Planning YOUR Retirement

Currently, I’m in Isle of Palms, SC on a business trip with my husband. Everywhere I go now, I view each city from a “retirement perspective.” It’s off season here and some of the restaurants at the resort are closed and last night, the last thing I wanted to do was get in the car and drive somewhere for dinner. I wanted to walk. And it’s a beautiful area to walk, but there’s not a lot of destinations to walk to – that’s the problem. So, we drove to dinner, wishing we could walk.

Retirement seems to crop up in every conversation, too. Is it me that’s leading it in that direction? Not always. But I am curious to know what others are thinking regarding their retirement location, their location criteria and the retirement activities they’re contemplating. I’ve said this before that it’s so important to have retirement discussions with your spouse. (See my Feb. 18 post, "Retirement Location: Your Criteria.") In the course of talking about what you want to do and where you want to live, you develop the criteria, but you also change it over time. It evolves. And it evolves even further when you go to the city and live it for a few weeks.

My husband and I didn’t know that we were looking for an urban lifestyle when we first considered Fort Collins, CO. Yes, we knew we wanted to walk to coffee shops and restaurants, in addition to walking trails. But, we didn’t realize what that meant. Initially, we had looked at an area of town that was more suburban than urban, about 2-2.5 miles from downtown (in this case, “Old Town”), but near a beautiful park and trail system. The houses were a little newer, a little bigger and a little cheaper, too. In our metro Atlanta neighborhood, we walk 2 miles one-way to the coffee shop. Two miles was doable or so we thought. In living it in Fort Collins, however, two miles was just too far. We considered a mile and a half, but decided that, too, was just too far, especially as we age. So, now in looking at homes in Fort Collins, which we’re doing, we’re only considering homes in a one mile radius from town. That little one month stay in Fort Collins is really paying off. When I first arrived in FC, I looked at real estate in a 2-2.5 mile radius and that changed over time. I like to say my thinking evolved during my stay and it really did, simply because I was living retirement. I was walking it and when my husband joined me during the last week, I made him walk it.

The other thing that happened is that we prioritized our criteria list. For us, now, living in a one-mile radius of town is more important than a newer, bigger and cheaper house. And, honestly, we might not have come to that realization without actually living in Fort Collins for that period.

So, if you can, you need to go to your retirement city and live retirement for 2, 3, or 4 weeks. It’s time and money well spent. That’s after you’ve had retirement discussions, of course, and have a good idea of where you want to live.

View all of my posts on the subject of “retirement criteria” by going to the bottom of this post and clicking on Labels: retirement criteria.

Researching YOUR Retirement Location – Part 2

How did I research Fort Collins, CO. as a retirement location? For the past few years, my husband and I have been vacationing in potential retirement locations. No, we did not do the kind of research I suggested in yesterday’s post. I had to learn that bit of advice on my own. J One vacation took us to Estes Park, CO. where we visited Boulder, Fort Collins, and some of the smaller cities in the area. Back home in metro Atlanta after these vacations, we reviewed the information gathered during our visit and did some Internet research, as well. We sat down with a map of the U.S. and talked about the many places we had visited on previous vacations. We looked at our list of retirement criteria again. (See my Feb. 18 post, “Retirement Location: Your Criteria” for more on that subject.) After several “retirement location” discussions like this, we narrowed down our first choice location: Fort Collins, CO. That decision coupled with the downturn in the housing market and low interest rates prompted us to talk very seriously about relocation plans. We had visited FC in the summer, but never in the winter and we really weren’t sure if we could handle “winter” after so many years in the south. That was an “unknown factor” that needed to be checked out. That required a visit during the winter and since I am unemployed, I was the person chosen for the mission.

Flights from Atlanta to Denver were $268, but I wanted to find something cheaper than that and decided to wait for a sale. I had a trip already scheduled to California for early February, so when I booked my sale fare to CA., I decided to fly to Denver on my return from CA. and save some money. It was cheaper to fly to Denver ($99) instead of returning to Atlanta ($199). So, I knew when I would arrive in Denver, but I did not have a return ticket at that point. I booked that later on another sale for $120.

Now, how to get to Fort Collins, which is about 70 miles north of the Denver airport? An Internet search for transportation turned up www.supershuttle.com. SuperShuttle, according to their Web site, “is the nation's leading shared-ride airport shuttle service.” They provide door-to-door transportation “to and from 33 airports in over 50 US cities and surrounding communities.” They also offer frequent flyer miles. I caught the shuttle (a 15-passenger van) at the airport and for $40 (and a tip to the driver), I got a ride to the apartment I rented in Fort Collins. It was easy and it meant I didn’t have to rent a car! Money saved!

Where was that little apartment and how did I find it??? That was the greatest find! It wasn’t the cheapest at $1300 for a month, but renting for a month was just about the same price as two week’s rental and the owner was willing to give me a discount because it was the off season. Since I wanted to stay 2-3 weeks, I went ahead and booked for a month. I found my place on www.vrbo.com. Just find the state and city or area you want to travel to and see what’s available. I had a list of “needs,” such as kitchen, Internet, walking distance to town, near bus line, etc. I already had a specific date and the site’s calendar function let’s you see right away the availability of the rental. The place I rented was so fantastic! It was a little one-bedroom carriage house and the perfect space for my research and writing. The grocery store was 2 blocks away, so I made good use of my little kitchen, saving money on eating out.

So, that’s how I got to MY retirement city! Now, it’s YOUR turn to book YOUR trip. At the very least, start the retirement discussion and think about planning your next vacation with retirement in mind. And, let me know where you’re going! Are you using any of my advice?

If you need help with comments to this post, see my Feb. 17 and Feb. 20 posts for some tips.

Coming up in future posts:

How retirement research helps define your housing needs, the total cost of my retirement research trip, envisioning your retirement, taxes in retirement, healthcare, and more!

Researching YOUR Retirement Location – Part 1

I was at a dinner party this weekend with a group of friends who are approaching retirement age, so “retirement” was on the topic menu – where to live and what to do when you get there. I’ve just spent a month in Fort Collins, CO. researching that city as a retirement location for my husband and I. We enjoy the outdoors and Fort Collins has a fantastic trail system for biking and walking, in addition to being a very walkable community. I confirmed this during my visit. But because we’re not actually retired and still busy with work, we hadn’t given retirement activities much thought beyond the outdoors. So, our initial list of retirement activities was small. (For all of our criteria, see my Feb. 18 post.) We saw ourselves walking to the park frequently and into town to a restaurant now and then. Rocky Mountain National Park is about an hour’s drive and we definitely envisioned weekend hikes in the mountains. Beyond that, however, we hadn’t thought too much about activities. I’m discovering that we’re not alone.

Most people contemplating retirement think about retirement activities in the same way they think about weekend recreation. They want to do what they enjoy doing now on the weekends or on vacation, just more of it. More golf. More tennis. More traveling, etc. Very few people talk about new activities they want to take up. When you’re busy working, who has time to think about new activities, let alone try out those activities? That’s why I recommend trying out a new activity each month for all you 50-somethings (see my Feb. 26 post, “Trying Something New for Retirement”). I always say, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” So, if you’re not looking for new activities, you might miss some fun things to do!

That’s just one more reason to do what I did. Take your vacation from work and “retire” for a week (two is better; three is best) in your retirement city. Actually, I got laid off into retirement, so I had a month to research FC. Go with purpose: to research this city as a place to live in retirement. Your mission is to discover all of the different activities that exist and try as many as possible. It’s not your typical vacation, so don’t treat it as such. You’re there to “work,” to find out if this is a great place to live. If you enjoy golfing, yes, check out all of the golf courses, but don’t spend all of your time golfing! You know you love it, so just go to meet the people who work there, talk about the course with them, ask about prices, senior discounts, are there organized groups who golf, etc. If you love to swim, skip the hotel pool and check out the pools at the senior center and other recreational facilities. Talk to people. Tell them you’re researching this city as a place to retire. People are so intrigued by this simple statement and it’s a great icebreaker, too. Ask them why they love this city or do they? What else is there to do? Are these people friendly? Welcoming? If not, don’t let that deter you and move on to the next activity to research. If it becomes a pattern, however, and you don’t feel welcome in a number of places, then you might have a problem. But you’ll know it because you’ll feel the vibes.

And, try NEW things, too! Look in the paper and on the Internet for local events and vow to try something new every day. Read my "activities" posts (go to bottom of this post and click on Labels: "activities")and see all of the new things I tried while I was in Fort Collins. This might give you some ideas. Trying new things along with the old will help you develop your list of retirement activities! Not only that, but it will help you envision your retirement! How will you spend day after day, night after night? Unless your idea of retirement is to the sofa parked in front of the TV, you need to actively explore what there is to do on a Tuesday afternoon or a Thursday evening and not just on the weekends. You have a lot of time to fill. Don’t waste it.

Stay tuned to my next post when I’ll tell you how I got to Fort Collins, where I stayed and how you can get to your retirement city - on a budget, of course!

More Retirement Activities in Fort Collins, CO.

I took the weekend off from blogging to spend it with my husband who has joined me here in Fort Collins, CO. Friday night was FC’s First Friday Gallery Walk and we went to a couple of galleries in the Old Town area. It’s nice to see so many people of all ages walking around town in the evenings. There are a surprising number of bicycles parked in bike racks, too, even in the winter. Of course, there’s no snow on the ground, but it is chilly, especially riding a bike. Fort Collins is a bike friendly town and the residents seem to be less car dependent here.

On Saturday, we walked across town to look at a home on the west side of Colorado State University, about 2.2 miles from where we are staying. We stopped along the way for coffee and on the return trip, we stopped for lunch. Walking across campus, we passed by a CSU women’s fastpitch softball game, which was a trip down memory lane for us. Our daughter used to play in high school. We love the game. We could picture ourselves attending college sporting events here... 

Back downtown, we walked around a bit and decided to check out a local brewery. We had promised our friends back in Atlanta that we’d go to Odell Brewing Co. and send them a picture from the brewery. It didn’t look too far on the map, so we decided to walk. After sampling all of Odell’s beers, we walked a little further up the road to Fort Collins Brewery for more beer. Having walked off our lunch by this time, we were in the mood for some food. Unfortunately, neither of these breweries offers food. FCB had some bagged snacks, but we were looking for something a little more substantial to fill our stomachs and absorb some of the alcohol. We talked about all the local food producers I’d met at the farmer’s market and all the ready made products… buffalo sausage and cheese, fresh tortilla chips and salsa, a burrito or tamale… that could be available to those like us (and we were not alone) who were doing the beer crawl out Lincoln Avenue. We mentioned food to the man sitting next to us at the bar, Reed, who had actually written a restaurant business plan for the owners of FCB. Clearly, we were not the only ones thinking about food. A restaurant is a big leap into the food business, however. Maybe the owners could start small by offering locally prepared items, so they don’t have to have a prep kitchen. Perhaps another innovative partnership between businesses... capture the tourist market with not only the local breweries, but with the local foods, too. Just a thought…

My husband and I did not make it to the next brewery on the road: Funkwerks. It was getting late and that was much further. Besides, we’d caught sight of a bus earlier and a ride back to town sounded pretty good after a day of walking and an afternoon of beer tasting. Having transit available on this route by the local breweries is an outstanding idea. With all that beer and no food, we certainly did not want to get behind the wheel!

Thumbs up for all the local beers available in Fort Collins and for transit that takes you to most, if not all, of the breweries. Many are located downtown and the bus that we caught back into town, route 14, would’ve taken us out to Funkwerks, but we didn’t know it. Even New Belgium Brewing is an easy walk from Old Town. So, if you’re in FC and want to visit the local breweries, consider taking transit or walking. Park the car and leave the driving to someone else. You’ll be glad you did and others will, too.



My husband, Mark, enjoying Odell beers.



How Walkable is Your Community?

I’m here in Fort Collins, CO. to research this as a retirement location. One of our criteria for location (see February post: Retirement Location: Your Criteria) is good transit and a walkable community. Well, I’ve been walking my behind off in Fort Collins! And, while my behind doesn’t actually seem to be getting any smaller, it doesn’t seem to be getting any bigger either. I guess the walking is a good counter balance to all this sitting at my computer. But, seriously, Fort Collins is a very walkable community, especially when combined with transit. I went to look at houses for sale in Old Town West one day and walked 6.5 miles – a 10K! It didn’t seem that far, but when I got back home and plotted my route on www.gmap-pedometer.com, that’s how far I’d gone. I did encounter some uneven sidewalks along the way that may have tripped me up if my vision was bad or if it had been dark. I believe the city is responsible for the repair of sidewalks here in Fort Collins. In the city of Atlanta, however, property owners are responsible and the sidewalks are in terrible shape. That’s not the case in FC.

A walkable community, whether you walk only or combine it with transit, is important as we grow older. It’s essential as we grow old, however. Already, at age 56, I don’t do too much driving at night, especially in the rain and to an unfamiliar destination. And while I drive on Atlanta’s freeways, I know many people my age who prefer not to. When you get to the point where you start fearing driving in the dark, driving on the freeway, driving on mountain roads, it may be time to assess your driving. For me, I don’t drive at night in the rain unless I absolutely have to. At some point as we age, we’re likely to give up or greatly reduce driving, voluntarily or not. The last place I want to be when I can’t drive is in a community where you must have a car to get anywhere. So, when considering YOUR retirement location, consider the walkability of the community and transit, as well.

If you want to find out how walkable your community is, go to www.walkscore.com and look up your state and city for an average score. Fort Collins, CO. scores 50 on a scale of 0 to 100 with 100 being the most walkable. This makes FC “somewhat walkable.” However, when I type in the address of the place I’m renting, I get a score of 88 – very walkable. My address in Georgia scores 29 – car dependent. So, when you’re considering buying a house, you might want to check the walk score of the address.

More Innovation in Fort Collins!

I have been in Fort Collins, CO. almost three weeks now researching this city and its many offerings. I keep thinking the city has run out of surprises. I can’t possibly be impressed any more than I already am. Wrong!

I went to Songwriter’s Circle last night at a venue for coffee and music here in Fort Collins, CO. – a place called Everyday Joe’s. I was surprised to learn that this place is actually a nonprofit organization. A church moved into the building in 2002 and church members decided to use the building for more than just worship on Sundays. The idea of a coffee shop and music venue was born out of their desire to foster community and relationships. Most of their “staff,” including their baristas are actually volunteers. How cool is that?! In addition to holding benefit concerts, the coffee house provides the meeting room for Songwriter's Circle, a group of budding songwriters/musicians who meet weekly to share their songs with each other.

Last night’s Songwriter’s Circle, now in its fourth week, was attended by four people: Patrick, Nora, Russell and Sarah who were kind enough to let me sit in as an observer. I have a brother who is a songwriter/musician and I was curious about a group who would get together to share their songs with their peers. Playing their acoustic guitars, group members took turns performing songs they’d written, each sharing two songs. I was impressed with their lyrics, as well as their guitar playing. I don’t know much about songwriting or guitar playing, but I know what music I like and I liked the songs they played. What impressed me the most, however, was this group’s willingness to share the story of how a song came to be – sometimes very personal stuff, and their willingness to accept feedback from their peers who can be much more critical than friends and family – that takes guts and shows commitment to their craft. They discussed the technicalities of the music – the changing chords and guitar picking, as well as each song’s lyrics, demonstrating that they were really listening to each other. And they gave honest feedback. They even let me chime in my observer’s viewpoint! It was an amazing evening and I so appreciate the group's generosity in letting me sit in.

Somehow the world seems very right when I see young people following their dreams, demonstrating their passion and perseverance. I feel reassured knowing that our world will be in such capable hands. This is a group of people that I want to embrace and connect with in my retirement, not shun. That’s one of the reasons we’re choosing a college town to live in – the young people and their energy.

Once again, the innovation and sense of community in Fort Collins has impressed me. For more on innovation in FC, see my post: Fort Collins, CO: An Entrepreneurial Incubator.

Thumbs up for this college town and this unusual nonprofit, Everyday Joe’s, for supporting budding artists and musicians. Your support is not going unnoticed. Thank you! Get the full story about Everyday Joe’s, their upcoming events and find ways you can support them at www.everydayjoes.org.

“Made in America” Challenge

ABC news with Diane Sawyer has a special this week on “Made in America.” A family who thought much of their household belongings were made in America was left with a shell of a house, a flower vase and a kitchen sink after the ABC team came in and discovered that almost all of their belongings and furnishings, including appliances were made outside the United States. After spending the night in sleeping bags, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner and doing homework on the floor, the family and news team began the search for “made in America” items to replenish what was taken out of the house. We left off last night with the trucks containing their new items rolling down their street, so tune in tonight to see what they bought and what it cost!

After doing this segment, the ABC team discovered that if every person in the U.S. spent just (an additional?) $64 a year on a “made in America” purchase, we can create 200,000 jobs here. I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s worth a try! So, ask before you buy! Is it made in America? They are also challenging people to look around their own homes to see where things are made. Unfortunately, I think we’d all have a very short list of items made in America. The important thing is to be aware – to live consciously, as Oprah loves to say. Along that same line is to shop locally (see my Feb. 27 post, Shop Locally and Support Your City’s Economy, for more) and support your local business person. Readers, please, before you make that next purchase, consider whether you are buying “made in America” or buying from a locally owned business. Watch ABC news tonight and the rest of the week and take their challenge to spend $64 on “made in America.” Let’s pull together and create some jobs in this country! Want to do more?? Pass this challenge on to your friends on Facebook and Twitter. Let's start a movement!