Where do you want to go when you retire? That question has more urgency now that people's retirement plans have been reduced substantially by the stock market. People want their pensions to go farther. Furthermore they don't want to worry about a big mortgage so they are looking for places where housing is not expensive. They can sell their current house and buy their retirement place at half the price and the remaining money would go towards strengthening their financial resources to fund their living expenses in the future. Retirees want areas where the cost of living is not so dear, but still have access to conveniences such as large grocery stores, shopping malls, movie theaters, bowling alleys and other services, and live where the municipal tax is not so burdensome.

But financial considerations are not the only things that retirees have in mind when choosing a place. Many want to go to museums, hear the latest concert, enjoy a ball game. To them, life is meant to be lived and retirement is the time to do the things that they have postponed from doing or stopped from doing temporarily in order to raise a family.

It is not a surprise that most of the places on the lists are close or in big cities. Places that are college towns or near big universities are also popular because it offers access to many services that the university can offer: a lively atmosphere, exciting college football, basketball, and other games, inexpensive courses and libraries, research hospitals, galleries and small museums, traveling Broadway shows, debates and lectures on current topics.

Most important of all to retirees, they want a city that gives them access to good health care. They want to be within walking distance or a short drive to a hospital or medical facility to get the care that they know they will need in the future. The public transportation services of a city also becomes consideration when health care facilities are required.

Many places actually fulfill these requirements. Here are some of the best places to retire according to the various sources and as you can see, some are small cities and some are large cosmopolitan municipalities.

For the year 2009, the top ten most affordable places to retire according to the US News & World Report are:

• Binghamton, NY
• Chattanooga, TN
• Cocoa, FL
• Eau Claire, WI
• Montgomery, AL
• Omaha
• Pittsburgh
• Roswell, NM
• San Antonio
• South Bend, IN

WalletPop.com, AOL's finance and consumer website suggests these ten cities:

• Englewood, FL
• Brecksville, OH
• Hendersonville, NC
• Seqim, WA
• Hershey, PA
• Melbourne Beach, FL
• Cambridge, MD
• Marble Falls, TX
• Mccomb, MS
• Paradise, CA

Forbes Magazine offers this list:

• Montgomery, PA
• Nassau, NY
• Pima, AZ
• Palm Beach, FL
• Honolulu, HI
• Brevard, FL
• Montgomery, MD
• Ocean City, NJ
• Westchester, NY
• Lancaster, PA