Part 4 of The 4 Part Review of My Trip to Cape Town - The Places for Future Retirement

As the final quarter of my 4 Part Review of my trip to Cape Town, South Africa, it is perhaps most fitting that I focus it on the fourth quarter of my life. Or at least, the planned last bit of my life - retirement. I don't know how old I'll be (of if I'll even make it to that stage) but ideally, I'd like to be able to retire sooner rather than later. Well, retire from a regular job anyway - I assume I'd still be doing some work or else boredom will kill me. So, if I'm going to retire, there are obviously going to be places where I'd like to retire.

In this post, given my recent trip, I will detail out potential places for retirement based on this "Checklist for retirement places" I just made up 3 seconds ago:-

a) Climate
b) Cliff/Hill House
c) Cost-of-Living
d) Mountainous Backdrop
e) Family
f) Friends
g) Greater City size (proxy for "Things to do")
h) Location in the world
i) Quaintness of nearest town/city

The places I've selected for consideration are places I've visited before. Naturally, this list is not exhaustive - I may find new places that appeal to me in the future. In reverse alphabetical order (for fun), here we go:-

Queenstown, New Zealand

Based on the checklist:-

• Climate - Excellent (Average yearly temperature of 11 degrees Celcius ranging from 0 to 23) - 10/10
• Cliff/Hill House - I saw some of those back when I was there in 2001 which actually got me thinking of retirement places in the first place (pun totally intended) - 10/10
• Cost-of-Living - Lower than most major cities - 7/10
• Mountainous Backdrop - See the picture? - 10/10
• Family - Well, assuming everyone is healthy, I presume everyone will be far away - 3/10
• Friends -I do have some friends in New Zealand so this won't be too bad - 5/10
• Greater City size (proxy for "Things to do") - Mostly skiing stuff with some other outdoor fun like speedboating, fly fishing, bungee (for those whose backs aren't bad) - 7/10
• Location in the world - Seriously out of the way - 2/10
• Quaintness of nearest town/city - Queenstown is really nice, but it is a little too "small-city" to me. I would prefer a little more bustle - 7/10

Final Average:- 6.8/10

Lucerne, Switzerland

Based on the checklist:-

• Climate - Excellent (Average yearly temperature of 9 degrees Celcius ranging from -3 to 24) with rainfall 1/3 of the year (I like rain) - 10/10
• Cliff/Hill House - Definitely possible - 10/10
• Cost-of-Living - Very high, it IS Switzerland after all - 4/10
• Mountainous Backdrop - The Alps - 10/10
• Family - Well, assuming everyone is healthy, I presume everyone will be far away - 3/10
• Friends - See Family - 3/10
• Greater City size (proxy for "Things to do") - Not quite sure, so I'd have to give his a tbd.
• Location in the world - Switzerland isn't very out-of-the-way, so it's fine - 7/10
• Quaintness of nearest town/city - In this case, the town is Lucerne itself, and based on my memory of it, it's pretty quaint. Very small-city feel - 9/10

Final average:- 7.0/10

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Based on the checklist:-

• Climate - Terrible, way too hot. The rain is okay but does not compensate for the heat - 3/10
• Cliff/Hill House - You could, but the heat kind of defeats the purpose of having such a place - 6/10
• Cost-of-Living - Lower than most major cities thanks to government subsidies! - 9/10
• Mountainous Backdrop - Fail - 1/10
• Family - Well, at least almost everyone will be around - 10/10
• Friends -Ditto with Family but some of my best friends likely won't be here - 8/10
• Greater City size (proxy for "Things to do") - Given the number of years I've spent here, there is always something for me to do in KL - 10/10
• Location in the world - Not the greatest but still pretty good - 7/10
• Quaintness of nearest town/city - KL is not quaint and is probably too busy for a retirement place - 4/10

Final Average:- 6.4/10

Cape Town, South Africa

Based on the checklist:-

• Climate - Nearly great (Average temperature of 17 C, ranging from 7.0 to 26.5) but maybe a little too hot during the summer months for my liking. - 8/10
• Cliff/Hill House - This photo is from my trip. I've pinpointed one of those houses on that little hill as my future house, in all fairness - 10/10
• Cost-of-Living - Not too bad, but still higher than most places - 5/10
• Mountainous Backdrop - Table Mountain. Win. - 10/10
• Family - Don't think too many people will be in the region - 3/10
• Friends -See Family - 3/10
• Greater City size (proxy for "Things to do") - Brilliant, imagine spending a weekend hanging out at Cape Point or just going to the top of Table Mountain for fun - 10/10
• Location in the world - Kind of out of the way, in all fairness - 4/10
• Quaintness of nearest town/city - Quite quaint. In fact, it probably has the second-best balance among all the cities considered here - 9/10

Final Average:- 6.9/10

Boston, USA

No metaphorical meaning for this picture. It's just one I have in
my hard drive.

Based on the checklist:-

• Climate - Good (because it's mostly cold) but it can be way too cold in the winter (Jan/Feb) and way too hot in the summer (June/July). - 7/10
• Cliff/Hill House - This is a little biased, but in the place where I would live if I retired in Boston, it wouldn't be on a hill - 5/10
• Cost-of-Living - Manageable but still pricey - 7/10
• Mountainous Backdrop - I could if I wanted. - 7/10
• Family - Don't think too many people will be in the region - 3/10
• Friends - I will have some very good friends living around the area, so this will be okay - 6/10
• Greater City size (proxy for "Things to do") - Loads to do including, y'know, a 4-5 hour bus trip to New York City - 10/10
• Location in the world - It's in America. And not like the deep South or anything. Totally fine - 8/10
• Quaintness of nearest town/city - I love the various Squares from Harvard to Central to Inman to Porter. This is the best of all the cities considered - 10/10

Final Average:- 7.0/10

So, based on my completely scientific methodology, the final standing is

T-1: Lucerne, Switzerland

T-1: Boston, USA

3: Cape Town, South Africa

4: Queenstown, New Zealand

5: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

KL really kind of loses out because of the weather issue. It's way too fricking hot. And it's not something I'd like in a place for retirement. I hate the Heat. And actual heat. But that said, if I roll in the megabucks enough, I could get a place in each of the cities and spend 2.4 months out of the year in each place. Boston in Sept - Oct, Lucerne in Nov-Dec, KL in Jan-March (for CNY, Ceng Beng etc etc), Cape Town in April-June and Queenstown in July-Aug. 

Man, I need some dough.