5 WAYS TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS IN RETIREMENT Don’t Spend Another Year Lonely!
3. Volunteer. Volunteering has similar benefits to joining a hobby group with the added benefit of giving back to
Friendship just might be the fourth secret to longevity, right behind eating well, exercising, and getting plenty of sleep. According to the Mayo Clinic, making friends can reduce stress, improve your self-confidence, and give you purpose in life! People with good friends are also more likely to exercise and less likely to drink to excess. But making friends is tough, especially in your golden years. To finally kick loneliness to the curb in 2022, try these five tips. 1. Get a dog. Adopting a dog (assuming you truly want one) will incentivize you to leave the house for walks, vet visits, and more. You’ll likely attract new friends in the neighborhood when they stop to pet your pup, and you can also meet people at the dog park or obedience classes. If nothing else, you’ll have your dogs in common! 2. Join a hobby group. The easiest way to find friends with similar interests is to pursue those interests. If you like to quilt, join a quilting group, and if you kayak, look for an outdoors club near you. Facebook is a great resource for finding online hobby groups, too! Just type your interest into the search bar and select “Groups” on the left-hand side of the screen.
the community! There’s likely a cause for whatever you’re interested in, whether that’s food, animals, or sports. Visit VolunteerMatch.org to find opportunities in your area sorted by organization type. 4. Move to a 55-plus community. Also called retirement communities or active adult communities, these neighborhoods
are known for their low-maintenance housing, amenities, and group activity options — and they’re all over the U.S. If you want to find friends in your age group to swim and play tennis with, a local real estate agent can help you find them. 5. Become a mentor. Mentorship is a valuable way to form friendships across generations. You can sign up for an existing program in the field you retired from or reach out to a local college or high school career center and offer your services. They’ll likely have graduates who’d love to meet you!
PRICES GOING UP IN 2022?
Let’s talk infrastructure, inflation, and taxes.
Bottom line, analysts project long- term benefits to the economy in lower business costs, increased labor force participation, and improved competitiveness. Inflation might not be as temporary as the Federal Reserve would like it to be.
President Biden recently signed his much-debated bipartisan infrastructure deal.
What does that mean for the economy?
In the short term, some of the infrastructure funding will go immediately toward clearing port and transportation bottlenecks, so that might help improve supply chain issues. Fingers crossed. Though it could be years before you or I drive across a new bridge or highway funded by the bill, some of the maintenance funds could be used in spring construction blitzes. Since the job market is already tight, the economy isn’t likely to see an immediate surge in hiring due to infrastructure spending; however, multiple reports suggest upward of 800,000 new jobs could be added by 2030, though many of them will be temporary rather than long-term jobs. Economists don’t think inflation is likely to increase due to the slow pace of spending, though the deal is projected to add $256 billion to the federal budget deficit over the next 10 years.
Prices are up all over, and folks are understandably upset at paying more at the grocery store, gas station, and most everywhere else. Many analysts hoped that data blips, supply chain clogs, and other pandemic-related disruptions were creating a temporary spike in inflation that would resolve soon.
However, inflation has remained stubbornly high.
In the U.S., prices have increased 6.2% over the last 12 months — the biggest spike since November 1990. Some categories measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), such as used cars and trucks and energy, have soared by much more.
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