R E T I R E M E N T  I N  S I G H T
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MONTHLY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR CURRENT AND FUTURE RETIREES 

APRIL 2015  

“I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.”
      

- Arthur Rubenstein 

TRAVEL TIP
Carry on whenever you can 

Unless you are really going on extended jaunt, consider getting by with carry-on luggage. With a carry-on, you have less to lug around, no precious vacation time lost waiting for bags at the carousel, and fewer check-in luggage fees.  

BRAIN TEASER
Sibling Stumper.
How can you be behind your brother when he is behind you?^* 

DID YOU KNOW?
A fruit that makes you radiant 

Bananas contain a miniscule amount of Potassium-40, meaning that they are naturally radioactive. Not to worry, though: eating one banana per day means you are receiving radiation exposure roughly akin to that you would get living within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant.⁵ 

BEWARE OF LETTING YOUR CHILDREN DELAY YOUR RETIREMENT 

Families that provide financial support to adult children tend to be families in which parents retire later. How much later? According to Hearts and Wallets (a market research firm focused on retirees and retirement trends), a mom or dad aged 65 or older whose grown kids need no financial support is more than twice as likely to be retired (52%) than a parent 65 or older who provides money to a child (21%). 

Just how many such households are lending financial support to millennials? A whopping 15.8 million, Hearts and Wallets indicates (16.6% of households in this demographic). Financial assistance for “boomerang” offspring aside, 12.6% of these families are financially supporting minor children and another 4.2% provide some money help to relatives. Looking at the same issue in fall 2014, LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute found that 23% of parents are helping adult children with either rent or mortgage payments, and 24% are picking up some of the tab for college loans or education expenses. For those parents who want to retire sooner rather than later, setting some firm money boundaries with the next generation might be a plus. ^1,2 

HEFTY AT 55, MENTALLY HEALTHY AT 65? 

Contradicting earlier research that linked obesity and senility, a new large-scale study published in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology Journal contends that those who are greatly overweight in midlife are less prone to memory loss and confusion in ensuing years.  

Spanish medical research firm Oxon Epidemiology spearheaded a study of more than 2 million patients with an average age of 55, more than 45,000 of whom became afflicted with dementia within the next nine years. Subjects whose weight was lower than normal had a 34% higher chance of developing signs of dementia compared to markedly obese individuals, whose risk of symptoms were 29% lower. The study’s assertions seem authoritative given its huge scope (a previous one published in Neurology in 2008 had a sample size of just 6,000). Of course, being obese at 55 makes simply aging that much harder.³ 

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE
Assumptions that retirees need to live on 80% of their end salaries may be flawed. Last year, T. Rowe Price Group polled 1,507 recently retired Americans (median net worth: $473,000) and found them living on an average of 66% of their end salaries; 57% said their quality of life had not suffered at all.⁴ 

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