WSJ - Five Reasons You May Not Want to Retire in a Small Town

[dirt_dobber]

I don't have a subscription to the WSJ so can anyone provide a brief summary
of the article

Five Reasons You May Not Want to Retire in a Small Town
Retirees expect ‘Mayberry.’ But they often find something different.
By Glenn Ruffenach https://www.wsj.com/articles/five-reasons-you-may-not-want-to-retire-in-a-small-town-1533223658?mod=e2tw

 

[JoeWras]

- May not be in the inner circle
- Health care
- Transportation
- A hard driving FIRE type may rub current residents the wrong way
- Small now, but if everyone moves there, how long?

We considered moving to the Yadkin Valley in NC. This is the real Mayberry and Mt. Pilot area. We've tossed that idea because of the health care issue.

RTP area of NC, however, has great health care. And after all, it is "where Barney goes to party."

 

[Free To Canoe]

You can google the title and get to read the article that way.

Small towns down points are:
Clannish
Poor services
Including poor health care choices and senior amenities

 

[jetpack]

LOL. Small towns can be quite nice. I've lived in everything from NYC to town w/ 1000 people. The small town is by far quieter and nicer and safer. People literally leave their doors unlocked and some even keys in their car. Be nice and you'll fit in. Yeah, it's a drive to the super market and hospital (10-20 minutes away).. but people will help you out more and everyone isn't a stranger.

 

[Souschef]

It depends on how small. We live in a small town of 30,000, and it has most of the amenities we need. As far as Health Care, there is an excellent hospital 10 miles away.

 

[Teacher Terry]

There are not enough things to do in a small town. We live in a area with 450k and it’s perfect.

 

[davebarnes]

It depends on how small. We live in a small town of 30,000, and it has most of the amenities we need. As far as Health Care, there is an excellent hospital 10 miles away.

There is a huge difference between:
a. a small town (e.g., Santa Paula, CA) that is 15km distance from a city (Oxnard) of 200K
b. a small town in the middle of nowhere (e.g., over 1/2 of Colorado) with nearest hospital over 75km distant

 

[W2R]

After Katrina we thought of moving to Springfield, Missouri, which is a smaller town than New Orleans. We decided not to, but still think it is a lovely town.

Thanks, JoeWras, for the summary. My comments are in blue.

- May not be in the inner circle
Frank and I are both perfectly capable of making new friends. People told me before I moved to New Orleans that I would NEVER be accepted by New Orleanians because they are so stand-offish, worse than any other city in America because families have lived here for hundreds of years and never move (true). I guess it took me about 10 minutes before I was accepted by a large number of native New Orleanians who became my friends. This included Frank but I did not even meet him through my other friends here. I think this "inner circle" baloney is just an excuse put forth by people that do not want to put the work into finding new friends and do not respect local residents for who they are and what they and those like them have accomplished. Also they do not respect that some local residents may like you a lot but may already have too many friends (so keep looking!). And yes, it is WORK and not fun to find new friends IMO but once you have them, the fun part starts.

- Health care
Like some other small towns, Springfield has great health care - - more level one trauma centers than New Orleans, for example, at least back then. I haven't checked lately. Not only that, they send people to St. Louis hospitals by helicopter if/when needed. I admit that good health care was one of our criteria when we were looking for another town to live in.

- Transportation
I wonder if small towns have uber available. Don't really know. We had planned to live in a neighborhood less than a mile from a grocery store and hospital. We don't travel.

- A hard driving FIRE type may rub current residents the wrong way
Oh well, time to hang up the idea of retiring anywhere in a small town! (just joking) Seriously if one cannot get along with anyone in a town at all (kind of a ridiculous hypothesis), I don't know why one would want to move there. We got along with people in Springfield just fine, and loved what we perceived as solid American values that many seemed to have there.

- Small now, but if everyone moves there, how long?
Community changes are always a concern no matter where one lives. Right now here in New Orleans we are concerned about the possibility of increasing crime and chaos. However, it hasn't seemed to have become any worse in the past ten years or so. It only needs to stay liveable for another 20-30 years for us, because after that it is likely that we'll be gone.

 

[googily]

- Transportation
I wonder if small towns have uber available. Don't really know. We had planned to live in a neighborhood less than a mile from a grocery store and hospital. We don't travel.

The town in Wyoming where I spend a lot of time (population abt 20k if you add in the nearby environs) technically has Uber, but I think it's just one or two people who turn on the app to be drivers when they feel like it.

(I've actually considered *being* an Uber driver there.)

 

[NYEXPAT]

I live in a city of 10-12 million. It is made up of different districts and mine has maybe 150,000 so it feels like a small town but has everything I need and I see the same people in the stores and markets everyday. The best of both worlds!

 

[RAE]

LOL. Small towns can be quite nice. I've lived in everything from NYC to town w/ 1000 people. The small town is by far quieter and nicer and safer. People literally leave their doors unlocked and some even keys in their car. Be nice and you'll fit in. Yeah, it's a drive to the super market and hospital (10-20 minutes away).. but people will help you out more and everyone isn't a stranger.

+1. Articles like these make me chuckle. I retired in the same small town I've lived in for 20+ years now. We love it, or we wouldn't have stayed here. As Jetpack says, we rarely lock our doors, and don't worry about crime here (other than pretty minor stuff from time to time). Most people are very friendly, and will go out of their way to lend a hand if you need help with something. The air is clean, as are the lakes and rivers. There is no traffic to speak of. I can kayak and fish within 20-30 minutes of leaving the house, if I want to (and usually not see many people out there on the water). We live in a pretty nice house (on a big lot) that cost us a lot less than if we were to buy the same house in a more urban area. Taxes are relatively low. We have a cabin on a lake not too far from here, if we really want to get away and enjoy nature.


I could go on, but there are certainly many good reasons to live in a small town, at least from my perspective. Living in a large metropolitan would not be for me, but I do like to visit the cities once in a while. It is always great to come home, though.

 

[Car-Guy]

Nearest town to me has a population of less than 1000 and it's a ~20 min drive just to get there at highway speeds.

- May not be in the inner circle (it took us about 8 to 10 years to feel accepted by most, although some probably never will)
- Health care (Well they sell band aids and aspirins at the local dollar store. Other than that, it's another 45 min drive to get to a real doctor)
- Transportation laugh
- A hard driving FIRE type may rub current residents the wrong way (Easy to just become like the millionaire next door when around the neighbors)
- Small now, but if everyone moves there, how long? (No need to worry about that around here, the population actually declined in the last census)

 

[Elbata]

My cousin lives in a small town with a ranch plus 10 acres. I envy him. For dinner, if he wants fish he walks down to his spring fed pond, catches what he wants, and bbq's on the patio. I love to visit, I love his simple life, but long-term, I'm a big city guy.

 

[brett]

We considered it. Then discarded the idea. Three reasons....healthcare, too far from an international airport, and no Costco.

 

[JoeWras]

The "hard driving FIRE type rubbing residents the wrong way" is interesting. The article mentions that may FIRErs are management or similar and are used to directing people around.

I witnessed this a few times when I lived in FL. There's a reason there are a bunch of bumper stickers in FL referring to "moving back" if you don't like things.

Here's the thing, I lived in a metropolis in FL, and the hard driving imports still ticked off the locals, or long timers. Heck, I was there only one year and they ticked me off! My favorite: "Back in NY, it is done right, and there would be multiple clerks and we wouldn't be waiting on-line, so I'm just going to go to the front." Seriously! This was an actual directive given to us suckers waiting in line by someone who knew better than us than to just wait our turn. There were some other rather fascinating community meetings that blew my mind.

The point being that if that is your style, you won't fit in a small town. I don't expect much of that from most here due to the INTJ thing and I think this concern doesn't apply to most here. Just guessing.

 

[Koolau]

I'm certain that lots of folks here don't think too much about the need for close-by great health care. If you live long enough, you will. When we thought about moving to HI we considered The Big Island as (especially then) it was MUCH less expensive than Oahu. We learned that most significant health care procedures required a flight to Oahu (from ALL the other Islands.) That made the decision easy. The other issues would IMO depend very much on the individual. YMMV

 

[Maenad]

My small-town extended family made it pretty clear as I was growing up that People Like Me aren't welcome there, and I have no desire to test if that's still the same.

 

[Bigdawg]

My small-town extended family made it pretty clear as I was growing up that People Like Me aren't welcome there, and I have no desire to test if that's still the same.

I'm trying to picture this. You, as a kid, being told in some sort of way that you were not going to able to stay there. Progressive thinker at a young age were you? "Dammit kid, we don't wear shoes here! Who do you think you are?" "401K?, FIRE?, talking like the devil now git the heck outta here!"

 

[CaptTom]

I get a kick out of all the stories about how great cities are.

They doth protest too much, methinks.

At any rate, keep it up. We certainly don't need any more big-city attitudes here!

 

[unclemick]

Kansas City (big) and Grant City (800 or so) in a county of 2000 give or take.

Take turns at sampling the benefits of both.

heh heh heh - spent most of my life in the suburbs so could 'do the city' or 'drive to the country' with little effort. ?Best of both worlds?

 

[Scuba]

I live in a city of 10-12 million. It is made up of different districts and mine has maybe 150,000 so it feels like a small town but has everything I need and I see the same people in the stores and markets everyday. The best of both worlds!

^^^ This is our situation. Slightly different facts - live in the LA area, but in a beach community with its own culture. Community is big enough to have easy access to Uber, public transportation, great medical care, theatre/live performances, etc. and close enough to LA to get there if/when we need to. However most of the time we just stay in our little enclave and rarely have a need to drive more than 5 miles to get whatever we need.

I would find a small town difficult as I value a lot of diversity in people, things to do, places to go/eat, etc. I also prefer the anonymity of a bigger city, but I can understand why some love small town life. I grew up in a small-ish town in the South and several of my HS classmates moved back there from other regions of the country. They like the LCOL and being a big fish in a small pond.

My MIL lives in a small town in North GA. She was a 1st grade teacher and knows everyone in town. She runs into someone she knows wherever she goes. That would be a bit claustrophobic for me, but it’s great to know she has so many friends and family members nearby looking after her.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

When I was a young engineer I was a migrant nuclear worker so I got to live in several small towns (see rural America - be a nuclear engineer!). In the rural South, my experience was that the common attitude was, “yore not from around here, ARE yew?” The local store in one hamlet didn’t mark their merchandise with prices. If you were local there was a lower price than if you weren’t.

 

[RobbieB]

I like the middle ground. Not too big not too small.

About 100,000 people is good for me -

 

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

We moved to a small town [235 people] twelve years ago. We are about 25 minutes from a city, so we still have ready access to hospitals, universities, etc.

We love it here.

 

[audreyh1]

We lived overseas growing up, but visited the small town when my mom grew up every few years. Ran into the “you’re different” mentality that I realized I would never overcome. Interestingly, all my cousins save one moved away from that small town, a couple to the big city.