Author Topic: Where would you retire to?  (Read 23622 times)

frugaldrummer

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #50 on: January 18, 2015, 10:37:33 AM »
Deltabond, like anyplace else, costs on the west coast are about the details. Yes, California real estate is expensive, but if you're retired and don't have to commute into a city center, you can reduce housing costs.

For instance, I live 45 mins north of San Diego, in a luxurious 20 year old  2350 sf house.  It's worth about $500k today (a lot, I know). A modest, 1950s, 1050 sf house clise to San Diego would cost the same. A sl newer house similar to mine could be had about 30-45 mins north of me for about $300k. Climate is mild so utilities are low. Property taxes are lower than many states and pegged to your purchase price, not subsequent inflation.

 

cazaubon

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #51 on: January 18, 2015, 06:49:46 PM »
I love all four seasons and am retiring to Montreal. If I need a break once in a while I will go to the south of France or San Francisco, where my brother lives. Not interested in a nomadic lifestyle but I like nice long vacations in interesting places.

capital

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #52 on: January 18, 2015, 07:00:18 PM »
We live in a nearby town to Boulder Creek too! I've visited the Pacific NW many times and love it but don't think I could deal with that many rainy days each year; you should consider whether that would bother you. If rain is ok, you could also look at Eugene - reminds me of a larger Santa Cruz in many ways, and very bike friendly. It's a couple hours South of Portland.
They also have the desert up there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakima,_Washington
Dunno much else about the city other than they have a bike rack corporation.

Daisy

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #53 on: January 18, 2015, 07:21:59 PM »
Although I love to travel, I agree with those that like a good home base close to family and friends. At this point, I can't imagine permanently leaving my home city for other pastures, but I can see some mid-term travel (3-6 months) creeping into my lifestyle during FIRE. I'd like to try some long term hikes in Spain, South America, Asia.

I'm kind of a people person and haven't travelled solo much. I can see myself travelling solo while FIREd (mostly because everyone else will be stuck working, not that I like the solo travel) and meeting some interesting people. Also, being a people person means I want to stay retired close to "my people". Kind of restricting, but I think I'd feel quite aimless being permanently away from friends and family.

And all of this talk of the Pacific NW sounds very enticing. I've only been to Whistler/Vancouver/Victoria/Alaska. I like what I saw, but haven't spent much time there. Sounds like summer in the PNW would be a good escape from the crappy summers in South Florida...too much heat, rain, humidity (although perfect beach weather).

SandyBoxx

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #54 on: January 18, 2015, 07:40:10 PM »
Once we ER, we hope to stay in the same place, and really take advantage of our location in the middle of 5 National parks to hike, fish, mountain bike, ski, camp, soak in the surrounding hot springs, and maybe learn to golf? - apparently the course here is AMAZING, with lots of others within an hours drive.  We do get lots of snow, but it tends to be very sunny here as opposed to being socked in and grey all winter.  Once the kids are grown, and we approach a more traditional retirement age, we will likely head for the Okanagan valley (Vernon/Armstrong area.)

I am the opposite of lots of the previous posters - when I lived on Vancouver Island, all I wanted/needed were the mountains!  DH and I both agree that we love having 4 individual seasons.  Snow is lots of fun when you have the time to play in it!

rpr

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #55 on: January 18, 2015, 08:01:14 PM »
I love my town:  http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/best-towns/Durango-Colorado.html

Housing is expensive, but to me, it's worth it.

I own a house with an "Accessory Dwelling Unit".  I rent out the main house.  I think after I retire in a few years, I will hit the road (mostly in the US, to start with).  I will keep the house and ADU.  Hopefully I can get a tenant who is handy and could keep an eye on the ADU while I am gone.  Or, I could pay a property manager to take care of everything.

Seems like I would have the best of both worlds if I can continue to have my main residence in this awesome town, keep bringing in rental income, but be able to slow travel elsewhere.  Looking forward to it.

Who knows, I could even invite fellow mustachians to visit and stay in my ADU when I am out of town.  ;-)
I visited Durango in September last year mainly to ride the D&SNGRR. It was awesome. I also loved the town. Unfortunately, my other half hates the outdoors :( and was not too keen on Durango but loves living nearer to bigger cities such as Denver (and Boulder as well).

WYOGO

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #56 on: January 18, 2015, 09:13:08 PM »

If you love mountains there is no better place than the cascades!
[/quote]

Cascades = Awesome  - Yes
Mountains = No better place - Not so much ;)

YK-Phil

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #57 on: January 18, 2015, 10:18:35 PM »
This spring, we'll spend some time expanding our search for our potential retirement community to Vancouver Island and the South Channel Islands. Based on internet research, Nanaimo and Gabriola Island are my current favourites.

Gabriola is really nice and quiet, very rural, with a friendly and artistic vibe like most other Gulf Islands, but that most places in mainland Vancouver Island do not have. We visited most accessible islands and for a number of reasons, we opted for Gabriola and purchased a small acreage last year. We are planning to build a "tiny" home for us, and another for visiting kids and friends. Our plan is to live on the island during the warm months of the year -although even the bad months are very liveable. I was there for New Year's and couldn't believe how green and tropical it felt (mind you, I work in Yellowknife...). The winters are generally very mild, so mild that my daughter and her fiance are now living aboard their sailboat permanently. My daughter has even been scuba diving every weekend this winter. The rest of the year, our plan is to spend 3-5 months in a warm place: Southwest USA, Spain, Mexico, Thailand, etc.

NinetyFour

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #58 on: January 19, 2015, 05:21:26 AM »
I love my town:  http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/best-towns/Durango-Colorado.html

Housing is expensive, but to me, it's worth it.

I own a house with an "Accessory Dwelling Unit".  I rent out the main house.  I think after I retire in a few years, I will hit the road (mostly in the US, to start with).  I will keep the house and ADU.  Hopefully I can get a tenant who is handy and could keep an eye on the ADU while I am gone.  Or, I could pay a property manager to take care of everything.

Seems like I would have the best of both worlds if I can continue to have my main residence in this awesome town, keep bringing in rental income, but be able to slow travel elsewhere.  Looking forward to it.

Who knows, I could even invite fellow mustachians to visit and stay in my ADU when I am out of town.  ;-)
I visited Durango in September last year mainly to ride the D&SNGRR. It was awesome. I also loved the town. Unfortunately, my other half hates the outdoors :( and was not too keen on Durango but loves living nearer to bigger cities such as Denver (and Boulder as well).

Glad you liked our little town and the beautiful train ride!  Sorry it wasn't your OH's cup of tea.  :(

zoltani

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #59 on: January 20, 2015, 09:47:48 AM »
  The town is Index, WA, great climbing and kayaking/rafting, with a few meth heads in to spice things up.
Love your photos Zoltani! Is that you climbing? The Cascades (and Washington state) was the first place I went right after I quit my job. Last day at work was a Friday - was in Washington (Trout Lake area) for climbing, hiking, fun stuff by Monday! That was my version of "easing" into the retirement life :-)! Spent about a month there and fell in love - especially the Cascades and coastal areas - until the rains came.

I took the photo of index while on a climb of the Upper Town Wall. The photo in the snow gully is of my wife the approach to liberty bell near washington pass.

Where does your retirement take you these days?


If you love mountains there is no better place than the cascades!

Cascades = Awesome  - Yes
Mountains = No better place - Not so much ;)
[/quote]

OK, I concede that WY is pretty fucking special. The tetons and wind river ranges are absolutely spectacular.

Shortbus

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #60 on: January 20, 2015, 01:25:22 PM »
Somewhere with mountains and seasons. As a native Floridian I'll leave it to those of you dreaming of someplace warm right now.

PRNmeds

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #61 on: February 18, 2015, 02:15:21 PM »
My dream retirement lives down the road from OP in Santa Cruz, CA.  We will be selling our modest Silicon Valley residence of 20+ years to move to an even more modest house near the ocean.  Sometimes I get envious of family members in the midwest and PNW and their lower COL, but I am so attached to the landscape and climate of California I really don't want to move.  Also, our friends here share our value of outdoor living - trail running, road and mountain biking and a (mostly) simple lifestyle.  DH wants to learn surfing and I would like to try the SUP and kayak.

Of course the reason it is possible for us to retire here is because we stuck with the high income jobs for 20+ years.  In my case, like OP's, the bay area paid me substantially more than I could have gotten elsewhere, and we were able to FIRE at 50 and 54 a few years ago.  We could have retired sooner if I had found MMM earlier.  And yes, I retired younger than any of those family members in other parts of the country.

So my message to the OP is: do you love Boulder Creek?  Do you love nursing?  Think long and hard before you give up a good thing.

Good things to stop and reevaluate. I've always told myself, "when you aren't sure what to do next in life, don't make any changes". Why mess with a good thing? My wife and I have been working opposite nursing shifts (her on days, with my on nights). I recently just took a day shift position in another department of the hospital. This will allow us to spend 2 more hours a day together as we travel to work. Additionally, I won't have to sleep through 2/3rds of a day off together because I worked the night before. We are also looking into retiring in Santa Cruz, or possibly Scotts Valley.

Perhaps we could meet up for a beer some time.

Happy in CA

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #62 on: February 19, 2015, 04:31:03 PM »
Hey PRN, glad to see another Santa Cruz area person here.  I haven't been there much lately because we have an ailing cat.  But when I get back there would be happy to meet up for that beer. 

AlwaysBeenASaver

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #63 on: February 19, 2015, 05:12:02 PM »
I'm Santa Cruz County too, and know at least one other on here from this area as well.

southern granny

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #64 on: February 19, 2015, 07:37:02 PM »
Our plan was always to retire to the St. Petersburg Beach, FL area... we love it down there, but the grandkids got here before we got out and we can't imagine moving away from them.  So I guess we are stuck here until they are all teenagers and don't want to spend time with us. 

Exflyboy

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #65 on: February 19, 2015, 08:06:47 PM »
For some reason I find myself worrying more and more about the affordability of healthcare in the US.

It turns out that my Wife and I would be eligible for free HC in the UK, although it would take 5 years for my Wife to gain permanent residency if we moved back there, but she would get free HC from the day we both arrived.

Now I'm not too keen on living back in the UK (the weather is generally crap). It used to be that if you were a UK citizen you could also get free HC in the EU as a reciprocal arrangement with the uK. Sadly from my reading on the subject it looks like that is not universally true.

My other concern (apart from never having enough money) is that if the ACA subsidies go away we might find a mass exodus to retiree friendly countries such as Panama. Honduras etc.

If we then get that mass exodus, then these places will not likely to remain as affordable.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

Frank


henrysmom

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Re: Where would you retire to?
« Reply #66 on: February 19, 2015, 09:46:33 PM »
Not far from Orange County, we live in Long Beach, CA.  House fully paid for but need to leave to children as one son disabled and needs stable long-term housing situation.  That said, if I were in a position to move I'd head to New Mexico.  I know all the negatives, it's a poor state, etc, but it's the place in the US I feel most at home.  I love the Corrales area, but also love Las Cruces, and also Taos, although I couldn't handle the cold.  I spend a lot of time in the PNW in my youth and always thought of moving there.  Then about 12 years ago (I was 44), we went to Portland on a job interview and then stayed in the area for about 8 days.  Fell in love with the people, the greenness, the city itself (and the beer wasn't bad :) However, at the end of the vacation I realized I couldn't stay as I feel depression creeping up me very quickly due to the lack of sun (this was in April).  I never believed in Seasonal Affective Disorder when I was young, but as I've aged it's become a real issue for me.  Even here in Southern California beach areas I feel it to a lesser degree.  Traditionally it is gloomy here through June and then the sun comes out in early July.  I always notice my mood improves within days of the bright sun.  May not be an issue for you younger folks, but as you age the cold and dreariness might get to you in ways you can't foresee.

 

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