10 Tips for Picking the Right Retirement Spot

only for those who have not planned their retirement in detail. For us, we are moving from one rural area to another partly to deal with the likely future health care issues and to be 30 miles from an airport as opposed to the 120 miles we now need to drive to get to an airport with jet service. We started deciding about our retirement location when we were in our 30's and reviewed likely locations in 30 different states. The primary criteria? To have as few neighbors as possible without being too far away from services on a quiet stretch of waterfront with 4 seasons. For the past three decades, a number of our colleagues and friends from around the US have also independently decided that the area we chose is a good one so we have the unexpected benefit of over 20 couples that will be retiring within a 40 mile radius of where our property is located. Too many people don't think long term and define goals that are 20 years or more in the future. We did, as did a number of our friends, and we will all retire when we want, where we want and doing what we want when we do retire. Needless to say, our savings habits of 35+ years will make this possible.

tom of SD 8:46AM January 26, 2010