Retirement Planning: Choosing Where to Retire

Google ‘Choosing where to retire’ and you are likely to be faced with a plethora of sites offering you “The top 10 retirement locations in your country” or even the world. However, choosing where to retire requires far more thought than just perusing a few recommendations and picking somewhere more or less at random. It doesn’t even really matter what the website concerned has used to make its list: the key question is what matters to you.

This page explores some of the issues that you might want to consider when deciding where to retire. These include the benefits of staying where you are versus moving, your lifestyle choices, cost of living considerations, and access to the things and people that you care about. Read on to find out more...

“Should I Stay or Should I Go?”: Here or Somewhere Else?

Whether you decide to move in retirement depends a lot on where you are or were living before retirement.

The first question to consider is therefore ‘here, or somewhere else’?

The answer to this will depend on whether your current location meets your needs for retirement, and this, in turn, depends on your goals and objectives.

There is more about this in our page on Planning for Retirement: Getting Started.

Once you have answered that first question, you can then—if necessary—consider ‘if not here, then where?’

How Do You Decide What to Consider in Choosing a Retirement Location?

You can—and many websites and companies have—created a list of factors that should or might matter when choosing a retirement location.

For example, Legal and General, the insurance company, used six factors to assess constituencies in the UK as potential retirement locations. Their ‘top spot’ went to Chesham and Amersham, in Buckinghamshire, closely followed by Beaconsfield, also in Buckinghamshire, with Dorking and Horley, in Surrey, in third place.

However, LV.com, another insurance company and pensions provider, ranked counties based on how many people actually retired there, rather than on a theoretical basis. Their top three were North Yorkshire, Surrey and Somerset, with Buckinghamshire nowhere in sight.

This suggests that decisions about retirement are not, in fact, made using the six factors identified by L&G—or possibly, that individuals may weigh them rather differently in reality.

It seems likely that there are various factors that matter in retirement, but that each of us weigh them up differently. It is also likely to matter where you start: that is, where you are or were living before retirement, your financial situation, where your family members live, and your hobbies or interests.

What Possible Factors Might You Include in Your Decision?

Factors that you might consider in your decision-making include:

• Urban vs. rural

  Urban vs. rural living is the obvious comparison, but there are many shades of grey between living in a large city and a small village.

  In other words, it is not really as simple as deciding between urban and rural. Different towns and cities also have very different characters—and different areas of a city may also vary considerably.

  It is therefore worth thinking about what you really want from a location, rather than simply the location itself. Crucially, which location will give you the lifestyle that you want, and enable you to engage in your hobbies and interests?

  Perhaps the best way of thinking about this question is to ask what kind of ‘vibe’ you want from where you live. For example, do you like the sound of a small, sleepy town with access to walking or hiking, the ‘community’ feel of a village, the buzz of a seaside town with lots of tourists in the summer but quiet in winter, or access to the big city lights?

  Top Tip! Look at Local Ads and Services

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  When you visit possible retirement locations, check for local ads and services.

  Do they look like they will enable you to access the kinds of activities you want?

  For example, are there signs that you will be able to find a yoga class or choir, if that is your preferred way of meeting people?

  
  

  It is also worth thinking about whether you actually like living in your current location.

  There is much to be said for staying put, especially if you have friends around you and family within reach.

• Cost of living considerations

  The cost of living can vary considerably between different locations.

  This will include the cost of housing, and also of shopping, moving around your chosen location, and using local amenities.

  There are two aspects to this: first, the cost of goods and services, and second, your income.

  First, consider the cost of housing. You probably do not wish to be taking on an expensive mortgage at this stage, or being committed to paying large sums in rent. Ideally, the cost of buying a house should be affordable within a pension lump sum, or from selling your existing house.

  You should consider how easy and also how expensive it is to get hold of goods and services. For example, a village corner shop is likely to be considerably more expensive for a top-up shop than a big supermarket. However, you may feel that you have enough money available that you can afford this kind of cost. You may also want to bear in mind that a village shop may not be there for ever.

• Transport and travel

  Transport and travel is another area that is worth a bit of thought—not least because your ability to move around could change a lot in the next 20 years.

  You may think that you will be able to continue to drive for many years to come—and that may be true. However, what if you can’t? What if your eyesight deteriorates and you become reliant on walking or public transport? Is there even any public transport to rely upon?

  Consider how this kind of change might affect you in each possible location. Ask yourself whether you will still be able to get to the shops, or to the doctor’s surgery, or even a hospital. Think about whether you could continue your hobbies or interests, or how these might be affected. It is also worth considering whether you would readily be able to get help to travel. For example, are there local taxi firms, or are they miles away?

  Another area that comes under this heading is travelling more generally. If you want to travel abroad in retirement, you need to consider how you will do so from that location.

• Healthcare and other services

  Similarly, consider your access to healthcare.

  Older people are among the most frequent users of healthcare services. You need to be confident that you will be able to get to those services relatively easily in future—including specialist services at a local hospital. Living in a village may be delightful, but what happens if you cannot get to the doctor without support?

• Climate and lifestyle considerations

  In weighing up any possible retirement locations, it is worth looking at your preferred climate and lifestyle.

  This is a matter of both what weather you prefer generally, and also what you want to spend time doing in retirement. If you want to ski, you will want a very different climate from someone who wishes to lie on the beach and soak up the sunshine somewhere warm. This kind of thinking might mean that you consider moving abroad—in which case, there may be a whole new set of constraints.

  Moving Abroad in Retirement

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  It is not always possible to achieve your preferred climate and lifestyle staying in your home country. In that case, you may want to consider moving abroad.

  This often sounds like a lovely idea. However, it can also have some drawbacks.

  In particular, it is worth checking your legal right to move to and stay in your country of choice if you are not working. You also need to know about your right to own property and leave it to your heirs.

  It is also worth thinking about whether you will want to be there still when you are older and frailer, or whether, in fact, you might be better planning a stay of a few years while you are relatively young and active still, followed by a return to your home country for ‘later retirement’.

• Family and friends

  The whereabouts of family and friends may also have a bearing on your retirement location.

  It is worth considering where your parents and/or your children are living, and how settled they are in that location. Consider whether you wish to be near them, for easy access, or whether further away is acceptable or even preferable.

  In weighing up this question, consider both current and future needs.

  For example, think about whether you may need to get to your parents quickly, for example, if one or other is taken ill or falls, or needs help on a regular basis. A journey of an hour may sound easy, but you might not want to have to make that journey to take them to the doctor every day or week.

  Similarly, consider your children now and in future. Being further away may seem fine now, but might you want to be closer if they have children themselves?

A Final Thought

There are many things to weigh up when deciding where to retire.

You can and should do this actively, by considering where you are, and whether it meets your needs and preferences. It is tempting to put off decisions: to decide, effectively, that you will stay where you are “for the moment”. However, the danger with that is that you end up being forced by circumstances into a decision that you never wanted to make.

It is far better to plan ahead and be active in your decision-making.