Professor Rates Retirement Havens

“Retire in Style,” by Warren R. Bland (Next Decade Inc., Chester, N.J., 2001), $22.95, 261 pages.

If you’re a few years away from retirement, “Retire in Style” is a good place to begin your search for the ideal, affordable retirement haven.

Warren R. Bland has taught college geography for 32 years and loves to travel the United States. Along the way, he developed an interest in finding ideal places to retire to at a reasonable cost.

This new book lists the “top 40” retirement locations, plus 10 also-rans. The criteria used to evaluate retirement towns include landscape, climate, quality of life, cost of living, transportation, retail services, health care, community services, cultural activities, recreational activities, work and volunteer activities and crime rates.

Using his rating system, the author’s perfect retirement location would score 60. None did. The closest to perfection is Boulder, Colo., at 52. Boulder’s two drawbacks, according to Bland, are a high cost of living and “rigorous winter weather.”

Another retirement town rating problem is climate. Bland says most people prefer sunny skies, moderate temperatures, moderate humidity and precipitation and gradual seasonal changes. Except for California’s central and southern coastal areas, no area had all these preferred characteristics.

Before getting to reviews of the 50 retirement areas, this well-organized book uses charts, maps and tables to rate each town. Whether you want to retire in a specific state (some states have zero recommendations) or select a specific climate, there is organized information to help focus your retirement interests.

The retirement town descriptions, each about seven pages, are complete. They include descriptions of the area, analysis of each of the criteria listed above, charts, a map and a conclusion, in which Bland gives his opinion.

Although most of the retirement towns are in the South, West and Northeast (none are in the Midwest except college towns Bloomington, Ind., and Madison, Wis.), surprisingly well-known retirement towns, including Sun City, Ariz., Fort Myers, Fla., and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., aren’t listed. It would have been interesting if Bland had included a list of his “rejected” well-known retirement havens and his reasons for omitting them.

For those serious about impending retirement or just reading for future use, this is a well-designed book with useful information.