, 2009 at 7:42 am
Which is why it’s a good idea to plan ahead.
If you have some idea of what you want in the way of a memorial, flowers, etc., you won’t be blind sided by the funeral director when the time comes.
Of course, this is not to say that all funeral directors take advantage of the family’s grief. But, some do.
Some people pre-plan and pre-pay, but I’ve heard that may be more expensive in the long run.
July 20th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Speaking of the deadly cost of a rocking chair, people are spending a lot of money burying parents these days. Is that too blunt? I don’t think so. It’s a reality. We take care of our parents until they are gone, and then we take care of their final goodbye. Anybody know how to save money on paying your final respects but still give the folks a respectable sendoff? There’s gotta be a better way that is still respectful and honorable. But these funeral directors will really stick it to you if they know you are totally lost in emotion.
July 19th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Oh man, and I’ve really been looking forward to the rocking chair. Never thought of it as deadly…thought it was a reward for working hard. Seems, though, that the people who are the best at being retired are people who have active interests; they don’t just STOP…they keep their brains working and their bodies working.
July 13th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
The rocking chair is death. Gotta stay busy, have projects and goals.
The days fly by so fast and you’ll realized you haven’t accomplished anything.
Going to the store for bread and milk is the highlight of your day if you’re not careful.
So, ya have to strike a balance between smelling the roses and doing some useful every day.
July 13th, 2009 at 7:49 am
My favorite part of being retired is the mornings. It’s so nice not dreading the mornings. It’s quiet, there’s no rushing around. I can take a walk while it’s still cool out in the summer or in the middle of the day when it’s cold out.
The stores are less crowded in the mornings. Doctors are less rushed and harried in the mornings. There is less traffic on the road.
I always felt I was missing out by having to rush around and drive to work. Sunrise only meant squinting to see the road ahead. Now I enjoy the sunrise shining through the leaves in the trees, the birds awakening and the stillness all around.
Time for my second cup of coffee on the deck. Eat your hearts out all you worker bees!
July 10th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Youngest child just bought his first house.
So proud.
Can’t understand why he won’t let me arrange his furniture though.
And does he really want to put a whiskey barrel in his living room?…made into a wet bar?…with a brass spigot?
Can’t decide if his style is bachelor pad or Appalachian moonshiner/hillbilly.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
ditto that!
June 27th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Hubby and I spent a week in The Villages (Florida’s friendliest hometown). Had a good time. He played golf. I swam every day. There are several nice restaurants right on the property. Their newspaper has an endless list of activities in which to participate. Everything from ballroom dancing to the golf cart drill team.
Oh yes…that’s what I said. The golf cart drill team.
We rented a golf cart and used it all week. I even went to the grocery and WalMart in it. Seriously, as long as the weather is fine…you don’t need a car. Everyone zooms around in their golf carts…many of which are customized. Some are also souped up and the drivers get pulled over and given speeding tickets. There’s a speed limit on the cart paths.
There are two town squares…soon to be three. Every night there is music and dancing….plus any number of other activities. On the square during the day, music plays throughout the town…piped in from The Villages’ own radio station. They, of course, play Boomer friendly music. There are all kinds of shops, stores, a movie theater.
You also don’t need to leave the grounds to see a doctor or dentist.
I can see why people move down there. Some of the older of the villages are quite charming…nicely landscaped and so forth. The new ones are rather sterile…but, they’ll come along.
Don’t think I could live there year round. I’d miss the change of seasons. But, I wouldn’t have a bit of trouble being there from after Christmas until the first of April!
June 27th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
50 women for every man! WOW, better odds thatn Jan and Dean’s “3 Girls for every boy” !
June 18th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Hmmmm…wonder what happened to my comment?