The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Welcome and General Discussion => Topic started by: Dances With Fire on August 12, 2016, 05:54:57 AM
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I have been reading a few posts lately here and on other forums about relocating to a (warmer) climate, lower cost of living area (LCOLA),renting vs. buying, traffic, access to public transportation, good access to health care, good schools, etc.
DW and I have had a few discussions about this as well. Older neighbors of ours are snowbirds and rent a condo 2-3 months out of the year down south and seems to be the "best" of both worlds???
So just curious, how many MMM members plan to just stay right where you are and why?
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I am. I live in downtown Charlotte in an extremely affordable place that's a short walk from grocery, library, great restaurants, parks, an NFL stadium, NBA arena, minor league ballpark and more. I love it here.
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No grand plans of sailing off to a third world country or moving across state lines for me.
Although I admit a big underlying reason is how young I plan on retiring. Maybe one day I'd pick a new spot, but for the foreseeable future, retiring at 37 will probably make me enough of an "outsider" that I don't feel the need to move to a new place too.
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I thought I knew where I wanted to be but 5 years later I'm ready for change again. I've decided to ditch the house and rent different places across the world for 1-2 years at a time to see the world without cramming vacations into 1-2 week expensive trips. I start my journey in October. Hope it pans out :)
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We will likely stay put. We may downsize the house once the baby bird has flown the nest, but we would just buy a smaller home in our area. It's LCOL, we love the country setting, yet close enough to the city and other family to not feel isolated.
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I will likely stay where I am in south florida, probably in the condo I already live in. Great weather, great school district (if I ever have a family lol), and there are two plazas that are a 5-10 min walk that have a dunkin donuts, regular breakfast place, 2 sub shops, pizza, chinese, bbq, ice cream, sports bar, organic/vegan restaurant, walgreens, my dentist, my doctor. I wish there was a grocery store in one of them, but that is under 2 miles away also which is easy biking distance. There are a couple of parks in walking distance as well. The airport and dolphins/hurricanes stadium are each less than 15 miles away. Hockey is less than 5 miles.
There is a chance I check out living abroad for a while, but if I do I would rent my place and come back to it (unless living abroad ends up being that good).
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Even though we're in a high COL area with a crappy winter to boot, the plan is to stay in our current place as a "home base" and then travel extensively. Spending the worst of the winter months some place sunny sounds like good plan--though we'd need to hire someone to start our car occasionally and make sure the ice dams don't destroy our roof.
My in-laws are retired and have been spending a month at Myrtle Beach every year, and they love.\
My parents moved from central Ohio to Greenville, SC full time and they LOOOOOOVE IT.
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I live near downtown Chicago. After reaching FIRE, I may stay for a while, but I don't see myself staying here permanently. It is just too expensive -- mostly because of the taxes. Sales tax of 10.25% on non-groceries, 2.25% tax on groceries -- not to mention the sticker shock of the property tax increase over the prior year (over 50% increase in just one year!) Plus, the weather seems to pinball between sweltering hot in the summer to bitter cold in the winter with a relatively short amount of comfortable weather sprinkled in between.
I'm here for the high salary job to fuel my high savings rate. I won't be here forever. I haven't picked my next destination, but Florida seems like a reasonable candidate since my parents recently bought a townhouse there (for doing the snow-bird thing.)
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We plan to do this. We'd like to purchase a new house as we're living in (and only owning) half a duplex right now. We'd like a single family - the 'house that they'll carry me out of'. Nothing fancy but in the exact same town we're in now.
We live in New England and love the changing of the seasons. The only reason we can think of why we wouldn't stay here would be medical - unable to take care of ourselves and our property. And then, we have access to some of the best hospitals around (Boston) so moving one last time to an over 55 community with an HOA that does snow removal, lawn care, etc. is a possibility. But still somewhere in NE.
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Staying put in NW Florida.
LCOL area, walk/bike distance to stores and beach.
AND,
My wife has many, many fruit trees, some in part year covered green houses.
She wouldn't leave her oranges, lemons, tangerines, lychees, longans, pomelos,
peaches, pears, sugar cane, lemongrass, hot peppers, guava, Basil, Sugar apple,
mango, starfruit, ambarella fruit, wintermellon, taro, persimmons, pomegranite,
avacodo, blueberry, mint, chives, and Miracle fruit.
There's more but, that's why we will never move!
Miracle Berry is kinda cool, a taste shifting fruit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synsepalum_dulcificum
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Depends if our cat's still alive when we pull the plug. He'll be pretty old, so it could only be a few years at most, but we love Vancouver and would have no problem spending a few non-working years doing tons of outdoor activities and enjoying this beautiful place before heading off into the sunset.
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I am FIRE now, but DH still works because he's'still the majority of the way to a fat, Defined Benefit Pension and he loves his job. Our plans are mostly in place. His mom has Alzheimer's and lives with us, so our Bay Area, paid-for clown house, within walking distance to his work, is home for now. When we no longer need such a big house, we will downsize and stay in the area for part of the year.
We have three rentals in the same retirement community in Palm Desert, CA. We plan to spend winters there. We will leisurely move into/rehab/update each of them, then sell them off one by one. We may buy a couple more, but for now we're busy doing other stuff.
When MIL moved in with us, we sold the RV, 'cause we can't use it now. I have promised DH he can buy anything RV he wants to celebrate his retirement. I know he'll end up scoring a deal on a gently used one, 'cause he's that kind of guy. We will work in as much traveling as we want to between both home bases. We might spend a year on the road or break it up. Time will tell.
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Me!
Inertia is a powerful force is the main reason. Only reason we would leave is job loss or major economic problems.
Of course, I live in a beautiful HCOL place. (Southern CA)
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I would've liked to, but I couldn't. I was living in Japan until the day I FIRE'd. I literally got on a plane back to the US on the day I quit my job. It wasn't just the HCOL for me, it was also the fact that I had no legal way to stay. It is very, very difficult to legally stay in Japan if you don't want to work anymore and aren't married to a Japanese citizen.
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Plan to retire in place at least until my kids get through high school. They will be 10 and 12 when I retire. Once the youngest starts college, we will be nomads for a while, then buy a few acres in a more rural setting.
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staying put right here in queens in nyc . we tried a cheaper lifestyle in the pocono mountains but not for us . everything we want in retirement is right here .
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We're in Beaverton Oregon, and will likely stay here. Taxes are mid-range (9% income tax, no sales tax), moderate weather that rarely gets blazing and rarely gets freezing. The pace of people around here is good, and adventure is relatively close at hand. I'd rather retire to Joshua Tree California, but the weather is blazing, and the taxes are painful.
Besides, we really like our house. I look forward to getting more time to actually enjoy working on it. These days I am mostly reactionary, fixing stuff that is busted after a long day of getting wiped out mentally at work.
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I was just thinking about this. I could see doing some slow travel to acclimate to time zone changes, but living somewhere else doesn't have that strong of an appeal to me. I could enjoy living somewhere rural but I can't live somewhere conservative politically. I also have a very cheap house in an hcol area, it would be hard to give that up.
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Even though we're in a high COL area with a crappy winter to boot, the plan is to stay in our current place as a "home base" and then travel extensively. Spending the worst of the winter months some place sunny sounds like good plan--though we'd need to hire someone to start our car occasionally and make sure the ice dams don't destroy our roof.
My in-laws are retired and have been spending a month at Myrtle Beach every year, and they love.\
My parents moved from central Ohio to Greenville, SC full time and they LOOOOOOVE IT.
I like Greenville SC. I hope they improve their bike infrastructure in the near future.......
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We aren't moving our primary residence. Live in the midwest on a beautiful big farm that keeps me plenty busy and provides plenty of privacy, plus family nearby. Also enjoy the fact that we get a true four seasons here, and cost of living is rather low. We own a couple vacation homes / cabins that we can run to anytime we want to escape, plus plan on doing some traveling, visiting friends, etc.
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Even though we're in a high COL area with a crappy winter to boot, the plan is to stay in our current place as a "home base" and then travel extensively. Spending the worst of the winter months some place sunny sounds like good plan--though we'd need to hire someone to start our car occasionally and make sure the ice dams don't destroy our roof.
My in-laws are retired and have been spending a month at Myrtle Beach every year, and they love.\
My parents moved from central Ohio to Greenville, SC full time and they LOOOOOOVE IT.
I like Greenville SC. I hope they improve their bike infrastructure in the near future.......
Greenville is awesome, unlike most cities in South Carolina. I could retire there. I will NOT be retiring where I live now, even though it's a great place to live. The beach is nice, but I prefer the mountains. Give me cool weather over hot weather any day of the week. I'll probably end up in North GA.
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We will probably stay in the northeast. I don't like the south. I like being near family. I wouldn't mind a month or two someplace warmer if we can figure out how to do that reasonably.
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I've been really surprised by how many people live places they don't want to stay. Why wait for FIRE and then move? Try to get a job in your ideal place and move there now!
I live in NorthWest Ohio and will definitely be staying. I love this place. We get to have the full range of seasons, it's right in the middle between some bigger cities if you want to go do "big city" things, but the suburbs are more like little towns than the classical suburbs. I live in a suburb that's actually more walkable than the city it's attached to! Lots of places to go cycling, lots of nearby car racing of pretty much every type. A whole cluster of easy access airports with rental airplanes readily available.
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I have done a lot of moving and 19 years ago moved to the West Coast for a job. I love it and would never move. We have a mild 4 seasons which I love. We did downsize to a smaller one story house 4 years ago.
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We live in Seattle and have no plans to leave. We'll likely take extended vacations to other places to experience new things, but I envision Seattle being our home base for the foreseeable future.
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We'll stay for a while near DC. Our house and bit o' land are almost perfect, in a walkable neighborhood with great public transport. DC is actually pretty cool and I can't wait to be one of those retirees going to free lectures at noon at the Smithsonian. But a huge thing for us is the easy access to military healthcare here, so many facilities. And family is here. And we love our neighbors. I'm a bit weary of the inferno summer temps, but for now this is home. We can always change our minds later.
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We like where we live, but may move once the daily commute is not a factor in selecting a place to live; once the decision to move is made it really doesn't matter if it is down the road or across the country (at least in terms of work) and there are plenty of other places in the country (and the world) that we like too.
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I could work my business from about anywhere with a computer now, but its hard to imagine moving until the kids are through school. This is home. Even after that, I can imagine snowbirding News Years to Easter if we could pull it off, but that's probably as big a change as we'll make.
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Probably staying in the Bay Area. The cost is adding at least 4-5 years to our timeline, but this is home and always has been, most of my extended family is here, and you just can't beat the weather and available recreation options.
Looking to buy in about 5 years if any of you guys have leads that match that timeline! :)
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Nope.
We are relocating to Austria. We love to ski and love the mountains so being there is everything we ever dreamed of. Plus travel in Europe is so cheap that its also a practical solution.
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We've got no plans to move, even though we live in a HCOL area. Nearly everyone we care about lives near us, and the thought of starting from scratch to build community/new friends is unappealing.
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I definitely want to leave the area I live in now, we might do it even before FIRE and then move again after retirement. We live where we do now as it is close to work and the house was relatively cheap in price.
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We plan to move before FIRE. As others have noted, it's nice to have seasons, which we don't really have here, and I miss that. I wonder if those who have commented on that like seasons because humans in general like seasons, or if it's just those of us who grew up with seasons and feel like that's how it's "supposed to be."
We've also found that it's hard to get to know people here, as it's a big city where there are always other potential friends, and people tend to come and go frequently (yes, pot here, calling kettle black... but we've already been here longer than a lot of people we know, and we do plan to stay forever in our new home).
Finally, we want to be closer to outdoor activities. It takes about an hour to get to water, and at least that long to get to a nice hike (in my opinion). I envy the Frugalwoods hiking on their own land!
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Finally, we want to be closer to outdoor activities. It takes about an hour to get to water, and at least that long to get to a nice hike (in my opinion). I envy the Frugalwoods hiking on their own land!
I have mainly lived in urban areas, but looking at the Frugalwoods blog does make me wonder if I would like to live somewhere like that. It must be so quiet and relaxing.:)
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DH made it pretty damned clear we'd be splitting if I ever wanted to move again! He was only partly joking.
But really, why would I move? If Yellowstone blows, maybe. But I cannot imagine being bored and all the stuff I love is right here. House is paid off, fruit trees are planted, solar panels are installed.
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I like it here. That said there is a property boom going on right now that, if it continues for another couple of years will give us the choice of moving and FIREing a decade or so earlier, or staying put and working. Of course, the wind could go out of the sails before we get close, and we all love living here.
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Interesting thread. Sounds like the majority of folks like where they are & plan to stay. That's "good" because it means you're a happy bunch. :)
We aren't planning to move either. I built our home in the NC mountains & we really love the seasons here. As we age I can see traveling to warmer places during the Winter months.