Retire in a College Town – Boulder, Colorado

Boulder, Colorado made the U.S. News list of “Best Healthy Places to Retire.”  Along with Colorado Springs, this makes two cities in Colorado that are both college towns and potentially attractive retirement and active adult destinations for baby boomers.

Mrs. GoTo and I spent a week in Boulder back in the 1980′s, when our first born was but 4 months old.  We were there in July so we were able to experience the warm weather environment.  Boulder is surrounded by plenty of natural beauty and lots of outdoor activities for the physically active boomer.

The city itself was quite progressive and eclectic in its appearance and culture.  This, of course, is heavily influenced by the University of Colorado which is a dominant factor in all aspects of city life and politics.  The city of Boulder has a population of approximately 92,000.  The university has 29,000 students so you can see how important the university is to the community.

I have embedded a video featuring Boulder as a retirement town.  Again, if you are reading this in a feed reader or email, you may have to click back to the Go To Retirement site to watch it.

If you are a skier, Boulder would be an ideal retirement location because of its proximity to many ski slopes and resorts yet still having a cultural atmosphere that extends beyond apres’ ski lodges and ski bums. We are not big skiers so that is not a feature that Mrs. GoTo and I would be attracted to in selecting a retirement destination.  Our sons enjoy skiing but it’s questionable that they would ever relocate to the west for that reason alone.

I am not aware of any retirement communities in Boulder that are affiliated with the university.  (As one example of what I am referring to, there is an active adult/retirement/life care community in Tallahassee, Florida that is sponsored by Florida State University.) 

I am going to continue to look for retirement communities that are in college towns and in particular that are affiliated with a university.  As I find them, I will update this information.

Here are some demographic and economic facts and figures about Boulder.

UPDATE:  Boulder was recently mentioned as being a city with good job opportunities for older workers.

More on retiring in a college town.

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