The Best Place to Retire

By Amina Isakovic

Before I start saving up for my retirement, I was thinking, maybe it would be good to plan out what I want my retirement to be. I need a goal, a timeline, a place, etc. I started my research on the best places to retire to see if any of them fit my picture of being old and healthy while having a good supply of money. I categorized my search into three main points: Health, Cost, and Most Desirable.

Starting out with Health, my definition for that is a place that promotes healthy lifestyles by having accessible exercise places (Yoga, Pilates, outdoor activities, etc.), promoting social activities in the community, easy accessibility to hospitals and doctors, and of course beautiful scenery for the mind as well. According to U.S. News America’s Best Healthy Places to Retire, one place in the U.S. that fits this description is Bella Vista, Arkansas, offering many outdoor activities such as golf and tennis. I don’t pay golf, and I can’t see myself playing tennis everyday, so using their search tool, my number one spot in the U.S. is Folsom, California. Folsom not only offers great recreational activities including art studios and hiking, but the weather is perfect with an average January low temperature of 37°F and July high of 88°F.

Next on the list is Cost. I used the search tool here as well, but I prioritized the cost of an average $200,000 mortgage. In case I end up with hardly any money at the end of my career by some wonder, I don’t really want to be worrying about cost. This time my city turned out to be Concord, Missouri. The median house price is $182,000, a reasonable amount. The recreation activities are lacking but it is surrounded by wildlife. I’m not sure if I’m too fond of that.

Lastly I’ll take a look at the Most Desirable. According to AARP’s 15 Best Places to Reinvent your Life, the best place to reinvent yourself is Loveland, Colorado. With “pretty, sandy shores,” the Rocky Mountains, plenty restaurants and art galleries, and a medium house price of only $198,655, it seems almost perfect. I have been to Colorado, and it is a beautiful place, but it just doesn’t seem right.

With all the different options it’s hard to choose where to live out the rest of my life. Thinking about this at age 22 felt a little strange, but it’s always good to have a plan and goal. In the end I hope that I have enough finances so that my retirement consists of many travels, seeing the world and all the different cultures it offers, only to go home to my apartment in Monaco. That’d be the life!