Customer Reviews

Nextville: Amazing Places to Live Your Life

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's not Barbara Corcoran's fault that a mortgage crisis blasted us just when the real estate bubble burst. But she can be faulted for ignoring the signs that the bubble was straining to begin with. So I'll give her applause for encouraging us boomers to look deep into what we want to do next with our lives, while turning thumbs down on most of her specific advice.

I got off to a bad start with this book, she offers up a quiz that's supposed to help you get your mind around the type of retirement location or second life career that's best for you. In my case, the answers could not have been less revealing. Her assessment of an even score like mine was basically "read the whole book, as you don't have a clear path anyway." I'm exagerating with that, but that's the way my imagination reacted.

Her basic premise is good. Don't move to Florida or Arizona, park yourself in a retirement community and expect to live out your days playing golf and shuffleboard! You'll hate it! She's a big proponent of creativity and drive, and that's excellent. It's just when she gets into the specifics of where and how that she loses objectivity.

First off, Ms. Corcoran seems to have a serious fixation with taxes. Nothing wrong with that if you're of an anti-tax mindset, but please, I'm not going to move to Panama just because they don't tax Americans as much as the state of Hawaii. Perhaps you feel different, that doesn't make either of us a bad person. :-)

It does cast some of her opinions in a less than favorable light however, when she expresses an economic recommendation that was fine when she wrote the book, but falls flat within the the economic climate of only six months later.

In any case, her basic message it to find your passions and build on them. That is excellent advice that no one can afford to reject. If you're looking for basic encouragement, and you like the self-help genre this is another collection of opinions and advice that you might appreciate. But if you're serious about learning something new, you just might want to wait until you see it at the second hand book fair or garage sale.

I was disappointed in this book for several reasons:

The quiz has very little to do with how to find a good place to retire.

Author mentions issues with living in countries other than the US but omits to mention that some places do not let you actually "own" property as we do here.

It's not so much how high the taxes, but what you get for your taxes that is important--public transit that actually runs more than once an hour, being but one example. Low-tax rural areas are great, if you can still drive or can afford to have someone else drive you places. If not, supposedly low-tax areas can be higher in other costs (not just gas, but say, having to spend time getting to larger stores or accessing healthcare).

Placing retirees into categories was annoying, as was the putting down of people who chose (and still choose) to go to Florida, and those who prefer certain activities to others.

The author did make some good points about planning for your retirement, but you could easily have fit them into a magazine article. The housing price info was out of date when it was printed. Borrow this from your library.

If you are thinking of moving to a small (or not-so-small) town after retiring, a better book would be "Moving to a Small Town" by Wanda Urbanska and Frank Levering.

This book opened my mind to new possibilities for retirement--things I hadn't thought of before. I especially liked the chapter on "Living Green," and the description of the pros/cons of buying a second home or time-share. The best thing about this book for me was that it sparked a conversation with my husband about our (different) ideas for retirement. My objection to the book is the typeface: it should be printed in black ink, not gray, for the older audience that is their target; aging eyes need higher contrast, and my eyes felt strained reading it.

My main problem with this book is that it is too simplistic - people can't be divided into one of eight categories when choosing a place to relocate. Best book is The New Retirement by Jan Cullinane and Cathy Fitzgerald. Not only reviews many places to relocate (and it's very specific), but it includes all other aspects of retirement as well -finances, health, working, travel, etc. And, it The New Retirement: Revised and Updated: The Ultimate Guide to the Rest of Your Liferecommends places in Florida, too - Florida is still an option!

This is a great book for Baby Boomers approaching retirement. Author Barb Corcoran seems to have her hand of the pulse of this age group and she is very insightful into their work, spending, and living habits. It is an excellent reference if you are considering a move at this time in your life.

I'm not quite at retirement age yet, but it's really not that far away. This book has opened my mind to new possibilities for retirement--things I hadn't thought of before.

Nextville is full of practical advice and is written by a woman who seems to be the voice of experience. Besides this, the author ads a touch of humor and it is an easy read.

Fun and light reading on the topic of moving after 'retirement.' For example, the analysis of the need to discover passion and purpose and not 'just' play golf. The choices of locations is very limited in that it is almost exclusively in the U.S. Greater range and more detailed cultural offerings would be helpful.

I just finished "Nextville" and really loved it. Who knew about "cohousing" for those weary of the "car-dependant mcmansion sprawl!" Cohousing sounds like a great idea to me, and I never would have known about it if I had not read this book. The information on selling a current home or choosing a good area for new home is very helpful, and it saved me hours of time of trawling for tips on the web. The layout of the book is simple to navigate, and easy to take in. It's full of good, practical advice. (Incidentally, I'm glad that someone acknowledges that New York City is the "greenest" place to live in the U.S.!)

A non-fictional look at examining where you truly want to live whether you're starting life all over again, need a break from your existing life, or you want a new start. For the zoomers, the ruppies, the huddlers, and the boomerangs.

My Take

Corcoran breaks it down nicely--she adds a test to determine what type of living you would prefer and I found it reasonably accurate. Except that I was attracted to three of the types. Knowledge is power!

The book includes websites and cautions, suggestions on places which offer particular amenities, lists of particular concerns from buying real estate in a foreign country to warnings on determining if this change is right for you. VocationVacations, house exchanges, condotels, ocean living, family compounds, cohousing, communes, trailers, narrow boats to aging in place. I can't imagine what Corcoran could possibly have left out.

The Cover

I do live this cover with its background of a road map and a huge wave of a yellow and blue billboard proclaiming the title and its authors.

The title is also perfect as it discusses the multiple options available to retirees and people interested in making a new start on life as you read your way to Nextville--the next place you want to live.

Book was more inclusive than I had expected. Covered many areas of interest and the cities where you could enjoy those interests. Makes you realize you need to plan.

This bood was useless to me and offered very little as to where I would want to go to retire. If you took the quiz in the book, I would say you don't have much of a life yourself. It was a ridiculous quiz. The book spoke of places that I would never want to go back to, yet she thought is was a great retirement place. Example. Perth Amboy, NJ. This is got to be the armpit of the USA. It's filthy, extremely old run down homes, 75% Puerto Rican and terrible weather. Not to mention the highest property taxes in the nation. The golf courses she mentions around this area are nice, very expensive and good ol' boys clubs. So lets cap this. She wants me to live in a crapola place, pay high taxes and travel to play golf in places I can't even get in. Just doesn't make sense.

The vital stats that the book offered was missing so many important stats, it was also useless. I would want to see 1. Tax bases: Property tax, state income tax, sales tax, etc. 2. More concise weather stats. 3. Some more information about house hunting, building your own, etc. The book showed sunny days for the first page and a half, then stopped showing them. Seems like someone just gave up researching the other places.

I used to work with a UCLA professor who researched places to retire for about 5 years. His number one choice was New Bern, NC, yet it wasn't even mentioned in the book. I wish that professor would of published his findings.

Dennis A. Walters

Van Nuys, CA