Category Archives: Senior Living / Retirement

By David Kopyc

Most Boomers do not have a pension plan and need to take their retirement assets they have accumulated over their working careers and create lifetime monthly income.  For most of the boomers the defined benefit pension plan has been replaced by 401k plans that leave the responsibility to you and not your former employer.

Before you make a decision on the investment program that is best suited for your appetite for risk and the ability to weather the storm when markets become volatile, you need to consider the drawbacks of each decision you make.  Never make a hasty decision that is irreversible that you may regret.

By Jill Nagy

“It sure is a busy place,” said Kate Bunster, marketing director of the Saratoga Springs Adult and Senior Center at 5 William St. in Saratoga Springs.

With 100 to 150 people coming by on a typical day, the center offers a wide variety of activities for people over the age of 50, both for participating and volunteering.

“The social part is the biggest piece,” she said. For seniors who feel isolated or feel the need to make new friends, the center “creates a space to go during the day.”

A new program, for example, called Super Social Fridays, began in January. The program every Friday might feature a speaker like local author Richard Cerasani, who wrote a book about Mount Rushmore, or even a showcase for dancing dogs. Other programs are centered on craft projects.

For card players, the center hosts canasta, bridge, rummy and mah jhong games. There is also a pool table. Fitness activities include yoga, Zumba, tai chi, aerobics, and strength training. Groups also meet to crochet, knit or hook rugs.

Community Connect helps people find volunteer activities in the community or at the center. It trains volunteers to provide assistance to seniors in Saratoga County. Its mission is to help seniors maintain an independent lifestyle.

By Jill Nagy

Malta Development Co. is planning an 83-unit senior housing community on Hutchins Road in Ballston Spa.

Developer Tom Samascott hopes for approval in August and said construction would begin in the spring.

He described the project as townhouse-style rental units, each of them with two bedrooms and two baths on a single floor. He anticipates rents of $1,700 to $1,800 a month.

The buildings will have vinyl siding and asphalt shingle roofs. Amenities will include pocket parks with garden beds and a dog park. There are no plans for a fitness center, community room or similar facilities.

Stephen Kyne is a partner at Sterling Manor Financial in Saratoga Springs and Rhinebeck.

Courtesy Sterling Manor Financial

By Stephen Kyne

From its peak in May of 2015 to new records set in July of this year, the markets have suffered two corrections.

If there’s been a theme to the last year of investing, it is volatility. In spite of that volatility, however, it remains true that long-term investments in the markets provide positive returns over time, as long as the investor possesses the discipline to remain invested. Many don’t.

As a result, most individual investors buy high and sell low; emotions cause them to flee the markets as they hit lows, locking-in losses, and remain out of the markets through periods of recovery, only to enthusiastically jump back in in time for the next pullback.

Emotions have no place in investing.

Remember that there are two sides to every trade. In order for you to sell that investment at the bottom of a market correction, someone else has to be willing to buy it. If the investment is such a dog, what does that person know that you don’t? Sometimes you’ll be right, but many times the buyer recognizes that the low price represents a deep discount, and is eager to let you sell them something on sale.

Emotional investment decisions are often instigated by what you perceive to be true based on exposure to the media. Remember, the news never shows the house that didn’t burn down, nor all the people who made it home safely last night. Media exists to sell advertising, and sensationalism puts butts in the seats. Consequently, every little problem in the world becomes inflated to that end. This year’s election is a perfect example.