Goin' to the Country

     B was going to a baby shower for her niece last weekend, so I had the day to myself. B and I had just been to see singer Sarah Potenza, a standout on last season's "The Voice", as part of a concert series in our local park. In the program there was a flyer for the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, a three-day event in Hillsdale, NY, about an hour-and-a-half drive from home. Sarah Potenza was also playing in Hillsdale. I thought she was pretty good, so I decided to go to the folk festival for the day.

A view of the main stage

     It's a pretty drive up through the country, and as I arrived at the site, a big field sloping up a hill from the road, I was surprised to see so many tents and campsites splayed up across the grass and behind the trees. Most of these people, it seems, were campers, not day-trippers like me. They came from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts -- although I saw one car from Ontario and another from Minnesota -- and were making a long weekend out of it.

Bumper sticker philosophy for sale

     I expected a lot of ex-hippies. You know the type -- balding guys with a paunch and a ponytail, and women in flowing dresses with long curly gray hair. There were some of those; but I was surprised at how many young people were milling around, taking in the music, dancing to the songs. There were men and women in their 30s and 40s and parents with little kids. They were sporting a lot of sandals and lots of tie-dye. The crowd was peppered with Bernie t-shirts and bumper stickers.

I actually like kale

     I saw four different men wearing skirts. Not kilts, but skirts. The men were clearly not transgendered. Is this a new fashion statement among a certain set?

A fancy food truck

     There were plenty of tables and kiosks with people selling jewelry, photographs, homemade clothes, and other arts and crafts. The food trucks featured organic and local farm products.

Dancin' the afternoon away

     There was a dance tent where a surprisingly large number of people were learning a folk line dance. I might have joined in if B was with me, but she wasn't. That's one reason why, by and large, I do not like to travel by myself . . . and why I'm glad I'm not single.

You know what these are

    The music was country and folk, with a hint of blues -- all regional bands from around New York and New England. The Gaslight Tinkers were pretty good. .

The Gaslight Tinkers

     I did not stick around to see Sarah Potenza. She wasn't going on until 7:30 p.m., and I wanted to get home before dark. Besides, B and I had a dinner date at our new favorite restaurant called Prime Burger, where you can sit outside, enjoy the summer breezes, and watch people stroll through our new town in a much more "civilized" atmosphere.

6 Ways to Maximize Your Social Security

     Social Security took a cut out of every paycheck we ever earned and used the money to pay benefits to our grandparents, parents and older siblings. Now, finally, it's our turn. It's only natural that we want to get our benefits, too.

     The rules for collecting Social Security are complicated and often changing. For example, Congress recently closed two "loopholes" in filing for Social Security. One was called "file and suspend" and the other "restricted application" – both allowing two-income married couples to boost their benefits as one spouse collected while the other's continued to grow, at a rate of about 8 percent a year.

     Meanwhile, we hear dire predictions that Social Security is running out of funds. Eligibility rules may change or benefits may be cut. Social Security is supposed to be indexed to inflation, but in the past few years increases have been minimal because government measures of inflation have been so low. The projection for 2017 is no cost-of-living increase at all for Social Security.

     Nobody knows what the long-term future holds for Social Security. But under current conditions, there are six proven and non-technical strategies to make the most out of the program. They may not all be easy to do, but they are simple and tried-and-true. 

     1. Work a long time. Social Security figures your benefit by calculating your average indexed monthly earnings for the 35 years in which you earned the most money. So, obviously, one way to maximize benefits is to put in a full career, working at least 35 years. Maybe that seems like a long time, but look at it this way: If you retire at full retirement age (66 for most baby boomers), you clocked 35 years even if you didn't start your career until you were 31. You would also hit 35 years if you began working at age 21 and took off 10 years to raise children. 

     2. Have a good job. Social Security sets a maximum amount of salary that is subject to the payroll tax. It's currently $118,500 per year, which is the same amount of earnings it will credit toward your benefit. This amount is adjusted for inflation. The maximum amount in 2000 was $76,200, and in 1990 it was $51,300. It's easier said than done, but the way to maximize your benefit is to earn the maximum amount set by Social Security throughout your career. If you were earning at least $51,300 in 1990, $76,200 in 2000 and $118,500 today, you're eligible for the maximum possible benefit. 

     3. Don't retire early. Workers are eligible to start taking Social Security benefits at age 62, but the amount you receive is discounted by about 25 percent if you sign up at this age. Also, if you start Social Security before full retirement age and you earn more than $15,720 per year, the government starts temporarily withholding your benefits. Conversely, if you work beyond full retirement age, you receive a bonus of approximately 8 percent a year, up to age 70. There's no extra benefit to working past age 70. 

     4. Don't earn too much in retirement. If you're married and file a joint tax return, your Social Security benefit is not taxed if your combined income falls below $32,000. Half is taxed if your income is between $32,000 and $44,000, and 85 percent of your benefit is taxed if your income exceeds $44,000. If you had a good career and didn't retire early, you'll likely be subject to the 85 percent rule.

     5. Live in a tax friendly state. There's not much you can do to avoid federal taxes unless you have a low income. But you can do something about state taxes. Most states do not levy income tax on Social Security benefits, including retirement havens like Florida, Arizona and the Carolinas. But about a dozen states do exact income tax on your Social Security benefits, including red states like Kansas and Utah as well as blue states like Connecticut and Vermont. (Of course, B and I just moved to Connecticut, but not for long. We can't afford it!) 

     6. Stay in good health. By far the most important factor in how much you collect from Social Security is not how much you earned, and not when you decided to start benefits -- but how long you stick around to collect those benefits. In other words, the best way to maximize your Social Security is to eat right, get some exercise, make sure to have an annual physical and in every other way take care of yourself so you continue to collect a monthly benefit throughout a long and prosperous retirement.

What to Do with Donald Trump?

     You do realize, don't you, that the Clintons and the Trumps are friends . . . or have been until recently. The Clintons joined the Trump National Golf Course when they moved to Westchester, NY, after Bill Clinton left the White House. The Clintons attended Trump's wedding to Melania in 2005. And Clinton daughter Chelsea is friends with Trump daughter Ivanka. "Friendship is more important than politics," Chelsea explained.

     And despite their different temperaments -- Trump, the garish, in-your-face braggart who shoots from the hip, and Clinton, the crafty behnd-the-scenes manipulator whose every moved is scripted -- they have a lot in common. Both are Ivy-League educated, both are wealthy, both are longtime members of the New York/Washington/Los Angeles ruling elite.

     So I find this very curious. Real Clear Politics has a poll asking people if the country is headed in the right direction. The latest finding reports that 68% think we're headed in the wrong direction, compared to 18% who say we're on the right track. And yet our choice this year is more-of-the-same vs. barroom-brawler.

    But what do I know? I was not one of the 27 million TV viewers who saw Hillary Clinton's acceptance speech, nor one of the 30 million who watched Donald Trump. I was on vacation during the Republican convention; and as for the Democrats, by then I felt like I'd already heard all the nasty name-calling I could possibly stand.

     We know that politics is a nasty game. At least we don't have duels anymore, or attempted coups that seem almost routine in the rest of the world. For another perspective check out Meryl Baer who ponders this crazy election season in Donald Trump and His Co-Conspirators. She suggests at least one reason why Trump was able to brilliantly move beyond the penthouse of Trump Towers to become the GOP's presidential candidate.

     But if, like me, you are now trying to avoid politics, consult what I think is a more constructive post, Delaying the Arrival of Alzheimer's and Dementia, about how watching your grandchildren (rather than presidential debates) can help defer the onset of these much-feared disabilities.

     Meanwhile, Rita Robison takes on those robocalls. (Businesses may be the worst, but politicians aren't far behind. A friend of mine gave $25 to a political candidate. He is now inundated with emails and telephone calls every day. "I kid you not, I got 40 emails yesterday from politicians in six or seven states asking for contributions," he told me.) Now a federal agency is trying to require the phone companies to provide customers with free ways to block unwanted robocalls. Ring up The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide to find out more.

     Carol Cassara agrees with me, at least to the extent that there hasn't been much to laugh about lately. But that hasn't deterred her, over at Heart, Mind Soul, from talking about some of the benefits of laughter and why it's so important -- and thankfully she demonstrates her sense of humor when her son . . . well, read about it yourself over at Don't Text Me.

     Despite all the sturm und drang, I think it's pretty clear that Donald Trump will need a vacation in November, after he experiences defeat at the polls. (Real Clear Politics has Clinton leading by somewhere between 50 and 100 electoral votes). Besides, we all know that Trump needs to calm down anyway. And so it suddenly hit me that Kathy Gottberg has inadvertently come up with a good idea for the Trump family.

     Every summer, she reports in The Cure for Worry, Fear and Narcissism, she and her husband rent a house up in the mountains, primarily to connect them to the feelings of beauty and nature that they can't get at home. "Being in nature," she writes, "and finding an ongoing sense of awe and wonder, is critical to our feelings of happiness and well being . . . and besides that, it also makes us nicer people to be around."

     Just the cure for Donald Trump. Don't you think?

     Or, perhaps Laura Lee Carter suggests another scenario. In her post High in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains she tells us you might, as she does, harbor some romantic visions about living high in the Colorado mountains. She visited some new friends who live in an old miner's cabin at 8,200 feet, and then she came home with a few stories about living way up high.

     I know this was not Carter's intent. But I can't help thinking Donald Trump, at 8,200 feet . . . as Jack Nicholson in The Shining. What say you?
 

8 Tips for Decluttering

     Like many retirees, our household is downsizing. As many of you know, we have sold our house in the suburbs and now, just last week, moved into a one-bedroom condominium. Six months ago we had a basement full of old boxes and an attic full of memorabilia. We had overflowing kitchen cabinets, closets bulging with old clothes, bookcases bursting with books and tabletops littered with little trinkets and tchotchkes.

     But now, everything has been packed away and moved out the door. We have one truckload in our condo, and another has been sent to storage -- to await the time when we settle down into a house or condo that is bigger than what we have now, but smaller than what we had before.

     How did we do it? Honestly, a month ago it seemed like an impossible task. But it happened. So here are eight tips from personal experience on how to declutter and prepare for downsizing in retirement. 

     1. Call the kids. The first thing we did was put our four kids on notice that we were moving, and we expected them to come and sort through their things, take what they wanted and dispose of the rest. One son had already moved 800 miles away and had taken most of what he wanted. We sent him photos of the rest. He told us what to bring him when we met him at B's mother's 100th birthday party. The rest we got rid of. We were lucky that another son had recently bought his own house. He came with a U-Haul and not only took all of his own stuff, but loaded up a couple of extra pieces of furniture into the back of the truck. 

     2. Donate to the church rummage sale. Our church has a big rummage sale every April. We donated two carloads of clothes and kitchen equipment. Plus, church volunteers came with a pickup and took away several bookcases, a TV case, a dining room sideboard and a few other pieces of furniture. 

A work in progress

     3. Make trips to recycling. Our town recycling center accepts old electronics (so do electronics stores such as Best Buy), both paperback and hard back books, scrap metal and paper of all kinds. I made at least a dozen trips to our recycling center. 

     4. Shuttle to Goodwill. We have a Goodwill store near us; others have the Salvation Army or some other thrift shop. They accept free donations of clothes, books, CDs and small household items. My Goodwill does not accept rugs. We had three rugs that I had to cut up into strips and throw away. 

     5. Find your pickers store. There's a second-hand store in the next town over from us. There's probably one near you, too. I called the owner and made an appointment. Then I loaded up the back of our small SUV with tools, framed prints and a few knickknacks, and the woman there picked through my pieces, took what she wanted and gave me $140. I made a second trip a few weeks later, and she gave me another $60 for the lot.

     6. Trash, trash and more trash. Some towns offer bulk pickup a few times a year. Our town does not. We have a limit of two full garbage cans, twice a week. So we didn't miss a trick. We filled two garbage cans to the brim, twice a week, for six months straight. Plus, we sneaked in a few extra items when we thought we could get away with it. 

     7. Call the junk man. There are people who will come and haul the last of your stuff away, for a fee. They advertise on community bulletin boards, or leave their business cards in local shops. I found a card at the second-hand store. Fortunately, using all the other methods, we never had to call the junk man. But it's good to know he's there, if and when you need him. 

     8. Have a heart-to-heart with your partner. None of this works if you are furiously disposing of things while your partner is agonizing over whether to throw away a Christmas card from 1985. Most relationships, it seems, consist of one hoarder who has piles of possessions, and one simplifier who owns one coat, one book and one photo. To avoid working at cross purposes, you need to sit down and talk things out. The hoarder must realize that many things (VHS tapes, a record player, old sports equipment) are outdated or can easily be replaced. The simplifier has to appreciate that some things have sentimental value and can't be replaced, and if you get too enthusiastic about downsizing you might end up regretting what you've lost. So don't be like our dysfunctional politicians. Respect your partner's point of view, realize there are deep emotional issues embedded in this whole process and be ready to compromise.

I'm "Out of It"

     A week on Cape Cod. Here are some of the things we've done:

     We went to see a Vince Gill concert at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis. I'm not a country fan and barely knew who he was; but we wanted to see what the venue is like. He put on a good show and in addition to some of his well-known (to others) country songs, he rocked out a few numbers that appealed to the rest of us.

     We also went to the Harwich band concert, held outside on the village green and led by a conductor who is well into his 80s. The songs were very different, kind of corny, featuring the likes of Disney and John Philip Sousa. But the audience was enthusiastic and consisted of pretty much the same demographic as the Gill concert -- men and women over age 50.

     We rented bikes and rode up the old railroad trail to a freshwater pond to go swimming. We also made a few trips to the beach on Nantucket Sound where the water was warm enough to take a swim. We drove up to the ocean in Orleans, at Nauset beach, but the water there was not warm enough to go in, at least not for us -- there are always a few kids who will brave the frigid waves.

     We attended the Harwich music stroll, with several bands outside on the street playing music from the 1960s and '70s. Later, we walked down to the beach and watched a full moon rise over the waters of Nantucket Sound.

     I read two mysteries set on Cape Cod. They were okay. I also read American Lion by Jon Meacham, and decided if the nation survived the presidency of Andrew Jackson (1829 - 1837) -- an outsider from Tennessee with two bullets in him (one from a dual, the other from a gunfight) who owned scores of slaves, ran as a populist against the Eastern establishment and was largely responsible for the Trail of Tears that removed Native Americans from the South and sent them out West -- then we could survive a presidency of Donald Trump. Not that I'm recommending Donald Trump. Far from it. But I'm not too worried about it, especially since his chances of winning seem slim to none.

     But here's what we did not do. We have not watched TV. In fact, the last time I was in front of a TV was two nights before we moved, a week ago Monday, the 11th, when I saw the last episode of the Netflix show "Happy Valley." If you haven't seen it, I recommend it highly. It features a strong female lead in the form of a British police detective who has troubles with her family as well as the evil nemesis who raped her daughter.

     I have not seen the news. But I heard there were more shootings. I saw something on the Internet about Trump's wife plagiarizing her speech (don't they all?). And Trump picked a vice presidential candidate. I didn't catch his name. Has Trump actually been nominated yet?

     Two more days of vacation. Then it's back to reality . . . or what passes for reality in our crazy modern world.