@Overtheedge I meant actual location, not situation. I’m sure it’s quite stressful . Good luck with your home .
Just got back from Waynesville, NC and loved it. Staying put in middle TN though. Has everything we want!
@MomofWildChild, I recently read Tennessee is one of the best places for federal employees to retire, but apparently Tennessee also has one of the highest crime rates in the US? That surprised me. Do you know anything about that issue?
We are probably going to stay here, in our house as H stated when we bought this house about 27 years ago. I’d be open to relocating but H is adamant about staying put. If and when our kids decide they are settling down and starting families, we may revisit. Having NO state income taxes on pensions has reduced our tax retirement state income taxes substantially from when H was working fulltime. We like living near a large international airport and within 30 minutes of decent medical facilities. Sadly, I have had to fly for better specialist medical care but at least we can get decent care locally (without air travel).
That said, I would NOT recommend my state for folks unless they are prepared for the high cost of living and our state having the highest per capita homeless rate in the US. It is humid and the rising sea level will be an increasing concern over the years, since much of our state is literally at sea level.
Senior care options are expensive and there aren’t that many attractive options to choose among, sadly. Many people have extended family help provide care.
Should be “like gnats”
Meaning they move around a lot.
What does this mean? In my state, one has to pass the state praxis test no matter where you got your degree.
I see some things online about a high crime statistic, but I don’t see that in middle Tennessee. Things happen everywhere, of course, but I suspect Memohis brings down the state!
Thumper1 -
NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education) is a national accreditation group for teacher education. Apparently, it is now the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) as of 2013. If you graduate from such a school and become licensed, you should be able to work in other states that recognize it. Some states will accept a license from a teacher who graduated from an NCATE accredited school with no additional testing while others may not. We were told that having her degree from an NCATE school would help her to work more easily in some states outside of our own. For instance, SC accepts it without additional testing while Nevada will give a candidate some additional testing in specific areas but not all. The NCATE website lists all of the states which accept it and any limitations they place on it. Not all states participate, including apparently my own!
TM
I love snow! The more, the better!!!
We tore up our driveway of our ski vacation home and installed a heated snow-melt system under the concrete. Whenever the fat pretty snowflakes fall, we flip a switch, and the driveway stays clear. And we sit inside, sip cocoa, and watch our neighbors shovel. 
Except for winters when we’re snowed in, I really live in a place that would meet my needs. Great med care, arts, college town, walking neighborhood near markets and etc, nice neighbors, friends. Near enough to the water. Further from the mountains, but doable. But my, I’ve outgrown this place.
My ideal solution would (will?) be, long as I can, live here and spend enough time in other cities/areas to fill me up. Not travel, per se, (I don’t need a long stay or a to-do list, just enough to feel a different vibe.)
PrimeMeridian, blizzard of 78, those of us sharing a house, plus friends who got stuck there, were out using anything we could to shovel. Dang neighbor with the heated driveway just came out to watch us.
Some of you know that we retired/relocated to San Diego from Chicagoland last year. It’s been ten years since I realized I didn’t have to live in winter for the rest of my life (having lived in Colorado, Michigan, New York, and Illinois) and five years since we seriously began a national search for where to go. We were looking for a warmer weather climate somewhat near a coast with an active Jewish population, within easy reach of a major metro area, single family housing with a little lawn, good socialization options for empty nesters, maybe adult education possibilities, and day and vacation trip opportunities.
Chicago was a great place to live for 40 years but I was done with cold and snow.
We have one son who had boomeranged back home after living in California and his dream is to return here one day. (He’s still working in Chicago.) Brother and SIL live back there but their two kids might end up anywhere (nephew currently in NYC). Last parent (my mom) passed away literally days after we moved here.
We had visited most possibilities, getting in touch with a realtor ahead of time so that we could really understand the housing market. We also checked out as much of “normal life” as possible during our visits. In 2012 we spent two months in a couple of VRBO houses in the San Diego area to see if it really would work for us.
Once we started narrowing down possibilities, DH wanted to do a spreadsheet comparing them. So I made up the sheet with 11 criteria and we each picked a multiplier for the importance to us of each item. Then we each rated the possibilities from 1-5 and applied the multiplier. (He’s an engineer and I’m an analyst.) San Diego independently came up the winner for each of us. Cost of housing was the biggest issue and in fact we did have to go higher than we planned. But surprisingly taxes weren’t as much of an issue as I expected. Although pensions are taxed, California has brackets as opposed to Illinois, so in our case it was very close. Also California lets you claim itemized deductions which Illinois did not. So there’s more than just tax rates alone to consider. Also our property taxes are a bit lower although our home is about 25% higher FMV. On the other hand, energy costs haven’t dropped because the rates are way higher even though usage is way less.
FYI our criteria for the ranking spreadsheet were:
Cost of housing
Weather - snow, rain, heat, cold
Cost of living (taxes, utilities, food, gas, etc.)
Recreation/entertainment/access to body of water, beaches
Socialization opportunities (JCC, synagogues, universities)
Major urban access, access to city center
Employment potential
Neighborhood, walkability, shopping, etc.
Ease of transportation - airport, highways, trains
Safety/crime
Rental availability - houses? Condos? Etc. (we put this in in case we couldn’t find a house to buy before we had to move)
@Marilyn–nice list, but I don’t see access to good/great medical care in your list. That is one thing that weighs more in our lives as we age. I know San Diego has a lot of top medical facilities and providers, as I have met some of them at conferences in your lovely city.
@HImom, we knew we wanted to be near a major metropolitan area and assumed any of them would have good medical care. I did find a primary care physician in the UC San Diego Health system since they are so highly rated in many specialties.
@Marilyn Thanks for typing up your personal journey and your very analytical process. Curious as to what other locales you and your husband considered before deciding on San Diego?
Yes, major metro areas tend to have good/great healthcare. I’m amused by folks who are tired of Silicon Valley and flee to more rural places on Kauai and elsewhere where the nearest specialist requires a plane ride or two. I keep thinking they will likely have to relocate when they develop chronic health issues which require more frequent medical attention, either that or stay healthy and suddenly die.
Over the years we took advantage of trips taken for other reasons and checked out the DC area (Bethesda), Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Orange County CA. We ruled out Florida early on although it had been a favorite winter destination area. In fact, it was on a drive back from Ft Lauderdale when I had my epiphany about not having to live in the north forever. Near the end of our search, we also checked out Atlanta and Portland OR. We considered but didn’t visit Austin and Phoenix.
I am delighted with our choice. We’re slowly building a social life through a Meetup group and to a lesser extent our synagogue. We’re busy every week with new and interesting activities. DH is getting plenty of sports activities. I am developing a new network of doctors - I do really miss all my old doctors though. (About two years ago I told DH if we didn’t move soon, we would never be able to because we wouldn’t be able to leave our doctors.) Other things we miss include a lot of good restaurants (especially Chinese and Chicago pizza), and our old suburban library system. Also a few grocery items, although the fantastic year-round farmers markets help make up for that.
So far, I do not miss snow. At all.
Those of you who plan to retire to entirely new communities–do you have any concerns about establishing new friendships/social circles? I’m something of an introvert and my friendships have been nurtured over many years. I have a hard time imagining myself in a brand new place, knowing nobody, and having to start fresh. (Though I suppose if everyone I know retires somewhere else, I’ll be just as bereft!) I’d also hate to give up my dentist and various specialists, or even my favorite shops and restaurants–even the coffee place that knows my order and has it ready by the time I get to the counter. I guess you could say I’m really rooted–I’ll probably never leave my area.
Snow and cold don’t bother me, at least not since I stopped having to drive to and from the office. I just enjoy the snowfalls and wait at home until the streets and my driveway are plowed; it’s never more than a day and no big deal. I find that I rarely even have to put on a pair of snow boots anymore, since parking lots and sidewalks are all kept very clear these days. And at least on cold days you can bundle up in warm clothes. In the heat and humidity of Florida and some other retirement locations, there’s no way to cope comfortably with the weather except to stay inside. Neither H nor I are golfers or tennis players, so we aren’t attracted to the warmer locales for those activities.Yup, I’m rooted!
Most of my docs are about my age, so I am concerned about them retiring and having to get new younger ones. With my luck, I will likely have to find new ones after I am on Medicare. I guess I ought to start looking now. At least my lung specialist is 49, so younger than me.
My dentist is about my age but she’s just brought in her S to the practice, so hopefully it will be a smooth transition. My allergist has her D training at Stanford–in allergy, so maybe the D will take over.
No idea what to do about an internist. I’m also waiting to hear what to do about my lung specialist at UCSF. The one my doc wants me to transfer to is in his 70s, but has a young associate in her 30s or so.
The idea of relocating to a new state doesn’t thrill me at this time. All my sibs and folks live here. I believe D wants to move back–S isn’t sure.
I know people who have essentially done retirement planning along with their friends, and have decided to relocate to the same area and live in close proximity to their friends. They are in the snowbird stage now but have transitioned to the point that they’ll be in their retirement locale by next year 100%.
@MommaJ …that is my concern, too. I’m not an introvert per se, but DH is somewhat. Since we aren’t ones to put ourselves out there to actively meet new friends, I definitely worry about that. I really don’t mind the snow in my Midwest city, unless I have to drive in it like you say. But when I’m retired, I won’t have to. I love the 4 seasons, although I’m not keen about leafless trees for 6 months. DH is only licensed in our state to practice, so I know we are here for another 9 years at least, and he’s expressed an interest in working PT after he turns 65.
The kids are a huge factor right now, and who knows how that will turn out.
What we are thinking of perhaps doing is this…find different places to go stay for a month to three months during the worst of winter each year, but I don’t know how we would like that or not. Then when we are much older we are still stuck in winterland. It’s all so confusing, I really admire Marilyn and others who know what they want, make a plan and then do it! We are still stuck on deciding if we should keep our existing home which needs a lot of $$$ to fix up, or move somewhere else in the city.
I could not handle not having a change of seasons. The endless summer of CA or FL is not for me.