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Best Spot to Retire
Old 09-30-2003, 09:29 AM   #1
 
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Best Spot to Retire

The place to retire is where you have close family and good friends to enjoy your life with. You can't have a good time with the weather and low taxes.
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 09-30-2003, 11:45 AM   #2
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

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The place to retire is where you have close family and good friends to enjoy your life with. You can't have a good time with the weather and low taxes.
LG, welcome to this board. I think I tend to agree with you on this point. I think I would be unhappy with a permanent vacation life. However, people like the Terhorsts do seem able to make friends wherever they go, and enjoy that life very much.

A fairly large number of true early retiress don't have children. When their parents are dead, what is family? Are they close to their sibs? Cousins? And of course, even those of us with children are quite lucky if they don't move elsewhere after college, or get transferred on their jobs, etc.

Then there are friends. IMO, living the very frugal life that many have lead to achieve early retirement is not the easiest life to fill with friends. For one thing, once you get beyond church socials most social life is not free. Even the church may not be that welcoming if you can't pony up at least $1000 or so annual pledge.

Last weekend I was sitting in an outdoor cafe with my dog, a Bouvier. An older couple came over to ask about him, as he is an odd color, and they had owned a similar dog back home in Michigan. We talked a bit, and I learned that they had come out west at their daughter's urging, to escape the Michigan cold and be near her and her kids. But they were very unhappy. The man had been a design engineer with Fischer Body, then later Chevrolet. They missed their friends and social standing built up in a lifetime of living in the north suburbs of Detroit. I think they also may have felt that their daughter was getting a bit more of them than she had bargained on.

In some ways, the easiest life to transplant is the hippie lifestyle. Many of them are unmarried, so they only need to please themselves. If one's companion, should there be a companion, doesn't like the new situation, he or she can go on down the road. Always lots of unbound molecules around! And hippies are apt to have lots of friends and acquaintances all over. Especially in places with natural beauty and good weather.

America can be an odd place. We are so individualistic, and so used to choosing from a cafeteria menu, it is often hard for us to realize that some things just don't go well together.

Peace!

Mikey
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Old 09-30-2003, 11:48 AM   #3
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If your family is not all located in one place, then you will have to travel to visit them no matter where you live. I can make friends wherever I go, but I can't change the weather.

Just another way to look at the problem . . . Choosing a place to live in retirement is a very personal issue and we all have different constraints.
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 09-30-2003, 02:21 PM   #4
 
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

What keeps me in Minnesota is roots. Whether it be friends, favorite resturants, fishing spots *- it has a strong hold. I also have built a house here and have got it and my hobby shop exactly the way I want.

I really dislike the weather in Dec, Jan and Feb - but it does make you appreciate good weather. When I lived in Florida for 3 years, I took the weather for granted and I missed the change of seasons.

If I had unlimited wealth, I'm sure I could find another location - But then again no place is perfect.
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-23-2004, 05:40 AM   #5
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

Howdy Buckaroos,

I moved to Austin from Maryland in '72. Then, Austin was the 2nd cheapest place to live in the U.S. (Tulsa Okla. was 1st). I was a school teacher. I took a 1/3 cut in salary but lived twice as well. Rents ($115/mo. for a house vs $150/mo. for an apartment in Md.) and homes were cheap and the climate was wonderful. No state income taxes helped. The people were sooo friendly. At the time Austin was very small, pretty, and blessed with wonderful geography. I would get happily tired by returning waves to other motorists. The area had a character that made for fun. The famous Austin music scene was just beginning.

Now Austin is expensive, traffic congested, and full of young arrogant tech yuppies from California. BUT, in nearby hill country, still can be found the 'old Texas' that attracted me then. Three years ago I bought 13 acres for 80,000 on a mesa top and am now finishing a 121,000 home on the with a magnificent view. The place is in Blanco county (very near Luckenbach of the Waylon and Willie song) and is within an hour of Austin or San Antonio. I will put my suburban Austin home on the market next month and rediscover life in paradise.

Take a look at my web photo albums at www.PictureTrail.com/OlRancher for a humorous look at what I am doing with my time.

I had a choice of this lifestyle or waterfront on the Texas coast or desert dwelling near Big Bend National Park. As a youth I lived summers on the family waterfront property on the Chesapeak Bay south of Anapolis Md. No more water-front on salt water for me. Brewester County Texas (Big Bend country) is too far from good medicine and an airport.

Message me if you want good opinionated information about retiring in Texas ... Bruce (aka Ol' Rancher)
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-23-2004, 07:43 PM   #6
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

I love Austin but it is expensive and full of Californians. My parents are thinking of moving to the hill country after my dad retires and I keep hoping they'll buy the property soon. I need a barn to work on my VW.
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-24-2004, 02:33 AM   #7
 
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

Good morning! I just went back and read all of the posts on this topic. Good stuff! Specifically, I wanted
to point out that outside of Texas, no one knows what
"the hill country" is. Also, you can't undertstand what
"it's like a whole 'nother country" means until you spend some time there.

Generally, I am having a lot of trouble with relocation
planning. I agree with the comment "I can make new
friends but I can't change the weather!" However,
I don't look forward to "reestablishing". Maybe I've done it too much, or maybe I'm too old, or maybe just too lazy. Soooooooooooo , I keep moving toward
Texas, but oh so cautiously. My roots here
(northern Ilinois) are deep, but I've been around enough
to know I really don't like the state. Not the weather or the politics. Truly, more than half of
the other states woudl be preferred by me. However, I have
friends and family here. Snowbirds might work if I
had a big pile of money to support 2 homes. Then there
is the sense that time is running out, so whatever I'm
going to do I'd better get started. Well, I am started
but keep backsliding. BTW, it is a hell of a lot easier
if you only have yourself to think of. Add a spouse,
kids, pets, elderly parents and pretty soon things get
tricky.

Thanks for listening.

John Galt
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-24-2004, 04:46 AM   #8
 
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

I've lived in Houston all of my life, but spent a lot of summers as a child in the "hill country". Specifically, Bandara, Garner State Park, Concan, Uvalde, Leaky, and Utopia Texas. It's still far enough away from civilization yet close to a large city (San Antonio). Like the line from the George Strait song ("all my ex's live in Texas") I too learned to swim in the Frio River. Austin's too big now, and stay away from New Braunsful's.

Allan
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-25-2004, 05:32 AM   #9
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

This link is to an internet search tool for finding your best spot to retire. It is less intrusive with real estate ads and yielded better results that some others in my opinion.

http://www.findyourspot.com/

With my preferences of warm climate, low taxes, very low cost of living, small towns, and highlands or mountains ... it offered several towns in eastern Tennessee, northwest Georgia, western South Carolina, Texas hill country, Osarks in Arkansas, and northern Mississippi.

If I hadn't settled on Texas hill country, I would explore the western slopes of the Appalacians from the Smokies southward.

Some of the towns it offered appeared wonderful. I feel that the results can at least point you to the areas you should travel with an eye towards posssible relocation.
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-25-2004, 06:27 AM   #10
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

We moved to a nice little harbor town on Lake Michigan to live and work, not to retire. A lot of retirees seem to be moving here. Unfortunately, the character of the town changes a lot if it gets discovered by the retirement crowd. At least the house was a good investment.

I would prefer to retire near a small town with a balance of children, working people and retirees. This may mean that waterfront towns are out, because they seem to draw rich second-homeowners and retirees.

It would be nice to live far away from an interstate highway. I like the idea of having lots of wilderness to the north, it is a feeling of being on the edge of civilization and you can always escape up north if it gets too much. But the winters are long up north and you need a couple of weeks in February to go somewhere sunny. Otherwise cabin fever sets in and crazy things happen in the old homestead.
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-25-2004, 07:34 AM   #11
 
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

Hello. Michigan is loaded with pretty little harbor towns.
I've lived in 2, Traverse City and Menominee. I liked the feeling of being close to "wilderness" also. Even with the long winters, I never suffered cabin fever until after
I retired. In fact, after I semiretired in 1993, I came back to northen Illinois where I grew up. Never even considered anywhere else at the time. Now, 11 years
later it seems kind of silly. Still, I had not yet
experienced cabin fever and had not lived in Texas
yet. I just feel physically and mentally better being
where it's warm and sunny most of the time.

John Galt
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-26-2004, 02:15 PM   #12
 
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

Hello Cut-Throat! Sounds to me like you have enough
money. Why plan to wait 8 years for your wife to join you, or does she enjoy her work?

Another possibility; I have a good friend who is married to his second wife. Neither is fully retired. He lives
mostly in a duplex he owns about 75 miles from his house where his wife lives. He told me once that this arrangement "saved his marriage". There is such a thing as too much togetherness.

John Galt
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-26-2004, 03:24 PM   #13
 
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

John Galt,

"enough money" is all relative. Then there is the 'healthcare' thing. So our current plan is to wait a few years. But again, that could change.

I actually get fed up and in a funk every year at this time. This is what makes the Minnesota Spring so wonderful! - You are so sick of winter that when it finally comes, it is a true celebration! - When I lived in Florida, I never appreciated the good weather.

It's kinda like hitting yourself over the head with a board - it feels so good when you stop
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-26-2004, 07:51 PM   #14
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

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I actually get fed up and in a funk every year at this time. This is what makes the Minnesota Spring so wonderful!
Cut-Throat,

From your other posts I know you are an outdoorsman. Do you do any cross country ski-ing, or ice fishing? When I lived north of Coulee Dam, both of these things were a great way to handle a long cold winter.

Mikey
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-27-2004, 03:45 AM   #15
 
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

Hi Mikey,

I used to Cross Country Ski and go ice fishing. This was in my 20s and 30s.

Now I am a wimp and go to Florida
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-27-2004, 03:54 AM   #16
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

Here is a place that is as beautiful as the pictures.

http://www.hinesrivervalleyranch.com/index.html

For better or for worse, in a couple of years you would have me as a neighbor. My house will be the one with a weather vane shaped like this: -$>
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-27-2004, 04:25 AM   #17
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

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Ted,

A very beautiful place! - The rockies are my favorite place in the U.S. - My choice would be Wyoming or Montana - that's where people from Colorado go to fish.
I know.

For whatever reason, the streams in the area around Yellowstone are extremely productive. The downside of this, however, is that the mosquitos there are horrible in summer.

The Glenwood Springs/Aspen area of Colorado offers a better blend of "the comforts of civilization" together with a wide variety of outdoor activities. And I'll be closer to the fishing in Wyoming and Montana than I am now!
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-27-2004, 05:10 AM   #18
 
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

If I was forced to stay up north it would be Michigan for
me. Lived/worked there for 20 years
(all over the state). Wyoming, Montana and Idaho
would tie for second place though.

John Galt
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-27-2004, 06:42 AM   #19
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

Ted - yes a beautiful area. Lots to do in the summer there also, there is Glenwood Springs, and also a lot of easy 4 wheel drive roads. Up the road from Marble, is Crystal, home to the actual old mill that is on many calendars, etc.

The winter, however is snowy, and some roads are open only in summer. For example, the arrow on the map from Aspen south, is one of them. I like it, and don't mind the cold and snow, but don't plan on shovelling the stuff. The place you mention meets that criteria, I think.

Enjoy,
Wayne
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Re: Best Spot to Retire
Old 01-27-2004, 08:13 AM   #20
 
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Re: Best Spot to Retire

Quote:
For whatever reason, the streams in the area around Yellowstone are extremely productive. The downside of this, however, is that the mosquitos there are horrible in summer.
You must have been there after some rain. This West is usually so dry that it's difficult to find a mosquito! - If you're bothered by mousquitos don't live in Minnesota. The combination of rains and lots of slews are breeding grounds for mosquitos
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