Money Magazine's annual list of the Best Places to Live allows you to input the degree of importance to you of several categories and personalize your choice of the best place to live.

Many of us are getting close to retirement. We can finally make choices on where to live, not based on the best place to raise our kids, but the best place for us. And so many of us are struggling with the sudden freedom and the variety of choices.

Criteria that you can rate from not important to very important are:

Affordable housing
Plentiful leisure activities
Plentiful cultural options
Job growth
Low crime rate
Good weather
Short commute time
Good health care access

I plugged in my choices and my list came out as:

1 AZ Phoenix
2 CA San Francisco
3 AZ Tucson
4 CA Los Angeles
5 NM Albuquerque
6 CA San Diego
7 TX Dallas
8 CA Sacramento
9 NM Santa Fe
10 MO Kansas City

Well, I lived in 8 for many years and now I am living in 7. Maybe I should work my way up the list, although LA and Phoenix air quality issues are a worry. But next stop San Diego and then Albuquerque. I could do that.

Give it a try...it might help narrow the multitude of choices.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive