I found that site VERY useful when hubby broke his hip three years ago... The list of facilities the hospital provided were all in places I wouldn't go in broad daylight, with an armed guard, and after checking that site I found out they were all below standard... I was lucky enough, with the help of that site, to find one that was within 10 miles of home, ranked high in quality, had a higher ratio of help to patients and offered twice as much rehab time and the best part was, at the time, our insurance covered everything... If you're considering a nursing home, rehab center or assisted living I urge you to check it out... Rita P. S. Ratings change so don't go by the ratings today and expect them to be the same 3 years from now.

Bump

What this article really says is that in order to achieve above-inflation returns, you have to take risks, and one of those risks is that the value of your portfolio might decline for a while. If that happens, and you keep spending money as if it didn't happen, you might run out. This situation is no different from what it is if you're living off the results of your labor instead of from your investments. If you lose your job, and keep spending money as if you still had it, you might run out. In both cases, the answer is to scale back your spending during temorary periods of ill fortune.

Do you expect to retire right soon (within 5 - 7 years) ... and have a fairly small amount of dollar-denominated assets in your tax-deferred retirement account? Do you expect to probably die before age 60 - 65 - 70? That is - do you have a short-term time horizon for your retirement system to complete its business for you? I figure that I should figure on financing my retirement till age 100 or so: prefer to run out of days before I run out of money rather than the other way around! Does the idea of having the current value of your assets fluctuate somewhat set you to chewing fingernails/not sleeping well nights/being too crabby to live with? Do you like to get a genuine bargain, e.g. a real discount of, say, 40%? Stocks are on sale, lower price relatively now than for many years. They may be on fire sale later, who knows which way the market will go over the short term? But over the long term, stocks have done about the best of any investment vehicle ... and you have, what ... a 30 year time horizon? 40 years? Even up to 50? But I`ve been buying, periodically, and expect to continue to do so ... getting to the airport to see my flight pulling on to the tarmac (or taking off) isn't my idea of a good way to travel. See my fuller suggestions over on the "Retirement" forum. Good wishes for making current choices that'll please you in 10 years, that you'll be happy with, then. ole joyful P.S. Memo to Canadians ... most financial advisors say that *everyone* should have RRSPs. I say that they may be useful in some situations ... but were I able to buy them now (at 80, I've not been able to for over 10 years: I'm required to remove certain minimum amounts annually now, with the percentage rising annually till 20% at age 90 and beyond), I'd be following a different path for all but dollar-denominated (i.e. guaranteed dollar) assets. On my death, they get all added into income in that year ... and taxed at top rate: no, thanks! There are some substantial tax reductions and deferrals available when buying equities with after-tax money that one loses entirely if one puts them into an RRSP. In low tax brackets back then ... I saved about 26% tax going in ... with higher income now, am paying about 37% now as I take the money out. Again ... no, thanks! But I don't have an option! Well, yes, I do - but I'm not sure that I want to follow it, big time. o j