Golf courses, pickleball courts, resort-style pools, and a clubhouse full of activities can make a retirement community look pretty appealing. And if those are things you’ll genuinely enjoy, they should be on your list.
But most of your retirement will happen outside of the brochure photos.
It’s the Tuesday morning coffee run and the dinner you decide to grab on a whim. It’s how far you have to drive to see your doctor. And it’s how easy it is for your kids to come for a long weekend.
Over time, those ordinary details are what create your experience just as much as the amenities that caught your attention in the first place.
Choosing a great retirement community means thinking about the life you want to build there and the area around it to see how both may work as your retirement evolves. So before you fall in love with the view from the clubhouse, let’s take a closer look at what will make a community feel like home to you.
Picture Your Week Before You Pick Your Place
Before you start comparing clubhouses and deciding which activity calendar looks more attractive to you, picture what you’d actually want your normal week in retirement to look like.
Maybe you want there to be plenty going on and like the idea of having dinner plans or classes nearby. Or maybe you want more space and freedom to come and go without feeling like the community itself needs to provide your social life.
Here are a few questions to think about to narrow down what would genuinely add to your day-to-day life:
- How often do you see yourself doing things like eating out, exercising, volunteering, taking classes, or participating in community activities?
- Do you want an active social calendar built in, or would you prefer to create your own?
- Which hobbies do you think you’ll spend more time on once work isn’t filling your schedule?
- How important is it to have friends and neighbors nearby?
- If you’re moving as a couple, does the community give both of you enough to enjoy life there?
If a community doesn’t have enough of the things that matter to you, no amount of clubs or pools can make a place your ideal retirement community.
Some of the biggest influences on your retirement may not be inside your community at all. You’ll still have an entire life to live beyond the neighborhood, which is why we urge clients approaching retirement to look outside the gates before choosing a home.
If you’re still defining what you want your retirement to look like, our guide to Retirement Planning Strategies for Professionals walks you through how lifestyle goals and other planning decisions all work together.
Look at the 20-Minute Radius
When it comes to picking a place to spend your retirement, we encourage you to pull up the map before you fall in love with a community.
Look at what everyday life gives you within about 20 minutes:
- Can you get to a grocery store without turning it into an all-day excursion?
- Are there restaurants you’d actually want to visit regularly?
- Are there places to exercise, volunteer, or see a show?
- Do you know where you could go if you want to simply leave the house for a few hours?
This is a great time to think about healthcare, as well. Having a hospital nearby can sound reassuring, but you may also care about how easily you can reach the doctors and specialists you use regularly. If you’re moving to a new area, you’ll want to know what the local healthcare network looks like before you need it.
And when you think about proximity to family, think about the entire trip, not just the mileage.
Being a two-hour flight from your children might sound like it’s relatively close… until it requires a connecting flight, followed by a long drive from the airport, with only a handful of convenient places for them to stay once they arrive. If you’re picturing regular visits, it’s not just about how far away you are, but also how easy it is to get to you.
You may be living within the community itself, but the area around it will impact a large part of how you spend your time.
Give It a “Tuesday Test”
You’re seeing a retirement community on its best day in every brochure and tour. The sun’s out, and the landscaping looks perfect every time you think of your future community. Busy weekends with lots of activities can sound like quite the life in retirement.
But you’re also going to be there on a rainy Tuesday. No event on the calendar, and no guided tour. What would living there actually feel like?
Picture a normal week instead of your first week there. Think about where you’d spend your time and what you’d do with an open afternoon. Also think about the little things, like how long your routine errands would take or whether you enjoy walking around the neighborhood. These are all part of the experience.
Our suggestion? Before you buy, live there a little.
If possible, rent for a month or spend a season in the area first. If that isn’t practical for you, come back at a different time of year and give yourself a day without a sales itinerary. Buy groceries, make the airport drive, try a few local restaurants, and talk to the residents who’ve been there long enough for that initial novelty to wear off.
All of this should help you get ahead of the question: “What do you know now that you wish you’d known before you moved here?”
Your average Tuesday here might give you a better gauge of a retirement community than your first impression.
Make Sure the Community Can Grow Older With You
What sounds delightful at 62 may sound like a nightmare when you’re 78. You may be making the decision once, but the life you live there in retirement may change many times. Retirement can span decades, and the life you’re living today can change considerably along the way.
While you don’t have to plan your home around every possible version of the future, you’ll want to know how many options a community leaves open if your needs do change.
Give the House a Second Look
Some of the features of a home that can seem minute during a tour can become much more critical later as things change. Think about the stairs you’ll climb every day. Think about the maintenance that will add up over time. Think about accessibility as you age.
This is a good time to look at the HOA in your community as well; how much does the HOA handle, and how much still falls to you? This could include things like lawn care, exterior maintenance, snow removal, roof repairs, and other factors that can vary largely from one community to another.
For frequent travelers, you’ll also want to think about how easy it would be to lock the door and leave for a month. If your home requires a lot of maintenance, it may take extra planning to fit that into your lifestyle.
Price the House and the Lifestyle
Housing in retirement has a way of turning your lifestyle preferences into recurring expenses. If you’re planning on regular family visits, airfare may be part of your normal retirement spending. Or, if you have a spacious home, that may eventually mean paying for help with the upkeep you once handled yourself.
Some costs also have a life of their own once you move in. HOA fees and club dues can increase over time, and major community projects can bring special assessments. Before buying, take a look at how those expenses have changed over the past several years and ask what the association already knows is coming next.
Then, consider how long the home can realistically work for you. There can be real financial value in getting more years out of the place you choose. If changing maintenance needs or mobility issues force another move, you’re taking on another round of transaction costs and another major housing decision.
That doesn’t mean you need to choose a home for your 80-year-old self at 62, but when two communities both appeal to you, the one that gives you more ways to adapt may prove valuable well beyond move-in day.
Final Thoughts
A retirement community is one of the financial decisions you’ll get to experience every single day. That means that the small frictions are more important than they seem on a tour. If a place constantly asks you to work around it, you may not be as happy as the brochure led you to believe.
That’s why we encourage you to spend enough time in a community to see past the first impression before you make a final decision. You want to understand what your real life in retirement will look like there after the novelty wears off, and whether you can still see yourself there as your retirement changes.
If you’re thinking about what your retirement may look like, schedule a complimentary 20-minute Ask Anything Conversation with Towerpoint Wealth to see how we can support you as you plan for retirement.
