As we’ve discussed in a previous blog post, a common strategy that many retirees are adopting to fund their retirements is to sell their home. The retirees then take this money from the home sale, invest some, and use the rest to move to a less expensive part of the country–somewhere that they can get more bang for their buck. Not only do they now have an investment, but they also are living in an area where their cost of living is lower. Moving into a cheaper home also provides the opportunity to downsize, leading to an easier home to take care of. With all of these benefits, it makes sense to bite the bullet and move.

…On the surface at least.

Moving to a cheaper area of the country can have its downsides, too. More expensive areas, such as cities and suburbs, have much more access to important amenities, many of which we tend to take for granted. For example, expensive areas tend to have better access to not just hospital systems, but also specialty care. In the country, for example, it is much harder to find specialty providers like dermatologists, gynecologists, and even cardiologists. Traveling to the nearest hospital can sometimes take up to an hour or more!

On top of this, expensive areas tend to have better transportation systems. The roads tend to be better kept, there are taxis and buses that can accommodate wheelchairs, and medical transportation companies are much more common and accessible. Some areas don’t have access to good transportation, meaning reliance on family members or the charity of neighbors if you need a ride for, say, a surgery procedure.

Less expensive areas furthermore are less likely to have ready entertainment within arm’s reach. This can include independent restaurants, theater, venues, and parks. As may be increasingly clear, there are many reasons why some areas of the country are more expensive than others! Sometimes you pay a lot, but you also get a lot.

The above factors and more are often things we take for granted. But, in the experience of retirees that I work with, factors such as access to medical care and transportation become increasingly more important as we get older. Life can throw us curve balls, and it becomes clear that we may need more help in the future. I encourage you to weigh these factors along with the price tag of a new home and area of the country. Even the quality of nursing home care can be drastically different comparing two geographic regions–again, something we don’t think we’ll ever need, but so many of us inevitably do.

My advice is to vacation in the new region where you’d like to live, just to see what it’s like. Get to the know the natives and imagine what it would be like to live there full time. What would be the benefits? And what would be challenging, now and in the future? While impossible to tell the future, this can help you to make a more informed decision for enjoying your golden years.

I explore these ideas and much, much more in my upcoming book: The Golden Rules of Retirement: A Psychologist’s Guide To Living Life to the Fullest, No Matter Your Financial Situation. Reserve your copy now on Amazon.com by going to the following link: https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Rules-Retirement

And, stay tuned for details, including release date, launch sales, and future books in the Golden Rules series by visiting my website: lifecanbegolden.com/

-Lee Penn, PhD