Best Places To Retire

Everybody wants to know, "What are the best places to retire?" 

The answer is highly personal. You may like California. I like Florida. So, I won't say anything about where. 

The best places to retire, in my judgement are CCRCs. Continuing Care Retirement Communities are very special places, and for our third home since we've been retired, we finally hit a home run. 

I watched my Mother and Father retire to a condo on the water on the west coast of Florida. I watched my 88 year old mother tend to my bedridden Father, in the living room of that condo. 

If they had chosen in their 70s to live in a CCRC, their later lives would have been vastly different. Dad would have moved to the assisted living section while mother stayed independent. They could have had meals and common activities together, but mother wouldn't have lost touch with her friends, and stopped her activities to care for dad. 

Eventually, dad would have moved to the next building over, to the skilled nursing facility. Again, they would have had all the together time they wanted, but mother would have kept close to her friends and continued her independent activities. And, she wouldn't be an 88 year old nurse and caregiver. 

We tried to get them to consider a retirement home, but to their generation that was the same as a "nursing home" or an "old people's home."

If only they could have lived to see the place Shannon and I chose to move into; The Glenridge. It's incredible. It's like a resort.  We feel secure physically, socially, and financially. We know that whatever healthcare needs that either of us might have, it'll be available for us, at no extra cost. 

We looked at other retirement communities, but we never saw anything like The Glenridge. The others were so institutional. This place is like a resort. There are more interesting activities than one could ever want or need. 

So, getting back to the "best places to retire," I say, look for what is becoming the next new thing in retirement communities, a CCRC.  It's a place you can move to early in your retirement while you're still active and curious and vital. You feel secure because you know healthcare costs can't disrupt your comfortable retirement. No matter what health problems you ever might have, you pay nothing more than you pay while you're totally independent. And, if you find a new CCRC that's like a resort, you've found what I swear is absolutely one of the best places to retire. 

Yours for a safe, secure, worry free, active and vital retirement,

Ken Johnston

P.S. The Glenridge is almost completely full, but you can always get on a waiting list. Take a peek at their web site so you will know what to look for in other CCRCs. 

Retirement in a Retirement Resort

My mother, (bless her heart, she's 99) lives in a retirement home just south of Sarasota, in Venice. She lived with my sister, who is 77, in her condo on the bay until last year. Then my sister became unable to care for her, so we moved her into a retirement home which offered independent living and assisted living. 

The CCRC Shannon and I just moved into is more like a resort than a retirement home. I'll tell you what I mean. 

Our new continuing care retirement community has over 300 living units for independent living. Each is a complete home. You pay up front for the apartment or club home, and then a monthly fee which covers virtually everything you could imagine. 

That fee may go up each year with inflation, but if we should ever need assisted living, or (knock on wood) skilled nursing care, the fee we pay doesn't ever change. We have no worries about healthcare or healthcare costs. 

I say it's like a resort because of all of the amenities and services that we get for our monthly fee. We can dine in one of three dining rooms. We can get meals delivered to our house, like room service. The list goes on and on, but the main thing is the community is alive and vibrant. People are learning and playing and interacting. 

I don't know about you, but in caring for my parents, and Shannon's parents, we scouted out a lot of retirement homes. We saw lots of really old people, and walkers and mobility scooters. When we visit my mother, we see people staring at televisions, with little to do. 

At our new place, there are dozens of activities to choose from daily. It's almost too much. You can read the list of daily activities on their web site, so I won't list them here. Just think resort and imagine living in a retirement resort. That's what it feels like. 

We really feel secure knowing that no matter what healthcare issues we have in the future, we never have to worry about high healthcare costs and outliving our money. 

In your retirement planning, I hope you'll consider finding a CCRC that is like a resort, and for goodness sakes, don't wait too long. Don't wait for health issues to hit you, and like my mother and sister, not be eligible for membership in a retirement resort like ours. 

Yours for a happy and healthy retirement,

Ken Johnston

P.S. To see what makes this place seem like a resort, go to their website and click a few links to see what makes a continuing care retirement community so different from a retirement home. Explore our new community. 

P.P.S. If you want to see pictures of my mother and her many birthday parties, go to our personal website: http//www.kenshan.com

Retirement Planning must include health care costs

Nobody tells you that your retirement planning must include health care costs. Everybody focuses on how much money you need to save, and how much you can draw out of savings every year. 

The secret truth about retirement living is that it's haunted by fears and worries. You don't know how long you'll live, so you worry about outliving your money. You see illness, strokes, cancer and heart ailments pop up in your friends. Will it happen to you? 

You want to live independently as long as you can, before you enter a retirement community. That's natural. The problem is you can't enter a continuing care retirement center if you've already been hit by big health problems. So, people tend to wait. Most people wait too long, and then it's too late. 

Big health problems mean big health costs, and then you really sweat it out. Will the healthcare expenses wipe out your savings? 

The solution for all of these worries is to find a continuing care retirement community that can make retirement enjoyable while you're healthy, and take complete care of your health needs at exactly the same level of spending you had while you were healthy. 

We were fortunate enough to discover just such a place. They call it America's First Life Fulfilling Community, and we feel that's what they have here. We were lucky to get in. The place is new and filling up fast, so we got the last of the town homes. But, if this interests you, you could check out the final few apartments they have. Or, get on the waiting list for an apartment when one opens up. 

To learn more about our place, click on http://www.theglenridge.com 

More Soon,

Ken Johnston