Where would you retire if you only had two years to save and invest?

[Landlord2015]

Yeah, the only good thing I am aware of regarding Southern California is their

I'm in Huntington Beach (Orange County). Have a paid off house there with low prop taxes and utilities (and yes water is cheap - my average bill is $20/month) so I can live here very cheaply (bare bones is around $500/month for everything). But will eventually sell and move somewhere else as it's too hot, smoggy and crowded in OC.

Yeah well the global warming is not fair... we could use some more warming in Finland and you have to warm. I would recommend Californians that are used to warm weather to visit Finland in July or very early August. After August first or second week usually the warmest time period is over.

However if you retire to Finland the apartments and houses are built to withstand cold fine and inside it is not cold. That is why I really like so much my gym I am not some bodybuilder type but I like sports but dislike cold weathers. Watching winters sports for me is ok but personally I don't like cold weather.

[meadow lark]

ROG, I spent my teen years in Durham, NC.  It is affordable and very beautiful.
Albuquerque, NM is similar in price.  We almost bought a 3 br 2 ba 900 sq ft condo for $37k last year.  Our property manager warned us it wouldn't rent well, evidently people don't like renting 3 br condos here - they want SFH if they have kids, so we nixed it.  But if we didn't have big dogs I would be very interested in it.

[RootofGood]

I also lived in NC for a bit (stationed there) just outside of Southport and thought it was really beautiful, charming historic towns and very inexpensive. Really enjoyed my time there and have often though coastal NC as a permanent place. Seems the prices have gone quite a bit in the Southport/Wilmington area but still very affordable compared to many other places (although probably nothing low enough to meet the OPs requirements).  I do like NC a lot because of the reason I mentioned above plus fairly close proximity to mountains and a lot of outdoor recreations. Of course there's the dreaded bugs and hurricanes and humidity but I could tolerate that for low prices!

If that was Oak Island at the CG station, then yeah, prices there have gone crazy in the last several decades.  We used to vacation there when I was a kid (80's and maybe early 90's).  Prices are much higher now. 

The only semi-affordable beaches I know of around Wilmington are Surf City/Topsail. We briefly drooled over a nice $300k 4BR oceanfront half-duplex but decided renting in shoulder season for $700-800/wk was a better deal for our needs.

[RootofGood]

Southport is high now too but lower than Oak Island and surrounding coastal towns but I did see a 1000 sf SFH in Southport for $64K the other day - which means it's probably a terrible place since prices are so high there now.

It's probably halfway out over the water and 1 tropical storm away from joining it's neighbors in the depths of the Atlantic.  :)  Lots sell for more than that down there, so even if it's a complete tear down the lot itself must be at risk of being washed away. 

[tmoneyearlyretiree]

OP here, I'm in Mexico right now and you could retire pretty much anywhere here if you wanted to. The peso just hit a new low of 18 to 1, so most of our meals cost between $1 and $3 if we go to a sit down restaurant. Museums are about $2 and bus transit between cities is about $7. Amazing how bad the currency crisis is for the rest of the world right now. I wrote a few articles about it on my blog. People have mentioned Mexico City but that seemed really crowded and hectic, plus the safety there wasn't great outside of a few areas (buddy and I got robbed, another guy in the hostel got robbed at gunpoint). Puebla seems much safer and its still close to Mexico City.