Should You Take Social Security @62 Three Times It May Make Sense
For years, the conventional retirement advice has sounded pretty simple: Wait as long as possible to take Social Security. There is good reason for that advice. You can begin receiving Social Security retirement benefits at 62, but claiming early permanently reduces your monthly payment. For...
Strong for Life: Five Strength Exercises Everyone Over 60 Should Be Able To Do
We tend to think of strength training as something people do to look better, lift heavier weights or stay athletic. After 60, however, strength takes on a much more practical meaning. It is what helps us get out of a chair without pushing off the...
Keep Moving Forward
September always feels like a reset. Football is back. The calendar turns. The heat may still say summer in Alabama, but something about September makes us think about fall, routines, and what we want the rest of the year to look like. At 54, I...
BOOM! COVER PROFILE: Julie Turner Beard
For Julie Beard, service has always begun with relationships. Before becoming Montgomery’s District 2 City Councilwoman, she spent four decades investing in students as an educator, coach, and mentor. Retirement might have slowed someone else down, but one concerned Facebook post—and the encouragement of neighbors...
Biscuits, Buses & Bleachers
August is when the neighborhood changes shifts. All summer long, the kids have been outside getting progressively more bored and more dangerous. By late July, a child with a scooter and no plan can do real damage. They’re cutting through yards, leaving flip-flops in driveways,...
Cruising At Your Own Speed: Choosing the Right Ship, Itinerary and Experience
There comes a point in life when travel becomes less about proving how much you can squeeze into seven days and more about enjoying where those seven days take you. That may be one reason cruising holds such appeal for adults over 55. You unpack...
How Our Vision Becomes More Important As We Age
As we age, our vision often changes, but not all changes are a normal part of the aging process. There are some that are expected, but others may be caused by eye diseases that become more common in older adults. Difficulty focusing on close objects...
Stronger Brains for the Years Ahead: The Latest Research on Lowering Your Risk of Dementia
Walking into a room and forgetting why you went there can feel unsettling. So can losing a familiar name during a conversation or searching for the glasses already resting on top of your head. Most people experience occasional lapses like these as they grow older....
Back to What Matters
August has always felt like a transition month to me. Summer is still hanging on, especially in Alabama, but the calendar is already pulling us forward. School begins again. Families settle back into routines. College students leave home. Grandchildren head back to classrooms. And in...
Cooking Small, Eating Well: Making Healthy, Affordable Meals for One or Two
Eating well in a smaller household does not require elaborate recipes, expensive specialty ingredients or an entire Sunday devoted to meal preparation.The goal is to build a flexible kitchen in which a few basic foods can become several different meals. For years, dinner may have...