Category Archives: 50-Plus

Revised for updated statistics, minor factual corrections.

By Rod Bacon

A game created on the West Coast 60 years ago has become the fastest growing sport in the United States.

The brainchild of three fathers — Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCullum — Pickleball was designed as a backyard game to entertain families. Using elements of badminton, tennis, and table tennis, they used ping-pong paddles, a wiffle ball, and a lowered badminton net to develop a game that has been sweeping the nation in recent years. 

Joan Pritchard came up with the name, referencing the “pickle boat” in competitive rowing, which is a crew comprised of non-selected rowers from other teams that compete in a final, often less competitive, race at the end of a regatta.

According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s Topline Participation Report for 2025, there were an estimated 19.8 million pickleball players in the United States in 2024, which is a 45.8 percent increase over the previous year. Over the last three years, participation in the sport has grown 311 percent.

By Christine Graf

Americans are traveling in record numbers, with the United States aviation industry reporting that 2023 was its busiest year ever. Local travel advisors expect 2024 to be another banner year for travel, particularly among the age 50-plus demographic.

 “The baby boomer demographic is traveling a lot—people in their 60s and 70s who are worried they might not be able to travel once they are in their 80s,” said Ed Plog, president of Playbill Travel in Saratoga Springs. 

Plog, a travel advisor with five decades of experience, said business is booming at his agency.

“Last year was one of the best years ever because there was a lot of pent up demand. That demand has spilled over into 2024, and 2025 bookings look good,” he noted.

According to Plog, the majority of his clients opt for customized itineraries, with Europe being the most popular destination. 

“The type of travel for my business has definitely changed in that it’s more involved, more customized, and more upscale than it was in the past,” he said.” We put these trips together piece by piece to fit with a person’s budget. And because we belong to a consortia, we have contacts all over the world. I have someone locally on the ground who can help me put a trip together.”

By Christine Graf

Volunteering is vital to the economy, the estimated economic value of volunteer work in America exceeding $120 billion. With volunteer rates and hours on a steady decline for the past 20 years, local non-profits are relying more than ever on the 50-plus demographic. 

The Franklin Community Center in Saratoga Springs is a local agency that relies on volunteers, utilizing them in a variety of ways. Each year, the center’s programs and services positively impact over 12,000 individuals. Core to its mission are the Franklin Free Store Donation Center, a food pantry, and Project Lift, an after-school program focused on bolstering self-esteem for children in grades 1-5. The center also operates Franklin Community Manor which has 17 single-occupancy efficiency apartments for low-income adults. 

“We are a family services organization,” said Meg Monthie, operations and volunteer coordinator. “We also do referrals, so anything we can’t provide, we refer out to someone else in the area.”

According to Monthie, the center has a large contingent of dedicated volunteers, the majority of whom are in the 50-plus demographic.  Some of them work in the Franklin Free Store, sorting donations and assisting customers on shopping days.

Located at 101 Washington Street, the store is open Wednesday-Friday from 9a.m.-12 p.m. Donations are accepted on Mondays and Tuesdays by appointment only. Clothing, household goods, toys, games, and small baby items are accepted. All items are offered free of charge, but the store does have a two-bag limit. 

“We have things like dishes, sheets, towels—basically anything you can think of to start up apartment,” said Monthie, noting that they do not accept furniture. 

By Christine Graf

If your house is on fire, there’s a good chance that the firefighters who respond to the call are volunteers. Approximately 65 percent of the country’s more than one million firefighters volunteer their time, and only about 10,000 of the 29,000 fire departments in the United States are staffed by professional firefighters.

In New York where nearly half of the state’s population is served by volunteer firefighters, the number of volunteers has dropped 32 percent since the 1990s. During that same time period, calls for service have increased 29 percent. These calls include fires, vehicle accidents, medical emergencies, hazardous material spills, water rescues, and weather-related rescue operations. 

With the exception of the Saratoga Springs Fire Department, all departments in Saratoga County are operated by volunteers.

According to Round Lake Fire Department Captain and Public Information Officer Joe Plewinski, local departments are struggling to attract volunteers. A principal engineer at General Electric Power Systems, Plewinski joined the department in 1996. For him, it was the fulfillment of a childhood dream.

By Rob Snell

After spending decades in the workforce, you might look forward to the day you retire. But if you decide, for one reason or another, that you’d like to redefine “retirement” to include part-time work or consulting, you could enjoy exercising your skills and meeting new people. But you can also receive some key financial benefits.

Specifically, bringing in some paychecks in your retirement can help you in these areas:

You could contribute more to your IRA. During your working years, you may have contributed regularly to an IRA, but once you retired, you might have thought those days were over. But there’s no age limit – if you have any earned income, you can contribute to an IRA and boost the financial resources you have available for retirement.

You could potentially lower your withdrawal rate. Once you’re retired, you will likely need to rely on your investment portfolio to provide you with some—or maybe most—of your income. Consequently, you’ll need to establish an appropriate withdrawal rate—a percentage of your portfolio that you can take out each year without running the risk of potentially outliving your money. Income from part-time work or consulting may lower your dependency on investment income, thereby reducing your annual withdrawal rate and extending the overall longevity of your investment portfolio.

You could add to your grandchildren’s 529 plans. When you invest in a 529 education savings plan, the earnings and withdrawals are federally tax-free, provided the money is used for qualified education expenses. As a grandparent, you can contribute to a 529 plan with your grandchildren as beneficiaries. And a 529 plan can be used for more than college – it can fund some programs at trade schools and K-12 expenses in some states. 

Albany Medical Center, a member of the Albany Med Health System, is among the first four hospitals in the United States to be verified as part of the Vascular Verification Program (Vascular-VP), a program recently launched by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) with the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS).

To receive verification, Albany Medical Center has shown a commitment to improving outcomes and care for patients receiving vascular surgical and interventional treatment in an outpatient setting.

“The Vascular Verification Program helps strengthen a hospital’s safety and continuous improvement culture to enhance patient outcomes with greater reliability and standardization of care. As one of the first hospitals to receive this verification, Albany Medical Center has shown its commitment to providing the highest quality care for vascular patients,” said Clifford Y. Ko, MD, Director, ACS Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care.

Albany Medical Center served as one of eight pilot programs to assist in the development of the verification standards. To become verified, the hospital had to meet elements of vascular surgical care and quality across nine domains, including institutional commitment; program scope and governance; resources for facilities, personnel, and services; clinical care; data abstraction and analysis; quality improvement; and education and research.

By Barbara King

For grandparents, the relationship with a grandchild can be one of the most important things in the world. But what happens when the child’s parents prevent you from seeing or having a relationship with them? 

Sometimes, the only recourse left to grandparents is to petition for grandparents’ visitation rights from Family Court. But do grandparents have visitation rights in New York? 

Visitation rights vary from state to state, but generally speaking, grandparents’ visitation rights are not as extensive as those granted to the child’s biological or adopted parents. But grandparents do have a statutory right to petition for visitation, even if the child’s parents are unmarried, have been legally divorced or one is deceased.

These limited rights to visitation are not extended to aunts and uncles, great-grandparents, or other family members, except in circumstances where the child’s natural parents and grandparents have both passed away, or are otherwise legally barred from access to the child. Adoption is not a barrier to a biological grandparent’s rights to request visitation, but the child’s best interest, including health, safety, and welfare are the primary considerations.

What if the custodial parent is opposed?

The state of New York recognizes that a child’s parents have the fundamental right to raise their children in the manner they feel is best for the child, including who is or is not allowed to visit with them. As such, a Family Court will grant visitation rights to grandparents who have an already established relationship and/or have been denied access to their grandchild if it is deemed by the court to be in the child’s best interests.

By Brian M. Johnson, MBA, CLTC

Long-Term Care, we often dread hearing the words. Our minds quickly go to an image of a nursing home. However, the good news is that many of us will never see the inside of a nursing home. 

According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, the vast majority (80 percent) of elderly people receiving assistance, including many with several functional limitations, live in private homes in the community, not in institutions. Your home doesn’t instill the same doom and gloom that a nursing home might. 

Still, in a recent study of adults over age 65, it was found that most respondents were more comfortable discussing and planning for their own death than their potential need for long-term care. That is probably why many Americans fail to address this single biggest risk they will face in retirement. 

In our practice, we regularly address long-term care planning options. In doing so, we consistently coordinate planning with elder law and estate planning attorneys, geriatric care managers, accountants, and financial advisors. One of the biggest misconceptions we hear from consumers and advisors is that long-term care is covered by Medicare and Medicaid. 

Many seniors are under the impression that their traditional health care programs will provide the desired services in the home such as meal preparation, grocery shopping, assistance with hygiene, dressing, grooming, 24-hour care, etc. Medicare, Medigap and most Medicare Advantage Plans are designed to cover hospital stays, doctor bills and some short-term skilled nursing. Unfortunately, they do not cover the cost of everyday assistance in your own home.