RE-location

[Tekward]

Hi, we're in dangerous ground here with a newbe posting a poll. But this is a big question on my radar screen. Do I stay in my paid-off house of 20 years with the exsisting network of friends, or strike out for warmer and more RE freindly areas?

I was struck by the wisdom of an earlier post that mentioned that a sense of community is a key to happy RE and I'm wondering if the cost of displacement is worth the value of the change.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[73ss454]

DW and I just sold and closed on our house in NY. We have a house in Fla. and DW is there now and I'm finishing up in NY and my last day at work should be Dec. 1st. Lot's of changes and emotions. We were in our NY house for 31 years.

Our DD and our grand kids are in Fla. so it eases the pain but it's still tough.

Giving up 2 incomes and moving 1200 miles is an adventure for sure.

 

[paradiseken]

Tekward,
DW and I moved to Florida from Virginia immediately after ER, leaving behind our network of friends. Although I love the Suncoast of Florida (we live on the Gulf side, near Tampa) and I love the weather; would I do it again? Yes, but not so soon after RE. I did not anticipate how drastic a change it would be leaving everything behind so soon after ER. Yes, we still keep in touch with our friends via email, but it's not the same as face-to-face and although we keep inviting folks to visit, it's hard to get them to travel this far. I recommend you adjust to ER first before picking up stakes. Research areas you may be interested in and then visit them. Also, keep in mind that warmer and more RE friendly areas like Florida get very congested this time of year. Can you say, 'Snowbird'?

Congrats and good luck!

 

[BOBOT]

DW will be working for a couple more years after I bail on 1/24/07, so we're staying put for foreseeable future. Besides, we already live in one of the "Best Places", according to the mags.

Time will tell, though; we will certainly have lots of options.

 

[OkieTexan]

But this is a big question on my radar screen. Do I stay in my paid-off house of 20 years with the exsisting network of friends, or strike out for warmer and more RE freindly areas?

My wife and I have had many discussions about this subject (before & since I RE'd 3 months ago) and the same themes keep emerging.

1. Just what is meant by RE friendly? It surely means different things to different people. I already live in a sub-tropical climate (Gulf Coast); so "snowbird" doesn't apply. We are turned off by the cookie-cutter, commercial approach to retirement living.

2. Friends and established interests are very important. We have been happy here for a long time. We have great neighbors. We have BBQs outside on holiday weekends. What if we lived in a "retirement community" where everyone was gone all the time? What if WE were gone all the time (traveling) and had no time to make friends at home?

I hope we have time to ponder these things. Our parents live nearby and we still take care of them; so we can't move right now anyway. Those are too many "what ifs" to be worrying about today. I agree with the recommendation to avoid jumping into the fire too soon after ER. I was as well-prepared for ER as I could be. However, it has been quite an adjustment . So we have chosen to stay in our paid-off abode until our future vision is much clearer.

 

[Tekward]

Great responses.

I'll share my planning (of course it is 6 years away at least). My wife's sister lives north of Orlando and we live in central NC. Our kids are comparable ages and we always enjoy visiting. I'm thinking we stay here and swap off extended visits. For example, we visit FLA for 2 months in the spring and they visit NC for 2 months in the fall. That would have the advantage of the best of both worlds, roots and travel.

The down side is that I'll probably have to take up golf, since they are die-hard golfers. I've been putting (bun) that off for about 20 years.

 

[nun]

I'll be moving back to the UK whatever the dollar to pound exhange rate does.

 

[Nords]

I'm wondering if the cost of displacement is worth the value of the change.

I think the biggest factor is being near aging parents and your kids/grandkids. You can move near them or you can find a way to get them closer to you.

You can always make new friends, of course, but that can be difficult in many communities. It struck me when Akaisha Kaderli commented that no matter how many years they lived in Mexico and no matter how involved they were in their community, they were still regarded as outsiders. So if you're relocating for climate or expenses, it's probably easier to move to a place where everybody is a newcomer.

 

[kcowan]

After four years of FIRE, we have found that our circle of friends has evolved in our home town. We still stay in touch with many friends from other towns where we lived. Our longer vacations has enabled us to make many new friends in the sunbelt as well. Some of them are fulltime locals but most are gringos like us.

Our priorities have changed during retirement and we are more busy with travel and our own priorities. Many of our working friends remain very busy with their work and we only see them every month or two.

 

[BarbaraAnne]

Most of our close friends are either empty-nesters or childless. They are mostly retired and travel the world. They invite us to stay with them in various places such as Italy, Sedona, Hawaii, Vancouver, etc. where they rent homes or condos for several months or in one case, a year. We still have a son at home in high school, who is really a great kid, and we enjoy spending time with him as he grows up. However, once he is in college, we want to join our friends as well as travel on our own. We traveled a lot before kids and plan to continue where we left off...

In order to do that, we will sell the "too-big" house and move to a smaller townhome most likely in either Denver or Austin. We plan to use that as a base for our travels. In between trips we just want a simpler life with less cleaning and maintenance!

 

[Martha]

DW and I just sold and closed on our house in NY. We have a house in Fla. and DW is there now and I'm finishing up in NY and my last day at work should be Dec. 1st. Lot's of changes and emotions. We were in our NY house for 31 years.

Our DD and our grand kids are in Fla. so it eases the pain but it's still tough.

Giving up 2 incomes and moving 1200 miles is an adventure for sure.

Looks like you are on the final countdown--congratulations on the soon to be retirement and on selling your house in NY. Thirty one years in one place is a long time.

 

[73ss454]

Thanks Martha

 

[HFWR]

Too many unknowns/variables...

Or, as the Eight Ball says, "try again later".

 

[audreyh1]

It took me 6 years to switch to the continuous traveler mode

Oh yeah - I traveled A LOT from the beginning though - just not on a permanent basis.

Audrey

 

[kumquat]

Bit of travel, a lot of snowbird. Permanent migration, I don't think so. Ask me in a year when I've been ER for 8 whole months.

 

[AltaRed]

Re-located back to Calgary, Alberta from Texas upon retirement. Main driver was where our 2 adult sons are and we both have relatives in and around Alberta. Our circle of friends is very small and fragile due to many, many re-locations throughout my career. Never was in one place long enough to establish roots, but Calgary made up 3 of those stops and resulted in the location where we had spent more of our time.

Thought long and hard about a place on the Gulf Coast for the climate, but believe we would have felt very out of place so far away from anything familiar. Will likely snowbird part of our time though in the South in rental places.

 

[Michael Moore]

We like where we live, so why move?

Moving generally entails a lot of stress/bother, so there better be a lot of plusses to offset the hassle.

It would be nice if we were in a state that gave more breaks on our pensions, but the amount of tax benefit doesn't seem to offset the horror of living in some of those other states.

cheers,
Michael

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

A and D. The wife wants A. Survival demands D.

 

[Goonie]

Staying put! Relatively nice community. Very good neighbors!!! House is PAID-OFF!!!! I'm finally getting the landscaping and gardens "just so". My model RR would be IMPOSSIBLE to move!!! The weather here is quite OK...plus, we have all 4 seasons...3 in the garden & 1 down south where it's warmer!!

It's nice to walk into the stores in town, and everybody knows me...and vice-versa. I go to the butcher shop, and they know how I like my hunk o' cow cut. The clothing stores knows my style (or lack thereof) and size. The restaurants know what I want to drink, and when I order the meal, they know how I want it cooked. I can walk into my doctor's office and get in to see him without an appointment, and if I need a prescription he usually gives me a bag of free samples!!!

All the morons and misfits that I call 'friends' are here....and though other locales have their fair share.....it's much easier to keep these than to find some new ones else where!!!

 

[Kitty]

IMHO, your either a mover or a homesteader. Some folks wouldn't dream of leaving their home and would be very uncomfortable with even thinking about doing it. I have a relative who is like that, she has lived in the same house for thirty-four years and plans to live there till she dies. leaving her grandkids, friends and church is unthinkable.

Then there is me, I have moved on average every twenty-four months for most of my life. After I have been living in some place for a couple of years I start getting the itch to move again. Like was said above I can find morons just like I have found before in the new place. I am stimulated by things new and different. Learning about new areas and different manners is interesting and exciting. There is so much to learn to experience, I could stay busy several lifetimes. The lure of what is over the hill, around the bend, down the river, over the water is strong for some people and I am one of them. Staying in one place for ever is ..... well usually it has a stone on it.

What ever makes your clock tick is what you should do, YMMV
Kitty

 

[audreyh1]

One of the BIG advantages of ER is that you don't have to be in such a rush to change your circumstances but can take you time adjusting to smaller changes and feeling things out and experimenting before making irrevocable decisions. As people mention - quitting working is in itself a huge adjustment.

People retiring at age 65 often feel time pressure because they don't think they have many healthy years left. So they feel like they have to implement their "retirement dream" as fast as possible. This can be very disruptive (not to mention exhausting), and it's really hard to know whether the idealistic dream you have carried for years is what will really make you happy.

I'm glad we took a while to "move". The first 2 to 3 years after retirement we did a tremendous amount of travel. It was nice being able to do that from an established home base. And what we thought we really wanted to spend time doing changed during that time. After a couple of years we had a much clearer path to follow.

Gosh - for the first six months after ER I was in shell-shock anyway. I needed to "decompress" from a stressful job. It's hard to objectively evaluate your desires and interests when you are still in decompression mode - best to just take it pretty easy during that time and focus on improving your health, getting enough sleep, exercise, and having a LOT of fun!

Then when the fog clears you can make good decisions about your future!

Audrey

 

[heyyou]

Yes to audrey's first paragraph about time. You will have more time to enjoy daily life and you have time to explore new places in various seasons to see if they are suitable. there is no deadline on your decision to move or not.
That is my favorite part of ER. I have time for whatever suits me.

 

[TargaDave]

I think the biggest factor is being near aging parents and your kids/grandkids. You can move near them or you can find a way to get them closer to you.

For us: Being on that perfect chunk of warm windy sailing-boating water and still not too too far from parents, friends, and family members was (is) the goal. Oh yeah, and decent schools since we'll still have one in school. I never really considered the term "RE friendly" in the equation, more just "people friendly". We sacrificed a bit of the year round "warm" in order to keep the travel distances reasonable

We also hated the idea of moving in one traumatic switch so we now have the RE place about 3 yrs ahead of moving there. Not something I would reccomend in general given the volatile home market and diversification issues. Depends on personal circumstances as always.

 

[uncledrz]

We are in the process of selling one of our houses and will take up residence in the other (smaller one in the same town). So we'll still be close to family and friends. OTOH, we will be living (a month to three months) in different places as the whim or mood strikes us--an adventure so to speak. Very much looking forward to it.

Then, after a year or so, we'll decide if we want to set up permanently in another place or not. No rush at all to make that decision.

 

[kowski]

No rush may sound good on the surface but I'm sure glad we sold our home in Michigan when we did. I understand from the realtor that we would probably have to take a 70,000 cut in the selling price in todays market. Also in Florida where we bought prices have doubled in 2 years. So waiting may sound good but.