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!