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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 11 J U N E 1 5 , 2 0 1 5 5–7pm | The Courtyard Café The Courtyard Café The Courtyard Café The Courtyard Café The Courtyard Café The Courtyard Café The Courtyard Café The Courtyard Café Houlton, June 18 Get out from behind your desk to meet and mingle with other business execs at a special reception for Mainebiz readers. Mainebiz is coming to six new regions of the state to continue facilitating face-to-face networking for the business community. admission is free complimentary hors d'oeuvres cash bar For more information, or to register, For more information, or to register, For more information, or to register, visit mainebiz.biz/OTRHoulton mainebiz.biz/OTRHoulton mainebiz.biz/OTRHoulton or call 207.761.8379 x341 R E G I O N A L S P O N S O R FOLLOW US @MBEVENTS #OTRHoulton15 P R E S E N T I N G S P O N S O R Actually, there's quite a bit of new happening What's new at Mainebiz? dbrassard@mainebiz.biz 207.761.8379 x327 @Mainebiz Questions? Comments? We welcome your feedback. Email us, call us, tweet us! It's searchable! It's zoom-able! It's mobile! If you are a Mainebiz subscriber, you can get the digital edition FREE and get it early — on the Friday prior to the issue date. The only catch — we need your email address to send the link. Go to mainebiz.biz/subscribe DIGITAL EDITION LifeFlight to expand operations, add new jobs LifeFlight of Maine is expanding its footprint at Bangor International Airport and hiring several new workers as a result. e Bangor Daily News reported that LifeFlight was recently approved for a lease at the airport's Hangar No. 600, where it will have 17,000 square feet of hangar space and over 7,000 square feet of offi ce space. LifeFlight recently began use of its fi rst fi xed- wing aircraft, adding to its cur- rent inventory of two helicopters. omas Judge, LifeFlight's executive director, said the company will add eight new pilots and a new aviation mechanics technician as a result of the expansion. Time Warner buys Houlton telecom company Time Warner Cable has purchased a Houlton-based provider of cable, Internet and digital phone services, possibly setting the stage for an even larger takeover in Aroostook County. e Bangor Daily News reported that Time Warner recently disclosed its purchase of Polaris Cable in a May 1 fi ling with the Maine Public Utilities Commission. L incoln topped Maine's 16 coun- ties in its residents' readiness to retire, according to a recent study by fi nancial technology company SmartAsset. Cumberland County, by comparison, ranked sixth in Maine and 832 nd nationally in terms of residents reaching their retirement goals on time. SmartAsset assembled the rank- ings by fi rst calculating a wealth- to-expenses ratio, which added the median household wealth and average Social Security income. It then divided that number by the cost of basic expenses. SmartAsset then indexed the resulting ratio to 100, which represented the highest national wealth-to-expenses ratio. e calculation then gets more complex, as SmartAsset created a tax index for a person with $50,000 to spend each year in retirement, and assumed that $22,000 of that would come from retirement savings or a pension, $19,500 from Social Security and $8,500 from work income. And, fi nally, it added the wealth- to-expenses and the tax indexes to get a fi nal number. e company's website said the indexes refl ect how easily county resi- dents are able to accumulate wealth given their cost of living, and where people may have to be concerned about taxes after they retire. SmartAsset found Lincoln County residents had a median household wealth of $51,341. Some $17,751 would be attributed to Social Security income, while the cost of living would be $19,240. Income tax as a percentage of gross income is 0.85%. e fi nal retire- ment readiness index for the county is 53.62 out of a total possible score of 100. Knox County followed with a 48.21 score, Hancock with 46.67, York with 46.64, Kennebec with 44.43, Cumber- land with 43.80, Sagadahoc with 43.58, Oxford with 42.99, Waldo with 42.28 and Androscoggin rounded out the Top 10 Maine counties with 41.45. e remaining Maine counties followed in this order: Piscataquis with 39.97, Somerset with 39.35, Washington with 38.60, Aroostook with 38.15, Franklin with 37.97 and, in last place in Maine, Penobscot with a readiness score of 37.25. Nationally, Maine's counties didn't do especially well, with Lincoln the top state county ranked at 206 th , fol- lowed by Knox at 462 nd . Penobscot again was last at 1,629 th . In terms of median household wealth, Lincoln again topped Maine's county list and was 151 st nationally. Cumberland nudged up to 4 th place in that ranking and 494 th nationally. Waldo joined the Top 10 at 7 th place in Maine, but 749 th nationally. And Piscataquis rounded out the Top 10 at 10 th in Maine and 1,352 nd nationally. Aroostook County had the high- est cost of living in the state, followed by Somerset, Oxford, Androscoggin, Kennebec, Washington, Knox, Franklin, Piscataquis, Penobscot, Hancock, Waldo, Lincoln, Cumberland, York and the lowest, Sagadahoc. SmartAsset noted that regional and fi nancial factors can infl uence retirees' planning and goals for retirement. B I Z M O N E Y B Y L O R I V A L I G R A Lincoln County leads Maine in retirement readiness Find out your retirement readiness score using SmartAsset's calculator at bit.ly/1H4ozCJ @

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