Did you relocate after FIRE and how was the transition?

[Trudie]

I'm interested in others' experiences relocating after FIRE.  Where did you move from and to?  What were your motivations?  How did you form new friendships, integrate into your new community, and foster non-work interests?  What were the challenges and disappointments of moving?  Unexpected upsides?

[Left Bank]

I'm interested in others' experiences relocating after FIRE.  Where did you move from and to?  What were your motivations?  How did you form new friendships, integrate into your new community, and foster non-work interests?  What were the challenges and disappointments of moving?  Unexpected upsides?

Yes, my wife and I relocated post-FIRE from Boston, MA to central Oregon (Bend) because we love the West and needed a change from the snow, congestion, cost and chaos of the East Coast.  We love to be outdoors and are very active people.  Our biggest help to meeting people, besides our outdoor activities, has been Meetup.com.  Challenges/disappointments?  We've been here 5mts and I will have to get back to you later when I can come up with some.  Unexpected upsides? People are so ridiculously, nice and civil it seems odd coming from Boston.
Good luck!
LB

[Larsg]

Great questions and response. Although I am not retired yet - planning on it - I wanted to comment on relocating. I have relocated many times for work, not because I ever had to...but because I was given the option to choose roles and locations that would grow my career. When I was young, I was so scared to leave my family and friends, all I had known and start again. I left CA and moved to the East Coast. Over time, I have migrated my way back. Mostly because after that first move, I built such confidence in meeting new people and learning new skills and interests. I have found in most places, people are outgoing and friendly. The trick is connecting with people that share your same values and I find it's easy to do through community or volunteer activities as people are coming together for a common goal and then in meeting them you find many common interests and new interests that you can share. In all my moves - 11 over the past 20 years, I pick up new friends, new perspectives, etc that have been transformative and have made me and my family fearless about going anywhere. The last two moves we made job agnostic...finally being able to work from home in current job. First we tried an island - wound up being a little too small townish but glad we tried it - and now we live in the forest w/complete privacy. Beautiful surroundings but just a couple miles from culture, community, etc. Where have you always dreamed of living? I encourage a try before you buy - e.g. renting in a city or in the country of an area you have always wanted to try - travel light - and if you don't like it, try again.

When I first moved to the Seattle area I lived down town - nice but too cramped, then we moved to the burn - just awful, then an island - to small town, and now the forest that is close to a city and everything else. Expenses are very low and we just love it...If you like heat and sun, we did spend some time in Tucson and were surprised by how much we love it though I don't like the scary critters they have in the desert.

Happy exploring anyhow.

[Trudie]

@Larsg - We currently live in Iowa and have lived in other places in the midwest, with a brief stint in South Carolina (my husband, before we were married.)  We don't have the kinds of jobs that lend to frequent moves (my husband is an academic), although we do travel widely in the US and abroad (mostly Europe) and we've watched my parents try out different retirement spots having finally settled on Tucson, which is very nice but not for us.

Of all our exploring, we've always enjoyed our time in the west and much prefer it to the east.  We like the laid back attitude.  Also, I think there are lots of people who have migrated from other places; that is to say, not everyone is a "homer" and can't imagine never leaving.  We enjoy the outdoors (running, biking, golfing) but would like to enjoy them more days of the year.

Right now we live in a vibrant small college town.  Because we are part of the college we have great access to cultural/arts/athletic events, top notch exercise facilities, and lots of little bennies (library use) that certainly add to our quality life.  Those are things we would not want to give up.  But when we are not working we would want more to do.  And I know this sounds like a paradox, but I want to get out of living in a fishbowl.  So, I realize that I say on the one hand we want new friends/to meet new people but on the other hand I want some anonymity.  I guess the best way to put it is that because this is a small town I've had a tough time finding a "critical mass" of people who share my interests.  For instance, there is no running club.  My joy for certain activities has been dampened because in a small town if you want to do something you have to start it.  People -- in general -- where we're at and in the circles we run in are progressive, but there's also a "woe is me" undercurrent a little bit.  A few academic types that can't imagine doing much else in retirement but hang out in the library and lose themselves in retirement in the "life of the mind."  I also feel like our travel and spending habits are on display and draw judgement.  We don't have kids so we have flexibility and we travel quite a bit -- but not frivolously so.  We're not extremely mustachian, but we are in good shape and dump tons of cash into our retirement accounts ($60K per year) which is about 40% of our income.  We'll drive our cars into the ground but won't deprive ourselves of certain entertainment (football tickets for our favorite college team) because life is -- after all -- very short and this doesn't impede our FIRE goals.

So. I hope I've helped illuminate things.

[sequim]

We are planning on moving and in fact, bought a house just a month ago in our FIRE town.  We'll move there as soon as our current house sells.  It went on the market yesterday and in this market should sell fast.  I think we'll be able to leave before the end of May. Currently we live in Issaquah, which is a suburb of Seattle.  It was nice moving here from downtown Seattle, but now after a few years, we can't wait to leave!  The development and extreme consumerism is driving me crazy.

Our FIRE town will be Salt Lake City, Utah.  The good thing is that I spent about 15 years there and have several very good friends still living there.  I look forward to re-connecting with them and doing more fun adventures with them.  My husband fell in love with the place when we visited a couple times last year for skiing and biking trips.  Even though he is a native of western Washington and hasn't lived anywhere else, he says he's sick of Washington and really was the one bugging me to move to SLC.  At first I didn't want to leave my sister and her husband behind here but finally we rationalized it because we knew we would still return on road trips and for holidays and birthdays.  It's time for a change.  Plus they are just a day and a half away.  But family considerations are always something that I factor into a move.

We're calling ourselves traffic and bad snow refugees and look forward to a smaller city to get around in plus access to world class ski resorts and actual powder!  Plus the desert and all the national parks of the 4 Corners area will be available to us for exploring.  So while we can't speak of the transition just yet, I'm expecting it to be wonderful. Will report back when it becomes an actuality.

[OldPro]

You might want to read this thread.
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/the-reality-of-retiring-to-a-'tropical-paradise'/

My first comment specific to your question would be to never listen to anyone who has not lived for 5 or more years in a place.  Comments by people thinking about moving or under 2 years into living somewhere are opinions and rose coloured glasses tinted respectively. 

If you are considering a move, just how it went for anyone else is irrelevant.  The reality is that no one can know how they will take to it until they try.  Some people get 'homesick' on a 2 week vacation and for them a move is obviously not a good idea but the opposite is also true.  Liking somewhere on vacation is no indication of how you would take to living there on a longer term basis.

Similarly, someone used to city living may or may not take to small town living.  As I said, there is no way to pre-determine whether you will like it somewhere else or not.  That means asking others how they took to it is of no use whatsoever.

[Jon_Snow]

Our family has had a wonderful place in the Baja for almost 25 years...in that time I have learned intimately the unique "quirks" of that part of Mexico (and the are many). So comfortable am I in that region that I would not have any problems spending 5 or 6 months there every year - good thing too because that's precisely what I intend to do once my wife retires. Until then, I will have to make do with 2 months of the year. Looking forward to skipping out on Vancouver's gloomiest winter months.

Of course, summers on the BC coast can't be beat, so we will always keep these two properties. The city condo I have no real attachment to...I would sell that in a heartbeat.

I don't really have much desire to do the "tropical thing" full time.

[Hank Sinatra]

I'm interested in others' experiences relocating after FIRE.  Where did you move from and to?  What were your motivations?  How did you form new friendships, integrate into your new community, and foster non-work interests?  What were the challenges and disappointments of moving?  Unexpected upsides?

I moved from the Ogden/Salt Lake City area to Omaha Nebraska. I was finishing 20 yrs in the military so moving was nothing new.  My motivation was I didn't like Utah, ha ha.  I looked for a sufficiently large city/metro area that had a good solid, diversified economy, and good cost of living ratio.  Things like crime and weather were secondary considerations.  Integrating myself into the community..? Not sure what that means exactly but I had lived in a lot of different places over the years. I just show up and one place is more or less like another. And with no workplace dolts to deal with it was even easier than my previous moves.

No unexpected up or down sides related to my new location. One thing  that might make it tough on some people is without knowing the area quite well it makes buying a house difficult. I decided to just skip the mental games and rent an apartment for the first year.  Being single that was easy. For a family  it might not be feasible.

Being an INTJ the stuff about fostering new interests and finding new friends was not even on my mind.

[Ender1982]

My family and I are currently in the middle of "shifting" our life styles from 4 rental properties, 2 jobs, 3 cars, and multiple recreational toys; to no properties, 1 car, and no debt, and get out of the DC area.

We started the process 3 yrs ago and have the goal for both of us to be FIRE'd by the time we are 35. I am now 32 and quit my job 2 months ago to be a stay at home Dad, we are living in our last property (if anyone wants to buy a townhouse in MD/DC-area let me know) and have 1 car paid in full. The transition has been hard, but also rewarding. Our goal is to get to OH to be closer to family and raise our son away from the complex, busy, city life.  We kind of have it lucky, since my family is already established in OH so building relationships is not much of a concern. The main concern is finding what to do with all our new-found time.

Back to your questions, as for challenges, when we moved to our current townhouse, we had hired a moving company (no idea who it was as I didn't do the hiring, but lets just say we went the cheapest route) to help us load and unload the truck. They never showed up due to the fact it snowed the night previous and god-forbid it snow in DC as EVERYTHING shuts down. So basically we had the truck for 24-hours and myself and my wife to move, oh and a 9-month old baby boy, who can carry small things and crawl, was a little hard to get him to understand directions. Bottom-line: spend some extra money and hire a reputable, well known moving company.

Unexpected downsides: (I know you asked about upsides, but not having a commute in DC and a job that you hate kinda covers them all). It def takes some adjusting to the stay-at-home life. Give yourself at least 2 weeks to 2 months if your raising a child, to truly feel like your didn't make the wrong decision. ;)

Sorry for the rambling, but hope you found something useful in there!

[Tyler]

We relocated from the Bay Area to a retirement-short-list city two years before FIRE.  I highly recommend a pre-FIRE transition.  It let us prototype our retirement lifestyle, giving us two years of real-world spending data to solidify our retirement budget while continuing to work  (no guesswork needed).  Also, it allowed us to make no changes after we stopped working other than to ditch the alarm clock.  The months immediately after retiring aren't necessarily the best mentally to make big life changes (some people over-stress while others over-reach), and I've very much enjoyed how our foundation was built beforehand.  Who knows -- we may move at some point in the future, but I'm thankful that we're positioned to do it on our own schedule with no outside pressures.

[Trudie]

Lots of good advice on here so far about making the transition gradually after one reaches FIRE.  At various times my husband and I have pondered buying a second home in our retirement destination town but have now decided to keep these assets productive.  It would be an emotional decision, and a poor one.

There are so many short-long term rentals available now through VRBO and other sources that it hardly seems difficult to "try before you buy."

Also - I'm starting to get cold feet about being closer to family.  At times you can't beat it, but I'm just starting to realize how much of a circus it is.  Not sure if I don't want to keep my distance a bit.

[DogChaseLane]

We just recently went through the whole FIRE relocation thing.  We moved from Maryland to Oregon, and so far we're cautiously thrilled with the transition.  My husband was a career federal government employee, so we were pretty tightly tied to the DC metro area while he was working.  We started exploring where we'd like to live "someday" and settled pretty quickly on Portland.  We thought we were about 4 years away from pulling the retirement trigger, but his agency was re-organizing and offered an early-out to qualified candidates.  He filled out the paperwork half an hour after they made the offer!  We sold the house, ditched our cars, radically downsized our stuff, and got the heck out of Dodge.  Four days after he retired, we started our drive cross country.

We love the more temperate climate, the natural beauty of the region, the walkable neighborhoods, the friendly people, the liberal politics.  We love living without a car.  Overall, it's all that we hoped it would be.  I have found, however, that it's much more difficult (for me, at least) to meet people and make friends when you're not working.  This has bothered me much more than it has my husband.  It's happening, but slowly.  I haven't lived anywhere that I didn't know a soul for more than 30 years.

[Hank Sinatra]

Also - I'm starting to get cold feet about being closer to family.  At times you can't beat it, but I'm just starting to realize how much of a circus it is.  Not sure if I don't want to keep my distance a bit.

I should have mentioned this.  Being far enough away from family so that I always had an excuse to not visit was part of my retirement locaction selection process

[CanuckExpat]

We just recently went through the whole FIRE relocation thing.  We moved from Maryland to Oregon, and so far we're cautiously thrilled with the transition. ..We started exploring where we'd like to live "someday" and settled pretty quickly on Portland.
..
We love the more temperate climate, the natural beauty of the region, the walkable neighborhoods, the friendly people, the liberal politics.  We love living without a car.  Overall, it's all that we hoped it would be.

Hi DogChase,

I don't know if this is the right thread, but could you elaborate on the process you went through to pick your "someday" spot and how you settled on Portland? That had been on my list as well and I'd like to hear your thoughts.

It's also interesting that you say it is temperate. It is of course less humid than DC (where isn't?) but I always thought Portland got a bit "harsher" winters than say Seattle, being further from the ocean it was a little less temperate. I might be mistaken.

[DogChaseLane]

Hey CanuckExpat!  Our process was less than scientific...once we ruled out all of the states that we wouldn't even consider (largely due to crazy harsh winters/summers and politics that we personally can't abide by) we were left with a handful of places.  We were going to systematically check them out, but we didn't get too far down our list.  Loved several places in California, but most are even more expensive than DC was.  From our first scouting trip to Portland we just really loved the area.  I don't know exactly, it just felt like where we wanted to be.  We had planned to check out Seattle, but never made it up there.  I hear it's awesome.  Truthfully, we committed to Portland much sooner than I expected because we found a house on Redfin that met our wish list and we jumped on it.  It all happened crazy fast once the pieces started falling in place.  My husband is usually really cautious, but this time he's the one who suggested we go for it.  We closed our eyes and jumped.

This was our first winter here and it was pretty atypical.  Way warmer and less wet than normal.  We'll see how I do in future years.  I grew up in northern Ohio though, so my perception of "temperate" might differ from yours.  FWIW, Portland only gets half the annual rainfall of Seattle and less than DC or New York.

Been here for 7 months now and we are both loving the city.  We figure that if we ever decide we made a mistake, we can go somewhere else.

[pbkmaine]

We moved first to Maine (I loved it but DH hated the winters) and then to Florida. We are in a super friendly over 55 community north of Orlando. We both love it here. Almost everyone is retired, so lots of people to play with. During the hot summer days, we jump in the pool. During the winter months, we get our kicks listening to weather reports from the North. 

[Maxman]

We moved first to Maine (I loved it but DH hated the winters) and then to Florida. We are in a super friendly over 55 community north of Orlando. We both love it here. Almost everyone is retired, so lots of people to play with. During the hot summer days, we jump in the pool. During the winter months, we get our kicks listening to weather reports from the North.

We moved to the Villages FL from Baltimore MD. Maryland has very high taxes and crummy weather. Love it in Florida. The lifestyle is relaxed and stress free.