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What have we learned from our offspring? Plenty. As children growing up in the 50s and 6os, our primary role was to be seen and not heard. Advice was doled out like morning vitamins with such directives as “Sit up straight,” “Chew with your mouth closed,” “Be respectful of your elders,” and so on. And we listened without challenging—at least most of the time–for our mothers and fathers knew best. We’d like to think we’ve passed on what we learned from our parents to our children, primarily the many lessons about living a good life and being kind to others,...

We all make mistakes, and by this age most of us could stretch our “sorrys” for “oops I didn’t mean that” clear across the country and back, maybe several times. However, we’re not talking only about the many ways we use the simple words “I’m sorry” in those cases when you’re sincere and apologetic, a mea culpa for a specific act. We may have hurt someone’s feelings because we were in a bad mood and screamed at our kids, spouse, partner, friend, mailman, trash collector or store clerk for absolutely no reason, asked a waiter to describe how a pasta is prepared multiple...

We boomers have carefully planned most of our real estate moves—starter apartments and homes to get on the equity upswing, places to live as we raised families with good schools nearby and “location, location, location” our guiding mantra, maybe a larger home if we wanted to trade up, and now a place to trade down or downsize as we started to discard too many furnishings and possessions, and simplify our lives. Being single after my long-term marriage ended in divorce and giving up my former family home proved a great incentive for me. But few of us, including myself, had...

At one time in real estate repartee, if things were “moving down,” we’d be referring to our basements. After my husband passed away four years ago, the term “moving down” took on new meaning. It came to the fore as I searched hurriedly in a crisis for the right plot that would become my husband’s final resting place. Married for 42 years, we had both been in denial about our mortality. We didn’t discuss our funerals or how and where we wanted to be buried, even after my husband became ill. And my parents were both alive and had just...

The Time is Now. Look in Your Rear View Mirror & Help Change the World  You’ve heard the term “legacy” bandied about. It’s what you do going forward to leave behind for the next generations. It’s not a new idea. And for those of us who are 50-plus, it’s something each of us might want to think about as our days—or term as in a presidential run–may be shorter rather than longer. Case in point. President Obama secured his legacy in what was one of the most transformative weeks (June 22-26, 2015) in our American history. This is based on...