Richard Barrington

Retirees may have different tastes in culture and recreation, but there are some basic aspects of a retirement living environment that have fairly universal appeal. Getrichslowly.org ranked the 20 best cities for retirement to help you decide where to spend your golden years, coming up with a diverse list, with choices that span across the country. There are some names on the list you might expect, and some that will probably come as a big surprise.

Methodology

Getrichslowly.org took into account the following criteria when deciding where retirees may want to put down roots:

There is no shortage of retirement saving advice out there, but do you find it's hard to find advice relevant to your situation when you need it? If so, this guide should help.

Here are a couple of basic ground rules to this guide:

Most people hate to pay taxes. That's not hard to understand. What is baffling is the length people will go to avoid taxes - sometimes, the cost of avoiding taxes exceeds the taxes themselves.

The reason this happens is that for some people, all they have to hear is that a scheme will help them avoid taxes, and they are on board. Remember though, avoiding taxes should not be your ultimate goal. The idea is to earn the best after-tax return. That means avoiding taxes is only worthwhile if the cost and risk involved don't diminish your investment return too much.

More and more, companies are dispensing with traditional annual employee reviews. They say this is out of sensitivity to a new generation of employees who find reviews stressful. The real reason may be that dispensing with employee reviews saves companies money -- albeit at the expense of their employees.

Microsoft and Dell are among the high-profile companies that have made news recently by dumping annual employee reviews, and Silicon Valley has long turned its nose up at such traditional means of measuring performance and managing people. For many employees, the initial reaction is relief, but they would be wise to look closer. Without that annual review process, they could find that opportunities to get a raise are fewer and more difficult to obtain.

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

As much as you may view a formal review as resembling an interrogation scene out of George Orwell's "1984," it should work to your benefit -- both financially and in terms of feeling more connected to your workplace.

The cost to file income taxes can fall anywhere between zero dollars -- as in you do your taxes yourself and file for free -- and several hundred dollars, with an average cost of $273 for using a tax preparer, less if you don't itemize ($159), according to the most recent data available from the National Society of Accountants.

To judge the value correctly, though, those costs have to be weighed against the results you get, your own comfort level with going DIY, plus what could go wrong if things don't work out.