AARP Eye Center
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What's a worse financial plan than taking a loan from your retirement savings? Taking a loan from your retirement savings and not paying it back. Yet a growing number of Americans are doing just that, according to a new study from financial services firm Navigant Economics. Defaults on 401(k) loans totaled $37 billion in recent years.
Mark this as one more way in which the Great Recession has affected Americans' financial planning: Parents are contributing less to their children's college costs than they did just a few years ago, according to a recent poll. In addition, more college students are living at home with parents to save money.
Afraid of crowds? Heights? Spiders? If you suffer from one of these or other "phobic anxieties" -- and about 6 to 10 percent of the American population does -- it could mean you'll age more rapidly than your non-phobic counterparts. In fact, a study published this week found that compared to a person with no phobic symptoms, seriously anxious individuals were aging about six years faster.
Grappling with deficits and debt, 14 countries -- including Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece and Ireland -- are planning to increase their retirement ages to between 67 and 69 by 2050, according to the Washington Post. In the majority of euro zone countries, the full retirement age is currently 65.
A new report finds 20 percent of older adults suffer from mental health or substance abuse problems. With an aging boomer population and a serious shortage of doctors, nurses and other health workers trained in mental health care, "the burden of mental illness and substance abuse disorders in older adults in the United States borders on a crisis," researchers say.
Owing as little as $400 in unpaid property taxes has gotten some American homeowners booted from their houses, according to a report released today by the National Consumer Law Center.
While most Americans with 401(k)s or individual retirement accounts embrace a "set it and forget it" philosophy, some anxious retirement savers are getting increasingly aggressive with their investments, according to the Los Angeles Times. Worried about the toll the past decade has taken on their savings, Americans nearing retirement are day trading mutual funds and stock options in a bid to make up for lost time.
Hospice care with a side of golf? That's just the beginning. Hospices are working to "diversify their services" in preparation for the eventual needs of aging boomers, according to the Associated Press. In the meantime, providers would like to dispel myths that hospice care is all doom, gloom and candlelit bedrooms.
Legendary menswear designer Pierre Cardin celebrated his first catwalk show in years Sunday, showcasing a new crop of his signature space-agey designs (think Star Trek meets Magical Mystery Tour). The 90-year-old designer "invented Paris menswear shows back in the 1950s," according to the Associated Press, and is the one responsible for first dressing the Beatles in collar-less jackets.
A Bronx hospital is launching a program that lets artistic patients knock $40 off their medical bills for every hour they spend providing some other "creative activity or service" at the hospital. The Lincoln Art Exchange, at the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, is essentially a bartering program where actors, musicians, dancers, writers and visual artists can trade their talents for medical care.