WHEN CHUCK AND LORRAINE BRAUD Hill of Irvine, California, mulled
over where to set down retirement roots, their decision was dictated by
quality of life concerns. California's declining services, crumbling
infrastructure, and crushing housing prices--even after the recent price
slump--made the director of international alliances and business
development for University of California, Irvine Extension and his
banker wife look beyond the Golden State.
Their top choice for where they're planning to move within the next year: Nashville, Tennessee, a friendly locale where all the "streets and schools are still working." In the city of the Grand Ole Opry, the couple built a stately semi-custom house for $350,000--the equivalent in Southern California would have cost a whopping $1.2 million. "The cost of housing and living are so much lower, yet there's such a high quality of life raves Chuck, 64. "I don't plan on sitting in a rocking chair. I intend to open a professional mediation practice focused on intellectual property disputes. With so much of the music industry centered in Nashville, it's an ideal location for such a practice. Nashville just made a lot of sense for us."
Nashville may be the best fit for the Hills, but it may not necessarily be for others. And there's the rub: Retirement is something supremely individual. Some may fulfill their dreams with a seaside retirement haven on the East Coast, such as Virginia Beach. Others may be more inclined toward an outdoorsy life in the West such as that offered in Portland, Oregon. After all, no two retirees are alike.
It's up to you to figure out what place works for you--not just for the next year or two, but for the next 10 or 20 years since 65 these days is only the start of the next phase of your life. For those who have ditched the 9-to-5 life--or are planning to--you might start by thinking about what retiree group you fall into.
"We've identified three different stages of retirement," says
Bert Sperling, an urban researcher and president of the consulting firm
Sperling's Best Places (www.bestplaces.net).
"There's a go-go phase for those just beginning retirement and wanting
to do all the things they've dreamed of--like travel the world. There's
the slow-go phase, when you might feel more like relaxing or playing
with the grandkids, and then there's the no-go phase, when you might
need some assisted care. You're going to have different needs at
different phases of your life, and that's why it's so important to think
through where you're going to retire."
We can't tell you where to live, of course. But we can give you the tools you'll need to make the right decision. To help on that front, our editors and BE Research developed a scoring system based on the following (see ranking):
* Quality of life (40% of the overall score): Using Expansion Management magazine, which advises executives of companies that are expanding or relocating, as one of our primary references, we identified cities that received the publication's highest ratings. We also included BE's 10 Best Cities for African Americans (May 2007) as another valuable source.
* Healthcare (20%): As indicated by Cities Banked & Bated by Sperling and Peter Sander, we identified locales based on two factors: hazards that reveal health problems and top-notch healthcare facilities and their costs.
* Taxes (15%): Using a variety of sources, including AABP, we developed a proprietary weighting to evaluate property, income, and sales tax burdens of cities within each state.
* Leisure (15%): Through Sperling's research, we found that it was important to identify factors such as shopping, entertainment, spectator sports, and outdoor recreation.
* Arts & Culture (5%): We found that other important elements were fine arts, performing arts, and museums. Access to African American culture was also taken into consideration.
* Climate (5%): Although cited as a factor in relocation, climate--defined as temperature, precipitation, cloud cover, humidity, and hazards--tends to be lower in priority than you might think. A recent Merrill Lynch survey found that climate was ranked No. 6 of nine retirement priorities.
As a result, we've screened out subpar performers and singled out overall winners: 20 areas, coast to coast, which you should consider as you get closer to retirement. Among them are some perennial favorites, such as Durham, North Carolina, and Nashville. There are also some smaller locales that might not be on your radar such as Kent, Washington; and Johnson City, Tennessee.
By reviewing the key factors, you'll see we've done all the legwork Now it's up to you to decide.
QUALITY OF LIFE
"People need clear and objective information that establishes the differences in quality of living between cities." says Stacy Bronstein, a spokeswoman for human resources consulting firm Mercer. Headquartered in New York City Mercer rates cities around the globe. When determining where you're going to spend the rest of your life, things such as taxes, climate, and leisure activities are all important. But topping the list of critical factors is basic quality of life.
Just ask Claire Williams who tired of the "brutal" winters in Des Moines, Iowa, where winds sweep across the prairies and trap the town in bitter cold. Although she's quick to point out that it's a lovely place with kind people, when it came time for her and her husband, Carl, a former executive for the financial services company Principal Financial Group, to think retirement, they just couldn't contemplate a future blanketed in snow and ice.
But neither did they want a desert existence, 365 days a year in the scorching sun of Arizona or Nevada. Their desired locale: a spot on the East Coast, close to most of their friends and family; somewhere where Carl, 70, could easily jet to board meetings; with a temperate climate where they could enjoy all four seasons without sweltering heat or bone-chilling cold. The couple settled on Durham, a city that seemed to possess everything they were looking for. It had plenty of cultural offerings--critical for Claire, 50, an accomplished singer and author--and since it is a transit hub, it's easy to travel to and from without a nightmare web of connecting flights. Best of all, they were able to get their dream home at a great price. "It was certainly a plus," says Claire of the Georgian-style, columned beauty where they entertain friends and family. "Now we have an exquisite home, and the people here have been warm and wonderful. North Carolina has offered us so much."
Quality of life may seem like a tricky thing to quantify, but it can be done. That's what Expansion Management achieves with its Quality of Life Quotient, crunching numbers for 362 metro areas around the nation. Among the factors making up its rankings: housing prices, public schools, crime levels, adult education level, standard of living, traffic and commuting, continuing education opportunities, commercial air access, and the labor market. Almost 50 stats back up the final list. Since quality of life made up almost half of BLACK ENTERPRISE'S numbers, all cities on our list scored at, or near, the highest level possible--surpassing at least 80% of metro areas nationally.
HEALTHCARE
No matter how well-laid your retirement plans, healthcare is the one issue that trumps everything. Your retirement will be wrecked if you get sick and must go to a questionable healthcare facility with substandard care. That's why retirees need to do serious due diligence in researching their top cities when it comes to health issues. In Sperling's evaluation of environmental hazards and local healthcare services and their costs, he identified factors such as air quality, prevalence of disease, and availability of doctors and hospital beds.
On our list, certain cities emerged as healthcare all-stars. Chief among them, Charlottesville, Virginia; and Johnson City, both scored in the high 90s out of 100 possible points. Others, like Durham; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Lexington; were not far behind. The existence of a top-flight research outfit can definitely juice those numbers--as is the case with Durham, with its proximity to Duke University and its massive medical facilities.
In fact, premium healthcare helped lure the Hills to Nashville. With a succession of budget crises that have nibbled away at essential services over the years, California's "not the same state I moved to 25 years ago," Chuck says. So the couple did their due diligence by looking into the healthcare situation at potential retirement locations, and "thanks to Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt University, the quality of medical care in Nashville is very high."
In conducting your own research on healthcare facilities, check out sites such as StateHealthFacts.org, a project of healthcare researcher Kaiser Family Foundation. There you can dive into more than 500 health topics such as budgets, number of uninsured, and number of hospitals. The Commonwealth Fund, a private organization, ranks each state's healthcare by 32 different indicators, including access, quality, cost, and efficiency. Click on its interactive map to evaluate your chosen areas, at www.commonwealthfund.org/statescorecard.> TAXES
Their top choice for where they're planning to move within the next year: Nashville, Tennessee, a friendly locale where all the "streets and schools are still working." In the city of the Grand Ole Opry, the couple built a stately semi-custom house for $350,000--the equivalent in Southern California would have cost a whopping $1.2 million. "The cost of housing and living are so much lower, yet there's such a high quality of life raves Chuck, 64. "I don't plan on sitting in a rocking chair. I intend to open a professional mediation practice focused on intellectual property disputes. With so much of the music industry centered in Nashville, it's an ideal location for such a practice. Nashville just made a lot of sense for us."
Nashville may be the best fit for the Hills, but it may not necessarily be for others. And there's the rub: Retirement is something supremely individual. Some may fulfill their dreams with a seaside retirement haven on the East Coast, such as Virginia Beach. Others may be more inclined toward an outdoorsy life in the West such as that offered in Portland, Oregon. After all, no two retirees are alike.
It's up to you to figure out what place works for you--not just for the next year or two, but for the next 10 or 20 years since 65 these days is only the start of the next phase of your life. For those who have ditched the 9-to-5 life--or are planning to--you might start by thinking about what retiree group you fall into.
We can't tell you where to live, of course. But we can give you the tools you'll need to make the right decision. To help on that front, our editors and BE Research developed a scoring system based on the following (see ranking):
* Quality of life (40% of the overall score): Using Expansion Management magazine, which advises executives of companies that are expanding or relocating, as one of our primary references, we identified cities that received the publication's highest ratings. We also included BE's 10 Best Cities for African Americans (May 2007) as another valuable source.
* Healthcare (20%): As indicated by Cities Banked & Bated by Sperling and Peter Sander, we identified locales based on two factors: hazards that reveal health problems and top-notch healthcare facilities and their costs.
* Taxes (15%): Using a variety of sources, including AABP, we developed a proprietary weighting to evaluate property, income, and sales tax burdens of cities within each state.
* Leisure (15%): Through Sperling's research, we found that it was important to identify factors such as shopping, entertainment, spectator sports, and outdoor recreation.
* Arts & Culture (5%): We found that other important elements were fine arts, performing arts, and museums. Access to African American culture was also taken into consideration.
* Climate (5%): Although cited as a factor in relocation, climate--defined as temperature, precipitation, cloud cover, humidity, and hazards--tends to be lower in priority than you might think. A recent Merrill Lynch survey found that climate was ranked No. 6 of nine retirement priorities.
As a result, we've screened out subpar performers and singled out overall winners: 20 areas, coast to coast, which you should consider as you get closer to retirement. Among them are some perennial favorites, such as Durham, North Carolina, and Nashville. There are also some smaller locales that might not be on your radar such as Kent, Washington; and Johnson City, Tennessee.
By reviewing the key factors, you'll see we've done all the legwork Now it's up to you to decide.
QUALITY OF LIFE
"People need clear and objective information that establishes the differences in quality of living between cities." says Stacy Bronstein, a spokeswoman for human resources consulting firm Mercer. Headquartered in New York City Mercer rates cities around the globe. When determining where you're going to spend the rest of your life, things such as taxes, climate, and leisure activities are all important. But topping the list of critical factors is basic quality of life.
Just ask Claire Williams who tired of the "brutal" winters in Des Moines, Iowa, where winds sweep across the prairies and trap the town in bitter cold. Although she's quick to point out that it's a lovely place with kind people, when it came time for her and her husband, Carl, a former executive for the financial services company Principal Financial Group, to think retirement, they just couldn't contemplate a future blanketed in snow and ice.
But neither did they want a desert existence, 365 days a year in the scorching sun of Arizona or Nevada. Their desired locale: a spot on the East Coast, close to most of their friends and family; somewhere where Carl, 70, could easily jet to board meetings; with a temperate climate where they could enjoy all four seasons without sweltering heat or bone-chilling cold. The couple settled on Durham, a city that seemed to possess everything they were looking for. It had plenty of cultural offerings--critical for Claire, 50, an accomplished singer and author--and since it is a transit hub, it's easy to travel to and from without a nightmare web of connecting flights. Best of all, they were able to get their dream home at a great price. "It was certainly a plus," says Claire of the Georgian-style, columned beauty where they entertain friends and family. "Now we have an exquisite home, and the people here have been warm and wonderful. North Carolina has offered us so much."
Quality of life may seem like a tricky thing to quantify, but it can be done. That's what Expansion Management achieves with its Quality of Life Quotient, crunching numbers for 362 metro areas around the nation. Among the factors making up its rankings: housing prices, public schools, crime levels, adult education level, standard of living, traffic and commuting, continuing education opportunities, commercial air access, and the labor market. Almost 50 stats back up the final list. Since quality of life made up almost half of BLACK ENTERPRISE'S numbers, all cities on our list scored at, or near, the highest level possible--surpassing at least 80% of metro areas nationally.
HEALTHCARE
No matter how well-laid your retirement plans, healthcare is the one issue that trumps everything. Your retirement will be wrecked if you get sick and must go to a questionable healthcare facility with substandard care. That's why retirees need to do serious due diligence in researching their top cities when it comes to health issues. In Sperling's evaluation of environmental hazards and local healthcare services and their costs, he identified factors such as air quality, prevalence of disease, and availability of doctors and hospital beds.
On our list, certain cities emerged as healthcare all-stars. Chief among them, Charlottesville, Virginia; and Johnson City, both scored in the high 90s out of 100 possible points. Others, like Durham; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Lexington; were not far behind. The existence of a top-flight research outfit can definitely juice those numbers--as is the case with Durham, with its proximity to Duke University and its massive medical facilities.
In fact, premium healthcare helped lure the Hills to Nashville. With a succession of budget crises that have nibbled away at essential services over the years, California's "not the same state I moved to 25 years ago," Chuck says. So the couple did their due diligence by looking into the healthcare situation at potential retirement locations, and "thanks to Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt University, the quality of medical care in Nashville is very high."
In conducting your own research on healthcare facilities, check out sites such as StateHealthFacts.org, a project of healthcare researcher Kaiser Family Foundation. There you can dive into more than 500 health topics such as budgets, number of uninsured, and number of hospitals. The Commonwealth Fund, a private organization, ranks each state's healthcare by 32 different indicators, including access, quality, cost, and efficiency. Click on its interactive map to evaluate your chosen areas, at www.commonwealthfund.org/statescorecard.> TAXES
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