For some seniors, retirement is a time to buy a bigger house, start a business or finally earn a degree. Others are looking for a different lifestyle: one they find simpler.

While the term simple living may have you envisioning time spent in the wilderness a la Thoreau, seniors are finding all sorts of unexpected ways to streamline their lives. For some, it involves downsizing and shedding material possessions, while others are finding simplicity by embracing their community and finding happiness where they are.

Here's a look at how five seniors are living what they say is the simple life during their retirement years.

Nancy Goodrich and Jim Wick: The Simple (Not Boring) Retirement Community Life

Nancy Goodrich (Courtesy of Nancy Goodrich)

Downsizing to a condo or retirement community may be the easiest way for older Americans to simplify. Not only does it force many people to purge physical clutter, it can also free up money by eliminating maintenance costs and other expenses related to homeownership.

When Nancy Goodrich reached age 75, she decided it was time to make a change. "I lived in an old Victorian house with three stories and 10 bedrooms," she says. "It was full of junk."

The prospect of maintaining her home in the face of advancing age wasn't realistic. Rather than burden her kids, she opted to move into the Wake Robin retirement community in Shelburne, Vermont. "You have recreational activities, and you have a campus that's stunningly beautiful," says Goodrich, now 82, explaining why she chose the community.

Jim Wick (Courtesy of Jim Wick)

Jim Wick, another resident at Wake Robin, came to the community under similar circumstances. "I lived in rural Vermont in a very small town, and I could see what happened to seniors as they got older," he says. "You wouldn't see so-and-so more than once a week." Wick recognized that his physical abilities could become limited in the years to come, and he didn't want to become isolated as he aged.

At age 74, Wick enjoys working in the community's woodworking shop and mentoring participants of a local robotics competition. While Wick stays busy, he says his life is simpler at Wake Robin. As for other seniors, he encourages them to forge their own path in retirement.

"There's a cultural expectation of what you do in retirement," he says, "but you don't have to just go someplace where it's warm."

For Goodrich and Wick, the right place for simple retirement years isn't on a sunny beach. It's at a community in Vermont where they get four seasons, low-maintenance living and access to activities to fill their time.

David and Veronica James: Homeless and Loving It

While some retirees may be looking to downsize their home in retirement, David and Veronica James, ages 56 and 53 respectively, decided to get rid of it completely. The couple had been living on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, but when their youngest child moved out, they decided it was time to take an early retirement to do something different.

David and Veronica James (GypsyNesters)

"We decided to sell our island home. We bought a beat-up old motor home off of eBay and set out for a victory lap," David says. That victory lap turned into a seven-year-and-counting adventure that has taken them across the globe. As of this writing, the couple is in Kenya and traveling across Africa.

World travel might seem expensive and complex, but David says it's made their lives richer and simpler by allowing them to focus on family rather than accumulating and maintaining material goods. They've also found living on the road is cheaper.

"After our first year, we tallied up our expenses and discovered that we were actually spending less than we had been in a house," David says. "We find ways to generate income along the way while keeping our cost of living as low as possible." Those ways include the couple's website, GypsyNester.com, which chronicles their journey and a book about their experience, "Going Gypsy," which was published earlier this year.

For the Jameses, the most challenging part of their journey was getting started. "To go all in, sell everything and hit the road," as David says. When asked what advice he'd give others who are considering how best to spend their retirement years, David recommends taking advantage of the many resources available for seniors, particularly those on the Internet. He credits AARP's website Life Reimagined as being one of his tops sources for ideas and inspiration.

Traveling throughout retirement may not be everyone's idea of simple living, but David and Veronica say ditching the house was one of the best moves they ever made. "We are in a state of nearly constantly pinching ourselves [because it seems unreal] and our stress level is basically nonexistent," David says.

Sharon Addison: Tapping Into the Community

It's been 15 years since Sharon Addison moved to Loudon, Tennessee, and she has no intention of leaving. The 70 year-old is a retired IT professional who started working as a programmer in 1966. When her husband passed away five years ago, she realized she wanted to have a better way to communicate and share information with her neighbors, preferably a method that used the Internet.

Sharon Addison (Sharon Addison)

"I thought briefly of writing [a program] myself," she says," but that was too much work."

Then Addison serendipitously came across a newscast discussing the website Nextdoor, a private social network for communities. It offered exactly what she had been envisioning: a platform for neighbors to connect, share information and even sell or give away their clutter. "You don't have to be dealing with Craigslist where people are calling from God-knows-where," she says.

Being the Nextdoor organizer for her neighborhood has added a layer of complexity to her life, Addison says. Still, she notes she has been "moderately successfully" when it comes to simplifying, particularly now that she has a way to tap into neighborhood resources as needed.

When it comes to simplifying, Addison can attest there is no one-size-fits-all formula. "What does retirement mean for you?" she asks. "In my case, for example, I wanted an attractive community with a lot of connection between residents." As a result, the simple life for Addison involves being able to stay in the home she shared with her husband and immerse herself in the larger community.