The snowbird crowd is ageing

John&Joey wrote:
I figure retirement can be broken down into three stages. The first is the most expensive and physically active. You're young both in body and mind. This is where you're seeking adventure and want to travel and not sit in one place too long. Most current snowbird parks really are not setup to handle this group. This is why I think you're seeing fewer younger snowbirds in established snowbird parks. Established parks delegate these short timers to the back, tiny, crummy spots that the long term residents do not want even though they pay the same monthly price.

The second stage your body is not up to it, but your mind still is. I think this is where the majority of current snowbird parks are at. The cost of this stage goes down since the adventure part is now absent. Living in these parks can be very reasonable, and still be very rewarding to the mind and one's social life. One finds themselves very active and engaged in life/community.

The last stage is extremely expensive where a person needs help with controlling their body and/or mind. Snowbird parks really are not setup for this group, yet you will still see a limited group of prior snowbirds attempting it until their family puts a stop to it. The friendships those snowbirds built prior allows them to function longer in a self sufficient setting. Not really such a bad thing even if it sounds dismal.

Excellent analysis. Since the baby boomers are in stage one, a big question is how old will they be when stage two comes along? Will we be in better shape than the previous generation and be able to hang on to step one longer? Next question is how will the baby boomers handle step two? Will we give up sunbirding and settle down back from where our roots are, will we stay in a sunbird location permanently, or do some other alternative? I have no answers to these questions, we'll just have to see how it turns out, I guess.