Happy Monday! I know y’all were anticipating the most shared and most clicked articles from last week, but we decided to do something different.
Saturday was freezing here in Virginia which had me thinking about where I’d want to live when I retire. I was thinking warm temperatures, delicious cuisine and relaxation. And so, the most intriguing news articles of the past week for me, as it relates to this decision, were Bankrate.com’s Top Retirement Cities (which only one beach city made the cut!) and AARP’s, “Are You Afraid to Retire?”
Top Retirement Cities
Bankrate.com released its annual survey where it named the top cities for retirement and the worst. The fifty largest U.S. metro areas were ranked for their health care quality, living costs, weather, cultural amenities, percentage of the 65+ population, and a few more factors. Wondering if your city made the cut?
The overall well-being of seniors, seems to hold the most weight in the study since eight of the top ten cities had a rating of good or great. This factor is measured by Gallup-Sharecare’s Well-Being Index, which tracks five key factors to drive the well-being for individuals and populations.
“Well-being is a concept that captures the important aspects of how people feel about and experience their daily lives – encompassing more than just physical health or economic indicators, well-being includes five elements: purpose, social, financial, community, and physical.”
Percentage of 65+, cost of living and public transit varied from below average to great in the top ten metro cities, but crime rates and health care quality were all consistent with positive ratings.
What are the top ten cities?
- Pittsburgh
- Boston
- Los Angeles
- Denver
- Providence, RI
- Minneapolis
- Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL
- Phoenix
- Austin, TX
- Dallas
For marketers, regardless of whether your community is located among the top 10 list, it is important to create messaging that builds on health care quality, amenities and location accessibility to communicate to prospects the reasons your community is the best place at which to retire.
To see the full list with all of the ratings, click here: http://bit.ly/2AACNv4
Fear of Retirement
We all have a routine: wake up, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast and head to work. But what happens to your routine, or even your identity, when you are on the verge of retirement?
“We plan around work. It is part of our identity. We go to a social gathering and people say, ‘What do you do?’ Clearly, what happens is people say, ‘What am I going to do? What am I going to be?’ The fear of loss of identity is a major fear,” states psychologist Louis Primavera of Touro College.
According to AARP’s Sharon Jayson, experts see three emotional fear factors of retirement: your professional status (or loss of), loss of self-image and concern how to spend the extra time.
Replacing your worker role with non-work-related activities or building your personal relationships will help the transition from the workforce to retirement. As Primavera states, “the change from a strong work identity to a post work identity can be a slow process, especially for those with significant emotional connections to their careers.”
50+ Marketing Tip: Understand what phase your prospects are in and create messaging to support their transition.
Traditions of America does this by focusing on the lifestyle of their communities. Homeowners can have a carefree and low-maintenance lifestyle while enjoying new experiences, family and friends.
To read the full article, click here: http://bit.ly/2jmrpQc
Warm weather and beaches may still be my top factors for a retirement location, but now I know more factors to help guide that decision, I’ll just need to wait thirty-some years.