I haven’t really given it any thought. Perhaps this setting is attractive to those who either do not have access to these things otherwise or like the ready-made option?
2 Likes
The facility where my mother lives requires residents to attend a certain number of classes. Many of the residents are former professors, artists, or are highly accomplished individuals in all sorts of interesting fields, and they teach many of the classes based on their areas of interest.
Based on your age references, you and Shawwife would be some of the youngest residents, and it’s probably not the place for you now. But based on the description of your current location, it would keep you in the general neighborhood if something changed in the future.
2 Likes
From retirement 2016 to covid 2020 H and I took audit courses (a very inexpensive rate) at our local university. I took art and dance classes and language classes, H took art classes and geology and language classes. All these were totally out of our field of study. We both had also been university profs in the past. I go to the gym at our local Rec center to take fitness classes. Seriously, these seem to replicate the above in Arizona. I like that I can go to our bookclub or change bookclubs. Meetup has helped with options of groups, and Coursera courses helped during covid. Yes we still live in a home. I think if you did not like the ASU environment for some reason it would be difficult to change.
4 Likes
I listened to a podcast on the place. Sound nice, but not cheap (hundreds of thousands buy-in, plus I think $7k/month including a lot of services and some dining credit). Especially for the interviewed couple who still go home to the their summer place in Colorado.
1 Like
We live in a hurricane-prone area, and a storm coming will activate all the preparations. Then it will swerve off to Bermuda (as it did this year) and we will just wait until the next year. After 9 years, I think we are addicted to the adrenaline. I think there will be a time when the excitement wanes.
1 Like
@Googie31, ShawWife was invited by a retired gallery owner or curator to show work at a very upscale CCRO (is that the abbreviation). Very professional. That was at least 10 years ago. They invited us for dinner and were encouraging us to move there. They were all very accomplished people. But all were retired. ShawWife and I are still very engaged in our respective work. I’m currently working with a small team on seeing if we can make operational an idea I helped created to prevent the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. I will be meeting with some apparently important folk at an environmental gathering this week. Plus actively advising a number of clients. On the academic front, my coauthor has been proposing that we write a new 20 years later version of our last book – we know the publisher will want to do it but it is a ton of work – but it would be part of building legacy. ShawWife is doing the pre-show publicity/networking for two shows she is having at a gallery and museum in the next few months. I always want to learn new things. Five or six years ago, I wanted to learn about social media and its influence in my area of work. Engaged with some experts, published some papers and with one of those experts, what we learned is part of my consulting practice. I’m now focused on learning about AI. Took a Coursera course that was too slow, so I’m thinking of hiring as a teacher a techie who is between companies. I think I could learn a lot by attending classes but somehow that doesn’t feel right at this point. Interesting that the facility requires people to attend classes.
@Colorado_mom, my mother lived at a very nice facility for the last few years of her life. There was a buy-in for hundreds of thousands – we ultimately got 90% back but probably 3-4 years after her death. Her monthly fees were probably $5K then, so I’d imagine they would be higher now. She said that she moved there too late. She might have enjoyed it if she had moved sooner.
@BerneseMtnMom, I hope you avoided the hurricane.
3 Likes
I recognize that lists such are best and worst places to retire are just one cut at certain data points, based on values you may not agree on, but I did feel good that our location rated pretty high on the list, especially for healthcare, which is one of the things most important to me. It helps reinforce our thinking that where we live may very well be where we continue to live, assuming no radical chance in where our (adult) kids live. I have answered questions on some app over time which reinforced the same conclusion.
2 Likes
Is it one of the Kendal communities?
Did anyone post this article already? Apparently it was published online on Oct 20th but it appears in the print edition of tomorrow’s paper. The entire real estate section is about senior living.
This is supposedly a gift link, so PLMK if unable to access.
3 Likes
Maybe some developer can take one (or more!) of the small colleges that are closing and build new senior communities with good features!
14 Likes
It is not. She is at Lasell Village in Newton, MA
We visit our musician kid in Phoenix, and have found no shortage of cultural things to do there. Phoenix Art Museum, Heard, MIM (my favorite museum of all time), Desert Botanical Gardens, Phoenix Symphony, Phoenix Theater. and many others. And within an hour drive even more.
It’s not NYC but there are cultural things to do.
4 Likes
Oh! I heard of that, because I think one of their “activities” is playing with kids at my nephew’s daycare on Lasell’s campus 
2 Likes
I visited earlier this year and went to the museums and gardens that you mentioned. They were great (agree about MIM). I think the problem is her definition of culture is very high, having had easy access to NYC for so many years. She misses Broadway level performances, talks by world renown speakers , etc.
This is what vacation ops are for! A week or 2 in NYC or Boston or Chicago or LA, or DC…or a week in each a year…could cover a lot of added culture.
P.S. I think the Phoenix Theater does Broadway level performances. Excellent ones!
6 Likes
I am in the Boston area, so I checked this out. It does seem like a cool place. One thing it has (that I don’t see at many CCRC places), is full nursing and rehab facilities on site if you ever need that.
I think it is a more difficult decision of where to live during early retirement (the so-called go-go years). When you are not ready for or needing real help, but are sick of maintaining the big house.
4 Likes
The desire to right-size into an active community and a new low-maintenance property with a lot to do locally and with easy access to a major city guided us to our current community. Another draw is that our community is a major music venue in the Phoenix area. We were able to walk up to our clubhouse to see Heart, Kenny Loggins, Mike MacDonald, Doobie Brothers, America, Rick Springfield, ZZ Top, Beach Boys, etc. in the early years. More recently, as the area has expanded, the venue has moved down the street, but the shuttle still runs from our clubhouse.
I also agree with @thumper1 that Phoenix is not lacking in culture. If you want NYC, you go to NYC, not lament that other places offer different things. On this side of the country, it’s a short hop to LA for those who want more of the Big Time.
7 Likes
One of the CCRC’s near us has a ten year waiting list so friends of ours are putting themselves on the list. The mother of a good friend was at Lassell – happily I think – but when we saw them for dinner a couple of weeks ago, when the mother was ready for hospice, the son-in-law proposed she move in with them for the last bit. The daughter was deeply grateful to her husband. There’s also another CCRC that, if I have it right, is owned by Harvard that is in the middle of a park or something like that. Supposedly a beautiful setting.
When my mother moved in, they had limited nursing and rehab care and were losing residents to places with more care facilities. They are currently in the midst of a huge building project that will add more of both.
My mother moved in when she was in her late 80’s; she’ll be 93 next week. At that time, she thinks she was about the average age of new residents. Since COVID, she thinks they are younger. I’m not sure that’s true, as I think she doesn’t like to think of herself as being that much older. (I will say they took very good care of their residents during the worst of the pandemic.) Many of the residents are very active, still working, spend winters in warmer climates, and summers on the Cape (many of the residents are quite wealthy). I know I am nowhere near ready to move into that kind of environment.
Interesting. Per google, it is only 10 miles from my son (or ha, 24 miles the faster route).
1 Like