The Grandma Check: How Big (or small!) do you make it?

10 Surprising Facts Nobody Tells You About Aging

Downsizing Seasonally – As the Seasons Change So Should Your Closet (and Your Garage/Shed)

4 Easy Ways to Make New Friends in Retirement

5 Things TV Doctors Always Get Wrong

Keeping Our Skin Healthy – As Time Passes

Your skin goes through many changes as you age. All you need to do is look in the mirror. Aging skin loses fat and becomes thinner and drier. Red and pimply spots can appear on the face (a condition known as rosacea). Spots also can become waxy and pink, particularly…

Heart Issues? Two Important Tips

Have heart disease? Then you probably know what exactly you’re supposed to do: eat wisely, get regular physical activity, keep weight, blood pressure, and blood sugar on target; and if you smoke, quit. But, what you might not know is that sufficient, good-quality sleep and stress control also offer genuine…

Are You Active? Yes, Right, There’s a Pandemic – But….

Some of the best physical activities for your body don’t require a gym or that you get fit enough to run a marathon. Here’s some tips and ideas that can do wonders for your health. They’ll help keep your weight under control, improve your balance and range of motion, strengthen…

Add These 2 Exercises To Your Routine To Help Age More Gracefully

We all know the many benefits of exercise to help keep us healthy. It turns out that the same regime can be used to help us age gracefully and decrease muscle loss and decline of brain functioning.

8 Risk Factors for Bone Fracture

Fact: More than half of all bone fractures are in people with osteopenia rather than osteoporosis. Right now may be the perfect time to bone up on your potential fracture risk. If you haven’t heard of FRAX, it stands for Fracture Risk Assessment Tool. It was developed by the World…

Friends Are Breaking Up Over Social Distancing

When one friend takes prevention guidelines more seriously than the other, suspicion, fear, and shame can drive them apart. NOTE: AFL Thanks The Atlantic…and especially, author Ashley Fetters for this article. Staying home whenever possible and limiting up-close interactions with people who don’t live with you is, unquestionably, the correct…

Be AWESOME! Move It!

Spend a lot of time sitting each day? If you’re like most people, more than half of your waking hours are spent parked on a chair or sofa. Even if you dedicate at least 30 minutes a day to structured exercise (such as brisk walking, cycling, or swimming), it’s still…

Medicare: 5 Things To Know….

Planning for health care in retirement can help you be better prepared to handle the expected and unexpected costs. Medicare is a significant part of that planning. Your advisor will provide personalized advice based on your financial goals and personal situation. Here are five key aspects of Medicare to consider…

Want to Live Longer? Make It Worthwhile!

Yes, I know. We already do a lot to ensure that we stay in good health so we can enjoy our later years. We eat right, we exercise, and even with a pandemic going on, many of us are getting checkups and screenings as recommended by our doctors. But, did…

Aging in Place. Can It Work for You – or Your Loved One?

NOTE: After Fifty Living thanks Harvard Health for this important article. In this pandemic era, you may be motivated to avoid moving to a retirement facility, where COVID-19 risks can be high. But how can you tell if you’re healthy enough to do that? “Sometimes people don’t recognize the signs.…

Some Thoughts about Reverse Mortgages

QUESTION: What are the pros and cons of reverse mortgages? “Needs to know.” AFL’S ROSEMARIE BOYD ANSWERS: Dear “Needs To Know:” Before I give my opinion on this, I would like to start with a word of caution! This decision is one which should not be made without expert advice! …

Is A Loved One Losing Capacity? A Way To Tell…

An estate attorney recently noted that when it comes to judging capacity, many compromised folks are very good at hiding their downward trajectory. Little jokes, annoyed denials, push back, turning the tables, and graceful changes in conversation are all part of the repertoire. Also, being forgetful, or other symptoms people…

When Aging Parents Lack Health Insurance

A hospital waiting room is a lousy place to discover that Mom and Dad are broke. Unfortunately, a parent’s health crisis often provides the first warning sign that the folks have made a major financial blunder by dropping or downgrading their Medicare supplement health insurance to save money. “In a lot of…

Makin’ A List? Checkin’ It Twice?!

Yes, we’re entering the holiday season and under “normal” circumstances, list-making would be an essential part of adding joy (and order) to the season. But this is the year when things absolutely WILL be different. But let’s not throw out the baby with the “list-making” bathwater. List-making itself can be…

5 Tips to keep earning a paycheck in retirement

Retirement today is not that of a generation ago, we are living longer these days, and retirement is not what it used to be. Today, 60 (and beyond) is the new 50. Retirement is no longer a time to just garden and visit the grandkids, and healthier retirees want to…

The Crazy Days of “Now”

My home is lovely. My spouse is a good person. My health is very good. My kids, my grandkids are simply marvelous. And I’m grateful. But darn it – life has been turned upside down. During these crazy days, I’m trying, really, to maintain a schedule. I’m trying to do…

What Changes We’ve Seen!

NOTE: This appeared 2 years ago. We are thinking this is good “food for thought” in our Covid-19 era. Well, I’m giving it another try. Back in February , we attempted hip replacement surgery – but, long story short, it turned out I had an allergy I wasn’t aware of…

Just Sayin’

OVER THE HILL?? I am kinda annoyed (and that’s putting it mildly). There’s a comment on the AFL Facebook page that says being After 50 is “over the hill.” Really? It’s ONLY so in the mind of that poor, misguided, disgruntled creature. How sad is that!! My goal is NOT…

Living It Fully!

Recently we received a wonderful note from Donna, an After Fiftier, and it got me thinking about the After Fifty Living tag line: live it fully, live it now. But first, here’s the note: “Hi Jo-Anne, I am a tour operator and specialize in garden tours. Many of my guests…

Mellowing AND Sharpening – As We Age

Is it just me? Am I the only one who’s finding that with every passing day, month, year, a lot of things that would have “raised my dander” a while back simply aren’t doing so anymore. And when I examined this more closely, I realized that these issues, almost every…