“Back to School” Retirement

My wife and I retired in 2018 and moved to Lake Anna full-time in 2020. Our retired life at Lake Anna has far exceeded our expectations and we could not imagine living anywhere else. We’re not the only ones. Since moving to Lake Anna, my sister has bought a home here and lives at Lake Anna part-time, my brother-in-law and his wife are building a house in our neighborhood, and now friends of theirs have just started building a house at the lake. When you know…you know: Lake Anna is a great place to retire.
On several occasions, people have asked me why I like retirement at Lake Anna so much. For a while, I found it hard to explain why, but then it hit me – being retired at Lake Anna is like going back to high school or college!

Why? Lake Anna is a very social place. We don’t belong to fraternities or sororities here, but we do tend to slot into “tribes” that we hang out with most of the time. While we don’t have frat house parties, we definitely have lots of house parties. And like being back in school, it seems like there’s always something new going on. We joke that we could go out every night of the week if we had the energy to do so.

In high school and college, many of us were fans of live music and would go to as many concerts as possible. Here at Lake Anna, those “concerts” come to us! A quick check of the live entertainment schedule typically shows anywhere from ten to as many as 30 live music acts around Lake Anna in a given week. Moreover, the quality of the music is amazing which reflects the fact that Lake Anna is within an hour or so from Charlottesville, Richmond, Fredericksburg and even D.C.

Our recreational pursuits have shifted to golf and pickleball, reminiscent of our active pastimes. And just like in school, chores like yard work replace academic tasks, but once they’re done, it’s time to play!
Great friends, live music and fun sports – coupled with a wonderful variety of breweries, wineries and other watering holes – all make retirement at Lake Anna an absolute joy.
So… are you really retiring… or are you just going back to school?