Meet our writers

Win $1,000







Advice & More June 2016

Finding the Right Retirement Community

By Sunny McFarren

You could also compare today's retirement communities to college campuses for seniors. They usually have an exercise room, a game room and an abundance of free weekly classes that teach everything from crafts to foreign languages, meditation, and how to write short stories and memoirs.

Today's best retirement communities are like Disney Worlds for mature adults. They have come about in response to statistics like these:

  • Retirement now lasts nearly 20 years for most Americans.
  • Roughly 1 million Americans reside in senior care facilities.
  • While people over age 65 currently comprise over 13 percent of the population in the United States today, that percentage is expected to increase to 20 percent by 2050.
  • Approximately one million Americans currently reside in senior care facilities and this figure I expected to double by 2030.
  • Since January 2011, approximately 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day. These people are more highly educated and more alert than any previous generation and they are more fun-oriented.

In response, retirement communities are becoming more and more fun-oriented. Entertainment at today's best communities ranges from several first class movies, to sing-a-longs, trips to local sports games, concerts and plays, picnics at local lakes or parks, to talent/no talent shows. Local music groups often provide entertainment at evening meals. Available games range from highly competitive Wii games, to poker, bridge, bingo, or hand/foot canasta. And these communities offer activities to help you stay fit too, with exercise classes ranging from yoga to tai chi to chair exercise to the Texas two-step. These communities are definitely NOT like your grandmother's nursing home – where a single bingo game was often the only highlight of the week.

You could also compare today's retirement communities to college campuses for seniors. They usually have an exercise room, a game room and an abundance of free weekly classes that teach everything from crafts to foreign languages, meditation, and how to write short stories and memoirs. Some of the areas actually go way beyond what you would find at most colleges: there is almost always a large, attractive dining room that offers gourmet food prepared by a chef; there are usually small kitchens in each living unit; most have a beauty shop on campus; some have workshops for woodworking enthusiasts and many have movie rooms similar to those film stars have with special acoustics and padded chairs. The outside grounds are apt to include a putting green and shuffleboard and bocce ball areas. Some offer garden plots.

In addition to all this, retirement communities also appeal to most seniors because the residents don't have to do repairs when anything breaks down; they don't have to mow their lawn; they don't have to clean their gutters, they don't have to worry about whether their home can be adaptable to any disabilities they incur. At many, trained nurses are on hand around the clock, and some even have a health clinic offering daily checkups.

Many offer weekly light housekeeping including laundering your sheets and changing your bed each week, some have their own choral or acting or walking groups. Almost all have one or more vans that will take you on free weekly trips to a grocery, a pharmacy, or other shopping.

Doing preliminary research on most retirement communities, even ones that are far away from you, is reasonably easy these days if you are computer literate.   

Most retirement communities are delighted to invite you in for a free meal and a tour or a special event; you may even know residents there who can give you pertinent information from their point of view. Some communities may offer to put you up overnight in one of their guest rooms for free, but you will still have your other travel expenses, so most people limit their actual visits to retirement communities to the top three on their list.

Here is some of what you may want to look up:

  • Check the town’s Chamber of Commerce site – it will give you an annual list of their town’s activities, general information about size and population, and a number of pictures taken in and around the area.
  • www.weatherbase.com gives you average monthly high and low temperatures for most towns and cities in the United States.
  • Check out a community’s crime rate by going to www.neighborhoodscout.com.
  • Search how many retirement communities there are in a city you are interested in and check out their websites.
  • If topography is important to you (like knowing if there are lakes or mountains nearby), go to www.topozone.com.
  • If you want to know if there are organizations like Rotary or Kiwanis or an AAUW chapter, or a particular church or synagogue, you can usually find that out on the web or from the Chamber of Commerce.
  • If you are interested in the possibility of retiring to another country, check out www.internationalliving.com/2015/01/the-best-places-to-retire.com or www.bankrate.com for articles like “Six Cheap Places to Retire Abroad,’ and information about up and coming communities where retirees can live on less than $2,000 a month.