Missouri Good Place To Retire?

[meierlde]

While San Andreas and Cascadia are well known for their potential to cause a megaquakes, researchers have warned a little known fault in the midwest is also long overdue a tremor.
The New Madrid Seismic Zone is 150 miles long, and experts say a quake would impact seven states - Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.
They claim 'all hell would break loose,' with 715,000 buildings damaged and 2.6m people left without power.

​

Note that the New Madrid zone is in the boot heel of MO, and for example is 326 miles from Kansas City, which would attenuate the shocks. The cites at risk are St Louis, and South Along the Mississippi to Memphis. The New Madrid zone is why the boot heel is flat.
Or perhaps look at St Joe Mo which is 40 miles from KC airport Again it is still the midwest with snow ice storms tornadoes etc. (need to get helmets and keep them in the safe room for tornados. ) St Joe is still a bit further from New Madrid.

 

[Bamaman]

Springfield, MO is perhaps one of the top retirement cities in North America. It is very reasonably priced for housing and it is not too large and not too small. They also have a medium size university that brings culture and sports.

Then area has the hills of the Ozarks. The area lakes are just incredible with Table Rock Lake outside or Branson. Lake of the Ozarks is to the northeast and it is undoubtedly the premier boating lake in the U.S.--if too busy on weekends.

Branson is just to the south and it is #1 in music shows anywhere. It remains a huge resort community visited by millions of people yearly.

The crime in SW MO is much better than in bigger cities.

Springfield has it all.

 

[MRG]

..snip...
Springfield has it all.

+!Springfield Cashew Chicken!

 

[W2R]

Springfield, MO is perhaps one of the top retirement cities in North America. It is very reasonably priced for housing and it is not too large and not too small. They also have a medium size university that brings culture and sports.

Then area has the hills of the Ozarks. The area lakes are just incredible with Table Rock Lake outside or Branson. Lake of the Ozarks is to the northeast and it is undoubtedly the premier boating lake in the U.S.--if too busy on weekends.

Branson is just to the south and it is #1 in music shows anywhere. It remains a huge resort community visited by millions of people yearly.

The crime in SW MO is much better than in bigger cities.

Springfield has it all.

I agree! We both absolutely love Springfield. If we were to move anywhere that is where we would go. It has surprisingly good hospitals and medical facilities for a small town, nice libraries, and hiking trails all through the town. It is peaceful and a little bit off the beaten track, which we appreciate.

I think the Springfield Cashew Chicken might be an acquired taste.... It is deep fried instead of stir-fried. I haven't got up the nerve to try it yet. But I have ordered regular (non-Springfield) Cashew Chicken there and it was quite good.

 

[braumeister]

The New Madrid Seismic Zone is 150 miles long, and experts say a quake would impact seven states - Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.

New Madrid quakes have cracked buildings in Ohio in the past, so a big one would be quite extensive.

 

[Jimmie]

Thanks to all for the feedback. The people that contribute this forum are amazing!

DW bros live in Springfield and Columbia, so we are going to look at S/SW MO. Lake of the Ozarks is high on the list (halfway point from her bros), but will look at other areas too. I'm a TX boy myself and had thought halfway point between Springfield and Austin would be good too. So many things to think about, but it's fun given FIRE is getting really close.

My problem will be getting through the next 3 years at Megacorp before hanging it up. Going to just take it one day at a time (1170 of them to be exact).

 

[LakeRat1]

We are from Wichita KS, we had a small condo we utilized on weekends at Lake of the Ozarks. When we retired, we moved to the lake full time, purchased a larger condo and then spent our first winter. Like KS it was cold, so we took a 10 day vacation from MO during the winter to South West Florida. After seeing this nice weather, so many outdoor activities, we decided to rent 4 months the following winter. After renting 4 months, we purchased a small Park Model Mobile home in a 55+ community in Ft. Myers...... We have spent the last 4 winters down south and the summers at the lake ..........Endless Summers ...... Florida Residents, saves on State Income Tax , as well no personal property tax on vehicles or boats

 

[Jimmie]

We are from Wichita KS, we had a small condo we utilized on weekends at Lake of the Ozarks. When we retired, we moved to the lake full time, purchased a larger condo and then spent our first winter. Like KS it was cold, so we took a 10 day vacation from MO during the winter to South West Florida. After seeing this nice weather, so many outdoor activities, we decided to rent 4 months the following winter. After renting 4 months, we purchased a small Park Model Mobile home in a 55+ community in Ft. Myers...... We have spent the last 4 winters down south and the summers at the lake ..........Endless Summers ...... Florida Residents, saves on State Income Tax , as well no personal property tax on vehicles or boats

DW and I had Ft Myers/Naples vacation last year. Completely agree it's a great place to retire. Now, if i could talk DW bros into retiring in FL ...

 

[LARS]

Only opinion on MO is from having travelled the back roads. I found southern MO/northern AR (Ozarks) to be a very pretty area. If we had ties to the area I could see happily living there...

 

[Sunset]

Yes, I suppose we should warn the OP that MCI is too dinky and there's not enough "retail space" and it's inefficient to have a separate TSA line for each cluster of gates (i.e., they could process more passengers per agent with a single line and likely increase wait times for everyone).... so the businesses who have contributed the most to the politicians will be building a big, new, inefficient, splendiferous airport in a few years.

Seriously- I like flying out of MCI and am not looking forward to a replacement that will remind me of Newark!

You brought back so many fond memories of living both in Overland Park KS and Kansas City MO.

The only thing I didn't like about living there was on a long weekend there were no National Parks nearby, it's basically devoid of any National Parks for a giant circle extending out too far to drive for a weekend.

MCI was terrific, but always meant a transfer to go international.

 

[Danmar]

While San Andreas and Cascadia are well known for their potential to cause a megaquakes, researchers have warned a little known fault in the midwest is also long overdue a tremor.
The New Madrid Seismic Zone is 150 miles long, and experts say a quake would impact seven states - Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.
They claim 'all hell would break loose,' with 715,000 buildings damaged and 2.6m people left without power.

​

If I recall, one of the largest earthquakes in recent US history (early 1800’s) was in this region.

Edit to add. Just looked it up. 1812 7.5 on the Richter scale. Pretty severe.

 

[InTheSticks]

Springfield Missouri weather

I thought about this thread today when this headline popped up in my Facebook news feed, "Springfield Has The Most Varied Weather in the United States".

Springfield Has The Most Varied Weather in the United States

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- (Repost of a story originally published January 9, 2014.) -- If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute! We've heard that phrase tossed in the wind here in the Ozarks.

Take this week, for example. We hit negative ten degrees on Monday and we're climbing into the upper 50s this Sunday! There is an explanation for this wild weather.

Here in the Ozarks, we do it all! We bear the frigid cold, the heat, wind, storms rain and snow. Springfield, Missouri has the most varied weather out of all United States cities analyzed in a study using National Weather Service data! This was determined by the weather variety index which takes precipitation, thunderstorms, wind, snow, and temperature variation, into account. "That study was done back in 1998 so it's been awhile however the information from it is still accurate to this day," explains Gene Hatch, National Weather Service Meteorologist and station climatologist.

That is a repost from 2014. But, it's the same thing this week. Tonight will have a low of around 0 and Saturday high of 60.

 

[MRG]

I thought about this thread today when this headline popped up in my Facebook news feed, "Springfield Has The Most Varied Weather in the United States".

Springfield Has The Most Varied Weather in the United States



That is a repost from 2014. But, it's the same thing this week. Tonight will have a low of around 0 and Saturday high of 60.

I'm not sure if it is true, but I'd always been told for a weather forecast person working in Springfield or Pleasant Hill weather centers is a big resume builder. The saying about "if you like the weather stick around" is very appropriate.


Earthquakes? Yes there are faults, big ones. Our last morning there the bed started shaking! Woke us up. We looked at each other and decided it was an earthquake. Yes, just a mild one, we'd been there many years and had our first.

 

[hopefullyoneday]

I just purchased a vacation condo in hot springs village Arkansas, on the lake. It will be our retirement home in 5 years. Its a gated community with a bunch of lakes and golf courses along with a bunch of walking and biking trails. The cost of living is very low also compared to my current situation here in Texas. You wont find acres of land but very secluded and beautiful.

 

[Jimmie]

I just purchased a vacation condo in hot springs village Arkansas, on the lake. It will be our retirement home in 5 years. Its a gated community with a bunch of lakes and golf courses along with a bunch of walking and biking trails. The cost of living is very low also compared to my current situation here in Texas. You wont find acres of land but very secluded and beautiful.

Thanks for the input. Several people have mentioned AR as a place to look for retirement, e.g. Bella Vista.

 

[RunningBum]

Yes, I suppose we should warn the OP that MCI is too dinky and there's not enough "retail space" and it's inefficient to have a separate TSA line for each cluster of gates (i.e., they could process more passengers per agent with a single line and likely increase wait times for everyone).... so the businesses who have contributed the most to the politicians will be building a big, new, inefficient, splendiferous airport in a few years.

Seriously- I like flying out of MCI and am not looking forward to a replacement that will remind me of Newark!

Do they have a new location for it? I liked the far north location because sometimes I use it when flying back to Nebraska. As soon as I clear the airport I'm out of any KC traffic. The disadvantage to MCI is the huge taxes on rental cars, so I don't use it much.

 

[street]

Hot and extremely humid isn't where I would want to live. I would rather live in the north with snow and drier climate then humidity. You can have that weather when you just stand there and the water runs off of you. LOL

 

[athena53]

Do they have a new location for it? I liked the far north location because sometimes I use it when flying back to Nebraska. As soon as I clear the airport I'm out of any KC traffic. The disadvantage to MCI is the huge taxes on rental cars, so I don't use it much.

I think they're keeping it in the same place. Yes, MCI is notorious for its greedy rental car taxes.

 

[Sunset]

I just purchased a vacation condo in hot springs village Arkansas, on the lake. It will be our retirement home in 5 years. Its a gated community with a bunch of lakes and golf courses along with a bunch of walking and biking trails. The cost of living is very low also compared to my current situation here in Texas. You wont find acres of land but very secluded and beautiful.

I had to look.
It does look pleasant, and the house prices are low, and the property tax rates are 10% of ours !!

There is however one thing that makes me shy of Arkansas is the high State tax rate of 7% top end rate, especially for couples as they use the same tax bracket number for singles and couples.

If your income is only SS and up to $6,000 per year pension then it's great and tax free, any more and you start moving up the tax brackets. At $35K extra in say pension/interest/dividends/capital gains and you are over the 7%

Arkansas Income Tax Rates for 2018

 

[ears20]

I think they're keeping it in the same place. Yes, MCI is notorious for its greedy rental car taxes.

They’re planning to built the new ant heap terminal where (the shuttered) terminal A is.

 

[HighOnLife]

Hi, this is my first forum reply here, but I live in Missouri.
If you want a humble existence with lots of fishing you'd love the Ozarks.
Missouri is very liveable, which can be a mixed blessing--Low expenses and lots to offer, but for this reason the local population/culture tends to stay put and never leave, and be a little bit inbred, lower-educated, and less cosmopolitan. Having said that, KC was named the "coolest" city in America a few years ago by Huffington Post, and there is everything a person could want if they know how to find it.

 

[Sunset]

Hi, this is my first forum reply here, but I live in Missouri.
If you want a humble existence with lots of fishing you'd love the Ozarks.
Missouri is very liveable, which can be a mixed blessing--Low expenses and lots to offer, but for this reason the local population/culture tends to stay put and never leave, and be a little bit inbred, lower-educated, and less cosmopolitan. Having said that, KC was named the "coolest" city in America a few years ago by Huffington Post, and there is everything a person could want if they know how to find it.

Welcome !!

I must say this seems like the least bragging early post I have ever read by someone.

I found KC, MO to be really cheap and great to live and work in years ago.

I hope to visit the Ozarks someday.

 

[hopefullyoneday]

I had to look.
It does look pleasant, and the house prices are low, and the property tax rates are 10% of ours !!

There is however one thing that makes me shy of Arkansas is the high State tax rate of 7% top end rate, especially for couples as they use the same tax bracket number for singles and couples.

If your income is only SS and up to $6,000 per year pension then it's great and tax free, any more and you start moving up the tax brackets. At $35K extra in say pension/interest/dividends/capital gains and you are over the 7%

Arkansas Income Tax Rates for 2018

I was worried about that too so i asked my neighbor there about that and he said the ark state tax if for earned income. Which according to him and from what i have read does not include pensions or investments.

 

[hopefullyoneday]

Then there is the I'm a full time RV'r and can claim whatever state i want if need be. Because property taxes are so low it would not benefit me enough to claim homestead in Arkansas. It is also my current vacation home that i rent out through a management company so i have a history covering that. There is always a loop hole you just have to find it.

 

[golfnut]

I was worried about that too so i asked my neighbor there about that and he said the ark state tax if for earned income. Which according to him and from what i have read does not include pensions or investments.

Arkansas doe not tax SS but does tax other retirement income i.e pensions, ira distributions. First $6,000 in retirement income is exempt.

Man, the real estate taxes are real cheap (especially compared to what we are paying in corrupt (and broke) Illinois).