Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
May 21, 2014 -- If you are an outdoor oriented person the chances are you have dreamed about retiring to a town in the mountains.You might love to ski, hike, camp, fish, mountain bike, or just plain admire the beautiful scenery mountains have in such ample supply. This article is a companion to our other articles about great retirements near the water, in cities, college towns, and small towns (see Further Reading at end of article for more about them).
When some people think of mountain towns they might be thinking of a small community pushed up against the edge of towering peaks. Colorado and much of the American west have plenty of those. Yet for others the mountains might just mean having some nearby foothills. With that in mind we have tried to present a range of communities in this article. There are so many great mountain towns to choose from that we promise a Part 2 in these series.
Advantages
For those who aspire to a mountain retirement, here are some of the advantages that come with them:
- Cooler summers. Altitude means an escape from hot
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Published on May 21, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
May 2, 2014 -- In Florida's golden days in the early 20th century a group of inspired visionaries created many graceful towns. They produced magical communities that attracted hundreds of thousands of retirees from the north. Other towns somehow became classics just because of where they were situated or their economic success in their past. Moving forward to this century, most of these towns still have the great bones that made them attractive back in the day. This article will review some of our favorite "Old Florida" towns that make great places to retire right now.
Planning pays off
Many, but not all, of the classic Florida towns we know about were carefully planned. As a result they have symmetry and
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Published on May 3, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
April 29, 2014 -- For folks interested in an active retirement community for the mind there are few choices better than a college town. With so many advantages, and a minimum of reasons why not to try it, it is not surprising that so many baby boomers are exploring a college town retirement. This article, Part 2 in our series (see Part 1: "Should You Be Retiring to a College Town"), will explore many of the reasons why a college town retirement is so desirable, as well as list some of the more appealing campus towns in our database. We are indebted to frequent contributor Jan Cullinane, author of The Single Woman's Guide to Retirement (AARP/Wiley) and many other books and articles, for her insights into the advantages and drawbacks of college town life (see below).
College Towns. Here we mean a place where the college is the dominant influence on the flavor and
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Published on April 29, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
April 22, 2014 -- This request came in from one of our members, and it seems like a good one: "Could you please do an article on 55+ retirement developments that are under $200,000. There are so many great places to look at but most aren't affordable to us."
The happy answer to this question is that there are all kinds of 55+ and active adult communities with homes available for less than $200,000 - sometimes far below. In this article we will first explore different strategies for finding an affordable community, then list
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Published on April 21, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Updated October 11, 2017 -- This article was originally published in April, 2014. Prices have gone up since then in most of these markets, but they are still less expensive than many other coastal towns.
Retiring near the coast is many people's dream. Visions of beautiful sunrises or sunsets over the water, boating, swimming, fishing, walks on the beach - it sounds great. But one practical thing that often gets in the way is the price of real estate. Those great views and proximity to the water usually come with a price tag that reflects marketplace demand. Fortunately, not every town on the water is out of reach. In this, Part 2 of our Affordable Places to Retire on the Water series, we've reviewed 10 coastal towns that are affordable. Some of these places to retire might not be as chichi as Naples, FL, but they are surprisingly nice and reasonable priced. Part 1, "Affordable Places to Retire on the Waterfront", came out in 2010 (it included some towns where the waterfront was on a lake, this one does not).
Prices have gone up
The first thing we noticed when compiling this article is that home prices
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Published on April 15, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Update May 16, 2017 - We have updated this article with a 2 part installment. Here is the link to Part 1: These Crazy Best States to Retire Lists.
April 8, 2014 -- Back by popular demand, here is our 2014 list of the best states for retirement (see links at bottom to our lists from previous years). This year we have taken a different approach - we've assembled "best of" lists by category. At the conclusion of the article we've listed those states that made more than one list, which you can use as an indication that they must be pretty good places for retirement!
See the counterpoint to this article: "Worst States for Retirement - 2014".
The categories we've chosen are basically the opposite of those we used to choose our "2014 List of the Worst States for Retirement", although we decided to also give weight to
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Published on April 8, 2014
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
March 31, 2014 -- Thanks to everyone who took our Social Security Quiz - all 5,700 of you (and counting)! As we warned, it was not easy. In fact, Harry, a college friend of ours commented that if your editor was a professor back in the day no one would taken his classes! There is still plenty of good news though, especially since there is a grading curve:
- Some of the points that people messed up on are nice to know, but not crucial to
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Published on March 31, 2014
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Category: Family and Retirement
March 25, 2014 -- Couples might joke about it with their friends, but the nitty-gritty issues of handling a "1 person working, 1 person retired" relationship is no laughing matter. For example, one spouse might have taken early retirement and now enjoys most mornings on the golf course or drinking coffee with friends. Meanwhile his partner is working away on the job - bringing in a paycheck and having a completely different
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Published on March 25, 2014
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
March 24, 2014 — Chances are your Social Security benefit is one of the most important components of your retirement. But in our experience there is a fairly shocking lack of knowledge about this subject. To help you get the most out of your benefit we have prepared an 11…
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Published on March 24, 2014
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
March 14, 2014 -- President Obama is set to sign a new bill passed by the Senate and House that rolls back planned flood insurance increases. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) welcomed the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, saying: "Flood insurance legislation will provide much-needed certainty to home owners and financial stability for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
Home builders believe the reform will provide an important boost to home building and remodeling. People who own homes affected by the 2012 Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act are relieved that they will not have to face huge premium spikes and impacts on
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Published on March 14, 2014
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