My Secret Suburb: Shhhh! Don’t tell!!
Crawl into my mind and struggle with me to resolve the question regarding retirement.
Here are my Top Ten regarding Concerns for Retirement:
- Peace
- Family and Friends close by
- Inexpensive cost of living
- Low debt or no debt possible; modern home
- Health care within easy drive
- Shopping within easy drive
- Entertainment within easy drive
- Home base for exploring and visiting
- Access to professional opportunity; continuing mental stimulation
- Not trapped in the movie Deliverance
Let’s start at the bottom of the list,
#10 – Not in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere, no banjo music allowed. That rules out quite a number of places. However, secrets cities are all over the South. These hidden jewels are as you remember them in your own growing up years in the 1950s-1960s, but with the modern conveniences of Cable, cell phone reception, electricity and running water. On the other hand, prescription home delivery, neighbors who wave and speak, and communities centered on the local churches and school exist.
#9 - With the cell phone, professional opportunity is within reach at all times. Travel within a radius of 30-50 miles would allow access to public and private school systems, universities, and community colleges. Via the internet are opportunities for writing, and publishing possibilities might surface with local, small-town newspapers. Libraries, bookstores, and philanthropic opportunities would keep us as busy as we’d want to be.
#8 – Some people can travel for extended periods of time. A 7 day trip is enough before we want our own bed, our own shower, our own home. So, as long as there are Interstate Highways and Airports around, we’ll be just fine.
#7 – Movie Rental places? Are there churches with Sunday School Classes and Senior Citizen Activity Groups? Are there local travel groups? Within a short drive, can we have access to plenty of entertainment? Active retirement does not mean mountain climbing and high-risk white-water rafting, so entertainment has a more subtle meaning to us.
#6 –As along as we have a good car, shopping trips become adventures for the day and lots of fun. Department stores - check. Grocery stores – check. Dollar stores – check. Wal-Mart – check.
#5 –Dial 911? The ambulance will arrive and will be able to find us. A regional hospital within 30 minutes – that is a must. If something critical is afoot, a large medical center would be the choice, and available. Doctor’s appointments – local is ok, but the city doctors are best and if a day trip or weekend in the city is needed, count it as entertainment and medical appointments. (2 for 1 = not bad)
#4 – Having a home that might easily be paid for would be huge in retirement planning. The fewer the expenses, the better. We are hoping to find a home we could buy, update, and get into with little or no debt.
#3 – Cost of living – no high taxes usually means few services. Within a 20 mile radius is all you would need. In a big city, you’d drive 20 minutes to get where you wanted to be anyway. Just think of it as living in a secret suburb.
#2 – How wise to choose a steep learning curve, getting to know a whole new community where no familiarity exists? Friends we can make, but when it comes time to be checked on, it’s time for family.
#1 – When crime takes over, it’s time to choose another city. When corruption is in every area of government and education, it is time to go, if you can. When you listen to quiet –that is good. When you look around, and people are simply living and loving without drama all the time – that, too, is good. When you have earned your living and have achieved all you can in your career, when it is time for the next generation to take over in your profession, it is time to relax and enjoy the fruits, however small they may be.
Do you think the place to which I have alluded actually exists? Respond if you will.
