by Kelly Godbey

Discovering the ideal retirement community is exciting, but daunting. These retirees have found it, and they want to tell you all about it.

This is an exciting time of life; it’s that time when you get to choose who you want to be and what you want to do with your life.

Although it might seem a little overwhelming to choose a new life and the ideal retirement, trust us – it’s well worth it. Since 1989, Ideal-LIVING has helped thousands of people decide where to live to thrive. We haven’t met anyone yet who was sorry they decided to move to a new location in retirement. It’s a fresh start on a brand new life designed specifically by you to meet your desires.

Maybe you’ve always wanted to live near the coast or on a lake. Maybe it’s living on a golf course or in a planned community with amenities galore. Maybe you want to play tennis more or get involved with community theatre. Maybe you want to create a legacy home to spend time with your family and friends.

When you retire, or decide to work less, you are given the gift of time and freedom. You have time to do what you want, when you want to do it.
It’s about the freedom to choose how you spend your time.

One of the best things that happens for people who relocate in retirement is finding a sense of community and feeling of belonging.
When you move to a planned community, it’s easy to create an entirely new network of lifelong friends. Most of the people have moved from somewhere else just like you and are eager to meet you and involve you in their lives. Following are a few stories from people who relocated and how they spend their days:

Barry and Susan Alpert

of Plantation Bay in Ormand Beach, FL

“We didn’t know what we would do with our time and we find that we set our own pace,” said Barry Alpert, a retired physician who relocated to Plantation Bay from Miami with his wife, Susan (a retired Registered Nurse). “Our time is full, we don’t have enough time to do some of things that we would like to do. We have an amazing life. I can’t imagine a vacation better than living our daily life.”

“Traffic was a motivating factor when leaving Miami. When we visited, it was just a feeling and I said, ‘I could live here… And we bought the model that weekend,’ said Susan.”

“We both play golf about four days a week. On days we are not playing golf, we are riding bicycles, and we joined a pickleball group,” added Susan. “With the incredible weather here, we still use our hot tub just about every day. There are a lot of cultural events here as well. It is such an amazing group of people with open hearts and open homes. Everyone socializes with one another. It’s a real community. We had only lived here a week or two, but decided to have a dinner. We didn’t know who anyone was, so we put invitations at all of the houses on our block and everyone came. And, now we have progressive dinners.”

Barry concluded with, “If we don’t take advantage of it now, we never will.”

David and Mary Allen

of Seabrook Island, SC

David Allen, who now lives in Seabrook Island, SC, wondered, ‘What am I going to do?’ when he retired from an executive job in finance. He said, “Now, I wonder how I had time to work. You can configure your life to what you want it to be. You can make it uniquely yours. It’s important to understand, it’s very easy to assimilate. Seabrook offers the ability to meet people very easily and to find people with similar interests. It’s magical, there’s no doubt about it.”

David and his wife Mary have vacationed to Seabrook for many years and wanted to build a legacy home for their three daughters (and someday grandchildren) to enjoy. They had lived in Rochester, NY, and in 2010 purchased a villa property. When they decided to retire about a year and a half ago, they built a custom home. Mary is a designer and worked with the architect. Their home is on the Keowee River as it empties into the Atlantic Ocean with amazing views from their reverse floor plan.“It felt like home since the day we moved in.”

Only 30 minutes from Charleston, SC, Seabrook residents enjoy incredible cuisine and culture. For instance, the Allen’s enjoy season tickets to the Charleston Jazz Orchestra.

David encourages others to “Embrace the experience for what it can be. It’s an enjoyable journey.”

Lynn and Bob Mauer

of WindRiver, Tennessee

“It’s just paradise. We still pinch ourselves that we wake up to this. The views are gorgeous from every angle. This morning we went for a bike ride and talked to neighbors. We enjoy the lake, boating, golf, and hiking in the mountains. On Saturday, we went out on the boat with friends to look at the fall colors,” said Lynn and Bob Mauer who moved from Northern Virginia to WindRiver near Knoxville, TN.

“For us, Bob and I are both outdoor people. We both are golfers. Our weekly activities are mostly outdoor based. We take the boat out for hours, spending time with friends. We have ladies’ golf and men’s golf. A couple days a week, we play pickleball,” Lynn said excitedly. “We keep our boat in the marina. We can walk to the marina in five minutes or one minute drive in the car and we are on the lake in 10 minutes.”

The proximity to Knoxville was a factor in their decision to move. WindRiver is just 45 minutes from downtown Knoxville with quality healthcare, sporting events, airports, and lots of cultural events.

Lynn continued, “We sold our house and moved to a community where we knew no one. It was a welcome surprise to have such great neighbors. Everyone here is so pleasant and helps everyone out. People here are from all over the United States. We host a corn hole tournament about four or five times a year and have about 30-35 people come out. The neighborhood is so much fun because of the people. We have never regretted it!”

Fred & Margaret (Meg) Spurlock

of Terra Vista at Citrus Hills, Florida

“It’s like Disney World for adults. You’ve worked hard all your life, and now you deserve it. We retired a little over four years ago from Maryland and now Meg and I are ambassadors for Terra Vista at Citrus Hills. We get to go out to dinner with prospective residents and give them a homeowner’s perspective,” said Fred. “We don’t miss our old life at all. We never looked back.

“It’s funny, people are apprehensive about not having enough to do when they retire. We are actually excited if we look down at our calendar and see nothing. We go to a lot of classes that are held here as part of the social membership. Whether you want to do aerobics, yoga, water exercises, pickleball, or play card games, it’s all here. We have such a good time. We golf at least once a week. No one is from here, so everyone is so open to meeting new people.

“It really is idyllic. In four years we haven’t even seen a mosquito here at Terra Vista. The quality of our home construction is superb. Our utility bills are much lower, only $80 to $85 a month. Last year, we never even turned on the heat.

“We go to the Tiki Bar all of the time. On Monday afternoons, you’ll find us dancing at the Tiki Bar.”