Author Topic: FIREment Communities  (Read 5601 times)

JG in Hangzhou

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FIREment Communities
« on: October 08, 2016, 06:15:37 AM »
New to the forums, so bear with me.  My family and I have been on the final legs of our FIRE journey while living in China the past 8 years.   We run our own educational school out here, but are looking to move back to the US sometime within the next 3 years, in order to get our daughter into middle school.  (Elementary school in China is great for developing good Math ability, homework habits, and Chinese language skills, but social development and preparation for life in and after college falls short compared to the excessive competitiveness during middle school and high school.)  Anyways, I was wondering, that on returning to the US, and being under 50, it might be lonely for my wife and I during the daytime, when all the neighbors are at work. 
So my question is:   
Are there any communities of financially independent early retired folks cropping up in America, and what cities or areas are they in? 

arebelspy

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2016, 06:44:12 AM »
Following! I'm hoping to eventually settle in something like what you describe.

As far as I know, nothing like that yet, however, you may be interested in attending Camp Mustache Forever next summer (2017) on Vancouver Island--this topic is the central theme/focus.
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JG in Hangzhou

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2016, 07:53:04 AM »
@arebelspy,  Maybe this should be an investment/development project upon my return...

Freedomin5

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #3 on: October 08, 2016, 10:06:22 AM »
This is anecdotal only, but the "active living" golf communities seem to attract a lot of upper middle class early retirees (especially the communities without an age requirement). My parents live in one in a bedroom community a half hour from the city. The community is a mix of working and retired people, or people who own their own businesses and have flexible schedules.  When I visit  there are always plenty of folks walking their dogs at 10 AM, playing golf, and hanging out at the rec centre. There are lots of clubs (eg community magazine, etc.) in which one could get involved. And lots of hiking trails since the community was built outside of the city limits.

Stachey

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #4 on: October 08, 2016, 10:43:28 AM »
Arebelspy - do you have more information about the meeting next summer on Van Is.?  I'd be interested in going.

Mtngrl

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #5 on: October 08, 2016, 01:23:01 PM »
There seem to be an awful lot of early retirees in our area (Ridgway, Colorado). I can think of half a dozen neighbors who retired anywhere from late 30s to mid-50s and another hand full from church. It's great when you need a hand with something or want to go do something with friends in the middle of the week. Then there are a bunch of people who retired at the more traditional ages of 62 or 65 who can run rings around us 'younger' folks, so there is a whole community of active folks who have leisure time to hike and fish and volunteer. And in keeping with MMM philosophy, there's not a lot of rampant over-consumption, a lot of do-it-yourselfer attitude, interest in free activities and doing things that save money. This may simply be a case of like drawing like but it's nice that we're not in the minority.

arebelspy

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #6 on: October 08, 2016, 05:29:08 PM »
Great ideas lhamo!

Arebelspy - do you have more information about the meeting next summer on Van Is.?  I'd be interested in going.

None yet, other than the location and dates (Vancouver Island, July - August 2017; it will be an ~8-week thing, but people will likely sign up for 1-week chunks).  Details will be posted once more is available.  :)
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

Metric Mouse

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #7 on: October 09, 2016, 01:13:08 AM »
Following. Be interesting to hear of something like this. In the past 5 years or so of Fire I haven't had any problem filling my time during the day with interesting activities or people; I wouldn't worry about it very much JG. Plenty of opportunities to meet people and endless ways to fill a day - I doubt you'll be very lonely or bored for very long.

Stachey

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #8 on: October 09, 2016, 11:51:48 AM »
Nice!  That's sounds great!  Cheers Arebelspy.

CanuckExpat

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #9 on: October 16, 2016, 08:48:03 PM »
Based on past experience, college towns, or towns with large populations of students, especially grad students (perhaps not in the sciences/engineering, that's more "9-5")  also fit this bill of people available during the day who want to hang out.

I think in any reasonable sized city, you'd also find a large enough variety of people that someone would be available during the day. But it is tricky, and a concern
« Last Edit: October 17, 2016, 08:14:57 PM by CanuckExpat »

arebelspy

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #10 on: October 16, 2016, 08:50:50 PM »
I think in any reasonable sized city, you'd also find a large enough variety of people that someone would be available during the day. But it is tricky, and a concern

Many of those people may not be the ones you'd like to hang out with, or share many of the same interests.  Whereas people who FIRE'd early, I'm betting have a fair amount in common with each other, and are more likely to get along than the average person who's not at work on a mid-Tuesday afternoon for non-ER reasons.

Not necessarily the case (i.e. there will be exceptions), but I'd bet statistically it's the case.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

msilenus

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2016, 08:54:53 PM »
Interesting idea.  (Posting to follow.)

Metric Mouse

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #12 on: October 17, 2016, 07:14:47 PM »
Based on past experience, college towns, or towns with large populations of students, especially grad students (perhaps now in the sciences/engineering)  also fit this bill of people available during the day who want to hang out.

I think in any reasonable sized city, you'd also find a large enough variety of people that someone would be available during the day. But it is tricky, and a concern

Great points.  All sorts of diverse people to hang out with.  No need to limit it only to early retirees; artificially scaling down the number of options would only increase the difficulty of finding people who enjoy the same activities.  It's not like people with jobs are total aliens - they like to hang out too, and soooo many jobs have flexible schedules and odd hours that there are a surprising number of people free during the week.  In my experience, anyway.  Just think about teachers - they have off entire months at a time; I'm sure they don't all sit at home going "Gee, who am I going to hang out with today... really wish more people had teacher hours."

Libertea

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #13 on: October 19, 2016, 05:04:10 PM »
Speaking as someone who has moved to new cities and states constantly (every couple of years pretty much my entire life), I would argue that the local neighborhood is vastly more important than the city or region of the country.  You want to be in a neighborhood that is A) walkable, B) has public gathering areas (parks, outdoor markets, rec center, etc), and C) safe so you can enjoy the prior two amenities.  The good news is that these pockets can be found pretty much in any city.  Even small towns can be surprisingly social and provide plenty of activities to do, along with significantly lower COL versus cities or suburbs.  So I would talk with your family about where in the country you hope to end up, and then start scouting the neighborhoods there.

One of the reasons why I quit my current job is because, while I have the first and third criteria, the second is pretty much lacking.  (I'm basically living/working in semirural strip mall neighborhood hell.)  While I could move to a more community-oriented neighborhood in the same city, then I would have to commute to work, where now I can just walk.  So, since I don't love the job anyway, I decided it was time to move on, and I am.

usoverseas

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Re: FIREment Communities
« Reply #14 on: October 22, 2016, 01:30:48 AM »
Posting to follow...There was a post not too long ago about finding a Ski Town to live in, I suspect a lot of those places have people around during the day to do things.  We were back in the US in December and went up to Lake Tahoe mid-week to do some hiking.  There seemed to be quite a few people of various ages out and about hiking, etc in the middle of the day. 

 

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