A few social media friends have recently been investigating where to settle down for their retirement years, each with a different set of considerations and requirements. Since this is a topic that my wife and I have already spent time tackling, I figured I’d explain how we’ve been thinking about our own considerations on where we will live in retirement, in case it’s useful for anyone else.
First, I should note that we’re looking forward to full retirement. Scratch that, we cannot wait for retirement. Unfortunately, we still have more than a decade to go—and yes, we are actively counting down the days1. The future is unknown, of course, but that hasn’t stopped us from thinking carefully about it and creating the best plan we can. Let’s start with some context.
Our retirement plan is to travel the world nearly full-time2 for at least the first decade or so, as we work towards completing Jen’s quest to visit every country in the world. But we will maintain a “home base” here in the US, so that we can do our various doctor visits, change out clothes/gear for our next adventures, and catch up with friends and family, of course. After that initial nomadic period, we’ll likely shift toward shorter, easier overseas trips mixed with more domestic travel. Eventually that mix will flip and we’ll spend increasingly more time traveling the US, as international travel gets harder and riskier for us as we get older and older.
We’ve plotted out much of this in a lengthy document we call life block planning, which splits our remaining expected lifespan into five-year blocks. For each block, we plot out our expectations for things like major life events, family caregiving needs, our own expected health (and yes, even my death date), our financial planning, and so forth. For us, a major part of this planning is centered around the types of travel (and even specific destinations) that we want to prioritize in which periods of our lives.
For example, we’d rather camp in the African bush while we’re younger and save “easier” European destinations for later. If we want to visit some politically fraught areas3, we might want to do that soon, just in case a crisis breaks out. And if I want to hike the Tour du Mont Blanc, I’d better not wait until I’m in my 70s to get around to it. So this planning can also serve as a motivation device, ensuring that we don’t “someday” important things we want to do. We have lots and lots of places we want to visit, and even in our mid-40s, it already feels like shockingly little time in which to accomplish it all. So this sort of planning is crucial, even as it remains a living document that’s routinely revised and updated.
Another important detail for our planning is that—because we don’t have kids or extended family that can help—we’ll need to navigate aging without the direct family assistance so many others rely on. After caregiving for my dad for so many years, that’s a sobering reality that we see as a key factor in where we end up.
Here’s how we’ve thought about it
Ok, so that’s the background, now let’s get into the specific requirements we have for where we want to retire.
Proximity to a major airport – Since we plan to travel frequently during retirement, this is a key consideration. As I age, I’m less interested in connecting flights, awkward arrival and departure times, and limited flight schedules.
Somewhere in the West, in a not-cold area – When we’re not traveling overseas, we’ll likely be traveling domestically. For us, that probably means van life (and probably eventually some sort of RV) until we can’t anymore. And that also means living out West where all the great public lands are. Similarly, when we are in town or have aged out of frequent travel, I want easy local access to parks, preserves, and public lands, too.
Also, the last thing I want is to deal with cold weather. I am not a fan, hence why I currently live in Phoenix. There will be no shoveling snow off my driveway, no wondering if I should try to drive before the plows arrive, and no trudging out on ice—especially when I’m older. The only salt use I should encounter should be rimmed around margarita glasses by the pool. And yes, the not-cold places are often the quite-hot places in the summer, so I’d also like generally easy access to cooler summer temps.
Easy access to medical care, including specialists – Look, unless you die prematurely, you’re going to end up with plenty of doctor appointments and specialists as you age. So living in an area with a whole slew of those folks is preferred; it can have a significant impact on your quality of care, and therefore your health span. I want lots of potential choices here, not just one single specialist who is only in town 2 days each week. Navigating the medical system is often a real pain-in-the-ass, so I want to have plenty of options for finding the right doctor for me, for getting second opinions when warranted, and if my preferred doc isn’t available, for having a variety of scheduling options with other fallback providers.
Major city conveniences and services – No, we don’t mean concerts or museums or an art scene or sporting events, though those are nice, too. I mean major city conveniences—like plenty of rideshare drivers, delivery services, retail establishments, restaurants, and other entertainment options. If I’m not up for driving during rush hour or at night or in the rain, I want to easily find a driver who is. If I want a pizza delivered at midnight, I want to live in a place where that can happen. And I want several pizza options, not just one that’s attached to a gas station. If I want same-day delivery on an order, I want that to be an option. Or, if I want to fiddle with something in person before I buy it, I don’t want that to involve a long drive. If my pharmacy is out of my new prescription, I want to get it from another pharmacy just one extra mile away. If I want to read a new book, I want it to be available at the local library. You get the idea.
Ample opportunities for community – One of the most important things you need to plan for as you age is maintaining community—a large cadre of friends to regularly socialize with, share and learn from, and rely on. This will be especially important for us, given that no kids thing, but it’s truly one of the most important factors in quality of life as you age. Along with sharing it with a loved partner, it very well might be the most important factor in how your final years/decades turn out.
I also want hundreds of local community hang-outs, not just one local bar or bowling alley that you might have in a small town. We’re not into formal religion, so church—where so many people make those connections as they age—isn’t a viable option for us. So we’ll need a variety of third places as a substitute.
Similarly, there should be a wide variety of organizations I can volunteer at, community events I can attend, and clubs or sports leagues I can participate in. If I develop a sudden love for, I dunno, shuffleboard or something, I want to be able to join a shuffleboard league (is that a thing? I have no idea). I do not want to spend my final years just watching tv, as so many end up doing.
Another consideration here is that as you age, many of your friends…ummm…churn—which is a nice way to say that they, well, they die or move away. It’s an unfortunate problem of growing old. So it’s important to be in a place where you can constantly refresh those all-important social connections with new friends. It’s hard enough to do that in large towns, let alone in small ones. But it’s a critical component of growing old these days.
Independent and assisted living care – At some point, living on our own will become too dicey for our aging bodies, and we’ll need to seek independent or assisted living care. I’d like to live in an area that has a number of options available, so that I can find something that works for us (and that we can afford—holy shit that stuff is expensive!), and is still in the general area of our existing social community. We’ll need the support of those existing ties as our lives change during that transition; it can be hard to start from scratch.
Cost of living – We’re feeling good about our financial future in retirement (so far at least!), but we also want to focus our resources on travel for as long as we can—not on a fancy house to retire into. After all, our primary retirement goal is to travel, not to be at home! So that immediately rules out a number of the country’s more expensive areas. We need to find a house that we can age into, meaning it’s appropriately designed for seniors, with a special focus on mobility limitations. We won’t need this immediately upon retirement, though, so we should have some time to renovate an existing property towards our future needs. But that means sticking to a reasonably priced home in a reasonably priced city.
In the United States – Finally, we plan on retiring here in the United States. Perhaps this will change at some point, but even with its faults, there are very, very few countries that can offer what the US does. Jen and I have traveled to many countries, and we’re incredibly fortunate to have been born in America—there’s just no place I’d rather be.
To honor my dad, who immigrated from Northern Ireland, I plan on gaining Irish/EU and United Kingdom citizenship in the next few years. Since I already seem to qualify (thanks Dad!), this essentially just amounts to filing some paperwork. There are clear travel benefits to having multiple passports, including cheaper travel visas. But we’re especially interested in using that EU status to travel more cheaply across Europe by buying and registering a campervan there instead of having to rent one. It’d be a fun way to explore the continent when we’re older. That said, I’m 100% an American, through and through. This is home. Perhaps we’ll spend a few years overseas, but I can’t see us choosing to live anywhere else permanently.
So where does this lead?
While a slow, quiet place somewhere in the wildlands is a romantic notion for retirement, it’s clear that our retirement necessitates a major city—we need the conveniences, the medical support, and the ample opportunities to develop a large friendbase. And that major city is likely located somewhere in the mild winter temps of the Southwest, since Southern California is too expensive. So that leaves metro Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Albuquerque/Santa Fe, El Paso, and…well, I guess that’s about it.
We’ve already decided!
After considering all of the options, we’re going to retire in Sun City, Arizona.
It’s the original planned retirement community (yes, the very first in the country!), and a suburb of Phoenix where we already live. I’m well acquainted with Sun City, as my grandparents were early residents. An age-restricted development, it was celebrated for its community aspects—it famously has more than a hundred social clubs (and eight recreation centers), and is known as the “City of Volunteers.” There are a bunch of master planned retirement communities in Arizona, but none offer the social community that the original Sun City does.
It checks all the major boxes for us. It’s located in a major metro area, in good weather, in the West, with plenty of senior-focused health care, a major airport, the nation’s largest collection of city and county parks and preserves, and a reduced cost of living. Well, most any community in the Phoenix area offers the same—but what sets Sun City aside is its focus on community and social clubs.
That will be a key aspect for us, since we’ll be away much of the year traveling. So we want a location with enough built-in socializing that we can pop in and out and easily re-enter social circles and make new friends even when we aren’t there all the time. Sun City is perfect for this, as a good chunk of its residents are snowbirds.
In addition, while it’s located in metro Phoenix—one of the largest metros in the country—it retains a small town pace and vibe. Many residents drive around in golf carts (its shopping centers even offer golf cart parking), the streets are incredibly wide and easy to drive, and the entire area is very safe. Even the mail is delivered in a slower pace: the postal carriers deliver it house-to-house while riding specially outfitted bicycles.
The houses are a bit dated at this point, but most all are receiving serious updates this decade. They’re generally much smaller than what you’d find in most neighborhoods here in Phoenix. But that’s fine with us—we’ll be downsizing anyway, and that helps keep the overall cost much lower, allowing us to focus more of our budget on travel instead of home prices. I’m not a big fan of the West Valley (the part of metro Phoenix where it’s located), but we can deal with that.
And we’ve already gotten started!
We started planning for our own retirement location a few years ago, in conjunction with choosing a better home for my mom to age in. As part of that process, we purchased a home in Sun City, and moved my mom into it in the meanwhile. She’s 83, but in great health, and we wanted to find a place that could allow her to live as independently as possible for as long as possible.
So that meant downsizing her house, and finding one that was as ADA-compliant as possible, such as very few thresholds to step over, walk in showers, wide spaces around toilets in case she needs to use a walker or wheelchair at some point, a stove that has the knobs on the front, and a thousand other little considerations.
It was a big change for her, but she’s responded beautifully. She’s busy af with new friends and countless new activities, which has been really impressive. She’s in a bunch of clubs and classes, including tai chi, aerobic swimming, line dancing, birding, photography, drawing, and most recently, the ukulele club (which somehow has 150+ active participants—they’ve got to be close to a Guinness World Record, right?). I’m sure I’m leaving out a bunch of ones she hasn’t even told me about. Honestly, she has a far more active social life than we do. That experience has really helped convince us that, even 60 years after it opened, Sun City has retained what made it so special at generating social community.
So the plan is for her to live there as long as possible, which will hopefully extend beyond our own retirement date. We’ll stay put in our current house until she’s moved on to assisted living, or has passed away, and eventually, we’ll move ourselves in.
Anyway, that’s the plan, as it currently stands. Perhaps something unforeseen happens between now and then that forces us to change it substantially. That’s life, and that’s perfectly fine—we’ll adjust to whatever is thrown our way, as we always do. But there’s something reassuring and settling to have a plan for this eventuality, even this far in advance.
- I bought my wife a nondescript countdown clock that shows the days remaining before she can retire. Her boss is less than thrilled to see that on her desk. ↩
- One of the reasons we wanted to do our 100-Day Adventure Around the World last year was to test our assumption that we’d enjoy long-term travel abroad, since it was a major part of our retirement plan. The experience confirmed that, yeah, we’re going to enjoy it. ↩
- And that’s why we added Taiwan and Hong Kong to our 100 Day Adventure Around the World. ↩