The 10 Best Places to Retire in 2012

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Douglas - Why don't you share (article or blog) and tell us how you do it?

Arby of AR 11:09AM December 21, 2011

This is a depressing article. None of these places seem that enticing and it's too limited by not showing any overseas options. Most people will not be able to retire as planned because of the dissolution of the middle class.

tim dyson of PA 4:26PM December 20, 2011

FL is America's gateway to the third-world. A debased, sweaty, mostly non-English speaking aberration barely attached to North America. A multi-tongued cultural wasteland inhabited by entitled geriatric Depends wearing skinflints who spend their mornings driving around in golf carts in search of their 70 yard tee shot and their afternoons driving beheamoth Buicks in search of the cheapest early bird specials. FL is America's armpit.

kathy 11:53AM December 19, 2011

Who ever wrote this artical shoud do a reality check on the average Americans income.The median home price if far above what a blue colar worker could aford to pay. We are talking retirment right. One side of this whole story says things to avoid doing in your fifty's is to launch into a 30 year mortgage. So how about some down to earth fact. How to retire on $40,000 a year might be more like it. I am and it can be done in comfort.

Douglas of WA 9:17AM December 18, 2011

What about Panama City, Florida? I am only 44 and am finishing my Masters and PhD so to become a professor of American History. I was in the housing industry for years, but, something told me a career change would be in order. My desire for food and shelter.
On day I am going to purchase a condo in Panama City. It has great weather and the nicest beach in the United States (except maybe for Hawaii). I thirty years, I hope I am renting umbrellas on Panama City Beach, reading history books.

Dave of OH 6:26AM December 18, 2011

Yes, USA is boring cubed compared to Europe, and France trumps all comers. Imagine seven million, yes, count them, seven million tourists (the ones they actually count) descend on France, on average, EACH and every month, year in year out! So it's charm is hardly a secret. The best means of transport there bar none is the bicycle; a close second is hitchhiking. Another great way to get around is via the small local trains, some perfectly preserved from the forties, where you can at times count the passengers on one hand! And, yes, I have had a train all to myself! Bus service is skimpy, but really dependable and fills in the gaps where train service doesn't exist or has been suspended. So, tourists, I rarely encounter in spite of the suffocating numbers. I can continue to walk an extant portion of the roman road, built in 32 B.C., and imagine to my heart's content that Caesar walked or rode over those very stones (the road width exactly 13 feet at every point) on his ill-fated return to Rome. I own it, as I do sections of the canals that traverse France in all sectors, where I have spent untold hours bicycling and running; I'm convinced these off-the-radar venues will never catch on with tourists and remain pretty much as they have been over decades and even centuries--pristine and unsullied. Why? It requires effort; and secondly, one had better speak the language and speak it damn well!
Cliff Hopkins

cliff hopkins of TN 8:55PM December 17, 2011

The best place to retire is overseas if you can make it happen. France is great. If you've never lived abroad, you should take a chance. The U.S. is a boring, backwards country.

Joe of WA 1:33AM December 10, 2011

Move to Lincoln Nebraska or Pittsburg to Retire? Interesting. Wonder how many will do that. The best place to retire in the US is off the radar screen right now because the economy is bad there right now, but if you have a secure income it offers you a fantastic opportunity. Mt Dora, St Augustine, Sarasota are just a few
of some great places to look at for retirement.

Author RonStack of FL 8:30PM December 05, 2011

I'am looking at Bangkok, Thailand. Cheap housing, food, medical and weather. For what i pay for rent here in Las Vegas, i can pay for rent, food, utilities and high speed broadband. Plus it's a good jumping off point for trips to Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing, Manila, Saigon, Singapore and Phnom Penh among others.
Here in Las Vegas the temp is 43F, in Bangkok it's 83F. Monday's 90F-72F. People always think it's hot in LV.
This is just a taste of life in Bangkok:
"Medical Costs Are Very Cheap in Thailand - The cost of medications and doctor's visits in Thailand are very inexpensive. I recently had a chest x-ray, blood tests for diabetes, thyroid and sundry other ills, an EKG and two doctor's visits. The grand total? Less than $60 for everything and this at one of the top hospitals in Bangkok. Medication is inexpensive and much of it is available over the counter without a doctor's prescription, which cuts costs even more. Doctors too usually speak excellent English. The healthcare in most of Thailand too is as good, if not better, than in the west as many of the doctors here are western-educated and trained. As they get older, many retirees worry about burgeoning health costs - something that's not even a minor concern in Thailand."
http://voices.yahoo.com/why-many-retirees-retire-thailand-every-year-thailand-3331636.html?cat=12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS5kZFY23Gc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4QbGCrPOas

RETUSAF of NV 1:20AM December 05, 2011

Well now, I have the bahama's for three months of the year now, the other nine months I wish it was but, Gore Bay on the Great Manitoulin Island is home. Is there a better place to be than this? Put your boat in for five months a year and the great lakes are yours to enjoy, but every thing come with a price. I've my own private park in the middle of town, all the animals to see and enjoy with no extra charge. It's a peace of heaven but can't take it with me.

the great stay home. of CA 9:11PM December 04, 2011