Great Places to Retire

Choosing where to retire is an important "life decision." The right retirement destination can lead to years of contentment; the wrong choice can cause you to miss out on pursuing your passion, or it could be costly.

We have developed some outstanding retirement planning resources to help you understand the issues, focus on your retirement lifestyle choices, plan and conduct your search for a retirement destination, and make the right decision.

This section contains four important resources to help you make those key decisions.

Decision Guide to Planning Your Retirement Destination

Great Places to Retire

Great College Towns for Retirement

College-Linked Retirement Communities

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Decision Guide for Planning Your Retirement Destination

The Guide leads you through a decision-making process that will help you focus on your own most important criteria for deciding the best place for you to retire. It leads — in a structured way — to help you make the right decision. It will help you decide whether you should move or not, and if the answer is Yes, what area is best for you. You will be asked questions about your vision of retirement and your retirement goals. Numerous decision-support materials are also included to help you plan and uncover important tradeoffs, such as being close to good medical care versus locating in the peaceful surroundings of a remote setting.

Great Places to Retire

This section consists of reports (typically 3-4 pages) on the top retirement destinations in the nation — 210 locations in 33 states. These reports are an outstanding resource for discovering the best place to retire. Many of these towns and cities have been cited in national publications, reports, or surveys. Our reports are the result of many months of research and visits to a great number of locations across the country. We have captured the essence of each of these top retirement destinations to help you learn about their lifestyle, culture, and appeal as a place for your new home. Each report is loaded with Web links so that you can quickly explore any specific area of interest. It is a far more powerful resource than a book. And, while our research is a deliberative process, we continue to search for new locations and will add them to this database.

For each city or town you will find detailed information about the area that includes:

Great College Towns for Retirement

An increasing number of people are retiring to college towns. The atmosphere is extremely attractive to retirees and you get a wide range of amenities – cultural activities, athletic events, educational opportunities, and excellent medical facilities – in a stimulating environment. We have selected over 97 college towns in 39 states that should be attractive to those seeking this type of retirement destination.

College-Linked Retirement Communities

In the last few years colleges and universities have become increasingly involved in the development of retirement communities on or near their campuses. On the other hand, existing retirement communities have developed relationships with the educational institutions that allow residents to take advantage of a stimulating environment for life-long learning, and enjoy certain campus cultural, entertainment and sporting activities. In this section you will find a list (with links) of 96 retirement communities (active or being planned), their associated college or university, and the city or town in which the retirement community and college are located. There is a growing interest in these types of retirement communities and we will continue to search them out and add them to our database.