Meleana, welcome to the Early Retirement Forum! What a nice initial post. Feel free to post an introduction in the "Hi, I Am..." section of the forum too, so we can get to know you.
I think that a lot of us struggle with trying to figure out where to live once we retire, just as you are doing right now. My beloved (Frank), and I had planned to move to another state as soon as we could retire. We really wanted to get away from here! We spend a lot of time researching possible relocation spots, especially those with low cost of living and low housing prices but not too cold. We visited our favorites several times during our vacations, and selected a town in Missouri that we really liked a lot.
But then, after retiring, we waited for a year to "decompress" before moving, and during that year we found that work was apparently the main reason we wanted to get away. After retirement, getting away from the workplace and leaving that all behind us was no longer a valid reason for us to want to move. Work is no longer a part of our lives, and we never run into people from work around town; they are still at work.
New Orleans has started to recover at least a partially from its Hurricane Katrina devastation, or else we are so used to it that we don't notice it as much any more. So, we changed our minds and decided to stay put. I'm glad we did. New Orleans has a lot of qualities that we like, although crime and hurricanes are still problems here.
I hope you find a good retirement location!
Yes, thanks. I will definitely do that.
I get that about the workplace thing. We love escaping to other areas because we work. But something else I noticed is when we are at our home timeshare resorts in VT and New Hampshire, I like the idea that there is a community of sorts the week we are there. We see people going about,some familiar faces, there is someone to call if there is an issue, etc. They take care of maintenance. All important for a permanent residence as well as as we age. Here where we live there is no one- just trees and wildlife. Love it- don't get me wrong. But would like a combination.
Then again, while we are able to do things, without a home, I wonder what the heck we would do. We actually like doing things around the house and outside.We enjoy that to an extent. That, and with belonging to a few organizations and some hobbies would keep us busy, as they do now.
We have said the same thing- when we finally retire we need to not jump into anything. We need to decompress and think and reflect.
Big issue we have is any friends or acquaintances we have met at work live far away from us, as we commute and they do as well. So, we never really met anyone in our own town. Just a few through organizations we belong to. But really couldn't break through the clicks and long time residents of the area who know each other since childhood. We grew up in other areas. Even when our son was young, we just didn't have enough time to establish very close relationships with other people. Everyone including us, was so busy working and surviving. I tried to maintain friendships with people from past jobs long distance but it eventually became too hard - again- lack of time- only weekends to try to fit in everything we have to do in life and everyone's lives changed- they moved, whatever. Then. many people have grandchildren now and are busy with their families. We are not in that situation.
On a plane going back home from Arizona once I sat next to a woman and we began chatting about how much we enjoyed Sedona and Scottsdale. I asked her if she would consider living there, since her hometown was Detroit. She responded that she definitely would not want to live there. Surprised, I asked why and she said, "Because then it would no longer be special". She said she would rather visit each year and have something to look forward to rather than living there full-time and everything becoming routine like it is at her current home.
I never forgot those words and I keep them in mind when I think about retirement.