Baby Boomers

WASHINGTON - The refinancing boom may be cooling down, but the move to shorter mortgages - especially 10-year loans among pre-retirees - appears to be accelerating. Some community banks say 10-year mortgages, once an insignificant niche option, are accounting for increasingly large chunks of their business. For example, Rockville Bank in South Windsor, Conn., reports that 10-year loans represented a surprising one-fifth of its total residential mortgage originations in dollar terms last year.

Baby boomers should be reviewing their retirement portfolios once a year and tweaking or re-balancing them, if necessary, says Delia Fernandez, a fee-only certified financial planner. Fernandez is the founder of Fernandez Financial Advisory in Los Alamitos. She had that suggestion and more for Marymount College math professor Patrick Webster, 63 and his wife Susie Martin, 54, who also works at Marymount. GALLERY: Bank failures that drained deposit-insurance funds The couple had managed to amass savings of more than $1 million, but they were still worried.

The number of baby boomers dying from a "silent epidemic" of hepatitis C infections is increasing so rapidly that federal officials are planning a new nationwide push for widespread testing. Three in four of the estimated 3.2 million people who have chronic hepatitis C - and a similar proportion of those who die from the disease - are baby boomers. Deaths from the virus nearly doubled between 1999 and 2007 to more than 15,000, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

Call it retirement anxiety, or maybe recession obsession. For all of their married life, Patrick Webster, 63, and Susie Martin, 54, have been extremely frugal. Webster and Martin, who both work at Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes, have been stashing away their combined income at an enviable rate - more than 25% - for retirement. Together they have more than $1 million in investments and no debt. But rather than feeling reasonably secure about their financial future, they dread a return of hard times.

Fashion models over age 40 who once kept their gray at bay are rediscovering their roots--and capitalizing on a market with potential growth. U.S. magazines such as Mirabella, Lear's and Moxie (based in Woodland Hills), that cater to mature audiences, are filling their pages with, "women who weren't born yesterday," as the Lear's promotional line reads. And, even traditional high fashion magazines such as Harper's Bazaar are devoting more space to seasoned models.

Re William Schneider's Dec. 20 Opinion article: I agree with everything he says about the GOP facing a possible backlash over impeachment proceedings. However, I feel this risk pales in comparison to the one Republicans will face if they continue to tamper with Social Security and Medicare and dawdle on age discrimination laws in the workplace. People tend to become more political with age and the baby boomers are the largest demographic group. Republican leadership should take heed as this group nears retirement age. STEVE VARALYAY Torrance

At midlife, the nation's 78 million baby boomers appear to be in worse health than the generation that preceded them, a new study finds . Researchers from West Virginia University School of Medicine and the Medical University of South Carolina knew that American's life expectancy has steadily improved, but they wondered whether that meant baby boomers were healthier than their parents or simply benefiting from better medical treatments....

Baby boomers were the first American generation to grow up in blue jeans. And they're not ready to give them up. As the youngest boomer turns 46 this year, demand for hip jeans with a bit more give is on the rise. With roughly 76 million baby boomers accounting for half of consumer spending, denim makers are waking up to the fact that there is money to be made in women's jeans that fit middle-age hips and thighs while still looking cool. Unfortunately, shopping for a pair of jeans for most women ranks on par with shopping for a swimsuit, a constant reminder that they're not Jennifer Aniston.

Baby boomers should be reviewing their retirement portfolios once a year and tweaking or re-balancing them, if necessary, says Delia Fernandez, a fee-only certified financial planner. Fernandez is the founder of Fernandez Financial Advisory in Los Alamitos. She had that suggestion and more for Marymount College math professor Patrick Webster, 63 and his wife Susie Martin, 54, who also works at Marymount. GALLERY: Bank failures that drained deposit-insurance funds The couple had managed to amass savings of more than $1 million, but they were still worried.

I consider myself to be a fortunate person. I have a good education, a great job and excellent health insurance. I am a baby boomer who has aged reasonably well and can look forward to a fairly comfortable retirement. I am also fortunate because I was diagnosed with hepatitis C by a proactive and knowledgeable doctor in the late 1990s and had the opportunity to be treated and cured. The odds are that if I had not been diagnosed and treated, I would be on a liver transplant list right now, have liver cancer or even be dead from this disease.

The Senate Judiciary Committee took up comprehensive immigration reform late last week. And, as expected, opponents are already rushing to derail it, arguing that any bill that legalizes the vast majority of undocumented immigrants in the United States will cost billions of dollars and place an unfair burden on taxpayers. Such arguments are merely scare tactics. There's no doubt that granting citizenship to millions of immigrants 13 years from now, as the Senate bill would, will carry a cost, but how much is unclear.

NEW YORK - The songs are among the most popular of the baby boom era - "My Girl," "I Want You Back," "Dancing in the Streets. " They may be the staple of oldies radio; they haven't been part of a big Broadway musical. Now "Motown: The Musical" is about to become this season's big bet on the drawing power of the jukebox. The show will tell the real story that "Dreamgirls" was merely based on: the life of producer Berry Gordy, a onetime boxer who founded the Motown record label and signed some of the decade's biggest R&B stars, including the Supremes, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, the Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye.

Until recently, it would have been fair to say that older people simply did not get divorced. Fewer than 10% of those who got divorced in 1990 were ages 50 or older. Today, 1 in 4 people getting divorced is in this age group. It turns out that those high-profile breakups of Tipper and Al Gore, and Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger, were part of a trend. Baby boomers, who drove the huge increase in divorce that began during the 1970s and persisted through the early 1980s, are at it again.

As baby boomers enter their golden years, the number of people afflicted with Alzheimer's disease is expected to reach 13.8 million by 2050 - millions more than previously anticipated, according to a new study in the journal Neurology. If researchers can't find a way to reduce the prevalence of the brain disease, the cost to care for all of these patients could top $1 trillion a year, experts say. Alzheimer's is a progressive brain disease that damages patients' memory and cognitive skills, ultimately leaving them unable to care for themselves.

Sometimes, headlines alone can tell a story. Start with this one from The Times: “Baby boomers may live longer, but their elders were healthier.” And while you're pondering that, check this one out: “Sperm count low among couch potatoes, study finds.” And finally, there's this, well, punch-line headline : “Gov. Christie eats doughnut with Letterman; talks Sandy storm aid.” Yes, boys and girls and boomers, we have met the enemy, and he is us. Of course, I'm not talking about you , specifically.

At midlife, the nation's 78 million baby boomers appear to be in worse health than the generation that preceded them, a new study finds . Researchers from West Virginia University School of Medicine and the Medical University of South Carolina knew that American's life expectancy has steadily improved, but they wondered whether that meant baby boomers were healthier than their parents or simply benefiting from better medical treatments....

For the first time since California became a state in 1850, Latinos will surpass whites as the largest ethnic group by 2014, according to demographic numbers released Thursday. The state Department of Finance estimates that by the middle of this year, whites and Latinos will each represent about 39% of California population, with Latinos reaching a plurality soon after that. Officials expect that by 2060, Latinos will make up 48% of the state's population, compared with 30% for whites.

Cathy Rigby flies across the Pantages Theatre stage from Jan. 15 through 27 in J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan," reprising her signature role, which earned her a 1991 Tony nomination. At age 60, the San Diego native still fits into the costume she wore for her 1974 debut as the boy who never grows up; theater producers had recruited her to parlay her fame as an Olympic gymnast into box-office gold. Rigby lives in La Habra Heights with her husband, Tom McCoy, who is also her partner in their theatrical production company, McCoy Rigby Entertainment, which produced her latest "Peter Pan" tour as well as productions of other American musicals.