Long Island Retirement Costly For Boomers But It's Home

John Lindstrom, 62, entertains the thought of retiring to Sanibel Island in Florida, but plans on staying in Long Island, for now.

By Richard Bambrick
Richard.Bambrick@gmail.com

When the actor Dennis Hopper tells baby boomers in a current television commercial -- “You’re going to turn retirement upside down,” he just may be understating the obvious. Some 77 million baby boomers in America are beginning to hit retirement age, and this population bulge is expected by the U.S. Census Bureau to swell the percentage of retirees living in communities across the country to over 13 percent by 2010. Nearly a million of these retiring boomers live on Long Island, in Nassau and Suffolk counties, and in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.

The emerging “baby boomer retirement market” is already spawning new businesses. Mr. Hopper’s commercial is for Ameriprise Financial, which, like Merrill Lynch [and numerous others], is creating a financial services unit specifically for retiring baby boomers. Major insurance companies, such as MetLife and MassMutual, are establishing “baby boomer retirement annuity” programs. Jeff Taylor, founder of the employment website Monster.com, has created Eons.com, which he describes as a MySpace for baby boomers. Along with such interesting services as an “obituary alert,” Eons is sprinkled with retirement blogs, chat rooms, and directories to retirement services.

A major question about this huge wave of potential retirees market is simple: Where will they live? Will they “retire in place,” as the U.S. Census Bureau terms it, or will they migrate to warmer climates and more retirement-friendly communities? According to a recent AARP report, nine out of 10 potential retirees will stay in the same community they spent their working lives in, many in the same house. The reasons for staying home or moving vary but it usually comes down to financial realities versus your roots in the community.

For Long Islanders, staying here after retirement can be an expensive proposition. Nassau County, in particular, is one of the costliest counties in the nation. For instance, in Nassau it will take a retirement income of $50,000 to live as well as you can in Charleston, S.C., on $33,500. Even in Palm Springs, CA, a high-end retirement mecca, you only need $41,000 to get what $50,000 buys in Nassau, and you don’t have to shovel snow.

Nonetheless, many Baby Boomers preparing to retire expect to do it right here, hopefully in their current homes, although “downsizing” of their residences is a recurring theme.

“In the short term, we’re not going anywhere,” says John Lindstrom, a 62-year-old former computer manager for banking services companies who hasn’t worked for five years, but is not sure he considers himself retired. “I feel like I’m not old enough to be retired.”

A resident of Rockville Centre, NY, Mr. Lindstrom is a Vietnam combat veteran who keeps fit through a regimen of running, swimming, bicycling and tennis. He took a pension plan buyout from J.P. Morgan Chase shortly after 9/11. He was an active investor who had accumulated more than enough net worth in the stock-market boom of the 1990s to consider early retirement to the island of Sanibel off the coast of Ft. Myers, Fla., where he and his wife Debbie had purchased a condominium.

“It was an impulse buy,” Mr. Lindstrom now says. “It was one of those days when the market went up 300 points and I told Debbie we made enough money on that one day to make the down payment.”

That was shortly before the bubble burst and Internet stocks took a tumble at the end of 1991. Their retirement plans changed. Mr. Lindstrom’s portfolio shrunk, and the Sanibel condo became a white elephant he had to sell three years later at a loss.

Today, the stock market has improved to the point where the Lindstroms are back on solid financial ground for retirement, but their circumstances have changed. Mrs. Lindstrom became a grandmother for the first time. Her son through a previous marriage lives in Manhattan with his wife and the new baby, and Mrs. Lindstrom is no longer enthusiastic about moving to Florida.

“From Debbie’s point of view, a lot of it is the kids,” says Mr. Lindstrom, who also has grown children living in the New York area. “We’re presuming we’re going to end up staying here and travel a lot -- as much as the budget will allow,” he says, acknowledging it is very expensive to live in Rockville Centre, and they may have to downsize. “We need to reduce our monthly outflow.”

Working Two Jobs After a Buyout and Loving It

Like the Lindstroms, Jerome and Margie Montuori of Oceanside, N.Y., plan to retire on Long Island primarily because their children are here. Their financial circumstances, however, are far different. Mr. Montuori, 60 years old, grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, and moved to the Oceanside neighborhood that his wife grew up in shortly after they married.

He is the second youngest of fifteen children, nine boys and six girls, most of whom have stayed on Long Island, raising their own families in Nassau and Suffolk. A few of his siblings have migrated west to Arizona and New Mexico, but Mr. Montuori has no plans to leave. “Margie and Janine (his daughter) are like sisters,” he says. “We’re going to stay around our kids.”

To stay here, Mr. Montuori is certain he can not afford to retire at 65, at least not completely. He had built a career as a printer, and as a member of Amalgamated Lithographers, Local One. In the early 1990s, the printing industry went into a deep decline that was exacerbated by computerized printing operations that eliminated a lot of jobs. Mr. Montuori’s union was in trouble, and his pension was not secure, so he took a 51-percent buyout of the pension, and got out of the business.

For the past 10 years, Mr. Montuori has worked as a per-diem inspector for a sub-contractor to Verizon, a job which offers neither health insurance benefits nor a pension, but is on an early-morning shift which frees him in the afternoons for a second job, which he relishes. “I’m a maintenance and repair man for five group homes in Nassau County for autistic adults,” he said.

Montuori said he has developed personal relationships and great fondness for many of the people living in those homes, and takes a lot of satisfaction from his work keeping those homes up and livable. “Having my projects every day, seeing my residents, it’s fun for me,” he said.

Of equal importance to the satisfaction he gets from his second job is the fact that he is employed by New York State, and gets health benefits for himself and his family, along with a pension.

“Health care is a pretty scary thing to think about if you don’t have it,” he says.

Although he will be eligible for Medicare coverage at the age of sixty-five, Mrs. Montuori is ten years younger than him. She works part-time as a school-crossing guard in Rockville Centre, and has recently become a licensed realtor working out of Century 21. Neither job offers healthcare benefits, so Mrs. Montuori relies on her husband’s state health insurance plan. He plans to stay with the homes after the age of sixty-five not only because he likes the work, but because he needs the benefits.

The Girls Are Gone So Why Stay?

If anybody is a candidate to retire and move away from Long Island, it is James F., a 60-year-old father of four in Kings Park, NY, who asks not to be fully identified because he offers an open look into his personal finances. The reasons one would expect him to move away are both financial and personal. His three daughters have already left the island, having decided they could never afford homes here. Two have moved to Syracuse, the hometown of their husbands, and the third is a school teacher in the Washington, D.C., area who is about to give birth to the family’s first grandchild. She is planning to move near her sisters after the baby is born. Mr. F’s son is the youngest, and still lives at home, attending Suffolk Community College. He, too, sees Syracuse in his future.

Nonetheless, Mr. F has no plans to follow the family north after retirement, even though his money would go much further in Syracuse than Long Island. “I would consider moving off Long Island only under duress,” he says. “I like living here. It’s still a bit rural where I am. I like walking out of my house in the morning and seeing the trees and hearing the birds.” The family house in Kings Park abuts Sunken Meadow State Park. “I can walk down to the boardwalk,” Mr. F says.

“I don’t see us leaving Long Island,” Mr. F says. “For that matter, I don’t see myself retiring. I can’t afford to,” he says, pointing proudly to an 82-year-old woman he shares office space with in his job. “Nothing says you have to retire.”

Nonetheless, most Baby Boomer’s will, including the nearly one million living on Long Island, and if they stay here, they will likely force Long Island to become more retirement friendly.

A Financial Profile For Retirement

By Richard Bambrick
Richard.Bambrick@gmail.com

James F. is a 60-year-old father of four, living in Kings Park, NY. His property abuts Sunken Meadow Park on Long Island's north shore, and he enjoys a short stroll to the boardwalk and the ocean. Mr. F., who asked not to be fully identified in return for an open look into his personal finances, has been in insurance administration for more than 35 years, although there have been some significant bumps along the way.

His first 22 years in the business were spent with a large, insurance company based in the midwest, where he rose to a senior management position in the firm’s Long Island offices. When the company decided to consolidate all senior management to the home office, Mr. F was offered the opportunity to relocate, but his Long Island roots were deep, and he opted to leave the company. He tried to establish his own agency, but he said the timing was awful. “I specialized in personal lines, which got hurt in the early 1990s,” Mr. F said, explaining that several hurricanes and other natural disasters took a toll on the business in general.

Each year of independence meant going deeper and deeper into his savings to make ends meet, and in 1998 he threw in the towel and took a mid-level position at a major property/casualty insurance company for far less than he had been earning in the past.

“Dollar for dollar, I’m making about the same now as I was then (1992),” he said, adding that he is way behind where he once thought he would be on the path to retirement security.

It is his current income of about $60,000 that has him cautious in considering retirement. Nonetheless, a simple online retirement planning calculator reveals his prospects are not as dreary as he thinks.

Mr. F’s wife, who is 14 years younger than him, returned to school, and four years ago took a job as an operating room nurse at a state hospital. The couple has switched from the healthcare plan offered by Mr. F’s firm to a New York State plan, which is available to hospital employees and is far more comprehensive.

The retirement planning calculator requires basic financial information, and an annual retirement income target, which the F’s set at 70 percent of their joint income. The data they entered includes:

Current Income Husband. . .$60,000 Wife . . . . . . . . . . $40,000 Projected Social Security Yearly Income Husband . . .$19,823 at age 65 Wife . . . . . . .$11,605 at age 62 Individual Retirement Accounts Husband $35,500 with annual $2,000 Contribution Wife $15,500 with annual $2,000 Contribution Savings/Stocks $496,000 at current market value

The online calculator computes the salaries at a fixed growth rate, and estimates Social Security benefits based on the salaries. It estimates the couple will need a real income of $65,316, which in 2011, when Mr. F reaches age 65, would be inflation adjusted to $75,719. If they maintain their savings nest egg at $491,366 through 2011, their chance or realizing that retirement income is 99 percent, according to the retirement planning calculator. Moreover, the calculator does not take into account a pension Mr. F will receive from his original company, along with a New York State pension Mrs. F will receive if she works another 16 years. Along with that, the house they purchased in Kings Park for $185,000 in the mid-1980s is now worth about $500,000, although annual taxes are over $8,000.

Nonetheless, Mr. F states “I’m not looking to retire.” He points with admiration to a woman working in his office who is 82 years old. If he does retire, he would like to stay on Long Island, despite the fact his money would go further elsewhere.

The couple’s three daughters, from Mr. F’s previous marriage, have all left Long Island because they can not afford to live here. Two are living in Syracuse, NY, where they believe they will be able to purchase homes with their husbands in the not to distant future. The oldest, who is expecting the family’s first grandchild in the spring, is a teacher in the Washington, DC area, but after the baby is born, she and her husband plan to move to Syracuse, as well. Mr. and Mrs. F have one son who is still living at home, attending Suffolk Community College.

Logic dictates that a move upstate to be near the girls and the grandchild would make sense, particularly if Mrs. F could find a position in another state hospital to maintain insurance and her pension. Mr. F is not considering it, at this time. “I would consider moving off Long Island only under duress,” he said. “I like living here. It’s still a bit rural where I am. I like walking out of my house in the morning and seeing the trees and hearing the birds. I can walk down to the boardwalk.”

His Long Island roots are still too deep to pull up.

Long Island Retirement: An Expensive Proposition

By Richard Bambrick

Richard.Bambrick@gmail.com

An annual retirement income of $34,000 in Charleston, SC will go as far as $50,000 a year will take you in Nassau County on Long Island. In St. George, Utah, a desert community near Zion National Park, it only takes $32,000 a year to get as much as $50,000 will buy in Nassau.

So, why would anybody retire in Nassau County?

The decision to retire on Long Island or move somewhere else is largely a financial one. The cost of living on the island is formidable. In fact, using a CNNMoney.com “Cost of Living Comparison Calculator,” it is difficult to find it is difficult to find places more expensive to live. Manhattan is one. You will need $71,400 to match the lifestyle $50,000 gets you in Nassau. In San Francisco, it takes $60,200 to match the $50,000 Long Island life, while Los Angeles is just a touch more espensive than the Island’s computed cost of living at $52,100. Washington, DC and Boston are lower at $47,100 and $46,600 respectively, and Palm Springs, Calif., a high-end retirement mecca, is only $41,000, but you can usually get a tee time at the golf club.

Charleston and St. George were not selected here simply because of the dramatic differences in cost of living contrasted with Nassau County. Both cities appear on AARP’s annual list of the top five “Dream Towns” in which to retire. The list also includes Las Cruces, N.M.; Rehoboth Beach, Del.; and Memphis, Tenn. According to AARP: “these are five cities that offer culture, cachet, or, in some cases, just peace and quiet.”

The AARP website can be a valuable tool in finding a suitable place to retire. Along with articles such as “Dream Towns,” there is a location scout tool which gathers your preferences for such things as climate, region, affordability, lifestyle, recreation, healthcare, and even the availability of retirement jobs. It then spits out 10 suitable cities or towns for you in America.

Used in combination with CNN Money’s cost-of-living calculator, these tools can quickly offer a breakdown of the financial realities of staying on Long Island as compared to retiring to some other specific community. For instance, in Las Cruces, N.M., one of AARP’s retirement “dream towns,” a retirement income of $34,000 will match $50,000 in Nassau. The CNN cost-of-living calculator tells you that groceries in Las Cruces will average 22.6 percent less than in Nassau, and housing costs will be 51.4 percent less. Moreover, utilities in the New Mexico town are 23.4 percent less, transportation 19.1 percent less, and healthcare is 19.1 percent less.

In the few areas like Manhattan and San Francisco where the cost of living is higher than Nassau County, it is always the housing category that pushes the number up. Housing in Manhattan is 93 percent higher than in Nassau, and in San Francisco it is just over 50 percent higher. The other categories are relatively comparable.

Clearly, it is an expensive proposition to retire on Long Island, particularly in Nassau County. Suffolk County is a little more affordable, but if you grew up or raised your family in Nassau, Suffolk is simply “out east.” If you’re going to move anyway, it might make sense to research the rest of the country.

The Myth of Retiring South

By Richard Bambrick

Richard.Bambrick@gmail.com

If you think the typical American retirement dream involves moving to a tropical climate with lots of golf courses and a beach, think again. Most of us stay home, in fact, statistics say, in the same house where we spent our working lives.

AARP, in a research report “Aging, Migration and Local Communities: The Views of 60 Plus Residents and Community Leaders.” issued in October, calls the belief there is widespread migration among Americans 60-years-of-age-and-older a myth.

“Our research shows that during the past two decades, about nine out of 10, or 41.5 million Americans age 60 plus, stayed in the same home, or lived in a different residence in the same community,” the AARP, states the report.

The trend of “aging in place” is expected to change the social dynamics of many communities in the United States, according to the report.

“Increasing life spans and the aging of the baby-boom generation means that America is getting older,” the AARP reports. “In most communities, older persons will make up a larger percentage of residents. In some communities, the future is already here.”

The aspects that keep a retired citizen in a town, and the attributes community leaders believe are needed to accommodate an aging population are remarkably similar, the AARP concluded after polling senior citizens and community leaders in counties that already have a high percentage of older citizens, as determined by a U.S. Census Bureau report, “Retirement Migration in the 2000 Census.”

Ranking highest on the aspects that make a community desirable, according to the seniors polled, are:

• Good hospitals and doctors
• Low taxes
• Low crime and cost of living, in that order

Community leaders, when asked what will be most important for their aging populations, listed:

• Low crime
• Low property and state income taxes
• Opportunities for retirement employment
• Good transportation
• Good medical care

For the small percentage of retirees who decided they must move away to find a comfortable community, most opt for Florida, California or Arizona.

According to the Census Bureau, nine of the 10 counties nationwide that have the largest numbers of retirees migrating are in those states. Surprisingly, the No. 10 most popular county is Suffolk, right here on Long Island. One possibility for this is Suffolk’s considerably lower cost of living than neighboring Nassau County or nearby New York City. Retirees can stay in the region by heading east to Suffolk.

Lindstrom Profile

By Richard Bambrick
Richard.Bambrick@gmail.com

John Lindstrom, a 62-year-old former computer manager for banking services companies, took a pension plan buyout from J.P Morgan Chase shortly after 9/11, but he is not sure he considers himself retired. “I feel like I’m not old enough to be retired,” Mr. Lindstrom says.

A resident of Rockville Centre, NY, Mr. Lindstrom is a Vietnam combat veteran who keeps fit through a regimen of running, swimming, bicycling and tennis. He also dabbles in a small interior painting and wall-papering business he set up several years ago to bring in some extra income. Although he has stayed ahead financially through some active securities investing, like many people approaching retirement age, his financial circumstances are far different than they were when he took the buyout.

“Banking had become very bureaucratic,” he says of his working conditions five years ago. “I played around with my 401K allocations, and I built it to the point where I could walk out the door.” As an active investor, Mr. Lindstrom benefited greatly from the stock market boom years during the 1990s, so much so that early retirement was a comfortable possibility. He and his wife Debbie, a 62-year-old court reporter, had become enamored with Sanibel, an island sanctuary off of Ft. Myers, FL. They purchased a condominium with the ultimate goal of leaving Long Island and retiring there.

“It was an impulse buy,” Mr. Lindstrom now says. “It was one of those days when the market went up 300 points and I told Debbie we made enough money on that one day to make the down payment.” That was shortly before the bubble burst, and their retirement plans changed.

The Lindstrom’s backup plan was to rent out the Florida apartment until they could make the move down there, but with the financial markets dropping, the market for vacation rentals also fell off the cliff. “By the time it was built and finished, we couldn’t rent it.” Nor could they sell it quickly without taking a big loss, and maintaining it along with their home in Rockville Centre became a financial burden. After three years, Mr. Lindstrom was able to sell off the condo at a slight loss, and their Florida retirement plans were put on hold.

“In the short term, we’re not going anywhere,” Mr. Lindstrom says, explaining that Mrs. Lindstrom’s son from her first marriage had just had a baby in New York City, and she has new ties to the area. “From Debbie’s point of view, a lot of it is the kids.” Mr. Lindstrom also has grown children living in the New York area.

“We’re presuming we’re going to end up staying here and travel a lot, a much as the budget will allow,” Mr. Lindstrom says, although he acknowledges the allure of Sanibel remains. An improving stock market could change their circumstances, and becoming eligible for Social Security will be a help. Nonetheless, Mr. Lindstrom notes “We need to reduce our monthly outflow.”

The Lindstrom’s have health insurance coverage as part of the buyout package from JP Morgan Chase, although the monthly premiums go up each year. Similarly, housing and school taxes in Rockville Centre have also been on a steady ascent. For now, they are not considering downsizing because they are comfortable in the neighborhood. “From a personal point of view, as you get older, you get more comfortable with things,” Mr. Lindstrom says. Moreover, he has regular tennis partners here, and friends at the gym where he works out.

“What Debbie and I really love is Sanibel,” Mr. Lindstrom says, but even that is a tradeoff with living here. “Weather is a lot of it. It’s beautiful there most of the year, but the summer can be unbearable. Here, we have winters that stink, but the rest of the year is OK.”

Ultimately, if Rockville Centre becomes too expensive, Mr. Lindstrom says he will sell the house and find a lest costly place to live, probably in Florida. “We’ll live a simple, quiet life, and once in a while come up and see the kids.”

Montuori Profile

By Richard Bambrick
Richard.Bambrick@gmail.com

Jerome Montuori is a 60-year-old home owner in Oceanside, NY, and is the second youngest of a family of 15 children that grew up in small apartments in Brooklyn and Queens. They slept in shifts, and always had laundry drying on clothes lines strung up throughout the apartment. Once as a child, when one of his older brothers was about to get into a street fight, Mr. Montuori offered to hold his brother’s coat. Another boy in the group thought it was a nice gesture, but Mr. Montuori told him, “I have to wear this coat next year.”

The nine girls and six boys of the Montuori family have remained close throughout their lives, although several of them migrated west to Arizona and New Mexico, and five have passed away. Nonetheless, the roots of the family have stayed on Long Island in Nassau and Suffolk counties, where most of the Montuori’s moved from Woodhaven, Queens. Mr. Montuori and his wife, Margie, have two grown children of their own living in Oceanside, and have no plans to move away when they retire.

“Margie and Janine (daughter) are like sisters,” Mr. Montuori says. “We’re going to stay around our kids.”

Moreover, Mr. Montuori is not sure retirement, whether early or after the age of sixty five, is in the cards for him. “I’m just not sure when I’m going to retire,” he says.

He had built a career as a printer, and as a member of Amalgamated Lithographers Local One. In the early 1990s the printing business went into a deep decline that was exacerbated by computerized printing operations that eliminated a lot of jobs. Mr. Montuori’s union was in trouble, and his pension was not secure, so he took a 51 percent buyout of the pension, and got out of the business. He did retain a second pension plan that was related to some New York State work that he did. “I can collect that when I’m 65-years-old,” he says. Social Security will also help. Mr. Montuori is beginning to evaluate the decision to start collecting at age 62, or wait until the higher payments kick in at 65.

For the past ten years, Mr. Montuori has worked as a per diem inspector for a sub-contractor to Verizon, a job which offers no health insurance benefits or a pension, but is an early morning shift which frees him in the afternoons for a second job, which he relishes. “I’m a maintenance and repair man for five group homes in Nassau County for autistic adults.”

He has developed personal relationships and great fondness for many of the people living in those homes, and takes a lot of satisfaction from his work keeping those homes up and livable. “Having my projects every day, seeing my residents, it’s fun for me.”

Of equal importance to the satisfaction he gets from his second job is the fact that he is employed by New York State, and gets health benefits for himself and his family, along with a pension. “Health care is a pretty scary thing to think about if you don’t have it,” he says. Although he will be eligible for Medicare coverage at the age of sixty five, Mrs. Montuori is ten years younger than him. She works part-time as a school crossing guard in Rockville Centre, and has recently become a licensed realtor working out of Century 21. Neither job offers benefits, so Mrs. Montuori relies on her husband’s state health insurance plan.

That, alone, is a big incentive for Mr. Montuori to stay on with his group homes after the age of sixty five. Moreover, he can never see himself as being fully retired. “For me, I’m a lot better mentally if I work. If I retired completely, I’d still have my garden to keep up and things like that, but I’d rather get out and go to work.”

While the Montuori’s expect to remain on Long Island in their ultimate retirement years, they would like to travel a bit, as the budget allows. “We would have to downsize,” Mr. Montuori says, which would mean selling their large, two-family home in Oceanside. If he can reduce his living expenses on Long Island, Mr. Montuori thinks a small winter residence might also be possible. “I might get a small place in Florida. We’d go in January and February. We’d be snowbirds”

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An Unlikely Retirement Locale

By Richard Bambrick

Richard.Bambrick@gmail.com

The most recent census taken in America raises an interesting question about some of the 65-and-older set: What is going on in southern Michigan?

The U.S. Census Bureau Census 2000 Summary report lists the 10 U.S. cities with a population of at least 100,000 that have the highest percentage of residents who are 65-years and older. As one would expect, the state of Florida dominates this list with the cities of Clearwater, Cape Coral, Saint Petersburg, Hollywood, Miami and Hialeah. Of the remaining four, one is Scottsdale, Ariz., and another Honolulu, Hawaii. All of these cities boast warm year-round climates that are a comfort to the aging. Why then are the Michigan cities of Warren and Livonia, both suburbs of Detroit, on this list?

It is certainly not the warm climate. During the coldest four months of the year, the average low temperature in this region ranges from 18 degrees to 28 degrees, well below freezing. There are only four months during the year when the mean temperature averages above 60 degrees. The answer must lie in the cities, themselves.

Warren, Mich., with a population of just over 138,000, is Detroit’s largest suburb. The 65-and-over crowd makes up 17.3 percent of that population, at about 24,000. The city prides itself on keeping its citizens at home. In an overview of the city of Warren on Wikipedia’s Answers.com, it is stated that Warren is ranked first in the nation for resident longevity, with the average stay about 36 years. The national average is 8 years. People stay in Warren.

For its part, Livonia, Mich., bills itself as a center of culture and the arts. Livonia’s population is just under 101,000, with a 65-and-older group of 17,000, or 16.9 percent. Answers.com states that Livonia is “the second least economic stressful city in America,” as rated by City American City Business Journals. Moreover, it is safe in Livonia, at least according to the FBI, which ranks it the seventh safest city in America. “Murder,” states Answers.com, “is rare.” That, alone, allows the population to age.

The Census Bureau, in its summary report, attributes this large grouping of senior citizens in Michigan to continuing trends of “migration of the young,” and “aging-in-place.” However, there may be another reason people stay in Warren and Livonia after retirement despite the cold weather. According to Warren’s Answers.com profile, in 1970 the city’s Caucasian population made up 99.5 percent of the overall, making it the “Whitest City in America.” Over the years, that percentage eroded to 91.3 percent by the time of the 2000 census, dropping Warren to the second whitest city in America. Livonia, with Caucasians making up 95.5 percent of the population, now has the title of “Whitest City in America.”

As to the question of what is going on in southern Michigan, is it possible for some senior citizens that the comforts of a warm retirement climate are overridden by the potential challenges of ethnic diversity in the Golden Years?

Retiring Back to School

By Richard Bambrick

Richard.Bambrick@gmail.com

It is becoming more and more common for retirees to return to college after they stop working, but some are taking it to the extreme, and moving back on campus.

Retirement communities are springing up on college campuses across the country as many seniors seek to replace the happiest and most stimulating years of their lives, while colleges and universities hope to build new revenue streams and strengthen ties with alumnae.

It is certainly true that as Baby Boomers retire, the average age on campus is rising. Elizabeth Olson, in the New York Times that at Warren Community College in Washington, NJ “retirement-age students make up about 12 percent of the total enrollment, an increase of 30 percent from 2003 to 2006, and the number is expected to grow.” Considering there are more Baby Boomers than there are college-age students, that number could explode.

Warren, of course, is a community college, which provides retirement-age students with educational opportunities and a taste of campus life. It is on the mainstream college and university campuses where live-in retirement communities are blossoming. According to Ken Dychtwald and Daniel Kadlec, authors of “The Power Years: A User’s Guide to the Rest of Your Life,” report “Building is booming at universities across the nation, potentially rivaling anything seen since the 1960s and ’70s, when baby boomers first began crowding campuses as young students. This time, however, the schools aren’t adding chalkboards – they’re developing state-of-the-art retirement communities on or near campus, and offering specialized curricula that include courses in healthy living, entrepreneurship and career reinvention.”

Indeed, Tatsha Robertson reports in the Boston Globe that “college affiliated retirement communities have sprung up in 50 college towns across the country, linking the retired set with schools such as Notre Dame, the University of Florida at Gainesville, the University of Michigan, and Lasell College…”

Perhaps the hottest fraternity or sorority on the campus of the future will be AARP.

Long Island: Retirement Mecca or Mayhem

By Richard Bambrick
Richard.Bambrick@gmail.com

This week, the official population of the United States hit the 300 million mark. Nearly a million of us are “Baby Boomers” living in Nassau and Suffolk counties who will enter the retirement years over the next decade, posing the possibility of a dramatic change in Long Island’s culture.

At question is whether Long Island will be forced to become more retirement-friendly to accommodate its aging population, or whether high taxes, a scarcity of retirement jobs, and cold winters will drive the retirees away.

The issues are varied and dynamic:

· Cost of Living
· Healthcare Availability and Quality
· Lifestyle
· Family Ties

Each of these issues will be examined in this space in an effort to provide pertinent data, resources and anecdotal information to any body making the decision to retire on Long Island, or to move away.

An interesting starting point for the potential retiree may be to evaluate the community he or she is currently living in to determine if it will remain a comfortable place as one ages. AARP, a solid resource of information for the older generations, offers an online tool “Beyond 50: Livable Communities Quiz.”

This menu of questions will get you thinking about the place you now live in a different way. Will it be safe? Will it be easy to get around if you need walking assistance? Are there activities for senior citizens? Let’s face it. When you purchased the house, you were looking at schools and parks for the kids.

The decision to stay or go portends a potentially major cultural change for Long Island communities. If a large chunk of the population heads south, it will dramatically change the mix.

If they stay, their comfort and community requirements will be different than they are today.