<p>^^ Marilyn - We struggled along the same lines. San Francisco was our favorite place. But we also like Santa Barbara, and San Diego, and Washington DC, and Seattle, and Sante Fe and Fort Collins and New Orleans and Charleston and the Florida Keys. Naturally, family members are near none of these! So we settled on living a nomadic life, returning as needed to our home base … location as yet undetermined.</p>
<p>We lived (rented) on Coronado for a few years in the 90’s. I would like a redo! We passed on purchasing a home at the time because it was way out of our price range, but I’d kill to change that decision! Oh to own that rental, and have it to move to when the time comes to retire. Pure heaven. </p>
<p>We also loved on Oahu in the 90’s, and I’d move back in a heart beat, except that it is a long, long way from there to anywhere. We visit every few years, and I could live there again, if we could just talk our families into moving there, too.</p>
<p>The Florida panhandle is a possibility, though today, with Isaac looming, its faults are more glaring than usual. </p>
<p>Lately, as we drive S2 back and forth to Chapel Hill, I’m falling in love with North Carolina.</p>
<p>Wife and I have lived in college towns most of our adult life. We plan on retiring to one near kid. </p>
<p>We love the college town we live in now and would gladly retire here if S ultimately lives within a 3 hour drive or so. We will buy a condo downtown, sell the car, and walk/bus to everything.</p>
<p>He is thinking about heading to the NW so might eventually look at Corvallis, Eugene, etc.</p>
<p>Hear you on the chapel hill eastcoastcrazy! We moved here from northern CA 9 years ago (central NC) and haven’t looked back. Before the Bay area we were in San Diego, kiddos were all born there and I did love it. So when looking at places to relocate the whole family (5 kids) I wanted something LIKE San Diego weather and beaches and the educational opportunities of CA schools.</p>
<p>And here we landed. Son is in med school now at Chapel Hill and is looking at residencies around the country. Just got back from LA (Cedars) and that is a no!, traffic is horrible, house prices still gaggy and neighborhoods iffy. He is spoiled at chapel thrill!!</p>
<p>His GF lives in NYC as does most of his undergrad buddies, who are in law school, i-banking and pe firms. He loves “being there” visiting but not so much the actually living in “gross” apartments costing $3000 per month, the traffic and lack of running space. Boston is on his list as well, but again he is spoiled by the COL here and those Carolina blue skies.</p>
<p>All my kiddos left for school but all have come back for grad school and have settled here. All close too. Besides son, two other siblings’ significant others have left other parts of the country to relocate here. One from NYC and one from the west coast. Again COL was such a huge factor as was the “fun” factor. Ability to buy a house at 23-24 on just their salaries, enjoy the beach and the mountains…OTB, wilmington, myrtle and the smokies…and tons to do for young people.</p>
<p>Having the triangle of Duke, UNC Chapel Hill and NC State makes all of Raleigh and Durham a “college” town. And UNC and Duke have some of the best health systems in the US. The buses go everywhere so yes, a little spoiled.</p>
<p>Don’t even get me started on the in-state tuition. Son’s med school tuition at UNC med school is $16,000 for the YEAR. When everyone else in med school is taking out loans in the HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS his will be less than $30,000 for all 4 years…maybe if that. And that is all him, I can’t help at all. But that is another thread!</p>
<p>So I picked my retirement location 9 years ago in my late 30’s. So very happy. And the kids all moved back here after going far, far away. For the same reasons.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>I would like to retire in LaJolla, it’s a beautiful place. We’ve been planning to retire in less than 5 years, could be sooner if I win a lottery.
Realistically, we will stay in this area or move like 3 miles away to a new home. New homes in our area are pricey because it’s a desirable place for a lot of foreigners. A lot them paid cash for these homes. I think the sweet pot is between age 55-75 where one is young enough to retire and old enough to appreciate it. H&I plan to travel for a long time to somewhere, not 1-2 weeks, perhaps rent a condo for a few months somewhere.
But before we do that I think we plan to do a world tour, stop at a few places that I have not seen in 35 years like Asia.
We also plan to age in place, so the new home has to have a bedroom and a lot of living space downstairs. I’m not the bungalow type of person so that is the compromise we decided on.</p>
<p>I love CA & the northwest but H only wants to live in HI & I only want to live near wherever our kids live. I’m happy in HI anyway. I feel very blessed!</p>
<p>Years ago, DH expected a transfer to Asheville, NC. We explored, looked at homes, etc. in anticipation of the transfer and really liked what we saw. Those mountains have a special attraction. Transfer never happened, but we still like the idea of retiring there, although that was almost 20 years ago. Anybody have experience living there–retired or otherwise?</p>
<p>I’ve considered staying in New England, altho not in my current house, and renting somewhere warmer for the winter. Or doing the reverse, buying in NC or SC and renting for the summer up north. </p>
<p>When S1 was younger, he was intrigued by severe weather (actually, he still is). We had proposed that we’d share 2 houses with him, one in VT and one in the southeast. We’d live in VT in the summer and he could experience hurricanes in the southeast; in the winter, we’d be in the southeast and he could have his blizzards in VT. It sounded good then, but now that he’s grown I don’t think that scenario suits his future plans.</p>
<p>I retired almost 3 years ago and we recently moved to Walnut Creek, CA. I love the downtown experience there as well as the abundance of doctors and hospitals in the area.</p>
<p>We’d like to retire before we turn 60. We have stable employment with the same (huge) company and will get a pension + 401K + SS (if avail) and possible inheritance and younger D will be out of college in 3 years, so money shouldn’t be an issue. The big question is how much I’ll have to subsidize mom’s retirement living. She’s in her 80s and is independent for the time being, but wouldn’t be able to afford assisted living if it comes to that. </p>
<p>We live in the PNW and love it, but the older I get, the more sun I need. Our home will be paid for, and the plan is to keep it for as long as we can. There will be travelling to sunnier locales and other countries for as long as we are able. Odds are our children will stay in the area.</p>
<p>Beil1958 - I grew up 30 minutes away from Asheville and that’s where we’re relocating when H and I retire. Love the weather, the mountains, the cost of living, and the access to medical care, airport, and entertainment. The area has changed a lot over the last 40 years (especially the influx of retirees) but the mountains are the same…</p>
<p>My sister and BIL retired to Portland, OR this year. They had lived outside the US for 20+ years and had no idea what to even consider. I suggested Portland because I loved it when we visited colleges there. I also suggested they look at Asheville just from what I’d read about it, but they went to Portland first and fell in love. H and I will probably retire in VT, but I’d consider Portland if the winters here start being too much.</p>
<p>Gotta say, we really loved Winston-Salem!</p>
<p>We would love to live near our kids but they are VERY mobile. My guess is they will not likely stay put…so buying where they live will not be a top criteria. </p>
<p>We will look for:
Proximity to a good airport
Proximity to a major medical center
Availability of arts and cultural events
Four seasons but with slightly less winter than we have now
Reasonable cost of living and reasonable taxes
Possible public transportation or good proximity to the things we want and need to get to.</p>
<p>When I read that list, moving looks unlikely.</p>
<p>^ thumper - Check out Wilmington, DE and the northeastern suburbs of Philadelphia, PA. Or as several have suggested, central or western NC. Colorado is also nice, if you don’t mind cheering for the Broncos.</p>
<p>One thing I don’t see on many lists is affordable housing & affordable assistance (for the time when we may need these things). In HI, housing is through the roof with no signs of slowing or stopping. Assistance is also pretty expensive. These are definitely things to consider in evaluating what would work for the long term.</p>
<p>thumper-
Sounds like Atlanta!! :D</p>
<p>ETA:
We purchased long term care insurance a year ago in anticipation of what HImom brought up. Also don’t have a mortgage, but could afford one if we had to. Our latest discussion has been about when to start to collect Social Security. We are planning to wait til 70, to get the maximum. I really dont believe they’ll run out of money.</p>
<p>We will likely have me wait until I’m 70 to start SS, since H has a comfortable pension that we can both live on until then. Once he dies, the pension will shrink & only pay 55%, so the SS will help make up some of that.</p>
<p>We have never purchased LTC insurance because after carefully reading the terms, we decided we’re best off saving as much as we can & paying for what we want & need rather than waiting until the insurer decides we qualify for what they decide we can or can’t have. We did talk with MetLife, to be sure our interpretation of their policy was correct & unfortunately it was. </p>
<p>If you have any paralysis (stroke, trauma) or dementia, it could be very helpful. If you just get debilitated from aging, it’s not so helpful. The policies we read only were effective if you couldn’t perform at least 3 or the 6 activities of daily living–toileting, feeding, transferring from bed to chair, and several others. You can be unable to shop or cook for yourself, but those don’t qualify. The policies are VERY specific as to when they start & what they cover, as well as limitations & maximums. They CAN be very helpful to some folks but not so helpful to others. You also have to be sure the company will still be around when you want/need benefits.</p>
<p>HImom, when I say reasonable cost of living…that includes reasonably priced housing.</p>
<p>We live about 30/40% of the time in the Cape May area (all weekends and holidays, most of the summer), not on the beach but near enough. We know that that house is where we will retire to; we’d move now if we had jobs there. Both my kids seem to be staying in the NJ area–D just bought a house in Northern NJ. So we’ll be in a 2 1/2 hour drive from her. S is unselttled so no chance of guessing where he’ll end up. But CM was our family vacation spot forever, so even if one or both moves out of the northeast, they’ll love visiting us.</p>
<p>This is so timely, since my thoughts have more and more been turnig to retirement. I want to move to a warmer climate, but I’m also concerned about moving too far away from the kids. However, until they’re more stable, who knows where that might be! As a result, my H and I are thinking of moving to a place the kids would love to visit, so they’ll always want to visit us! </p>
<p>We’ve also talked about spending 3 weeks or a month in a particular country to get a more in depth taste of places we’ve visited briefly. So one year, 4 weeks in southern France, then the next year, 4 weeks in Scotland, etc. That would be fun.</p>