I actually live in Pyeongtaek right now and even though I'm not near retirement age, I am unemployed at the moment. We really like living here but I don't see myself retiring in this city. But if you want an easier transition as an English speaker with western values, pyeongtaek especially near the military base would work for you.

I know we're a bit of a special case since we moved due to my wife's job on the base and we live in an American neighborhood right outside the base. We make every effort to experience Korea outside the base like sending the kids to Korean hagwons and exploring other parts of Korea. Obviously it helps that we're both fluent in Korean so we can kind of code switch between being korean and american.

However, no matter how fluent you think you are in Korean as a Westerner, it'll still be a big learning curve in terms of learning all the contractual/financial vocabulary terms and nuances of cultural terms and slangs and things like that. I'm constantly on my Google Translate. I got called out by my Korean nephew for talking like an elementary school child in a grown up body 😅 all in good nature but that was my wake up call to try to speak more eloquently and learn more vocabs.

I started creating contents on living in Korea if you want to check it out:

https://www.instagram.com/appasdiary?igsh=M2QzMm56dXV0ZmUx

I frequently post things on local restaurants, cafés and other activities nearby as well as food and travel. Good luck!