I have a year and a half to go until I'm 66 and can take Social Security without penalty.  My passion is joke and humor writing and while I devote a good deal of my free time to that now, I plan to really pursue writing (and acting) full time when I retire.  I have a website which I update daily with satire on current events, politics and celebrities which is set up like a 1930's newspaper called Rubbish In, Robish Out! which can be found at http://johnnyrobish.com.  All seniors, please drop by and say hello.        
Posted by roby22

The closer I get to retirement, the more questions I seem to have.  Where do I want to live; should I relocate or try the snow bird thing? What will I do after I retire;  volunteer, work part time, travel, become more active in my church or my favorite hobby groups? What about housing; do I want to live in my current home or find a retirement community? Have you already considered and made these choices?  How are things working for you?
Posted by nyadrn

My plans for retirement are as follows: 1. Motivate the community of people over age 50 in the United States (we will soon be the largest demographic group and voting block) into stopping the grievous atrocities the Federal Reserve has inflicted on us; with their soft interest rate policy, anti retirement, and pro banker philosophy. We should put our entire effort into undoing what Ben Bernanke has done to us. Since he is not an elected official we should run him out of Washington on a rail. He has robbed us by causing inflation and devaluing our hard earned savings and pensions. 2. Return the United States to the status it had during the golden post war (WW2) days. As Ben Franklin once said, money should be able to be safely invested here at a rate of 5% per annum. The prime rate should be increased to allow pensioners to live off their pension without digging into the principal. It should be needless for retirees to take chances gambling with stocks. We are too old for this. Increased savings interest rates would also benefit the government in the form of taxes. This would benefit everyone with one exception. It would hurt the banksters. 3.  Stop our government from rewarding people who go over their heads in debt with bailouts.  We as a group should support legislation that will confiscate the stolen assets of anyone who recieved a bailout from the government due to their own foolish misdeeds, mainly banksters. These monies should be used to immediately put a partial payment on our 15 trillion dollar war debt. 4.  Make a crime of doing anything overseas that is contrary to our national self interest. This especially pertains to wars.  Implement war crime tribunals on any former presidents that got us into wars for the sake of our military industrial complex (purely to line the pockets of beltway bandits). These persons will be punished by the living war casualties and the families of the dead. Retributions for any terrorist attacks against the United States should be swift, deadly and with no mercy for those responsible. The new enemies of the United States will stop at nothing to destroy us. They should be treated as such. We cannot trust them. 5. In an unemployment crisis unprecedented in recent history,  utilize our massive political power to stop the waves of senseless immigration that is putting a burden on the people already here. We are Americans and we must put Our Own First. 6. In a like sense, stop any handouts to other nations which is not in our national self interest. We have created enemies and now are feeding and arming them. Let them fend for themselves, it is the only way they will learn to be self sufficient.  7. Needless massacres such as what happened in Colorado must cease.  Criminalize the posession of any automatic or semiautomatic weapon by any civilian. People who posess such devices will be given the opportunity to exchange them for a repeating bolt loaded rifle, a shotgun, or a six shooter. All other "civilian" purchases of guns or ownership will be banned. 8. Sexual molestation of children should be punished with punishment that fits the crime. Cruel and inhuman punishment would actually fit these crimes. The constitution should be amended to allow it in this instance. 9. The Judicial branch of government, composed of unelected judges, will be legislatively lowered in their status. No longer will they be allowed to determine who becomes president or when life begins. In a similar sense to how the war between the states resulted in laws limiting state authority, so should the Supreme Court have its powers limited. There should be no legislation from the bench. In a democracy, the majority rules. Likewise, tort reform in the United states must be instituted. Is it any wonder we graduate 5 lawyers for every engineer? There is a glut of American lawyers looking for something to sue. 10. The electoral college should be eliminated. (Need more be said?) Now I know the above ideas are no small task and not everyone will agree with all of them. However, if we do not use our collective power as the largest demographic in the United States we will continue to be taken advantage of. I know most of you thought plans for retirement meant leisure vacations. Once we have things under our thumbs we will be able to take the vacations.
Posted by DuckbilledPlatypus

What about Costa Rica, Mexico? It may be too expensive to retire in the States.
Posted by beairdboy