 Just so you know...we are not a dating site! However, we wanted to offer helpful suggestions for those baby boomers and seniors who want to reach out to others in the same age group. Do you know how to grab someone's attention and get more responses on an online dating site? To grab one’s attention, you should: 1 Complete your profile Make sure other members know more about you and what kind of partner you are looking for by writing more about yourself and your desired match. 2 Upload more profile photos This is an important part because some members would decide to make the contact or not based on profile photos. 3 Show some humor Keep it light...show them you are a fun person! Most people respond well to humor. 4 Try emailing more members Don’t be disappointed if someone doesn’t return an email to you. Not everyone is very responsive to emails. They may also be on vacation or they just don't login that often. 5 Sign in as often as possible Be an active member by signing in at different times to meet as many members as you can. 6 The most important thing is to be honest Remember to be honest, positive and patient in all uses of the site. Hopefully, the above tips will help you get more responses on online senior dating sites. Source... Here are reviews of the best online senior dating site: The Best Senior Dating Sites Reviews Also of interest: Retirement Adventures...
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You’ve probably noticed it’s Winter Squash season! Your local grocery store most likely has a variety of squash on display in the produce section, but aside from “looking” seasonal and pretty, many people don’t know what the different varieties of squash are called, yet alone what they can be used for! Hint: they’re more than decoration! Here’s a handy, dandy crash course on Winter Squash, and their many uses. Carnival Squash This colorful variety is a hybrid of an acorn squash and a sweet dumpling squash. It’s perfect for soups and for roasting.  Delicata Squash This Winter squash is pale yellow with green stripes and has an edible skin. Try slicing it into half moons, tossing it in olive oil with salt and pepper and roasting it in the oven for a delicious Fall side dish!  Acorn Squash A smaller squash that varies in color from dark green to orange, with a ribbed rind and orange or yellow flesh. When halved for roasting, the acorn squash can act as a festive bowl for soups or fillings.  Here is the easiest way ever to cook Acorn Squash…in the crock pot! Harvest Acorn Squash Into the crock pot put cleaned, unpeeled squash. Add approximately 1/4 cup water. Cover and cook one hour on High, then change to Low for 6-8 hours. Split and scoop out seeds from cooked squash. Place melted butter, brown sugar, pepper and dash of cinnamon in cavity of squash. Yummy!! Butternut Squash It’s slim neck and round bottom gives this squash it’s distinctive shape. It has bright orange flesh and a fairly sweet and nutty flavor making it great roasted or as a soup. You can use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin.  Sugar Pumpkin It looks like a classic Halloween pumpkin, only a bit smaller. It actually has lots of flesh, and a great pumpkin flavor which makes it great for pie! Try using it instead of canned pumpkin the next time you make a pumpkin pie!  Spaghetti Squash Scraping a fork inside a roasted spaghetti squash will give you strings that closely resemble noodles! It’s mild flavor pairs well with a variety of sauces. It’s a great alternative to pasta! Jack Be Little This adorable little guy is actually best used for decorative purposes only. It has very little flesh, which doesn’t make it very practical to use in recipes, but they sure are cute and make great bowls for dip or soup!  Hubbard Squash Hubbard squash are a fairly large winter squash. They are slightly tear-shaped with dark green to pale grayish blue skins. Because of their size, they are often sold in pre-cut and seeded chunks which are more appealing to home cooks. Hubbards are sweet with a clear pumpkin flavor. Their extra-thick skins help them store through the winter (up to five months in a cool and dry place). A great way to prepare Hubbard squash is to roast them. They are good seasoned with rosemary and black pepper or roasted and then mashed with plenty of butter and warm spices like cumin or nutmeg.  Squash makes a great Fall or Winter meal or side dish. Pinterest is a great resource for recipes, so add squash to your shopping list soon and take advantage of the season!
Now is the time to plan your centerpieces for your fall entertaining. These pumpkin fall centerpieces are elegant yet easy to make. They can be created in the next couple of weeks and will last through Thanksgiving depending on whether you use fresh or silk flowers in the centerpiece. Using natures beautiful flowers, pumpkins, berries and candles, these centerpieces will be a highlight on your holiday table. Home decorating can be very elaborate or very simple…whatever fits your lifestyle! Use a container of some type, such as a tin can or plastic container to put in the middle of the pumpkin to hold water so the flowers won’t wilt. You can also use silk flowers which will give the centerpiece a longer life. We selected four pumpkin fall centerpieces that we thought were beautiful and wanted to share with you. Use your imagination when it comes to decorating with pumpkins. You might even want to combine a couple of these ideas with your own original pumpkin fall centerpieces! The Top Four Pumpkin Fall Centerpieces      Yes, I know that “unscared” is not a real word – but it fits the purpose of this article – especially if you happen to be scared about retirement. Let’s face it, while retirement can be exciting, it can also be a bit daunting, with some unique challenges and pitfalls to avoid. Here are a few reasons why you might be legitimately scared about retirement, along with potential solutions.
Loss of Income. Unless you have a lot of money saved up for retirement, or a nice fat pension, the disappearance of that dependable scheduled deposit into your bank account can strike a little fear in your heart. What if my expenses go up? What if I get sick? What if my spouse/partners loses his or her job? What if the government cuts social security benefits? What if my adult children keep asking for money? All legitimate questions. Answer: Step one is to carefully chart out your expected income (pensions, social security, investment drawdowns, etc.). Use an online tool like newretirementplanner.com for this. You can then understand where potential shortfalls exist. And while you may not have the ability (or desire) to put in the hours and energy needed to totally turn your financial ship around, there are plenty of options for work or starting a business that get you closer to financial security. As Frank Eberhart put it: “The goal of retirement is to live off your assets-not on them” Loss of connections. Assuming you follow the traditional concept of retiring by finishing your full-time career, you will probably find it difficult to stay in touch with your former work colleagues. Sure, they will promise to keep in touch and never forget you but it most often doesn’t happen that way. Likewise, if you move to a new location, you may lose touch with friends and even family. Distance does not always make the heart grow fonder and it makes those last-minute and informal gatherings almost impossible. Answer: As discussed in my article, Choose Your Retirement Tribe Carefully, “Of the many decisions people make going into retirement, the choice of one’s ‘retirement tribe’ is often the most neglected.” AgingCare.com reported on a 2018 survey conducted by Cigna that showed that nearly half (46 percent) of 20,000 U.S. adults say that they feel alone sometimes or always. This is why you need to be very intentional about developing and maintaining your personal tribe. Loss of health. Are you part of the “Let me tell you about my aches and pains” crowd? If not, I hope you get to avoid as many physical and/or mental maladies as possible. But it is true that good health becomes more difficult as you move into your 60’s and beyond. And while some people believe that lack of money is the biggest barrier to a happy retirement, many individuals who have faced serious medical issues will tell you that nothing is more precious than health. Answer: While there is no guarantee that your health will be good throughout your lifetime, there are definitely some things you can do to improve your odds. Here is a great article on the subject: 10 Simple Steps to Increase Your Life Expectancy. Perhaps you didn’t know that things as simple as flossing or watching less TV can add to your longevity! If I had to boil everything I know about this subject down to three ways to maintain health, it would be: 1. Eat healthy. 2. Keep moving (especially walking). 3. Reduce stress. Loss of purpose. When you went to work for all those years, hopefully you did so with a sense of purpose. You knew how you were contributing to your organization’s welfare, and hopefully, to the greater human community. But even those who are fortunate to enter into retirement with adequate finances, good health, and access to a compatible tribe, can find life to be rather dull and pointless if they have so sense of purpose. As Hellen Keller put it so wonderfully, “True happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” Answer: Finding a retirement purpose is not the easiest thing to do. In fact, it can be quite frustrating because there is no ‘paint by numbers’ approaching to doing this. As one who has spent too much time and frustration searching for my own life purpose, I’ve found the better approach is to adopt a posture of curiosity. Find some things you are curious about, go explore them with no preconceived notions, and you may well find that elusive sense of purpose. And remember that, when you are in doubt about what you should do, it is usually better to do something instead of nothing, especially when you do so with curiosity. Loss of adventure. In our ‘active adult’ community there are couples and individuals who take advantage of the many activities, clubs and opportunities available, and there are others who pretty much stay inside and away from others. If the non-adventuresome types are doing this intentionally, all well and good. But this is sad if they feel they have no control over the situation. Retirement is meant to be a time of life where you have fewer obligations and constraints like job and family and more time to pursue fun and meaningful adventures. Answer: Get off your “buts”. Yes, you read that right. Don’t say: “I would have more fun, but….”, or “I would take more chances, but….”, or “I would tackle by bucket lists items, but…” Buts are just another form of excuse and you shouldn’t let yourself off the hook by settling for your own excuses. You can find adventure in many forms including work, hobbies, travel, religion, service to others, and so forth. Regardless if your adventure is to climb a mountain or take ballroom dancing, or anything in between, you won’t find it by sitting on your rear. The relevant point is that adventure doesn’t find you – you have to go embrace it. There is no specific owner’s manual to ensure that you are not scared about retirement. Every one of us has a different set of challenges to overcome, assets to take advantage of, and dreams to fulfill. No better time to get started than right now. Visit our retirement planning page for more ideas on how to achieve a happy and fulfilling retirement. by Colleen Milner This article originally appeared at www.NextPhaseofLife.com and is republished with permission of the author. |
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