Retiring with Change

Simplify your life, define your retirement, then decide where to retire.

“Baby Boomers don’t save enough, and no savings means no retirement.” Right?

Just last July, The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College said nearly a third of people aged 51-61 were at risk of retiring without enough money to maintain a comfortable life.

Well, maybe, but maybe not.

If you have lived and worked in places like New York City or Los Angeles, Chicago or Washington DC, and you want to stay there, then you will probably never be able to retire. Unless you have bucked the trend in a major way, and saved massively, you’ll never be able to afford to stop working. After all, if you need $100,000 a year just to keep the status quo, retirement is going to look pretty grim.

But boomers have the answer:

simplify your life, consolidate and MOVE.

The biggest difference between boomers and our parents is that we are not only willing to change, we want to change.  Where most of our parents were interested in staying in their house and retiring in the same neighborhood they had lived in for years, most boomers are looking at retirement as another chance to start fresh. We’ve been a transient generation, and retirement isn’t going to be any different.  We have changed the definition of retirement and now we will change where to retire.

People are selling their big trophy homes in the Chicago suburbs and buying little apartments or townhouses in rural areas. The money they’ve got left over goes farther in a town with only half the cost of living of the big cities they’ve been working in. Major attractions are local colleges, access to sports like skiing or sailing, and affordable housing.

Many people are starting early and buying their retirement homes while still in the work force, or moving to their retirement community well before they actually give up work.  Half-retirement, mini-retirement, and working retirements are all options that the majority of our parents never considered.

So don’t panic.  Plan it.  Start looking for the town that has the perfect combination of cost of living, location, and amenities for you. You’ll probably have to move, but then, we’re a generation that loves road trips.

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Tags: baby boomer, Simplify Your Life, Where to Retire / Expat Living