And so my journey continued. In my heart I knew I
really wanted to retire, to spend more time with my children, my grandchildren
and of course my husband. However I wanted to make sure when I retired, I wasn’t just
“retiring,” but that I would have something to retire to.
So logically the
question for me wasn’t at what age to retire but really at what income. That meant our next step was meeting with a
financial planner. A financial planner,
according to Webster’s (remember dictionaries, the book invented way before Google?) is “a qualified investment professional who helps individuals and corporations
meet their long-term financial objectives by analyzing the client's
status and setting a program to achieve that client's goals.”
Keeping in mind here our goal of retirement was to live off
our assets and not on them <Grin>. On a more serious note; after much gnashing of teeth and number
crunching, (it felt like doing budgets at work) our financial planner determined
(on paper at least), I could financially retire at 66, √. One milestone down, now
for the next step, we must decide where we want to retire. And on this subject
everyone had an opinion, to which I hid my yawns (a yawn may not be the
politest thing but it is an opinion). <Grin>
Forbes had an in-depth article on the
top 25 places in the US to retire (2013). In selecting the top 25 they considered the
following data: living and housing costs,
taxes, weather, air quality, doctor availability, crime rates and
active-lifestyle rankings for bicycling and volunteering. They also took into
account the Milken Institute's latest ranking of "Best Cities for
Successful Aging."
The top 25 retirement places were:
Alexandria, Louisiana; Ames, Iowa; Asheville, North Carolina; Athens, Georgia;
Austin, Texas; Bangor, Maine; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Billings, Montana;
Charlotte, North Carolina; Clearwater, Florida; College Station, Texas;
Columbia, Missouri; Fargo, North Dakota; Gaines Ville, Florida; Huntsville,
Alabama; Jacksonville, Florida; Lexington, Kentucky; Little Rock, Arkansas;
Medford, Oregon; Mesa, Arizona; Orlando, Florida; Prescott, Arizona; San Antonio, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; Winston
Salem, North Carolina. Phew, now that’s
a lot of choices to review.
I began to see a trend; everything said to
get out of California! I also learned a new term “Successful aging,”
as opposed to unsuccessful aging? I always strive for the best and since one has no alternative but to age, I choose successful
aging. <Grin>
BFF hubby and I tried to be open-minded
about the choices, discussing all our options, one of which was even moving to Puerto
Penasco, Mexico (yeah right, like that would ever happen). Then we shook the cobwebs from our brains and
did a reality check. Our children, grandchildren,
and BFF's mother all resided in So Cal. You
can’t beat our climate and hey, where else can you go to the beach in an hour,
the desert in two hours, and snowboarding in three hours? We can do all that in California and we have the best weather.
What to do, what to do? Now began the panic attacks and lack of sleep. I made a very respectable salary,
so I told myself, “Self, perhaps it would be best for you to suck it up and work
another year, just retire at 67.” That’s it we made a decision, said the
cowardly lion, New Goal end of 2014, meaning really 2015. Done and Done!
Enter the end of the year 2013, and here
began the nagging voices in my head!!!
Stay tuned …and thank you again for taking this retirement journey with
me, or as I refer to it "my longest coffee
break". I'm just sayin……
