Poll: Retire and relocation

[W2R]

Having lived in Baton Rouge for 15 years and visiting New Orleans many times, I fully agree. DD's in-laws lived in New Orleans and moved to Pierre Port so we've spent lots of time in both places as we get on great with them. Pierre Part is only about 80 miles from their old place in Metairie but the community, accent and culture is different again. (very different!)

So true! I had some friends down south of Lafayette when I lived in BR, and loved their Cajun traditions and culture, warmth, and friendliness. I could more or less understand their fractured French but couldn't speak French like that at all, myself. In fact, the first couple of years after I moved to New Orleans I drove clear out there to see them every month or two because I missed them and that life and culture, yet another that is nearby but so different from New Orleans. But the drive got to be too far, and we drifted apart.

I have never really missed BR itself, but it might be a nice sedate place to grow old, I suppose.

 

[pb4uski]

We owned a lakefront property about 30 miles away from our home that we owned for about 5 years. We demolished and rebuilt on the same foundation, moved in and sold our home last October and I ERE'd in December. Getting down to only one property topped up the nestegg and significantly reduced our annual expenses, making ER much more comfortable than it would have been otherwise.

Am considering buying a smaller home in a warm area and becoming a snowbird, but I doubt we will actually pull the trigger unless we find a locale that we fall in love with. Having two properties is too much hassle.

 

[Midpack]

I wonder if DoD has any data on how many military retirees stay in the area after their retirement ceremony or whether they move to their dream location.

It's a challenge to get the assignment officer to send you to your desired retirement location for your final tour. Luckily, for my last tour nobody else in the submarine force was itching to come to Hawaii.

My Dad made sure his last post was "Ft Sam" where he planned to retire. He bought the house during an earlier tour and then came back, he had it all planned, still there 30 years later...

 

[Midpack]

We moved from our home in the Phoenix area when we cut the cord to a place in the southern mountains of AZ. While 20 degrees cooler in the summer than Phoenix, and not as cold as northern AZ, like Saturday morning we get some snow.

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13812&stc=1&d=1331588666

Nice pic!

 

[Khan]

I'm here because this is where I ended up. Have been scouting the 'net to find somebody to live near when I can no longer live alone.

 

[Free To Canoe]

I voted "happy where I am" because, although I have moved to what I hope will be my ER location, I intend to continue to work for some years yet.

Here is a birds' eye view:

HD GoPro Flying Video: Kelowna to Sugar Lake - YouTube

Nice!

They don't call is "Super Natural" for nothing.

 

[Dimsumkid]

We plan to move at least two more times, we plan on staying where we are until our son finishes high school (he's 12), RE taxes are really high and neighbors a little too uppity. Then we will migrate near college or if he doesn't want us close, we only move one more time.

 

[seraphim]

. When we ER'ed we moved close to our son, which is also a town that is great for walking and cycling and has nice mild winters. We go north for the summers and currently have no fixed location where we spend the summers.

We prefer cooler climes, as they are better for DWs allergies. Spent time in Salida and up in Dubois: allergies in June not an issue. Desert areas too dusty. Since we RV a lot, it's not a problem to find a suitable elevation at will. Too cold, or the snow so heavy it might block access to medical assistance, then we pack up an drive elsewhere for bit.

A bit of land to park the camper as a base might be nice. Still can't talk DW into selling our house though. Not a major issue, but it would be nice not to have to worry about taxes, upkeep, etc.

 

[Ally]

We will probably move eventually to be closer to children. We like our city and our home is ok, but I'm not really attached to it.

 

[Ronstar]

Don't plan on moving- plan on staying with our current home and az vacation condo until we can't handle either or both. Then we'll figure out what to do when the time comes.

 

[Retire Soon]

DW and I ER'd in 2006 and relocated to Bend, OR. RVing is a big part of our retirement and allows for increased flexibility insofar as to when or where we want to spend our time. For instance, last year we spent 3 months in Alaska and 3 months in San Diego.

 

[bld999]

I voted "happy where I am" because, although I have moved to what I hope will be my ER location, I intend to continue to work for some years yet.

Here is a birds' eye view:

The BC Interior rocks! I only go there to play, but what a fab place to retire... nice pick.

 

[dessert]

We own a Lake House about 3+ hours away from our full time residence. It is far enough away that it is an entirely different culture to experience. It feels like living back in the 50's where the neighbors know each other and even visit when passing by. We ride bicycles around the lake and whenever a car passes by we actually wave to one another. We have neighbors who live there full time and have accepted us as one of their own. The first thing they told us when we met them was "to come see them if we ever needed anything" because they know it is too far to run into town to get something that you need quickly. I have done more than my share of asking and have never been turned down. If we didn't have TV to see the news, you would think you were in another period of time.
I always share my bounty of fish with my neighbors and when I do, the filets are cleaned and ready to cook. They appreciate that too.
We go back and forth between the Lake House and our residence and will keep it that way. When we plan our Lake trips and get back up there it is something special to us and we want to keep it that way.
Keeping up two residences also keeps us busy and we like it that way too.

 

[NW-Bound]

We bought our 2nd home on the Mongollon Rim, and at 7000ft, it is nice and cool in the summer. It was intended to be the eventual retirement home.

It can get a bit cold in the winter, but that is the price to pay to be cool in the summer. See picture below of the rear deck overlooking a valley (the background was the other side of the valley). This rear deck was where I took the picture of the "heart-stopping" ladder-on-scaffold posted in another thread.

Initially, I thought I would live there full-time, but having had it for 7 years, found that as suburban dwellers all our lives we miss the amenities of large cities. This is in the "boonies", just a small unincorporated town of a few thousand, surrounded by a National Forest.

So, the plan is to keep both places and to play snowbirds in our own state. Yes, AZ is a cool state that has a large climate difference between the low desert and the high region. The 2 houses are a 2.5-hr drive apart.

I will still keep my screen name though, as I will be driving my MH to the NorthWest often. But it is most likely I will die in one of my 2 current homes.

...my cousin just purchased their retirement home in Prescott, AZ and they love it! He won't be retiring soon but decided to buy while the market is down and now he gets to use the home during the hot Phoenix summers (where they live now).

We moved from our home in the Phoenix area when we cut the cord to a place in the southern mountains of AZ. While 20 degrees cooler in the summer than Phoenix, and not as cold as northern AZ, like Saturday morning we get some snow.

 

[Nords]

See picture below of the rear deck overlooking a valley (the background was the other side of the valley). This rear deck was where I took the picture of the "heart-stopping" ladder-on-scaffold posted in another thread.

Holy crap. I've heard of engineering calculations for the deck loading of a BBQ party but I never thought of doing one for snow loading...

 

[NW-Bound]

We did have a heck of a party with the neighbors one July 4 a few years ago, with about 25 people. No crowding problem there, as the deck is around 900 sqft, I think.

The snow was not as scary as it looks. The intense sunshine and the clear sky of AZ mean that the snow tends to melt off between storms and I have never had it accumulated to more than 2ft deep on the deck (it is south-facing).

The wind is something else though. Being on a hill top means wind gusts of 50-60 mph are quite frequent. It was bad enough to blow furniture off the deck, but so far the house is still standing. Knock on wood!

 

[Dawg52]

I'm seriously considering a 2nd home/condo on the AL coast. I love it there and have family in the area, but have lot's of friends in my little home town here in MS. So I plan to keep a home base here and hopefully find something reasonable in Orange Beach. Rent it for maybe 2/3 of the year to help cover some of the cost. My house here is small and doesn't require a lot of upkeep.

Still in the thinking stage........

 

[ziggy29]

We may turn out to be "reverse snowbirds". We love it here from about November to April, but the summers are horrible. Many Northerners come south for the winter; we may end up staying here but going north for the summer.

 

[Dawg52]

We may turn out to be "reverse snowbirds". We love it here from about November to April, but the summers are horrible. Many Northerners come south for the winter; we may end up staying here but going north for the summer.

I might do a little of that too. Head to the mountains during August. Maybe I can talk Brewer into renting me that cabin he plans to build. Are mountain lions on the prowl during the summer?

 

[Midpack]

We bought our 2nd home on the Mongollon Rim, and at 7000ft, it is nice and cool in the summer. It was intended to be the eventual retirement home.

I noted the spelling difference (but online you never know), but I had to Google that one to make sure your second home wasn't north of China. After looking at some other pics, it does look like a beautiful area, congrats!

 

[Midpack]

We may turn out to be "reverse snowbirds". We love it here from about November to April, but the summers are horrible. Many Northerners come south for the winter; we may end up staying here but going north for the summer.

My DS is in Dallas and parents in SA, they say it's gotten worse and unbearable in summer too. They report aquifer levels to me weekly too...

 

[FIRE'd@51]

We moved. We lived in NY, that's a place for working people. Way too expensive for no earned income folks like us.

+1
Our property taxes are about one-tenth what they would be in the NY suburbs - on a house of similar size with more property.

 

[Danmar]

Shortly after retirement we moved from Toronto to Canmore (near Banff) Alberta. Great skiing in the winter and biking in the summer. Kept our condo in Toronto and our lake house 200kms away. Enjoy Canmore but winters got pretty long. Just bought a house in Arizona where we will spend about 4 months each fall/winter/spring. That makes 4 places and it will be interesting to see how it works out. We are planning less international travel. Probably a little over invested in real estate but we like having such disparate places ie dessert/mountains/lakefront/urban.

 

[kramer]

I was renting in expensive Silicon Valley when I retired so of course I moved

I guess I am lucky because I like warm weather. I honestly don't understand why Americans seem to like such cool climates (I even tried to google this, ha ha), but that means I can locate myself where other people don't seem to want to be which leads to a certain economization.

My climate issue is that there is no climate warm enough for me in the USA in the winter, except perhaps marginally ultra-south Florida and Texas. I even try to avoid Southern California from mid-October to mid-April. So that gives me an excuse to travel abroad to warmer pastures

 

[sengsational]

If you scratch the 'we' then my answer to intend to move is correct. DW has not gotten used to the idea yet.

When I was calculating Roth converstin options in a huge spreadsheet model, I happened upon the state income tax factor. A no income tax state made a much, much larger impact than anything I could do on the roth conversion front. Besides, my family lives in Florida, and her parents, living here won't last forever, hehe.

--Dale--