Join Early Retirement Today
Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 05-30-2013, 08:32 AM   #21
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Midpack's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: NC
Posts: 21,148
Lived in San Antonio for 4 years+ and Dallas for 3 years, loved it. If it wasn't for the heat, I'd love to move to Austin, but we like to be outdoors as much as possible (not holing up with AC) and DW wilts even before I do so not likely. I can well understand why Tejas is so popular...my parents and sister both live there.
__________________
No one agrees with other people's opinions; they merely agree with their own opinions -- expressed by somebody else. Sydney Tremayne
Retired Jun 2011 at age 57

Target AA: 50% equity funds / 45% bonds / 5% cash
Target WR: Approx 1.5% Approx 20% SI (secure income, SS only)
Midpack is offline  
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 05-30-2013, 08:43 AM   #22
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Back woods of Fennario
Posts: 1,170
Quote:
Originally Posted by Willers View Post
We're seriously considering Texas as a retirement destination for many of the reasons mentioned in the article. Living now in Madison, WI, a move to Austin would be like just like staying here, but improving the weather and getting a tax break.

And...mmmm...BBQ
Assuming you consider that cow-based stuff they have in Texas BBQ......
__________________
"Time wounds all heels...." - Groucho Marx
LRDave is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 08:55 AM   #23
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Lawn chair in Texas
Posts: 14,183
Quote:
Originally Posted by LRDave View Post
Assuming you consider that cow-based stuff they have in Texas BBQ......
To err is human, to moo bovine...
__________________
Have Funds, Will Retire

...not doing anything of true substance...
HFWR is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 08:59 AM   #24
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
JoeWras's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 11,701
Quote:
Originally Posted by Texas Proud View Post
We get cold fronts!!! How do you think it gets down to 90
JoeWras is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 09:21 AM   #25
gone traveling
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: DFW
Posts: 7,586
If you want good college football, stay away from Austin, as those tea sippers have gone down the drain. Home prices, property taxes and football are much better in College Station
eytonxav is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 09:52 AM   #26
Administrator
Alan's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: N. Yorkshire
Posts: 34,021
We like Texas, but since RE we haven't spent a single summer here.
__________________
Retired in Jan, 2010 at 55, moved to England in May 2016
Enough private pension and SS income to cover all needs
Alan is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 09:56 AM   #27
Full time employment: Posting here.
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Southern Maine
Posts: 672
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan View Post
Half of the 10 fastest-growing cities in the US are in Texas, according to new figures.
And if you do percentage growth of those top 10, 4 out of 5 are from Texas.
ChiliPepr is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 10:04 AM   #28
Full time employment: Posting here.
JakeBrake's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Southeast USA
Posts: 548
Quote:
Originally Posted by REWahoo View Post
Oil boom in the Permian Basin (again) - with the attendant housing shortages and low unemployment rate (3.1%).

Edit: Latest info has Midland's unemployment rate at 3.0%, the lowest in the US. Unemployment rates fall in nearly all US cities
Whenever I need a West Texas fix, I tune into KCRS AM550 from Midland/Odessa via the internet.

Listen to The Voice of West Texas* - 550 AM ,
__________________
Matthew 6:34 (KJV)
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
JakeBrake is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 10:09 AM   #29
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
bbbamI's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Collin County, TX
Posts: 9,293
Houses in our 'hood are selling quickly. One house on our block was sold in a month. The house next door to us sold in two weeks. Our neighbor sold his house for $160k...we bought our house in 1994 for $97k.

Megacorp gave us an extra $10k for relocation (on top of all other relocation expenses). So basically we paid $87k for our house as we used the $10k for a down payment.

Hmmmm......
__________________
There's no need to complicate, our time is short..
bbbamI is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 10:45 AM   #30
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Ed_The_Gypsy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: the City of Subdued Excitement
Posts: 5,588
Quote:
Home prices, property taxes and football are much better in College Station
Yeah, but...
__________________
I have outlived most of the people I don't like and I am working on the rest.
Ed_The_Gypsy is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 10:49 AM   #31
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Ed_The_Gypsy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: the City of Subdued Excitement
Posts: 5,588
San Antone is neat. When it isn't under water.
Houston is dynamite in a bottle. 2 kids born there. Love/hate it.
Austin? Crowded, horrible traffic (but better than Houston). I think I could live there (part of the year).
__________________
I have outlived most of the people I don't like and I am working on the rest.
Ed_The_Gypsy is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 10:55 AM   #32
Full time employment: Posting here.
Willers's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 725
Quote:
Originally Posted by LRDave View Post
Assuming you consider that cow-based stuff they have in Texas BBQ......
I have a strict non-discrimination policy when it comes to BBQ. Love the southern, the KC, the Texan, and everything in between.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DFW_M5 View Post
If you want good college football, stay away from Austin, as those tea sippers have gone down the drain. Home prices, property taxes and football are much better in College Station
I may have to check that out. I was a huge Aggie fan as a kid growing up (even though I grew up on the east coast). Loved the tradition. Loved the 12th man (especially way back when the kickoff team was all 12th men). In the days before every game was on ESPN (before there was an ESPN) I really looked forward to the annual Aggie-Longhorn game. The question is - would wearing an Aggie jersey in Austin qualify as helping it stay weird?
Willers is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 11:56 AM   #33
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
REWahoo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Texas: No Country for Old Men
Posts: 50,000
Quote:
Originally Posted by Willers View Post
The question is - would wearing an Aggie jersey in Austin qualify as helping it stay weird?
The bigger question is would it help you stay healthy. I don't think so...
__________________
Numbers is hard
REWahoo is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 12:00 PM   #34
gone traveling
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: DFW
Posts: 7,586
Quote:
Originally Posted by Willers View Post
I may have to check that out. I was a huge Aggie fan as a kid growing up (even though I grew up on the east coast). Loved the tradition. Loved the 12th man (especially way back when the kickoff team was all 12th men). In the days before every game was on ESPN (before there was an ESPN) I really looked forward to the annual Aggie-Longhorn game. The question is - would wearing an Aggie jersey in Austin qualify as helping it stay weird?
Funny, I grew up in Northeast but was also an Aggies fan as a kid, although my DS did attend A&M as undergrad. I prefer the jerseys that have a long horn on the front with the horns chopped off.
eytonxav is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 12:13 PM   #35
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Big_Hitter's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Les Bois
Posts: 5,761
If you want big crime, horrible traffic and almost unbearable weather, move to Houston.

Technically, you can play golf all year round, when it isn't raining.

Lived there almost 40 years - I do miss the food, friends, family and football though.

There is a lot of opportunity there for smart people.
__________________
You can't be a retirement plan actuary without a retirement plan, otherwise you lose all credibility...
Big_Hitter is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 02:10 PM   #36
Moderator Emeritus
W2R's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 47,468
Here is why I am NOT moving back to Texas, despite these 10 great reasons:

1. Jobs
Job? That's the LAST thing I want.

2. It's cheaper
Yeah, right? Cheaper than Manhattan or Seattle, I suppose. Most of the entire South is cheaper than coastal US areas. But within the South, Texas is not outstandingly cheap IMO. When I moved from Texas to Louisiana, my lifestyle was slightly cheaper in Louisiana.

3. Homes
Homes are cheap to buy, but that is only the beginning. The lower purchase prices may be countered by shockingly high property/school taxes, especially if you live in a good school district like we did. I'd rather pay off the house/mortgage and be done with it, rather than incurring such high annual property tax left to pay for eternity. OK, I suppose I'll give them this one but only if one chooses not to live in a good school district. Some of our friends in Texas went that route, and had reasonable taxes although sometimes no city sewer or water.

4. Low tax
See (3) above. It's a juggling act.

5. Pick your own big city
But, but, what if I don't LIKE living in a big city? I like smaller cities with a small town feel, like New Orleans or Honolulu.

6. Austin in particular
Pul-eeze. Maybe years ago, but now Austin is more and more becoming an annex of the Hotel California.

7. Family friendly
Where in the South is not family friendly, outside of the French Quarter? Granted, Mayberry R.F.D. was fiction, but old time values do survive to some extent throughout much of the South.

8. Fewer rules
That goes both ways. Others may obey fewer rules that we might wish they would obey, too.

9. Texans are normal people
Arguable. Tell me this after talking to a bull rider or a cheerleader's mother.

10. And they're not going anywhere
This is a reason to move to a location? I remember when I was teaching near Meridian, Mississippi (back in 1975), none of my students had ever been 50 miles away and none wanted to go away to college or leave the farm or gas station or whatever that their families ran. They just had no idea what was out there. I didn't really think that such limited scope was that much of a draw, or unique to Texas.

Overall, I really did like the Texans that I knew in Aggieland and I appreciate the values that most of them shared. The property taxes and above all, the deadly hot, dry summers and terrible tasting water in that part of Texas have detracted from College Station's appeal to me in retirement. The rest of Texas.... well, it's a whole 'nother country, as they say, and has much that I haven't explored.
__________________
Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harbourless immensities. - - H. Melville, 1851.

Happily retired since 2009, at age 61. Best years of my life by far!
W2R is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 02:31 PM   #37
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
jollystomper's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 6,098
No thanks. Too many snakes and other vermin and fire ants and now crazy ants and no winters cold enough to kill them off for a while to give us a break.
__________________
FIREd date: June 26, 2018 - "This Happy Feeling, Going Round and Round!" (GQ)
jollystomper is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 02:32 PM   #38
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Big_Hitter's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Les Bois
Posts: 5,761
Quote:
Originally Posted by jollystomper View Post
No thanks. Too many snakes and other vermin and fire ants and now crazy ants and no winters cold enough to kill them off for a while to give us a break.
you forgot hurricanes
__________________
You can't be a retirement plan actuary without a retirement plan, otherwise you lose all credibility...
Big_Hitter is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 02:35 PM   #39
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
REWahoo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Texas: No Country for Old Men
Posts: 50,000
Quote:
Originally Posted by W2R View Post
Here is why I am NOT moving back to Texas, despite these 10 great reasons:

1. Jobs
Job? That's the LAST thing I want.

2. It's cheaper
Yeah, right? Cheaper than Manhattan or Seattle, I suppose. Most of the entire South is cheaper than coastal US areas. But within the South, Texas is not outstandingly cheap IMO. When I moved from Texas to Louisiana, my lifestyle was slightly cheaper in Louisiana.

3. Homes
Homes are cheap to buy, but that is only the beginning. The lower purchase prices may be countered by shockingly high property/school taxes, especially if you live in a good school district like we did. I'd rather pay off the house/mortgage and be done with it, rather than incurring such high annual property tax left to pay for eternity. OK, I suppose I'll give them this one but only if one chooses not to live in a good school district. Some of our friends in Texas went that route, and had reasonable taxes although sometimes no city sewer or water.

4. Low tax
See (3) above. It's a juggling act.

5. Pick your own big city
But, but, what if I don't LIKE living in a big city? I like smaller cities with a small town feel, like New Orleans or Honolulu.

6. Austin in particular
Pul-eeze. Maybe years ago, but now Austin is more and more becoming an annex of the Hotel California.

7. Family friendly
Where in the South is not family friendly, outside of the French Quarter? Granted, Mayberry R.F.D. was fiction, but old time values do survive to some extent throughout much of the South.

8. Fewer rules
That goes both ways. Others may obey fewer rules that we might wish they would obey, too.

9. Texans are normal people
Arguable. Tell me this after talking to a bull rider or a cheerleader's mother.

10. And they're not going anywhere
This is a reason to move to a location? I remember when I was teaching near Meridian, Mississippi (back in 1975), none of my students had ever been 50 miles away and none wanted to go away to college or leave the farm or gas station or whatever that their families ran. They just had no idea what was out there. I didn't really think that such limited scope was that much of a draw, or unique to Texas.

Overall, I really did like the Texans that I knew in Aggieland and I appreciate the values that most of them shared. The property taxes and above all, the deadly hot, dry summers and terrible tasting water in that part of Texas have detracted from College Station's appeal to me in retirement. The rest of Texas.... well, it's a whole 'nother country, as they say, and has much that I haven't explored.
You're hired!
__________________
Numbers is hard
REWahoo is offline  
Old 05-30-2013, 02:37 PM   #40
Moderator Emeritus
W2R's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 47,468
Quote:
Originally Posted by REWahoo View Post
You're hired!
Why thank you, but just a part time volunteer, suh....

Forgot to mention the time I was stung by hundreds of fire ants and ended up with boils at every sting! Owwwww.... I thought I would die. That was my "welcome", my first week in Texas, swimming out at the lake. Yes, they swim. We have fire ants here, too, but they aren't anywhere near as aggressive.
__________________
Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harbourless immensities. - - H. Melville, 1851.

Happily retired since 2009, at age 61. Best years of my life by far!
W2R is offline  
Closed Thread


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Quick Links

 
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 12:02 AM.
 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.