Fidelity, the giant investment advisory firm, recently published “5 things to consider” before choosing where to live in retirement. I love Fidelity, which is where most of my investments are held, but they missed at least a dozen things to consider before choosing a retirement place, especially if you plan to play golf.
Fidelity’s "5 things" are exclusively about money, as you would expect of a financial services firm. They are all good points, especially this one: “Look beyond potential state-tax savings when considering a move.” As I have written ad nauseum because it is such a common retiree mistake, you need to have enough income in retirement to make living in a no-income tax state a major consideration. After retirement, many people count on social security as a significant source of income, but social security maxes out at around $50,000 a year. To make a compelling argument for no-income-tax states to rise to the top of your list of considerations, you will need supplementary sources of income well in excess of the social security amount. Even in that case if, for example, you prefer South Carolina (6.5% to income tax rate) to Florida (0% income tax as a place to retire, be mindful that the generally lower property taxes ad cost of living in the Palmetto State might neutralize the advantage of the Sunshine State’s 0% state income tax. One website, My Life Elsewhere, indicates that cost of living in Florida is 10% more expensive than in South Carolina.
When you begin to research where you might live in retirement, state income tax should be well down the list, at least to start. What should be at the top is a decision on geography, specifically whether you want to live on the coast, on a lake or in the mountains. Once you and your partner agree on the “topography,” the next decision will be what I call the Proximity Consideration. Would you prefer a rural location free of noise and air pollution, or easy access to a city and all it has to offer? Personal health considerations, current and future, could guide that decision as well. Your level of frustration with traffic could also have an impact. There are wonderful golf communities within a few miles of cities and traffic, and others a good 90 minutes away with clear sailing along the local roads.
After you decide on a few geographical areas to consider, don’t choose too many – too many is more than six, which will burn up a lot of gas and airline miles and confuse the heck out of you. (There are a fine selection of golf communities in most areas.) In moving to the next level in your search, you will need to visit the areas you identify, and the golf communities within those areas, to determine if they are suitable.
And when you visit, there are a whole raft of other considerations which I have conveniently packed into a 150-page guide to the entire search process for a golf home. It is called Glorious Back Nine: How to Find Your Dream Golf Home, and it is available in both paperback and electronic editions at Amazon.com for just $9.99 and $5.99, respectively. If you would like the benefit of my nearly 20 years of assisting people to find their golf home and all the research I did to produce the book, fill out my one-minute questionnaire for hands-on, no fee guidance in finding your dream home. Shortly after I receive your responses, we can arrange for a phone conversation to get you started – or to pick up from wherever you are in your search. In the meantime, please consider subscribing to our newsletter, which we publish 10 times a year and which highlights some of the same issues in my book. Subscribe here.