Did you move after FIRE and find the grass greener?

[bclover]

I did move but it was a combination of things,
I became a widow and an empty nester. Then I retired.

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[karen1972]

We lived in Chicago burbs for 20+ years and moved to North Carolina upon retirements.
1. Its costing us $2k/month less to live here and that even accounts for the addition of us paying health care out of our pocket.
2. The weather is so much better on average year round, even if I have to stay inside several weeks in the summer due to high heat/humidity, it beats months of brutal cold.
3. I miss my friends, but I think I spend more time with them now that I moved. Direct flight on Frontier is 2 hours and $19/leg so for $40 I can fly there for the weekend and spend the whole weekend hanging out vs. meeting up for maybe a 2 hour dinner.
4. Lifesyle, Lifestyle, Lifestyle. My home and how I lived was all based around work now its all based around fun. We picked a spot that its walking distance to a great theater w/ leather recliners, a wine and craft beer spot, endless biking and hiking trails, 2 miles from a lake w/canoing, kayaking, fishing, set inside a 5500 acre park. 2-4 hours will get you to several beaches and mountain ranges and cities. Farmers market with fruit for twice as long of a growing season, fresh fish brought in every morning from the outer banks..
5. No stress.. no worries.. I got rid of 2/3 of what I owned and don't miss a thing. We found an almost new upgraded townhome with no maintenance and nothing to do so no tools needed, no projects to be done...just sit at the pool, read a book, take a walk, read this forum..and plan our next trip. and with no stuff, it means house cleaning is a snap.

btw, with meetup and events like that, you can always find people that share your hobbies and make new friends...it is the one upside of social media age, it makes it a lot easier to connect with people and keep in touch with the people you leave behind.

[walkinwood]

We moved from NJ, where we both lived for most of our working lives and all our married life, to Denver CO. And love it here. Absolutely no regrets.

We have a lot of friends in NJ and lived in a wonderful neighborhood, but we were finding it difficult to indulge in our favorite activities - hiking and bicycling. Also, it was very expensive (property taxes & health insurance) to continue to live there without working. We felt we could use the money saved to travel more & we are doing that.

I was 51 when we moved. We made a very concerted effort to go out and meet new people (meetup.com helped) and now, 5 years later, we have a wonderful circle of friends who share a lot of our interests and attitudes. We hike and bicycle a lot and have started car camping in the mountains.

Financially, our move was successful too. Our property taxes and health insurance are a fraction of what we were paying in NJ. Our house is new with solar panels. We have very low maintenance and utility bills.

Good luck.

[Options]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Souschef Ventura is the best kept secret in Southern Calif. People are so busy driving from LA to Santa Barbara, they just whiz by Ventura. Some time after my wife passed away, I met a widow who was in the same grief recovery group I was in. She lived in Ventura, and had bought a manufactured home in a +55 park there. We were married in late 2007, and I split my time between the SFV which was closer to my office, and our home in Ventura. I w*rked until January 2009, to get my profit sharing, retired, and never looked back. Every morning I stand on our front porch, look out at South Mountain, and say,"another crappy day in paradise"

Thank you. I wouldn't let the secret get out! I PM'd you with a couple more questions.

[Persn]

We moved from San Jose (1M people) to the coastal city of Santa Cruz. Absolutely no regrets, but there has been an ongoing adjustment. What I don't miss: traffic, shopping malls, having to drive everywhere, co-workers (but realistically I didn't see co-workers that often even before we moved). What I do miss: my big beautiful yard (but not taking care of it) the county parks and trail system, warm summer weather.

OTOH, here in Santa Cruz I can take daily ocean walks and walk to movies and favorite restaurants. I'm living in the nicest house I have ever owned, and I have just scratched the surface of local recreation. I need to try harder to make friends here, but the old friends are still close enough to see often.

Possibly in the future we will downsize again or move someplace quieter or cheaper if that becomes necessary. But this move has already been good for us. We lived in the San Jose house for 20+ years and could have stayed forever, but then we would never have even thought about learning to surf (DH almost certainly will learn, but I need to take swimming lessons first).

[CountryGal]

karen1972, 2k a month? Wow! Where is the savings? Where about in NC? ..may have to check into it. TX!

[socaldonnan]

Options - I too like Souschef live in Ventura County and it's a well-kept secret. Everything that Souschef talked about and listed I wholeheartedly concur. DH and I have lived here for almost 30 years raising our two boys. DH was transferred from San Diego 30 years ago and having lived in the Valley before moving to San Diego, we knew we didn't want to move back there. We checked out Ventura County and we both knew it was where we wanted to live. We use to head down to San Diego for getaways but now we head to Santa Barbara and north. And lastly we've got farmers markets in many communities Wednesday's through Sunday's because of the agricultural lands in the county. We will probably downsize our home next year. Though we've considered moving, we've been very happy living here.


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[ShokWaveRider]

I just checked Ventura & Ventura Co. on Zillow.Did those in Ventura downsize? It seems awful expensive there for such small homes ~1,600 - 1,800sqft. and they seem so far from the beach too. We used to live in SoCAL in the OC so we know about RE Prices, but would prefer about 2,500sqft if we had to downsize a bit.

There seem to be an awful lot of foreclosures there also.

The biggest issue with DW & I is we dread downsizing. We currently have 3,200sqft and other than the guest room use all of it daily.

[Amethyst]

Then why downsize? There's no law that says you have to. 3200 sqft is not all that much space, IMHO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShokWaveRider The biggest issue with DW & I is we dread downsizing. We currently have 3,200sqft and other than the guest room use all of it daily.

[Koolau]

We had planned 25 years before retirement to move from the midwest to Hawaii. A couple of years after retirement, we did just that. While no place is perfect and you always miss something, our move has worked well for us. We love it in Paradise but still visit the midwest every year - best of both worlds. The key for us was to visit our final destination often enough to learn how to live "local" to see if it was really for us.

One caution is that some folks think "greener pastures" will somehow change their lives - not realizing that their lives go with them to the new pastures. If you are happy where you are (inside yourself) and find someplace that accentuates your happiness, you will be blessed indeed. If you are just miserable (inside), changing your pastures won't help much IMHO. YMMV

[walkinwood]

Koolau, great point. The same goes for ER too.

There's another thread that touches on this aspect.
http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...-be-83183.html

[Souschef]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolau One caution is that some folks think "greener pastures" will somehow change their lives - not realizing that their lives go with them to the new pastures. If you are happy where you are (inside yourself) and find someplace that accentuates your happiness, you will be blessed indeed. If you are just miserable (inside), changing your pastures won't help much IMHO. YMMV

You hit the nail on the head!!!

[Chuckanut]

I would move to improve my quality of life. My area of the world is rather expensive and as such my children and grandchildren can't really afford to live near me where they grew up. Not so good.