Richard Barrington

Retirees may have different tastes in culture and recreation, but there are some basic aspects of a retirement living environment that have fairly universal appeal. Getrichslowly.org ranked the 20 best cities for retirement to help you decide where to spend your golden years, coming up with a diverse list, with choices that span across the country. There are some names on the list you might expect, and some that will probably come as a big surprise.

Methodology

Getrichslowly.org took into account the following criteria when deciding where retirees may want to put down roots:

Low mortgage rates unleashed a massive wave of refinancing that was a windfall for millions of consumers, but what will happen once those unusually low mortgage rates are gone? Will refinancing mortgage loans effectively be sidelined as a financial resource for home owners?

While the opportunity to lower your interest rate may be the most compelling reason to refinance, it is just one of several. Refinancing can accomplish different things for different people, and the more you are aware of what refinancing can do, the more likely you are to be able to use it to your advantage.

Rising interest rates can mean many things for the U.S. economy, but one thing is always certain when it comes to homeowners: when rates go up, refinancing goes down.

With the Federal Open Markets Committee -- the 12-member group that helps decide monetary policy as part of the Federal Reserve -- set to meet on Dec. 13 and 14, mortgage rates could be on track to do something they have rarely done in recent years, which is to move higher. While a rise in mortgage rates is not ideal for the home refinance market, it calls more for a shift in tactics rather than completely giving up on the idea of refinancing. Continue reading...

There is no shortage of retirement saving advice out there, but do you find it's hard to find advice relevant to your situation when you need it? If so, this guide should help.

Here are a couple of basic ground rules to this guide:

Most people hate to pay taxes. That's not hard to understand. What is baffling is the length people will go to avoid taxes - sometimes, the cost of avoiding taxes exceeds the taxes themselves.

The reason this happens is that for some people, all they have to hear is that a scheme will help them avoid taxes, and they are on board. Remember though, avoiding taxes should not be your ultimate goal. The idea is to earn the best after-tax return. That means avoiding taxes is only worthwhile if the cost and risk involved don't diminish your investment return too much.

Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates have dropped from above 6 percent to below 4 percent. This has touched off an unprecedented refinancing opportunity for homeowners. However, unless they learn to take a broader view of refinancing, those homeowners may be missing out on the biggest money-saving opportunities.

By now, home prices have recovered to levels higher than at any time other than the peak years of the housing bubble. Between that and the principal payments homeowners have made over time, most should be finding that they are building up a healthy cushion of equity in their homes.

A lot of things change as you start to rise up the income ladder. Most of them are good - the old junker is replaced with a comfortable new car, the apartment becomes a house, you order steak instead of a hamburger. At the same time, managing your money becomes more complicated. Savings strategies for high-net worth individuals can be different. Recognizing how that game changes as you start to earn more will help you make the most of your financial success.

As you start to find there is regularly plenty of money left over at the end of the month, the recurring financial topic shifts from "how do I pay my bills" to "what's the best way to invest these savings." To help you with this transition, the following will walk through some of the changes high-net worth savers encounter, and offer some advice about how to handle these challenges.

Experience is a great teacher for investors, but it can also be a very expensive way to learn. Rather than learning by trial and error, reading up on basic investment topics is a more cost-effective way to start, because it allows you to benefit from the experience of others. The following are six of the best investing books for beginners that can help you make an informed start:

1. One Year to an Organized Financial Life: From Your Bills to Your Bank Account, Your Home to Your Retirement, the Week-by-Week Guide to Achieving Financial Peace of Mind

Author: Regina Leeds
Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books

"Got any investment tips?"

It's a common question, but there is no one answer to it. The right investment decision depends on the circumstances, and circumstances change over time. For example, the right way to invest can vary depending on how much money you have available. To look at how the size of the investment should guide your approach, consider the different actions you might take with $1,000, $10,000, or $100,000 to invest.

Have you been enjoying the sharply-reduced cost of gasoline this year? Lower petroleum prices add up to slick savings for the typical American; but in the back of your mind, there's that nagging thought... "This isn't going to last."

You are probably right. Oil prices are notoriously cyclical, what goes up tends to go down, and vice versa. Proving this to be true, gas prices began to tick up this month, reaching a six-month high on May 2 according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report, though the average national price of about $2.22 per gallon is still substantially lower than prices we saw in 2013 and 2014.

The good news is there are ways to capitalize on the cyclical nature of oil prices and make the benefits of lower prices last longer.