@pizzagirl, California has four seasons…summer, fire season, spring, mudslide season…
My largest concern is finding new social circles which is another reason not to wait too long to move. It’s also why we are looking at a location where some family members and long time friends are already located so we have a “starter” group. I still plan to get out and be active, join groups and talk to people.
My mom joins the activities at the local senior center. She does line dancing, Zumba, etc, and she and my dad go on the organized vacations, including a cross-country bus roadtrip to Yellowstone. They have made a lot of new friends this way.
CC can also provide a starter group. About seven years ago, DH and I were considering relocating to Atlanta for my job, and we would have had some CC people to get us going. We also toyed with a possible job in Reading, PA, and met some CC-ers there. (We wound up not moving out of the area – just downsized and got rid of the mortgage.)
I’m waiting to see where our kids wind up. I really love our current house and current location and will move only to be closer to my kids and eventual grandkids.
I think where I want to be is close to my kids and friends. When I am old and need help I know it would be kids who would be there for me, and I wouldn’t want them to have to travel a long distance to take care of me. I know most of us are too young to think about old age and needing someone to take care of us, but all we have to do is to look at our parents to know driving one hr to visit is a lot easier than driving 4+ hrs each way. I am single now, I also know how important it is to have friends to do things with.
Some of my mom’s friends have moved to Las Vegas because of low cost of living. They kept on asking my mother to move out there. My mother said no because she knows if she should ever end up in a hospital, those friends wouldn’t necessary be there for her. On the other hand, my brother has asker my mom to move to CA and she has also said no because she doesn’t have any friends there. She said there is a lot more to life than just having 3 meals a day and a roof over one’s head. She needs to have friends to play Mahjong with.
Weather!!!
Far away from the DC/Baltimore/NoVA traffic
Near kids and/or a place wtih attractive activities nearby (to attract kids LOL)
A place with a view (not a city view)
Military retirement considerations - taxes, other benefits
We are inching closer to retirement decisions.
The DC area commute for my husband is getting very old. We are tired of adding “traffic” into every single driving decision.
Our neighborhood was a terrific one for raising kids, but we have no sentimental feelings about the house, which we bought with the idea we would move in four years, but here we are 14 years later with the mortgage nearly paid off. It isn’t a “grow old here” sort of house. We want a little more space around us. The lots are very small, with HOA rules about fences not allowing fencing for privacy.
If I never saw a snowflake again I’d be fine. There was a time, long ago, when I had that whole “I want real seasons” mindset, but that was before we lived in Hawaii, Pensacola and Coronado. All of those places have their own subtle seasons. We loved all of those places. The advantages of living in a place with 4 walkable seasons far outweigh a pretty snowfall.
A lot of our thinking is filtered through our experiences of watching our own parents’ good and not-so-good decisions about retirement. My parents did it well, except for their decision to stay in their northern home (instead of the southern winter rental) when the time came that they no longer felt up to the twice yearly travel. They would have done better without the harsh winter conditions that make a walk from a car into any building one of fear of ice and falling for a long part of the year. My in-laws are stubbornly resisting an impending move out of their old victorian (in a harsh winter climate) that is too large and extremely elderly unfriendly. They should have made a move, or at least made plans, years ago, and now it is going to come down to some emergency forcing them out. That is no way to do it.
Some of this will become clearer in the next few years as our three kids become more settled into careers. If they all ended up near DC/Baltimore, we could stay near here, despite the winters, if we were in a different part of the area. It doesn’t take a long drive to get to places in MD or VA (but more likely NC) that would be great for retirement. Even the weather changes remarkably just a little south or closer to the water.
This is a timely topic for me and my husband. We both plan to retire in 3-4 years, and although we have lived here for 30+ years, we’re not natives of this state and have no special ties to this area.
I had always thought (dreamed?) that we’d retire to western NC where I grew up; I love the weather and the people, although I’m not so pleased with the political climate there. However, the older I get, the more I want to move closer to my D - who lives near Minneapolis. There’s a great chance that she will always live there, since she is marrying a native Minnesotan with strong ties to the area and her job is very stable.
I can’t believe we’re actually thinking about retiring to MN! On the one hand, I’m no fan of snow; on the other hand,. I miss the contact with my daughter (we’re very close) and she would love for us to be closer (as long as we don’t move “right next door.”) I reserve the right to live part-time in NC (maybe January through April).
Minneapolis-St Paul seems to have a lot going for it – airport, good health care options, decent cost of living, cultural and educational opportunities. It’s just the weather that makes me pause - that, and the Minnesota Vikings. Husband is a huge Packer fan, and all that purple may be a hardship.
We just moved to our dream house. I actually like living away from the hustle bustle of DC, but I can get there pretty quickly for a city fix. Our friends and community are here. Before we moved we thought about leaving the state, etc. But this now is home, so until it’s untenable, I think we’ll stay. Having life long connections when you’re older is nice as well, and people who remember you, your spouse, your kids - that meant a lot to my mom in her last few years. I’m not one who enjoys being a stranger some place or one of a million residents. I like running into people I know, I like that the store clerks know me, I like the more rural beautiful setting on the water. Obviously not for everyone or it wouldn’t be like it is here, but it’s good for me.
My H and I are both retired and have been for a few years now. We would never have considered moving permanently from Toronto. Our lives, friends, community involvement, volunteer work, etc. have been established here for 40+ years and 3 of our 5 Ds (and our grandchildren!) live here. We would never give all of that up. We spend a lot of time in the winter months in SC at our second home but we wouldn’t want to live there full-time. It always surprises me that so many people are happy to pack up and leave a place where they’ve been established for most of their adult lives.
H and I are keeping in mind that while rural areas can be peaceful, pretty and less expensive what works when you are 65 does not necessarily work well as one ages. My parents are in their 80’s and have significant health issues. They are 2 hours from a major airport so getting there is a pain. No public transportation or major medical center nearby.
@carolinamom2boys, I second your recommendations. When I was a child, I went to Camp Kanuga in Hendersonville, and my great uncle owned a motel in Brevard. My family visited there for years. It is a beautiful area!
Of course, my husband’s retirement career is taking us to rural Maine!
@garland, your property taxes might matter even if your income taxes don’t.
We are moving out of the suburbs of Boston in 3 years. We didn’t grow up as kids around here, and 20 years here is enough for me. I’m officially sick of hustle/bustle and increasing traffic. I just can’t tolerate traffic jams any longer.
We were planning on moving to Wellfleet, Cape Cod and keeping our ski house in Maine. But my wife realizes she might not want to deal with 2 houses anymore and she doesn’t like sharks, lol, so Cape Cod looks out at the moment. So, plan B is to sell our house here in MA and Maine and move to Stowe, VT area. We like that it’s a nice community, easy access to Burlington,VT. lots of trails, skiing, swimming etc. There are hospitals nearby and an airport. My wife likes the idea of actually living in Burlington, but I’m not sold on that. I’m not an urban kind of person. I like small towns and peace and quiet. I love being able to ride my bike around right from my house without dealing with cars and traffic.
We plan on buying ourselves a really nice house though. My wife thinks we deserve it. Our 2 houses that we own now are fairly modest and older. I’d like something newer with better features. My wife wants a pool.
Anyways, we will figure it out. I can’t wait to move out of MA.
I don’t have a real desire to move, just to travel more.
As much as I love the Brevard/Hendersonville/Asheville NC area, I don’t think there is good enough major medical care and Charlotte is too far away. Also, prices have gotten insane (housing) around there. I like that it’s only a 4 1/2 hour drive for me to go there, but I live with top of the line medical care, a fantastic major university, great sports and music.
H and I spend a lot of enjoyable time running permutations. Next year D1 will be in college, the year after that, D2.
We are planning to downsize and relocate, but we don’t know where yet :). We look at things like giant live-aboard boats that could go all over the planet, low-maintenance condos on the beach, acreage in the middle of nowhere, a mountain cabin, a beach bungalow in the Keys. It all looks like fun.
We don’t know whether we will work from home or still go into the office (can’t retire until both D’s are out of college).
I think at this stage we know more about what we DON’T want than what we do want :).
Deal killers:
- Traffic
- No culture (aka anything resembling suburbia is out)
- Cold
- Far-away airport (we want to travel and for the D's to come see us easily)
- No local football team (this is H, I could care less about sports)
- Not close to the ocean (this is me, I miss it so much)
When we get feeble we’re moving to the Villages. lol.
I just can’t live land-locked (though I’m doing it right now LOL). Am way too much a beach/water person. And if i can’t have that then I need mountains.
My other wish-list item is a newer house or condo. OVER remodeling and rehabbing houses (doing that now too).
For once I want to live some place built after the year 2000.
Life can always change one’s plans, but H and I would like to stay where we are and keep our vacation home, which is easily accessible (in the same state). H isn’t interested in retiring. He is moving toward having his younger partners take over more of the daily operations.
Moving to our vacation home permanently (because it’s an amazing area that we love) and leaving from Jan to March might be a possibilitiy too. Kids will always come to vacation place–one reason we bought it.
After the last few MA winters, traveling someplace warm from Jan to March is appealing–no matter what we do.
Moving to a new place seems daunting–I have great friends who I have known for 30 years. Heck, even the ones who drive me nuts are my nutty friends–I know what to expect.
We always plan to have cats and dogs, so that limits our mobility somewhat. That’s why we chose to have one place that we really like, and maybe (if I ever retire) go to Colorado and for longer periods in the summer than we do now. We tend to take shorter trips due to the animals left behind and my job, but I wouldn’t mind a month out of the Tennessee heat in the summer and a week or two at the beach in the winter.
My sister and her husband have what I don’t think is an easy solution. They have a Poconos lake house for April-November and then a house on the west coast of Florida for the winter (but not on the beach). They go back and forth with 3 big dogs and 4 cats and it’s over a 21 hour drive which they do in 2 days. I think they would do better with the summer place being in NC, which would be closer to the Florida house, but it might be too hot for them. They based the PA house on where they have lived their adult lives (and their kids- but that is a changing landscape), but no solution is perfect when you are working around a zoo that has to be transported!
If you have 2 residences, I think it works better if one is “primary”- i.e. a house - and the other is a condo or more temporary digs. We have friends whose main house is in Crested Butte, CO, but they have a condo here in Nashville and their main doctors are in Nashville. It helps that they have free air travel out of Gunnison, Denver and CO Springs, but they do the “main” move each year by car. 1 dog.
At 30, I am quite a ways out from retirement, but my wife and I have already started thinking about places we want to retire. We have lived in the southwestern US for our entire lives, and will probably stay in the region as we both love it here.
must haves:
- Rural, preferably 10-15 minutes outside of town but no more than 15 minutes
- 2 acre minimum for land (planning to build a house)
- Nearby town of 40-60k people, and is somewhat isolated from other major cities
- Good shopping/eating options in town
- Clean air and safe
- Clear skies most of the year