By Beth Dance
What happened to user guides?
It wasn’t that long ago when you would buy a brand-new phone, and inside the taut packaging was a crisp and clean instruction guide. It would break down everything you ever needed to know about the device. From how to turn the phone itself on to helpful recommendations on how to maintain the phone to extend its life.
By Beth Dance
Human beings are not, as a rule, good with change. Even life’s most joyful milestones and transitions tend to cause their share of stress. And when you add in difficult emotions, things get intense pretty quickly.
One life experience that is often underestimated in terms of its emotional impact is moving. I’ve recently experienced saying goodbye to my childhood home, and it wasn’t easy. Even though my brother and I spent the last several years encouraging our parents to sell their home, I wasn’t ready.
Technology and the internet provide a lot of speed, access, and convenience to our everyday lives. Unfortunately, they are also a virtual playground for a lot of bad actors who are always finding new ways to take advantage of the unwary and unprotected.
Hackers and cyber thieves can truly wreak havoc. According to the Harris Poll, the majority (59%) of Americans report having experienced cybercrime. That’s 152 million people who have had their data security compromised!
Leading security company Symantec organizes cybercrime into several categories, including computer viruses and malware, online credit card fraud, identity theft, outright scams, and others. And, in another report, Symantec found that over the course of just one year, 60 million Americans were victims of identity fraud. In dollars and cents, that translates into a consumer loss of $16.8 billion! And, sadly, according to FBI cybercrime statistics, people older than 60 are the most likely to become victims of online cons.
By Jill Brightman
Buying a home can be the most expensive and life-altering purchase we will ever make. It is where we plant our roots, grow our families, try our hand at home improvement tasks, decorate and re-decorate again to our tastes, and mostly, it’s where we make cherished memories.
However, there often will come a time when we need to decide (or in some circumstances, the decision will have to be made for us) if it’s time to downsize, move on to new surroundings, or re-think if our family home can be made safe and comfortable as we age.
By Jill Brightman
As a child, one of my favorite past times was sorting through my family’s old, black and white photographs that had been passed down from multiple generations.
I romanticized the pictures of grandfather, in his World War II military uniform, and my grandmother, his young bride. I chuckled at looking at my own father as a gawky teen and was awestruck by looking at my great-grandparents in their turn of the century attire.
By Esther Corcoran
Alzheimer’s is not a normal part of growing older, as many people seem to think. It is a disease that impairs memory and intellectual abilities to the point where their daily life is being affected. When people notice things in their daily life changing, there are 10 early signs to be aware of and to keep into consideration before seeking medical help.
1. Memory loss that disrupts daily life. Memory loss is one of the most common signs of Alzheimer’s, especially forgetting recently learned information. Other instances include forgetting important dates or events; asking for the same information over and over; increasingly needing to rely on memory aids (e.g., reminder notes or electronic devices) or family members for things they used to handle on their own.
If you’re feeling the squeeze every time you fill up your tank, we have some time-tested tips for making the experience less painful. We can’t turn back the clock or change global events that drive dramatic price increases, but we can share some tips to help ease the blow!
On their own, each of these tips only makes a small difference, but implementing a few at a time in a collaborative way, will ultimately keep your pockets full.
Losing a spouse is a devastating experience whether it happens at the end of a long illness or without any warning. In a moment, everything changes. For many, widowhood feels surreal, like the whole world has shifted slightly, leaving them standing apart from the life they used to know.
Modern culture in general, and American culture in particular, do not offer a lot of guidance for how to support someone who is grieving such a loss. This leaves many of us feeling deeply uncomfortable. In the worst cases, those awkward feelings keep us from offering the help we desperately want to provide to a friend or loved one.
We just don’t know what to do or say.
“There are only four kinds of people in the world. Those who have been caregivers. Those who are currently caregivers. Those who will be caregivers, and those who will need a caregiver.” –Rosalyn Carter
These prescient words by the former first lady remain as relevant and true as ever.
According to a 2020 report from the AARP:
By Kevin Riedel
Ever find yourself in this situation? You get seated in a dimly-lit restaurant, the server hands you a menu, and you immediately realize with dread, “I forgot my reading glasses.”
Or maybe you discover a new food item in the grocery store. You turn the package over to read the ingredients label to find it’s written in microscopic text.
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