Canada’s Best Places to Retire

Best Places to Retire in Canada

First Published Date : October 13, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

The answer to the question “where to retire in Canada?” may sound like an obvious one. However, let me disappoint you by saying that there is no straightforward answer. There are many factors that come into making a decision. You are different than anyone else and the factors you make your decision based on may be totally different than someone else’s.

Where you want to retire largely depends on what really matters to you. You need to do thorough research to come up with a place where you would like to live happily ever after. The advantage technology has brought to us is the Internet. You can research tons of websites on a variety of retirement related topics to help you with your quest to find the most suitable place for you. Today, I am going to mention some factors you need to consider and also we will go through Moneysense magazine’s Canada’s Best Places to Live list to help you make your retirement decision.

Factors Determining the Best Places to Retire

Here are some factors I can think of that you should be looking at before making your decision. However, there are possibly more factors you should research based on your individuality.

– Living costs and other expenses
– Safety, security, and stability
– Family
– Climate
– Does it offer seclusion or a city’s hustle and bustle
– A far-off place from your home or nearby location

Canada’s Best Places to Live

Every year, MoneySense Magazine publishes a list showing Canada’s best places to live. This list can be a helpful tool for your research as there are many cities have been researched based on affordability, prosperity, crime rates, health care, and so on. Here are the top 10 cities for 2011:

– Ottawa-Gatineau
– Victoria
– Burlington
– Kingston
– St. Albert
– Fredericton
– Brandon
– Edmonton
– Repentigny
– Winnipeg

Although this list can be very helpful, keep in mind that it was compiled eliminating cities and towns with populations less than 10,000 and it only looked at 180 cities and towns with populations more than 10,000.

Last Word

In searching for your best place to retire, do not count on any single source or list. A place may be the world’s best place to retire in terms of the factors the publisher is looking at. However, your own deciding factors may be very different than those presented, and that means a list showing the world’s best place to live may not mean anything from your own perspective. Research is key to finding your little heaven and keep researching until you find it. There are lots of retirement articles on A Dawn Journal as well and you can access them here: A Dawn Journal Retirement Articles

The World's Best Places to Retire

Top Retirement Places in the World

First Published Date: October 20, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

In searching for the best international top retirement places, I came across many reputable websites that publish their lists of annual best places to live abroad or overseas. Some of these websites are dedicated to retirement only. Some are personal finance or other types of websites, but they have a retirement section covering a variety of retirement topics. Instead of mentioning the world’s top retirement countries that change every year, I will give you a list of these sites so you can check updated lists and also try their variety of retirement articles.

International Living – International Living covers all aspects of international living such as living abroad, international real estate, travel, investments, and so on. Check their Where to Retire section for the latest best places to live list.

Top Retirements – Top Retirements provides a variety of retirement information. You will many top places to live lists on this site.

AARP – AARP is a non-profit, social organization for 50+ people. Its Best Place to Retire section has lots of best places to retire abroad articles and informative articles on individual countries.

Retiring Overseas – Although Retiring Overseas does not publish any top ten kind of lists, it has a variety of information on retiring in foreign countries.

Forbes – Financial website Forbes has a Retirement Section. However, it looks like they miscategorized these two best retirement places articles:

The Best Foreign retirement Havens and The 10 Best Retirement Havens.

Kiplinger – Personal Finance magazine Kiplinger’s Retirement section is worth checking.

If you are looking for more sources or sites, search on the Internet using these keyword phrases: “top retirement places,” “best places to retire in the world,” “retire overseas,” “retire abroad,” and so on. The Internet has made it possible to make an informed decision on picking one or a few countries across the globe without leaving the comfort of home.

Waiting Too Long To Save For Retirement

The Cost of Waiting to Save

First Published Date : March 7, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

As more and more people spend more and more of their money each year instead of saving for retirement, we are seeing a growing number of people who have no money for retirement, or are putting money away too late. This is a serious problem and it means that the retirement age of 65 could be moving up to 70 as many couples have trouble quitting working and living off the meager money they have saved over the previous few years.
The longer you wait to save, the more money you are going to have to save each year. If you are a late starter for retirement, you could see large portions of your income going towards paying for your impending retirement. For example:

·    If you earn more than $100,000 and you do not save for retirement until the age of 55, you will end up paying 40 per cent of your income towards saving for retirement to catch up on what you need.

·    If you earn more than $80,000 and you do not save for retirement until the age of 55, you will need to save 37 per cent per year.

·    If you earn more than $40,000 a year and do not save for retirement until the age of 55, then you will need to put aside 27 per cent of your income to have enough money for retirement.

This is why it is so important that you start putting money away very early on because it will allow you start putting small amounts away that will grow over time. If you put $2,000 away every year in your 20s, you will have $20,000 saved by the time you are 30. If you then put $3,000 away every year in your 30s, you will have $50,000 saved by the time you are 40. At this point, you can probably start putting away more, because you will usually be making more. That means, you can put away $5,000 a year until you are 60 and you will have saved a total of $170,000 totally since you began saving money at the age of 20. That is just a quick example of how easy it is and it does not figure into the interest you gain, any investments you have and more.
Saving just a bit of money from the beginning can really help but if you don’t, you need to be prepared to sell items you don’t need, cut back on expenses and put away a large portion of your income towards saving money for retirement. You do not want to be 70 and still working because you did not save for retirement. Too many people are in that situation and you do not want to be one of them so do not let it happen to you. Begin saving now and if you don’t, make sure you put as much as you can away once you near retirement age.

NB – All figures shown above are for illustration purposes only and may not be accurate.

Should You Rely Only On Your Pension?

Relying  Only On Your Pension

First Published Date : March 20, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

Many retirees, along with saving a bit of money, rely heavily on their pension fund to finance them during their golden years. However, is this really a good idea? If the recession has taught us anything it is that pensions are not always a safe. Many investments were made, with allegations of fraud, which caused pensions across the United States to be completely lost.

This should show you that pension plans are not always safe and you should look at finding alternatives to making sure you have enough money when you retire. Do you really want to put all your eggs in one basket with your retirement? No you don’t. What should you do to ensure you don’t just rely on your pension?

The first thing you should do is start saving from a very early age. If you start saving when you are 20, then you can have a lot of money. Save $2,000 every year from the age of 20 to 65, you will have saved $90,000 easily. That is if you never add anything else to your savings. If you increase the amount you save every single year by 10 per cent, you can end up saving a lot of money.

The next thing you can do is to make your own investment portfolio. Do not rely just on your pension fund portfolio because you really don’t have much of a choice about what it is invested in. Before the financial crisis, pension funds only invested in AAA rated stocks, which were considered very safe. Turns out, many bad investments got AAA ratings and when everything collapsed, many lost their entire pensions. So, you should make your own investments because you have control. You can ask questions, you can make the decisions and you can ensure what you invest in is safe. Having an investment portfolio and a pension portfolio is not out of the ordinary. It is quite common and many who did this ended up weathering through the financial crisis much easier than others.

As you get closer to retirement, begin to cut your expenses as well. Sell that other car, pay off your mortgage early, sell anything you don’t need. Doing that can free up some extra cash, even thousands of dollars worth, that you can put in your retirement fund.

When you retire, you will also find that you suddenly have a lot of time on your hands. You can use that time to your advantage by pursuing hobbies that will make you money. If you are good at leatherwork, make some products that you can sell at farmer’s markets. If you are good at painting, make it a hobby that can bring in money for you. In the years leading up to your retirement, practice your hobby so you can hit the ground running once you retire.

If you are going to rely on your pension fund only, you are taking a big risk. This is why you should always have some backup plans in case you suddenly find your pension is gone one day.

How to Choose A Place to Retire

Choosing A Place To Retire

First Published Published Date : May 4, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

When you are approaching retirement age, there is a chance that you will want to move. This is often because your family has probably moved away, your kids are out and you may want to have some change of scenery. If you live where it snows, you may also want to spend the rest of your days in a nice warm location like Florida.

Of course, when you are choosing a new place, or state, to move to in your retirement, it is important you choose right. Choosing wrong could make your retirement anything but enjoyable and you could find your money slipping away because you made the wrong choice for the place you are going to spend your golden years.

To help you make the right decision, here is are some things to keep in mind for your retirement.

1.    Climate: You want to be in a place where the temperature and weather is normal so you don’t have to worry about severe storms, shovelling snow and more.

2.    Economics: You want to live in a place where the cost of living is normal, the tax burden is minor and there is not a high amount of unemployment, just in case you wanted a part-time job to supplement your income.

3.    Life Expectancy: You want to live in a state that has a high amount of people living well into their old age.

4.    Crime: You want to feel secure, so moving to a place with a high crime rate is probably not something you want to do. You want to find a place where there is little crime so you can feel safe in your golden years.

So, what are the best and worst places to retire? Well, according to TopRetirements.com, these are the choices you have in the USA:

The worst states are (2010 edition):

50. Illinois

49. California

48. New York

47. Rhode Island

46. New Jersey

45. Ohio

44. Wisconsin

43. Massachusetts

42. Connecticut

41. Nevada

The reason Illinois is the worst state is because it does not have a high amount of economic action going on and it has had to borrow money just to fund the pension obligations of the state. That is not a good sign. In addition, there is no security income or tax pension, which is something many retirees rely upon heavily.

The best states are(2010 edition):

1. Florida

2. North Carolina

3. Tennessee

4. South Carolina

5. California

6. Arizona

7. Texas

8. Colorado

9. Oregon

10. Delaware

Florida has the warmest winters in the United States, there is no income tax and there is a high amount of property tax protection, which is very important for retirees.

You will also notice that on both lists, you have California, this is because the best list was based on visits to the state retirement guide of TopRetirements.com, while the other list is based on certain criteria. The biggest plus for California though was the climate.

So, where are you going to retire to spend your golden years?