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!