How Can I Find What I Want at Topretirements?
Category: General Retirement Issues
April 1, 2021 — Almost every week we get a request from a visitor or Member: “How do I find something or other on Topretirements?” Like many sites, Topretirements is a big one with a lot of different kinds of information. Even if you have visited here many times it can be tricky to track something down. This short article will provide an orientation and quick guide to help you get to what you want, quickly.
The best clue to finding what you want to know is to ask, “What kind of information is it I want”:
About a City. There are 2 main ways to find one of our over 1,200 City reviews (and it will differ somewhat depending if you are on a computer vs. a phone or Ipad). On a computer use the orange pulldown menu at top right to select a State. On a phone, use the 3 horizontal lines to open up this and other choices. Then scroll down the page until you see the City you want, then click on it. A second way to find them is to click on the “Best Places” link at the top of all pages. When you get there use the pulldown to select State, or click on the State you want on the map.
You can also add your Comments about a City or Community by going to the bottom of a Review and looking for “What People Are Saying About (name of city)”. See example below:
About a 55+ or Active Adult Community. To find one of our over 4,500 community reviews use the same two methods as above. But when you get to the Directory page listing all of the cities in that State, you will see a list of all communities in or around that city.
About a State. We have mini-retirement guides for all 50 states and 22 countries. In the main navigation at top of page click on “State Guides“. Choose a state or country, or click on the map for the state you want.
Blog articles. As of this date we have published over 1,200 Blog articles on a wide array of retirement topics. Sometimes it can be hard to find the one that you remember reading, or aren’t sure we ever covered it. There are several ways to find them. For one, on all Blog pages underneath a list of our most recent articles on the right hand side there is a list of 22 Categories. If you click on one of those, the articles are arranged in chronological order, newest on top. You can see a topline for about 10 of those on that page, and at the bottom there is a “Next page” button to show the next batch. If you are on a mobile phone after you click on the Blog from the drop down menu you will see the most recent article. Click on the arrow to see a list of the articles and categories.
But that might always be enough. That is where the “Site Search” box at the top of each page comes in. If you enter some keywords on what you are looking for (e.g., tiny homes), you will be taken to a results page. The top 4-5 items are results from Google, but below those are the relevant articles from Topretirements. It usually works pretty well.
Looking for a specific amenity, type of community, state or region, temperature range, cost of living, culture index, etc.? This is where the “Search” link at the top of all pages is especially useful.
Custom report with the Retirement Ranger. This free interactive tool asks you 10 quick questions and immediately emails you a custom report of towns and communities that meet your criteria. You can take it as many times as you want as you refine your choices.
Was this helpful? Please give these tools a workout and let us know how it went. If there are some situations that we need to work on, let us know in the Comments section below.
For further reading:
Comments on "How Can I Find What I Want at Topretirements?"
Admin says:
Moderator Flo had a good suggestion pertaining to finding Blog articles if on a mobile phone. If you are, after you click on the Blog from the drop down menu you will see the most recent article. Click on the arrow to see a list of the articles and categories. We amended the original article to include this.
Admin says:
Tomi asked: I think lots of people would like actual reviews of people that live or have visited these communities. Is there a way to start this discussion?
Editor: Thanks for your suggestion , it is a good one. There is a way to comment on cities and communities. If you go to the end of the review you will see where you can add comments - where it says: "What people are saying about ..." You have to be logged in to do that, and we might have to approve them, but it would be great if more people contributed there. There are some cities that already have comments, but they are in the minority. Here is an example from Asheville, NC
https://www.topretirements.com/reviews/North%20Carolina/Asheville.html
The other place to look is in the comments section of blog articles. Many of those comment refer to specific places that broadly fall under that topic. A good example of our recent update of Dueling Carolinas https://www.topretirements.com/blog/great-towns/dueling-carolinas-north-carolina-vs-south-carolina-as-the-best-retirement-state.html/
Hope that helps, thanks
Sandie says:
I registered with your site several years ago and cannot find my logins. Trying to comment on places whose information is misleading at best became for difficult that I just stopped trying. IMHO the”place” information sites are ads, which is fine, you need to fund the enterprise, but they are presented as impartial reviews, which is not helpful.
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From John Brady: Thanks for your comments Sandie. If you or anyone has any trouble logging in - go the login page and you can reset your password from there if you know your username. Or, you can use the Contact Us form and we will be happy to help. The City reviews are as impartial as we can make them, we just try to be factual and upbeat when deserved, while using the "What People Don't Like" section to lay out the negative aspects. The Community reviews can be put up by the developer, a resident, or us. If someone puts up an over the top positive review we try to tone it down, but yes, many of them are cheerleaders for their own community. Hopefully there is enough factual information to give you an idea if it is worth exploring further.
Finally, we do need our advertisers, who help make this whole endeavor possible and keep this a free site. We appreciate their support and they like having a way to meet the interested folks we come to this site for information about where to retire.
Barbara says:
This turns out to be exactly what I needed and wish more sites would do the same! After reading the recent blog this week about selling now in today's market we have been having a discussion about selling and then renting and maybe just forget about owning a home anymore ( we are in our mid-70's). I knew there were some discussions about renting on this site I have seen throughout the years that I have been a follower of Topretirements. I also knew I could sort through the Blog Categories. But today after seeing this road map and pointing out "Site Search" at the top of the page, I typed in "rental communities" and pages of blogs and rental communities came up. I narrowed it down and typed in "rental communities blog" and found exactly what I was looking for and will ask my question on the appropriate blog. Don't get me wrong, I like the blog categories but once I get in there I start reading everything and forget what I set out to look for- a lot of good reading in there!