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 Happy New Year, and welcome to our January 2007 edition of Active Living News.
We were reflecting over the Holidays on the astronomical growth of our Active Adult Living website, which saw a growth in traffic of well over 100% during 2006. We served over 1.2 Million page views to boomers and active seniors just like you who are in search of their perfect Active Lifestyle Community!
In an effort to keep you well informed and up to date, we have been adding over 100 new community listings every month to our website and to our interactive CD-ROM Directory.
In this issue we’ve got a review of a great new book entitled, Rightsizing Your Life, which deals with how to downsize your digs from the home in which you may have raised your family.
Abner, Herrman and Brock, Inc., have provided us with an insightful recap of the past year’s investment review and outlook, which you’ll surely find to be of great interest.
We also have an In-Depth Community Review of WestBrook Village, a wonderful Active Adult Golf Community located in the Greater Phoenix bedroom community of Peoria, Arizona, plus 5 Spotlight Communities from throughout the country.
Help us grow our Active Living News e-Newsletter to serve you better. We’d really appreciate your input and comments. Click here to drop us a line and let us know what you think.
To navigate through our newsletter use the links on the left, or simply scroll down. Please take a look through, and let us know what you think! We really do value your opinion, and would also appreciate your input on future articles you'd like to see.
We'd also really appreciate it if you would "tell a friend", just click here.
Thanks,
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RIGHTSIZING YOUR LIFE
by Ciji Ware
There comes a moment when you pass the half-century mark that is hard to pinpoint or even predict, but you know intuitively when it has occurred. It’s a flash of recognition, an instant when you realize something important has changed and that it is time for a change. Your old life just doesn’t fit anymore.
As a practical matter, however, those poised on the brink of making a significant shift in lifestyle often have a daunting task facing them. People who have made the decision to sell the family home to embrace a new way of life in an active adult community must immediately begin to cull through a lifetime of possessions.
The good news is that with the proper approach and a few simple skills, solutions exist to every problem and a few “rightsizing” concepts can go a long way in guiding your decision-making about what to keep and what to toss.
Begin by asking yourself a few simple questions about each item or groups of items you’re trying to sort through:
- Do I love it?
- Do I use it now?
- Is it beautiful?
- Is it valuable?
- Is it useful in and of itself?
- Is it sentimental?
In my own experience moving out of a roomy house in Beverly Hills that we’d lived in for twenty-two years into 1275 square feet overlooking San Francisco Bay, a particular possession became a “keeper” only if I could answer “yes” to at least two of those questions.
If you’d like to test out this theory, pick a drawer in your house that’s packed with possessions of all sorts—say a catch-all kitchen drawer. Then try the following:
- Look at your watch and note the time.
- Dump the contents of the drawer on a flat surface, say the kitchen table.
- On another close-by surface put sticky notes: KEEP;TRASH;GIVE-AWAY; RECYCLE;DONATE; and DON’T HAVE A CLUE
- Gather like-with-like in piles: all the screwdrivers; matchboxes; rubber bands; take-out menus, etc. placed in separate piles.
- Of each item or groups of items, ask the questions listed above.
- Discard the obviously useless junk in a trash bag.
- Put only the solid “keepers” back in the drawer in an orderly, logical fashion, grouping like-with-like—i.e. all the matchboxes together.
- Put what’s left in the appropriate piles with the sticky notes; then into shopping bags which you immediately remove to the car to give away, recycle, or donate,
- Note the time
 For the DON’T HAVE A CLUE PILE, put the contents in another shopping bag until you come up with a solution for the “puzzlers”—decisions that usually seem clear in just a day or two. The entire process of “rightsizing” that drawer probably took no longer than half an hour, but the little thrill of pleasure you’ll get each time you open that drawer is just a hint of the wonderful feeling of liberation you’ll enjoy when you rightsize your life and free yourself from possessions that may have been weighing you down far too long.
I promise you: a new and delicious kind of emancipation is just around the corner!
To read the full article on RIGHTSIZING YOUR LIFE, we invite you to read the rest of Ciji Ware's article at: http://www.activeadultliving.com/newsletter/rightsizing.html
Ciji Ware is the author of Rightsizing Your Life, Published January 2007. To order her book, click here!
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"THE BEAT GOES ON"
Year-End Investment Review and Outlook for 2007
By Abner, Herrman & Brock Asset Management
As a result of the strong action by the Federal Reserve in raising interest rates, the year 2006 ended with a moderating of U.S. economic growth. After having experienced 5.6% growth in Gross Domestic Product during the first quarter, the U.S. economy grew at an estimated rate of 2% in the fourth quarter of 2006. The slow down in the growth of the U.S. economy was welcomed by both the equity and bond markets as it relieved investor concerns that faster economic growth would increase the risk of inflation which would trigger more Federal Reserve rate hikes. Higher rates of inflation and higher interest rates would create the potential for a more severe economic decline.
With the concern of a sharp decline in the economy reduced, the economic outlook for 2007 is more favorable. Our view is that the U.S. economy will navigate a “soft landing” and avoid a recession. A recession would reduce corporate profits, increase unemployment and bring back the fear of deflation. Interest rates have probably peaked and may be reduced if the Federal Reserve needs to stimulate the economy. The housing market which had been over built and over priced seems to be working off the excess inventories. Housing prices appear to have retreated which may stabilize the housing decline during 2007. We are encouraged that the prospect of the U.S. and other leading global economies will continue their long unprecedented rise.
Bond prices ended 2006 about equal to where they began the year. Interest rates rose in the first half of the year on inflation concerns and rising energy and commodity prices thus reducing bond prices. During the second half of the year, interest rates declined as inflation concerns abated and energy prices retreated, returning interest rates to the levels of the beginning of the year. For 2007, we would expect a modest decline in intermediate term bond prices and a modest increase in short term bond prices as the yield curve moves back to a traditional upward-sloping shape. We continue to believe that inflation will be kept under control increasing in the 2-3% area.
(To read this article in its entirety, click here)
Abner, Herrman & Brock Asset Management has provided personalized investment solutions for high net worth families nationwide since 1981.
For a free portfolio evaluation, please visit their web site at www.ahbi.com or call them directly @ 201-484-2000 for a personal discussion on Investment Philosophy, Process and People.
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WESTBROOK VILLAGE
An Active Adult Community for ages 40 and up
 WestBrook is a premiere adult community of 3,910 homes located in the greater northwest Phoenix metropolitan city of Peoria, Arizona. The community features two eighteen hole championship golf courses, plus two recreation facilities with pools, tennis, fitness center, a full variety of arts and crafts rooms, auditoriums, library and media center, as well as a number of resident initiated social clubs. There are also two restaurants on property.
The location of Westbrook Village is one of the many reasons why so many folks have selected this adult community as their home. Only one mile south is the large regional Arrowhead Town Center shopping mall. Surrounding the mall are numerous additional retail stores plus a giant movie theater complex and a great variety of restaurants.
The Peoria Sports Complex (which is also conveniently located just a mile away) hosts spring training for the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres baseball teams. Located just a few miles south on the nearby Loop 101 freeway is the new Coyotes ice hockey facility as well as the NFL Cardinals football complex.
The Loop 101 freeway allows for easy driving to Phoenix and all of the surrounding cities within the Valley of the Sun. Just a few miles north of WestBrook Village is Lake Pleasant, which is wonderful for boating, fishing, water skiing and pick-nicking enthusiasts.
Westbrook Village features a variety of single family detached homes with up to 2,700 square feet of living space, plus garden villas (attached homes) and condominiums. Prices begin at less than $230,000.
This wonderful community should be on your "must see and experience" list. As an Arizona native with years of real estate experience in active lifestyle communities, I am uniquely qualified to serve your best interests as a buyer’s agent. Please give me a call so I may share with you the splendors of the beautiful community.
 Patti L. Cottrell, Realtor
Windermere West Valley
20255 N. Lake Pleasant Rd. Ste. 101
Peoria, AZ 85382
Cell/Direct: (623) 332-1339
Office: (623) 209-9800
Email: plcottrell@windermere.com
www.patticottrell.mywindermere.com
More Information at Westbrook Village
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Verde Santa Fe
Cornville, AZ
Single Family Homes
Amenities: 480-acre master planned golf course community, featuring the 18-hole Verde Santa Fe Golf Course, set in a picturesque location between scenic Sedona and historical Cottonwood, Arizona.
Click Here for more details
Siena
Las Vegas, NV
Single Family Homes range from 1040 to 3200 square feet and are priced from $300,000 to $1,400,000 for premium golf course home sites.
Amenities: Secluded behind a six-foot high masonry perimeter wall and manned gate-guarded entries will be approximately 2001 homes surrounding a Schmidt-Curley designed 18-hole championship golf course. In addition to the golf course, residents will enjoy a wide array of amenities in the Village Center overlooking Lake Siena, elegant gardens, cascading waterfalls and several dramatic holes of golf.
Click Here for more details
Four Season at Farmington
Lower Macungie, PA
Ranch Style Single Family Homes, 1546-2902 sq. ft.
Priced from High $200's
Amenities: Clubhouse, Fitness Center, Outdoor Pool, Tennis, Bocce and a Short 6 Hole Golf Course.
Click Here for more details
Riverview Homes in Grand Haven
St. Augustine, FL
An adult community featuring 96 luxury condominium homes.
1762-2167 sq. ft. Priced from High $400's - 1M
Amenities: Clubhouse, Jack Nicklaus Golf, Tennis, Bocce, Fitness Center
Click Here for more details
Holiday Island
Holiday Island, AR
New and Resale Single Family duplexes, triplexes, condominium
Home Square Footage from 1400 sq. ft. Price from high $100's
Amenities: Scenic Wooded hillsides, 53,000 acre Table Rock Lake; 1 golf course, Recreation Complex, 2 pools; Tennis, Basketball courts, Tickle Ball, Miniature Golf, shuffleboard, Horseshoes, RV Campground, Marina, Boat and RV Storage and 45 minutes from Branson Missouri.
Click Here for more details
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You can now order the following books at discounted prices from Amazon.com
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"1001 Active Lifestyle Communities"
by Lisa LaCount
492 pages includes special sections on
Condominiums & Grand Openings
Now Available Nationwide
Click Here to Buy
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"New Retirement: The Ultimate Guide
to the Rest of Your Life"
by Jan Cullinane
Click Here to Buy
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You may have found out the hard way that trying to research information about active lifestyle communities on your own can be a long and frustrating task. We know that as a busy boomer or active senior, you've got better things to do with your time!
We've just completed the arduous endeavor of compiling . . .
Version 2 of our Interactive
CD-ROM Directory
We've added the very latest up-to-date data on over 300 of the choicest new communities from around the country. That now brings the total on our new CD-ROM Directory Version 2 to over 1,500 active lifestyle and age-restricted communities!
It is an absolute wealth of information that has literally taken us years of blood, sweat and tears to compile! We are dog-tired, but we're really, really proud of what we've achieved on your behalf . . .
You'll find that our 1500 Active Lifestyle Communities Directory 2007 - Version 2 is worth hundreds of dollars in time saved!
- Every community is hyperlinked directly to the builder's website
- Direct dial and/or toll free phone numbers
- Mapquest link for every community!.
You won't find all of this valuable data at our website – in fact, you won't find it anywhere else!
We’ve taken all of the data from our 1,001 Active Lifestyle Communities book and added community info on 500 more and put it all on an enhanced, interactive CD-ROM which you can now purchase for $29.99. Click here to order your copy!
Thanks for the wonderful comments from all those of you who have already purchased our Interactive CD ROM Directory of 1500 Active Lifestyle Communities. For those of you who were unable to take advantage of our December Pre-Sale Special offer, we are offering free shipping this month.
If you have any problem with the online order process, we would be happy to take your order by phone at (702) 614-9120 or you may email us with your name and your phone number (send your email to: info@activeadultiving.com) and we will telephone you to take your credit card information over the phone. To order by check, click here for the mail in form.
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