Health & Wealth

• 10 steps for your estate plan before year’s end

  It is vital that you take the time to review your estate plan and make sure it is complete and up to date. Here is a list of 10 steps you can take before year’s end to ensure your revocable trust-based estate plan will work at peak performance:

• It's time in the market, not timing the market, that counts

  What’s in a day? Actually, it turns out, quite a bit when it comes to the stock market. With the recent increase in market volatility, we decided to take a look at the impact of short-term market activity versus long-term results. Simply put, the chance of investing in the market on a day that closes higher is as good as the chance of a coin toss landing heads up.

• Commencement Day

  College graduation begins a new era – not just for the student but the parents, too!

• Putting the long-term care industry on its head

  Baby boomers are demanding more for their parents.

• What will happen to interest rates?

  The Federal Reserve’s recent lowering of the federal funds rate is good news if you are a borrower. If you are a saver, it is a different story.

• Afraid you’ll outlive your retirement savings?

  Look at a gift to the Harvard Endowment and establish a charitable remainder trust to create a retirement income stream.

• Older workers prove a boon for businesses

  At Snow’s Home and Garden in Orleans, you’re likely to be served by employees who have backgrounds as engineers, scientists and judges. Now, past age 55, they’re combining work with semi-retirement on Cape Cod.

• What’s happening with TV?

  By now most people know that television is going digital, and many have heard about an analog shut-off date in February 2009. There is a widespread belief that this analog deadline will render traditional TV sets useless. Fortunately, this is not the case.

• Winter in the Cape Cod garden

  Summer may be long gone, but that doesn’t mean your garden won’t still benefit from some attention. Gardening is a year-round activity, especially on beautiful Cape Cod.

• Your health portfolio: Creating a plan for wellness

  Health is not the mere absence of disease, anymore than wealth is the absence of poverty. To cultivate abundant health across the span of your life you will want to consider proactive creation of a health portfolio.

• Choosing a health club

  Selecting a health club is a no brainer, right? At first thought, it would seem that what you want in a health club is all of the things you don’t have at home: free weights, weight machines, all kinds of cardio equipment, one stop shopping for a complete workout. Simple, right?

• Better health through reduced stress

  The phone keeps ringing, your computer is on the fritz and you’re trying to fit 25 hours of activity into a 24-hour day. So your stress levels go up, along with your blood pressure.

• A clear-sighted future for baby boomers

  By now many boomers have gotten their first reading glasses and have struggled to adapt to needing more light to read.

• Realizing his Cape Cod dream

  No retirement for this corporate executive: At 65, Dave Roberts buys a Truro winery with his wife and his children.

• Trading in Bordeaux futures for fun and profit

  Today, demand – especially for fine wines – often exceeds the supply; thus, the growth in wine futures: investors willing to speculate on the quality and price of wines not yet produced.

• One for the road: Tour company offers travel with a focus on wine

  While Cape Cod is a destination that many people travel to, its residents also travel from the Cape to a variety of locales, domestically and internationally.

• Marketing to Women

  Cape Business recently held a special breakfast seminar featuring three presentations to assist you in marketing your services and products to the ever-growing women’s market on Cape Cod and beyond.
  

• Health & Wealth Directory

  We are pleased to share our Health & Wealth directory – an array of businesses and establishments ready to serve you year-round.
  

• Planning for retirement is a lifelong strategy

  This special edition of Cape Business Personal Finance is dedicated to readers of all ages. That’s because planning for retirement should begin as early as in your 20s and 30s.

• Investing for retirement: The risk/reward calculation

  Investing for retirement has been the buzz phrase for several years now. In fact, many of the largest investment firms have spent a lot on marketing to attract those retirement assets. There are also many statistics about what it takes to retire, and many calculations you can do that will estimate what you need to retire.

• Roth IRAs: How they work and how to use them

  With most tax-favored retirement plans, the contribution to (i.e., investment in) the plan is deductible, the investment compounds tax-free until distributed, and distributions are taxable as received.

• Planning for lifetime income

  The equity in your home can become the biggest solution to escalating health-care costs that threaten your financial well-being later in life.

• Love, marriage – and money

  Love, money and marriage. Talk about a topic that can bring about some heated discussions. Often, a husband and wife bring entirely different risk profiles to their portfolio.

• No company is too small for a qualified plan

  Most small business owners have to wear several hats to successfully run their company – CEO, administrative officer and marketing guru, among others. It’s no wonder that researching and selecting the best retirement plan for your business is so daunting.

• Call it a personal communication assistant

  If you are between the ages of 46 and 64, 15 percent of you already have hearing problems. Two of three people with hearing loss are below the traditional retirement age. Six out of 10 are men.

• Feeling good, looking good

  Today’s baby boomers are not like retirees of yesteryear. They are more fit, active and youthful. They are more educated on the health benefits of fitness and the importance of feeling – as well as looking – vital through longer life expectancies.

• Working out at home

  For many, going to the gym to work out is difficult or unappealing – whether because of scheduling issues or discomfort at exercising in public. One solution is a home gym.

• The baby boomer squeeze play

  You are working six days a week in your business. Your children are in college, or soon will be. You see retirement on the horizon. And now, you find yourself financially and physically preoccupied with your aging parents, who are losing their ability to be independent.

• Home entertainment goes high-tech

  While baby boomers aren’t necessarily retiring and relaxing around the house all day, many still want their homes to be their oasis. That means gourmet kitchens, outdoor living around pools and gardens, and high-tech home entertainment systems that integrate television, movies, music and more at the touch of a button.

• Independent living: Not on the golf course, but right downtown

  When several longtime residents of Orleans, including a prominent businessman, sold their homes and moved into Wise Living condominiums downtown, the vision of Chris Wise was realized in its starkest focus.

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