50 Fabulous Places to Retire in America [With Interactive CD]

The authors do a fine job of covering all of the bases and a vast majority of the 50 states in looking at favorable places to retire. They do not come to the table with a predefined viewpoint of what a retired person wants. Instead, they take a "facts in brief" approach to describing each potential retirement destination and let you make your own judgements. Each destination's article starts with describing the median home price, percentage of population over 65, closest metro area, population size, and finally a short paragraph describing the "Best Reasons To Retire Here". Next there is a climate table with Jan./April/July/Oct./Year labeling each row and the average high temperature, low temperature, precipitation in inches, and percentage sunshine labeling each column. All utility costs and companies are listed next. The section entitled "The Tax Axe" shows all state and local taxes and fees including car registration, driver's license, sales tax, state tax, retirement income tax (bonds, stocks, etc.), and property taxes including any senior exemptions if they exist. There is a section on local real estate that includes average price of a 3 bedroom house, average price of a 2 bedroom condo, housing styles, rental market, average rent, communities popular with retirees, and nearby areas you might want to consider. There are additional sections on the local job market, medical care, special services for seniors, continuing education such as local junior colleges, crime and safety statistics, transportation including nearby airports, and a final section entitled "Let the Good Times Roll" which outlines culture, recreation, and special events. Each locale's section concludes with websites, addresses, and phone numbers where additional information can be found if desired. I really appreciated the fact that there were only eight Florida locations mentioned out of the 50, and that rural, urban, heartland, and coastal destinations were all included. I'm a Texas native that has been transplanted to the east coast, and it seems that the local retirees and soon-to-be-retired on the east coast have a kind of tunnel vision that makes many of them believe that Florida is an elephant burial ground in which they are destined to end up and really causes them to self-limit their choices. Likewise, my fellow Texans seldom think of setting foot outside the state of Texas when they retire and usually wind up spending retirement within 100 miles of where they lived pre-retirement, regardless of their resources. Hopefully, potential retirees from all parts of the nation will pick up this book and realize that there is a big country out there with valid retirement choices in all parts of it.

There are three things tht I really like about this book: 1. He has developed an excellent format for checking out the characterists of a community. Rather you use his recommendations or not, these are questions that you would want to answer about any community in which you are thinking about retiring. 2. He has selected a series of cities that you probably wouldn't think of investigating yourself and done the investigation for you. I mean, who would have thought of Ruston, Louisiana. There are a couple of things that I think might have been done differently. 1. There is a trend to moving into the city. New York, for instance has excellent transportation, medical facilities, and of course Broadway. As oil for heating and gasoline gets more and more expensive, this may be important. 2. One of his cities is Lafayette, Louisiana. Anyone moving there that isn't being transferred by an oil company or something like that had better like hot, humid and bugs. (I was born a bit east of there.) Wait, I said that there were three things I liked and only mentioned two of them. The third thing I liked is that he didn't mention where I live. It's a great place, but we have enough people.

Even if you did not take your financial planner's advice to save as much as you should have, Mary and Arthur Griffith give you hope that you can find an engaging place to fit your budget and your dream of something special for retirement. The book feels more like a travelogue and yet has the honesty of mentioning drawbacks as well as beauties of the place. The details of costs are there for the number cruncher in the family and what to do when the grandkids visit is there for the social secretary. They present a very intelligent structure for the critical information so you can compare places. You can also use their structure as a guide when you discover a place that you want to evaluate on your own. Gift this book to friends and to youself even if you are years away from retirement. Start dreaming about years of free time and remember that long vacation has a price tag. As a financial planner and radio show host who had the pleasure of interviewing Mary Griffith, I was impressed by the authors' delight in the variations of lifestyles, and by the integrity of the research in this well written book. Enjoy learning about America, vacation at some of the places and plan for your future.