Once funny fodder for television cartoons, home automation is at last becoming a reality. The famous Jetson family’s personal spaceships and full-service robot maid are nowhere to be seen, but a number of other state-of-the-art home automation devices should be available in the not-too-distant future. Here’s a sampling:

-- home theater systems with surround-sound will close the drapes, dim the lights, turn on the VCR/DVD player and show a movie.

-- Vehicle alert sensors will sound a buzzer and turn on the exterior lights whenever a vehicle enters the driveway, then a computer will audibly announce the name of the person who has arrived.

-- home security systems will not only sound a siren and flash the lights, but also place a call to summon help.

-- Pet doors will open and close only for resident pets, thanks to a computer chip on each pet’s collar.

-- Refrigerators will order groceries when someone scans the products’ bar codes into the refrigerator.

-- An electronic pad on the refrigerator will display telephone messages and family members’ schedules.

Installment sales of real property usually are thought of as a tax-planning strategy, but selling your home over time instead of all at once also can be a means to increase your monthly cash flow. Suppose a widow sells her home and nets a profit of $100,000. She invests that sum in a certificate of deposit at, say, 6 percent interest and earns $500 a month. If the transaction were structured as an installment sale at, say, 8.5 percent interest, she would receive $708 a month. That's an additional $208 each month or approximately $2,500 a year.

If you're thinking about remodeling your home, perhaps with an eventual sale in mind, it pays to catch up on the latest trends in home design. Despite the overall aging of the nation's population, two-story homes are in vogue, as are larger homes with more bedrooms and bathrooms than the traditional single-family residence. Builders are eliminating formal living rooms from new homes while adding bigger kitchens, walk-in pantries, vaulted ceilings, outdoor decks and patios, home offices and media rooms.

The site's Retirement Planner has links to benefits calculators, information about how various types of earnings and pensions affect Social Security benefits and options for people approaching retirement age.

Social Security receives more in taxes than it pays out in benefits, but that will reverse in 2015 unless changes are implemented.

Active adult retirement communities have come a long way from the quiet and sedentary lifestyle that awaited seniors years ago. While many retirees still enjoy Bingo, Mah-jongg and the like, exercising in fitness centers, surfing the Web, taking day-trips, traveling overseas and attending community college classes are fast becoming the norm for the senior set.

Seniors are using computers with Internet connections to send e-mail to their grandchildren, study genealogy, research health topics, shop for discount airline tickets and hotel accommodations, learn more about real estate and chat with their friends.

Housing developers are responding to this trend by setting up Web-ready computers in community clubhouses and adding computer classrooms to retirement communities.