Calling all snowbirds...

Here are several tips that can help snowbirds protect their finances and homes while they're away from home for several months.

Prepare your home for winter. Everyone should take some key steps to prepare their home for cold weather and snowstorms, to help avoid expensive damage or homeowners insurance claims. But it's even more important to prepare your house if it will be vacant during the coldest months of the year and you won't be there to notice problems -- such as a small leak that can cause a lot of water damage by the time you return in the spring.

1. Before you leave for Florida, inspect your roof for any damage or worn shingles that can lead to leaks. Also clean gutters and downspouts and checking for clogs that can cause water damage to interior walls. Insulate any water lines that run along exterior walls and open cabinet doors to allow heat from the room to get into concealed spaces, which can make pipes less likely to freeze. Also drain and shut off outdoor water faucets.

2. Trim trees. Winter's high winds and snowstorms can cause a lot of damage from fallen tree limbs -- which can be very expensive and may not be covered by your homeowners insurance policy.Remove dead trees or large overhanging tree limbs before you leave town.

3. Ask someone to shovel snow. Arrange to have a neighbor clean snow from your driveway, sidewalk, hatch cover and dryer vent opening when you're gone, says Montgomery-Baisden. That can prevent melting snow from leaking into the home and causing damage. It can also reduce slip-and-fall liability losses, and prevent your home from looking vacant and becoming a target of thieves.

4. Secure your home. Home security is a big issue if you're away from your house for months. Stop your newspaper delivery and forward your mail to your winter address or have it picked up on a regular basis. Also have someone check the house at least weekly to make sure any flyers or packages that are delivered while you're gone don't build up and make the house look unoccupied. Secure doors and windows with deadbolt locks, and install slide locks or other security locks on sliding glass doors or French doors. You can also install variable light timers, which turn lights on and off at different times to make it look like someone is home.

5. Monitor your house from a distance. Install smoke detectors on at least every floor, preferably tied to a centrally monitored fire alarm system so the fire department will be notified automatically if the alarm goes off. Otherwise, nobody will be home to hear the alarm if it goes off only inside your house. You can get a discount on your homeowners insurance premiums if you have a centrally monitored home-security system. You may even be able to hook up a water-flow sensor or low-temperature sensor to that system, which can alert your security provider of problems that could lead to freezing pipes. But nothing replaces the human touch. Share your winter contact information with a neighbor who can be your eyes and ears while you're gone, forward important mail to you in Florida, check for any problems and take action in an emergency.

6. Notify your bank. Give your bank your temporary address and contact information before you leave, which is important so you can continue to receive your statements and to alert bank representatives about out-of-state debit and credit card charges, says Joe Bednarik, PNC Bank's regional manager of retail banking for Southern New Jersey. Bank fraud departments have become proactive about preventing theft by spotting and denying unusual charges. It's better to let them know of your travels ahead of time rather than run the risk that your account could be frozen temporarily if your financial institution is unable to reach you with questions about charges from an unexpected location.

7. Sign up for online banking. This can be a good time to sign up to receive your bills online, so you don't miss any payment deadlines while your mail catches up with you during your transition from north to south. Check your credit card due dates before you leave to avoid any missed payments.

iPads not just for the young

Researchers across the country are using Apple’s tablets for applications to engage the elderly.

Tony Marsh and Jack Rejeski, health and exercise-science professors at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, in 2010 helped develop the Mobility Assessment Tool for the iPad.

MAT consists of videos showing animated figures performing daily tasks such as climbing stairs and walking. The videos not only help senior citizens picture themselves doing these tasks, but they offer some insight of their clients’ limitations.

But tests subjects in pilot runs encountered obstacles such as those at the Winter Garden nursing home before they were evaluated on the iPad.

"People not accustomed to a mouse had trouble coordinating the cursor. It took them close to an hour to complete the video and questions," Rejeski said. "We tried the software on a computer with a touch screen, and it cut the time in half."

Marsh said that the iPad tablets have helped older people become more aware of their level of functioning - the first step to rehabilitation.
The pair is testing their iPad software in Canada, Brazil and Colombia as part of a multiyear project funded by the National Institutes of Health to assess the mobility of older adults.
"These devices have an increased potential to aid people preserve their memory," Marsh said. "They can monitor progress and, in a way, back you up."

Financial pressures driving some older Americans to drink...

Some older adults may turn to alcohol or cigarettes as a way to cope with financial stress, particularly men and people with less education, a new study suggests.

In the study, researchers surveyed 2,300 older Americans periodically between 1992 and 2006, and found that 16 percent reported growing financial strain over that time, 3 percent reported increases in heavy drinking (more than 30 drinks a month), and 1 percent said they'd started smoking more.

The youngest of the study participants were age 65 when the study began.

Older men who faced increasing financial stress were 30 percent more likely to become heavy drinkers than those who remained financially stable. This increased risk was similar for older adults with lower levels of education compared to those with more education.

Older women and seniors with higher levels of education tended to reduce their drinking when they encountered financial struggles, according to the study published in the November issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

The findings don't actually show that financial problems were the reason for changes in smoking and drinking habits, but it is known that some people use alcohol and tobacco as a way of coping with stress, noted lead researcher Benjamin A. Shaw of the State University of New York at Albany.

"When you have a stressor that's not very controllable, people may focus on something to help control their emotional response to the stressor," he said in a journal news release.

Financial woes may be particularly stressful for older adults, Shaw added.

"They are out of the workforce, and they might feel like they have less time to recover or generally have less control over their financial situation," he explained

Best US Cities for Oldsters

Minneapolis is the best city in the United States for senior living, with Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Denver rounding out the top five, according to a new survey conducted for the Bankers Life and Casualty Company Center For a Secure RetirementSM.

Criteria in the areas of senior issues and gerontology identified the qualities for optimal senior living. Major categories were: healthcare, economy, health and longevity, social, environment, spiritual life, housing, transportation and crime. Each category was statistically weighted to reflect the needs of the senior population.

“Most surprising is that the survey results contain many cities we don’t often associate with senior living,” said Scott Perry, president of Bankers Life and Casualty Company, the national life and health insurer. “We weren’t interested in another study on where to enjoy your retirement, but instead wanted to find cities that did the best job in providing the services and support that seniors need. The top ranked cities aren’t what come to mind when you think about where to spend your golden years, but they scored high in the criteria most important to the 65 and up bracket.”

The Categories

The Healthcare category includes physicians per capita, gerontologist to senior ratio, hospitals per capita, hospitals with special care, nursing homes per capita, nursing home beds per capita, continuing care retirement communities per capita and average nursing home rating.

Economy includes consumer price index, sales tax rate, the unemployment rate and the stability index.

Health and Longevity includes life expectancy, age 85 expectancy, depression rate, heart mortality and cancer mortality.

Social includes percentage of seniors, social and emotional support, satisfaction with life rating, art and museums, education level, recreation, four-year colleges and libraries.

Environment includes number of sunny days, clean air levels, clean water measurement, natural disaster risk index, ocean coastline miles, river and lake square mileage, and local/state park number and size.

Spiritual Life includes percent of population belonging to organized religions and the number of religious congregations.

Housing includes cost of living index, housing price, property taxes and apartment rentals.

Transportation includes public transportation, special access and mass transit percentage.

Crime includes violent crime rate and property crime rate.

Methodology

The Bankers Life and Casualty Company Center for a Secure Retirement Best Cities for Seniors 2011 was conducted in July of 2011 by the independent survey administrator Sperling’s Best Places and identified the top 50 metro areas in the U.S. The complete report may be viewed at www.CenterForASecureRetirement.com.

Older Americans reject senior housing to care for grandchildren

With U.S. households headed by baby boomers commanding almost half of the nation’s total household income, this group is increasingly being asked to step in an raise grandchildren as young adults struggle in the poor economy reports the Washington Post.

Now making up 1 in 4 adults, grandparents are growing in numbers at twice the rate of the overall population, staying in the work force and sticking close to families, according to new census figures. The latest trend of grandparent involvement, reflected in census figures released Thursday, is now being driven also by the economy and the graying U.S. population, including the 78 million boomers born between 1946 and 1964 who began turning 65 this year.

“We help out in terms of running errands, babysitting, taking the grandkids to doctors’ appointments, and for back-to-school shopping,” said Doug Flockhart of Exeter, N.H., listing some of the activities that he and his wife, Eileen, do for their five kids and seven grandchildren. But that’s just the start.

They also pitch in with health care payments for family members due to insurance gaps, and their pace of activity has picked up substantially since their daughter, who lives three blocks away, gave birth to her first child this month. Flockhart, a retired architect, likes the family time even if he and his wife worry about their grandkids’ futures. Their oldest grandchild is 16.

“It’s not so much the day in and day out, it’s the big picture as to how these young kids will grow up and pay for a college education and buy a house,” he said. “The middle class is so much less well-off than it used to be. We’ve put aside some savings for them, but with seven grandchildren it can only go so far.”

These grandparents reject living in senior communities in favor of “aging in place” in their own homes, near family. In 2009, households ages 55 or older spent billions of dollars on infant food, clothes, toys, games, tuition and supplies for grandchildren, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.