I believe I’m a pretty good driver (although I’m also aware that, in perhaps the world’s most often-cited example of the Lake Wobegon Effect, most Americans feel the same way). I’m also reasonably sure that I won’t be as good a driver twenty-five years from now, when I’ll be in my late sixties and my senses and reflexes are likely to be considerably less sharp.
The boomer home: Small house, big rooms
While a significant percentage of Baby Boomers are in downsizing mode, neither they nor the rest of the population have lost their infatuation with features associated with big homes, according to a survey released today by the homebuilder PulteGroup Inc. To keep up with preferences among consumers of all ages, the builder says, it’s adding a number of such features to its newest homes, including more open space and more storage.
Drive these cars (before they drive you)
The auto industry would love to make driving easier for older motorists — without using the word ‘older,’ of course.
Finding safer cars for older drivers
The car-key debate can be a thorny source of friction in families where the elderly parents are still healthy and active. While self-aware seniors will usually admit that their reaction times and sensory acuteness aren’t what they were in their prime, they’re seldom willing to risk forfeiting the independence that comes with being able to drive on their own from place to place.
A Web tool can help elderly drivers–your parents, perhaps?– zero in on models with the right “assistive features.”
Is too much running bad for boomers?
I have great respect for the midlife athletes I know, so I’m not deriving any schadenfreude from Kevin Helliker’s article from Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, One Running Shoe in the Grave. Helliker’s thesis: While running, like all forms of cardiovascular exercise, is undoubtedly beneficial to boomers, doing too much of it essentially erases many of the health benefits . . . New research suggests that over-50 athletes’ health can suffer if they run too far or too fast.
What Boomers won’t do with their phones
It’s been a while since cell-phone obsession was something that separated the middle-aged from the young. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project reports that more than 85% of adults age 50 to 64 now own mobile phones, and about a third own smartphones. Even those with, er, dumb phones are getting more adventurous about how they use them, according to a Pew study released this week.
The true cost of sleeplessness
It’s 2:30 a.m. and once again, you’re wide awake, mind racing. (Did you finish that project at work? Did you lock the front door? Is the oven still on?) In your younger years you slept just fine, but as you’ve gotten older, sleep has gotten more elusive.
Insomnia causes the average American worker 11.3 days in lost productivity each year, according to the American Insomnia Study. For a self-employed person who earned $300 a day, that would add up to almost $3,400 a year in lost income – bad news for a boomer trying to shore up a retirement nest-egg.
For Social Security Recipients, A 1.7% Raise
Don’t spend it all in one place: average monthly benefit to grow less than $20.
