As you age, it’s important to keep up your strength. To build your muscles, you’ll need to lift or push weight, the National Institute on Aging says. Here’s the agency’s advice for starting a strength-training program: Talk with your doctor if you are unsure about starting a specific exercise. Don’t hold your breath during strength…

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Two recent scholarly articles take a look at how Americans don’t always make the best pre-retirement decisions — and how they can adjust their outlook to incorporate home equity and other sources of cash for a more comfortable life in their later years. First up: “The Power of Working Longer,” a January working paper from…

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Americans with 401(k)s have had reason to celebrate the last two years, as record stock market performance has inflated retirees’ nest eggs. But despite all the sunny news, a huge swath of Americans is missing out, according to a Thursday post from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. The CRR, which has written…

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Once you’ve done your research on reverse mortgages and gained a more complete understanding of the product, the next step is to decide if a reverse mortgage is right for your situation. If you’re eligible (a homeowner 62 years of age or older with equity in your principal residence), this may be a quick decision…

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With New Year’s Day fast approaching, one small, new study suggests that seniors interested in preserving their brain health might want to add walking to the top of their resolution list. Why? A team of investigators from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) found that adults over the age of 60 who are already struggling…

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Florida topped out as the No. 1 state to retire in WalletHub’s annual ranking for 2018. The Sunshine State also held the No. 1 spot in 2017. The “2018’s Best & Worst States to Retire” report compared all 50 U.S. states across 41 indicators, spanning the cost of in-home care, life expectancy and cost of…

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The current flu season is shaping up to be a nasty one, but there’s good news for American seniors who’ve gotten their flu shot. New research shows that for older adults, faithfully getting the vaccine each year greatly reduces the odds of catching a flu so severe that it lands you in the hospital. Researchers…

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An ongoing analysis of Americans’ retirement readiness showed a slight improvement in 2016, but the results still reveal that half will find themselves short of their golden-year goals. The National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI) dropped from 52% to 50% between 2013 and 2016, according to the most recent calculation from the Center for Retirement Research…

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American homeowners aged 62 and older controlled $6.5 trillion in home equity during the third quarter of 2017, according to the most recent estimate from the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association. That’s a jump of 1.9%, or $121 billion, from last quarter, NRMLA and data analytics firm RiskSpan reported. “Housing wealth continues to be a…

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A $1 million nest egg has long been considered the benchmark for a secure retirement. Sadly, these days, it’s only a fraction of what you will really need. For instance, a 67-year-old baby boomer retiring now with $1 million in the bank will generate $40,000 to live on in the first year, adjusted for inflation…

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