Your new story, Kerry, you're kind of breaking down the list of of factors to consider when choosing where to retire. and the first variable, of course, no surprise, you got to think about location. So walk us through that, Kerry. What what are the the key questions to ask when it comes to location?

Yeah, Josh, great to be here. Yeah, this is a big one and it sounds so simple but people forget to really peel it back. Like do you want to live in an urban area near a city or do you want to be in a more rural community, a suburban community? I mean really think about how's that going to feel? What what do you want to surround yourself with, um, as you start looking at different different parts of the country. And and perhaps it's also something like recreation. Is there a place that is this going to be an area where you can walk easily, where you can bike, where there's natural, you know, these great state parks or or even a national park nearby. I mean these we want to live healthy lifestyle. So what surround you and make those, you know, sort of suss through that's the number one thing to start. Where should I go?

And the other top factors, we're showing them there, Kerry on on the screen there. What about cost of living and taxes? Those are two big ones.

Yeah, those are huge. I mean, people, you know, theoretically, Josh, if you're going to move from, uh, say the northeast, uh, to a smaller community in another state, um, and and a smaller home, you can downsize. The idea is to cut that cost of living down. And so that can can truly happen. A lot of people go to Florida because the whole idea about taxes, right? Not taxing your income. But then, if you look at the states that have that no income tax, you got to be aware that there's a full tax picture. There's local taxes, there's state taxes, there's sales tax, there's property tax. So it's not just no income tax. So don't fool yourself thinking that that's the only variable when you're looking at the cost of living someplace.

You also highlight climate risk, uh Kerry, which is interesting. I mean, how much are retirees sort of factoring that in now when they make this decision, wildfires, hurricanes.

Yeah, I still don't think they're thinking about it. and this is important because if you cast your, you know, uh you're going to go move you're going to move to a location for the next 20 years perhaps, this is really something we're all facing. And as you mentioned, there are wildfires, there's an increasing number of these things flooding and hurricanes. Um, and going back to the costs, you know, this is where homeowner's insurance is ratcheting up in many of these areas of the country. And if you say, oh I love Arizona, I really want to be in Arizona, well have you thought about how much it's going to cost to run your air conditioning with these, you know, 100 plus degree days day after day after day. So what might seem really, you know, fantastic in in theory when you get there and some of these costs uh are are popping up, it might be more because of the climate change issue. So it's not a deciding factor, but it's something you need to put in your calculator.

When you talk to retirees, Kerry, about all this, how much I'm curious does health care access also play into their decision making?

I'm so glad you asked that. That is like biggie. Most people sort of don't focus in on how important this is going to be as they move through their their next decades. And, you know, the big question, like say for example, myself, I often think, gee, I'd love to move out to rural Virginia. There's this great town Sperryville, Virginia. I love, but it's an hour from a great medical center. So do you really want to be that far away from a major medical center as you age? Or your doctors, perhaps, but that's a little bit easier. It's the medical center. And the other piece of that is Medicare uh varies in cost throughout the country. Different locations that your premiums are going to be different and so forth. So it's worth really doing some homework and and drilling down to those um those situations about where's the the medical center that you're going to go to and have you checked out what Medicare premiums are in those locations.

Kerry, as always, a pleasure. Thank you.

Thanks, Josh.