Fort Myers, FL. Last week I flew from Texas, one of the youngest states, to Florida, one of the oldest states. My mission: To celebrate the 100th birthday of a friend.
The change in states, alone, was quite a shock. Wikipedia says Texas has a median age of 35.2 years. Only Utah, at 31.5 years, is younger.
Florida is at the other end of the scale. Median age here is 42.7 years. Only Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine are older.
The Land of Old
The statistical age difference, however, doesn’t begin to reveal what you see. At the local Publix supermarket, white hair and canes abound. Shoppers with walkers or electric scooters are grateful for the clean, wide aisles. An abundance of prepared food is ready for single retirees to take home. Young people work at the supermarket. For old people, it’s likely to be the outing of the day.
This visit, however, takes me much deeper into the Land of Old because I’m visiting my friend where he lives. Shell Point is a huge and luxurious continuing care retirement community (CCRC).
It is also the clearest revelation yet of Retirement 2.0, the unexpected life that awaits those who have reached their 80s, the age when much of the world begins to assume that you are near death or morbidly impaired.
A Long Retirement
Bob got to Florida early. After a career as an executive at a Fortune 500 company, he retired at 58. He and his wife, who referred to them as “MOOs” (married only once), moved to Florida.
They lived on Sanibel Island, famous for its white sand and quiet, shell-covered beaches. Only the pet-devouring alligators achieved notoriety.
Although Bob was retired, he involved himself in getting things done and helping people in tough situations. One of his accomplishments was putting together a group to take a failed marina project out of bankruptcy. The result is the St. Charles Yacht Club on the Caloosahatchee River, just west of downtown Fort Myers. He was also the first commodore of the club.
Later, when they were concerned about getting off Sanibel for medical treatment, they moved to a house in Iona, just outside Fort Myers. Then they moved to a still more protected environment, the Shell Point continuing care retirement community.
Continuing Care Retirement Communities
If you haven’t heard about CCRCs, they are communities that provide a full lifetime care package– from independent living all the way to nursing, memory and hospice care.
To enter, you pay a large one-time fee and a monthly fee. In return you get an apartment, full utilities, meals and an abundance of other services. For the rest of your life.
Shell Point is a luxurious development with multiple restaurants, a golf course, a marina, personal gardens and hot houses for residents to grow orchids.
No, this isn’t a place for living on a tight budget. But, as you’ll see later, it’s more affordable than many assume.
On a previous trip I had gone with Bob to visit his wife in nursing care. We went at Happy Hour and enjoyed wine and cheese, as they did every day until her death.
The Fountain of Longevity
Fortunes are being spent on the search for longevity these days. Millions of seniors (and younger people) are spending gobs of money on things that may, or may not, be of any value.
But if my observation of Bob and his friends is any indication, the secret – the fountain — of longevity may have everything to do with attitude and habits that are free.
Here are four big ones:
— Accentuate the Positive. Yes, I know that sounds like a familiar Bing Crosby song. But when I listened to Bob discuss his career and other events, that’s what he talked about — the positive. The closest he ever came to a complaint was to say, “Well, that didn’t work out, so we…”
— Live for Today. While many people live with their minds in the future, living in a retirement community has a way of enforcing appreciation of the here and now. They are happily removed from all the complaints, angst and disappointments that dominate social media. They can’t, and won’t, take responsibility for situations and problems they cannot solve.
— Avoid Excess, Embrace Moderation. While happy to enjoy small pleasures and indulgences, they’ve lived long enough to see the wreckage created by excess. They know the damage that drugs, too much alcohol and overeating can do. They know that millions of people won’t live long enough to contemplate a 90th birthday, let alone a 100th.
— Appreciate Others. Welcoming his many friends, Bob made it clear that the party wasn’t about him. It was an opportunity for everyone to take some time to learn more about what the people they lived among had done with their lives. Too often we know little about the lives of others. We humans have amazing stories, all of us.
One of the unusual features of Shell Point is its transparency. While most CCRCs reveal no cost information without an appointment and tour, Shell Point posts everything on its website, including an “affordability calculator.” It is possible to pay an entry fee over $2 million, but most are far lower.
I’ve experimented with their calculator and found that anyone who is “mass affluent” – with a net worth of $1 million to $3 million – is likely to find it affordable. That isn’t everyone, but it’s still a lot of people.
Related columns:
Scott Burns, “Retirement 2.0: Another Life,” 10/10/25: https://scottburns.com/retirement-2-0-another-life/
Scott Burns, “Centenarians and the Cup of Life, 5/27/2024: https://scottburns.com/centenarians-and-the-cup-of-life/
Scott Burns, “Meet the Wealthy Centenarian,” 1/14/2024: https://scottburns.com/meet-the-wealthy-centenarian/
Scott Burns, “The Next Top 1 Percent,” 2/26/2023: https://scottburns.com/meet-the-wealthy-centenarian/
Scott Burns, “The Many Stages of Retirement,” 10/4/2025: https://scottburns.com/the-many-stages-of-retirement/
Scott Burns, “Slider-Land,” 1/27/2008: https://scottburns.com/slider-land/
Scott Burns, “Playing Roulette with Long-Term Care,” https://scottburns.com/playing-roulette-with-long-term-care/
Sources and References:
St. Charles Yacht Club: https://stcharlesyc.com/index.cfm?
Shell Point CCRC: https://www.shellpoint.org
Carescout, figures on cost of elderly care: https://www.carescout.com/cost-of-care
This information is distributed for education purposes, and it is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, recommendation, or endorsement of any particular security, product, or service.
Photo: 12/11/25 Shell Point and Fort Myers by air at night, complements of a friend.
(c) Scott Burns, 2025
3 thoughts on “Lessons from a 100th Birthday”
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thanks for the uplifting article and the link to the bing cosby song.
pls do more articles on retirement living, especially in Austin/San Antonio area
separately, just wondering about the hurricanes in FL? where do the residents go?
and also news stories about CCRCs filing for bankruptcy.
Thank you
As a resident of Johnson City, located in the middle of the “MegaRegion” of Austin-San Antonio as Henry Cisneros calls it, you can be sure I’ll be writing more about retirement in the region.
CCRCs are like everything else where you pay money in advance for promises of services in the future — lots of due diligence is required.
the problem is that due diligence gets harder as one gets older. Hopefully, CCRCs are regulated and there are external monitors rating them. Sources of such information would help. Thanks for what you columns!