Some of our favorite sites for mining gold nuggets of wisdom for our golden years.
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AARP
They take our dues money, and we expect services for that, not just cheap insurance and articles about celebrities turning 50 (Happy 50th Brad Pitt, by the way). For the most part, the web site accomplishes that with helpful articles spanning all topics from health to retirement to food to travel...if you can find the editorial amidst all the ads and pitches for AARP sponsored services and products.
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AARP's Best Places to Live
We suppose that if you are looking for someone to tell you where to live in your old age, the group that represents "retired persons" is the place to go. The lists are broken into quirky but helpful categories, like "sunny spots," "charming small cities," the obligatory "best for singles," "places for outdoor lovers," and the ultimate quirky category, "great quirky places to live" (We are not quite so sure about what makes Providence, RI, "quirky," except for lots of college students, but New Orleans certainly qualifies.)
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Best Places to Live
About the most unbiased information you will find on the best places to live. Makes it easy to compare cities on a number of criteria, and some of the "special rankings" -- mosts secure large cities, safest places from natural disasters, best cities for baseball -- are fun and instructive. By the way, baseball fans, the "best" baseball city is San Francisco, because since 1920, the Bay Area has produced the most major leaguers per capita of any city.
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Forbes List of Best Places to Retire (2019)
The folks who tell us annually who the richest people in the world are take on retirement geography, and the list is impressive, if not comprehensive (just one choice per state). Some of the usual suspects but one or two surprises.
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Next Avenue
Sponsored by PBS; "where grown-ups keep growing." Thoughtful and provocative articles about retirement issues.
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Retirement Living
This is one-stop shopping for all things retirement, with links to dozens of helpful sites including places for seniors to find jobs, referrals for pension issues and even a Senior Dating Blog. The site is especially rich with resources related to senior healthcare and medical advice, although we notice that some links take you to a place where they try to sell you stuff.
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TopRetirement.com
Hail Hail the gang's all here...weighing in with their questions about best places to live. No shortfall on ideas from others. The discussion groups can be a little chaotic, with some sad naivite on display -- "If I move to [pick a place], will I get along with the people who live there?" -- but if you can speed read around some of the sillier comments, you'll find some crisp reviews related to geography and specific communities.
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USNews' Best Places to Retire
From the folks who made us crazy with their ranking of colleges -- remember going through that with your kids? -- comes some helpful ratings of the best towns in which to retire. With all kinds of rankings like best places for weathier retirees, single retirees, poorest retirees and other categories, there is something for every retiree bent on relocating (or, perhaps, wanting to know if they are already living in paradise).
