Many American households will face a significant retirement financing gap unless they save more, invest more efficiently, retire later, and/or distribute their retirement assets more efficiently. Yet the pain of such difficult behavioral changes might be mitigated by better use of an asset that almost 80 percent of retirees have: the family home. The Reverse…

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Older adults, drink up. You need plenty of water during exercise so your brain gets the full benefits of working out, researchers say. “Middle-age and older adults often display a blunted thirst perception, which places them at risk for dehydration, and subsequently may reduce the cognitive [mental] health-related benefits of exercise,” said Brandon Yates, of…

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Hearing aids may mean fewer visits to the hospital for seniors, a new study suggests. Researchers examined data from more than 1,300 adults aged 65 to 85 with severe hearing loss, and found that only 45 percent of them used a hearing aid. Those who did use a hearing aid were less likely to have…

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Senior homeowners can tap into their home equity in a variety of ways, whether that means taking a reverse mortgage, a home equity line of credit (HELOC) or cash-out refinance. But when it comes to deciding between these different extraction methods, reverse mortgages can have a positive impact on financial well-being of borrowers, according to…

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Older adults, drink up. You need plenty of water during exercise so your brain gets the full benefits of working out, researchers say. “Middle-age and older adults often display a blunted thirst perception, which places them at risk for dehydration, and subsequently may reduce the cognitive [mental] health-related benefits of exercise,” said Brandon Yates, of…

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With aging often comes worry about falls and the bone fractures they cause. Now, a panel of U.S. experts has new advice on what helps and what doesn’t when it comes to staying upright. For starters, get off the sofa. And don’t rely on vitamin D to keep you from falling. In a change from…

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The overall amount of home equity controlled by U.S. homeowners ballooned by 12.2% in 2017 — a gain of $908.4 billion in just 12 months. That works out to about $15,000 per homeowner, according to the most recent home equity report from real estate analysis firm CoreLogic. But as has been the case for some…

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Stretching leg muscles every day may benefit seniors and other people with mobility problems, a new study reports. Researchers placed splints on lower limbs of older rats to stretch their calf muscles. The splints were placed on one leg for 30 minutes a day, five days a week, for four weeks. This stretching program increased…

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Early in his new book on retirement strategies, financial planner and professor Jamie Hopkins introduces the idea of reverse mortgages as a potential part of long-term retirement planning — and he quickly anticipates the potential backlash. “Let me preface this by pleading with you to continue to read and not give in to your urge…

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Eating lots of vegetables may help older women keep their blood vessels healthy, Australian researchers report. The biggest benefit seems to come from cruciferous vegetables, including cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli. Eating these strong-smelling veggies was linked to less thickening of the carotid arteries, located in the neck. Thickening of this major blood vessels…

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