Considering a retirement move out of town/state

[RetiredHappy]

My husband hated California so we were looking at moving out of state before we sold our business and retire. We bought our 2nd/vacation home about 3 years before we retired. We moved and sold our home in California a year after we retired. 5 years later, we moved again to another home in the same area and we don't foresee moving again.

 

[sparky08]

Lived our whole lives in the same state.

A year before retirement, we bought our post-employment home 1200 miles away and gradually moved from one to the other.

It worked out well as we could take our time getting rid of stuff we didn't want to keep.

 

[Katsmeow]

Were a number of years retired when we moved from Texas to Delaware last year. I had lived in Texas my whole life. DH's dad had been in the Navy so he had lived lots of places (none in the north) as a child but had lived in Texas as an adult.

When we moved here we knew no one. We spent a lot of time deciding what we were going to do then changed our minds to Delaware toward the end. The circumstances were such that we ended up moving here without ever having been here. Well, we had driven through the state once on vacation. Blink and you miss it.

Anyway it has turned out to be mostly as I expected (we did a lot of research). We rented for 3 months and then closed on a house which we are very happy with. We considered a lot of factors and Delaware met them the best. I am not sad I did it. I feel it is probably the last great adventure I'll have (I'm 69).

 

[Luvtoride]

We're in the process of moving now to be nearer to family.

To me, this is the only good reason to consider moving in later years. We are so fortunate that our kids and grandkids live close to us.
Despite High Cost of living including high taxes in New Jersey, I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

 

[Surewhitey]

The sales tax factor is tough to weigh up front, sales tax not only varies by state, but by county and municipality, at least in Colorado where we live. We live in an unincorporated area. The sales tax in the surrounding towns is 8%-9%, but we pay only 4.5% (state+county) on anything delivered to our house. Also, in Colorado, vehicles are taxed based on your house location, so we save a ton when we have to buy something big. We get a LOT of deliveries.



People in states with no income tax like to brag about that, but every state I have seen that doesn't have income tax, has property taxes that far exceed Colorado's. Colorado state income tax is 4.4%, but our property taxes are far less than half of Texas and Florida. You do have to be smart though, some specific subdivisions in Colorado have been given the power to collect property taxes over and above the state and county. "Metro Taxing Districts" are absolutely a racket. Let the buyer beware if you are looking for a house in Colorado. https://www.denverpost.com/2019/12/05/metro-districts-debt-democracy-colorado-housing-development/

Taxes are always on my mind when making any changes in life. We moved back to TX from SoCal to be close to family and take advantage of the deferred comp payout for 5 years. We bought a house 1 street over from DD and eventually we returned to the w*rkforce. Property tax is ~2.25%, but the basis ($275k in 2015 & $403k today for us, before homestead exemption @25%) makes a bigger difference than the higher cost of housing elsewhere.

Income tax has always offset the property tax either way. After 65, property tax is reduced on some portion too.

Sales tax is 8.25% and is a major consideration for consumers (we are not "those people") and groceries are not taxed (our biggest budget item).

Now with 2 DGK's, we are put for a while and it's easy to travel most places from DFW.

 

[Katsmeow]

responding to moving to be closer to family...

To me, this is the only good reason to consider moving in later years.

I guess this is a personal choice but I don't see it that way. I think that wanting to live somewhere else for other reasons is perfectly valid. We moved to a state that we knew no one. Our daughter did follow us here which has been nice. But mostly we didn't want to live in Texas any more for a variety of reasons. I didn't feel that just because I was in my later years that I had to continue living where I didn't want to live....

 

[VanWinkle]

I moved 1500 miles, leaving the old state on the last day I worked. I was only in the old state for approx 8 years, not enough to put down any real roots; also no family in the area. Moved to be closer to family in new state.

I would move if you have something to gain from moving that offsets the costs and hassles of moving. If you put it off, you may not be able to move at a later date.

^^^^^ This!!

 

[Midpack]

When DW retired, we moved 700+ miles from near Chicago to NC. We didn’t have relatives or know anyone here, never lived in NC before. We’re not extroverts. We did our research (started years in advance), visited a few cities/states, and made our choice. That was 5 years ago, and we have zero regrets, we love it here. We moved several times over our careers, so we already knew the drill on the logistics of moving and how to make new friends - both inevitable hurdles. It would be a lot harder for someone who’s lived in the same area all their lives.

 

[retire48in2018]

We retired and moved from IL to TX to be near some family and ultimately chose to live in multi-generational home with our daughter, SIL and their kids

It requires a particular type of home, etc.

We would like this to have been in TN vs TX, but their job circumstances made it be in TX

 

[jpeter1093]

We used to live in a relatively LCOL area on the Colorado Front Range, but it transitioned very rapidly to HCOL. Also, it became mega-crowded and mega-aggravating to live there. Sometimes by staying put, you end up "moving" involuntarily! Keep that in mind as you plan. Look 20 years out.

I'll never understand why someone would voluntarily live somewhere that they have to schedule their entire life around traffic patterns. NOPE. Find somewhere that is not overcrowded, and is not likely to become over crowded during your lifetime.

We retired in upstate NY, sold our house and moved TO Denver. We love it here. Midweek skiing avoids traffic and living right downtown means we can walk or take light rail anywhere we want to go so the heavy traffic’s not an issue to us. YMMV

 

[flyoverstate]

We retired in upstate NY, sold our house and moved TO Denver. We love it here. Midweek skiing avoids traffic and living right downtown means we can walk or take light rail anywhere we want to go so the heavy traffic’s not an issue to us. YMMV

Scheduling your recreation around traffic is literally the definition of having to schedule your life around traffic patterns. On the Front Range, it isn't just skiing that has to be scheduled around crowding, it is hiking, mountain biking, fishing, basically any outdoor activity. And there is no transit to 99% of trailheads.



We couldn't stand it any longer. Screw that noise.

YMMV.

 

[jpeter1093]

Scheduling your recreation around traffic is literally the definition of having to schedule your life around traffic patterns. On the Front Range, it isn't just skiing that has to be scheduled around crowding, it is hiking, mountain biking, fishing, basically any outdoor activity. And there is no transit to 99% of trailheads.



We couldn't stand it any longer. Screw that noise.

YMMV.

For skiing and hiking midweek, it’s not so much the road traffic as traffic on the trails. We’re happy to attend shows, concerts and sporting events on the weekends. Happy we’re both happy in our choices

 

[braumeister]

I've reached the point where I'm expecting to move one final time, to a CCRC. The ones on my list are not in my current state, so that's already a settled issue. My tax situation would be just slightly worse than my current one, not a big difference. But the attraction is going where I can truly be done with moving and a lot of other ordinary concerns.

 

[MC Rider]

We did not want to leave California. We did want to leave Los Angeles. Did a lot of research and some trips to different areas. We kept coming back to the area where we are now. It is only 150 miles away but is a whole different world. I found it kind of funny that before moving people asked where are you moving. But a lot of them never heard of Lake Isabella. Even long time residents LOL. I admit it is off the beaten track and am loving it here.

 

[beachfire]

Anyone? I near such a decision. Moving always sucks in the extreme, but more so in one's later years as by that time you feel like you should be done with all that.

We retired 6 years ago and immediately moved away from the town where we lived for 30 years. Really liked the town we lived in and raised our kids in. But, we wanted to create a “new chapter” in our lives. Not because there was anything wrong with the life we were living, it was fine and we had/have a great network of friends.

We moved about 5 hours away to a beach town. It has been great for a bunch of reasons:

1. We found that in the beach town pretty much everyone had moved here from somewhere else and everyone is looking to make friends. So we now have a huge friend group here that allows us to engage socially at whatever level we want

2. Our old friend group is only 5 hours away and they come visit

3. Moving to a new town felt like an adventure and gave us things to explore and do differently from our old town… the obvious stuff like time on the beach, fishing, bike riding, etc, but also weather patterns, new stores, Resturants, etc

4. We feel like we are kind of living a second life. 6 years in we would do it again.

 

[martyp]

Five years after I retired I got divorced and moved to Thailand. The significant part of that was selling off everything except 2 suitcases and a couple of boxes I stored at my sister’s house. I had read about people minimizing their possessions but until I had done it myself I couldn’t realize how liberating it felt. Moving abroad is not for everyone but making a move while in retirement can jumpstart a new phase in your life.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Five years after I retired I got divorced and moved to Thailand. The significant part of that was selling off everything except 2 suitcases and a couple of boxes I stored at my sister’s house. I had read about people minimizing their possessions but until I had done it myself I couldn’t realize how liberating it felt. Moving abroad is not for everyone but making a move while in retirement can jumpstart a new phase in your life.

From my understanding some 20 years ago, foreigners were not allowed to own properties in Thailand. Is that still true? An ex-colleague of mine married a Thai woman and bought a property in Thailand in her name. Many years later, he accused her of cheating on him and she kept the property, obviously... although it didn't cost alot.

 

[anothercog]

We retired 6 years ago and immediately moved away from the town where we lived for 30 years. Really liked the town we lived in and raised our kids in. But, we wanted to create a “new chapter” in our lives. Not because there was anything wrong with the life we were living, it was fine and we had/have a great network of friends.

We moved about 5 hours away to a beach town. It has been great for a bunch of reasons:

1. We found that in the beach town pretty much everyone had moved here from somewhere else and everyone is looking to make friends. So we now have a huge friend group here that allows us to engage socially at whatever level we want

2. Our old friend group is only 5 hours away and they come visit

3. Moving to a new town felt like an adventure and gave us things to explore and do differently from our old town… the obvious stuff like time on the beach, fishing, bike riding, etc, but also weather patterns, new stores, Resturants, etc

4. We feel like we are kind of living a second life. 6 years in we would do it again.

I’m not retired yet but this is something I think about a lot. I like where I live but it’s getting a bit stale and the taxes suck.

I still have 3 teens but the youngest will be off to college in about 3 more years. After that we are free to leave but DW want to keep our current house for the kids to have a home base and in case we want to move back.

We just can’t decide where to go. No income tax is a big draw. Downtown Seattle would be great but I hate the winters. Parts of Florida could be fun but I hate the summers. This leads me back to California with its Goldilocks climate but it’s too damn expensive. Aargh!

We have a few more years to figure it out.

 

[martyp]

From my understanding some 20 years ago, foreigners were not allowed to own properties in Thailand. Is that still true? An ex-colleague of mine married a Thai woman and bought a property in Thailand in her name. Many years later, he accused her of cheating on him and she kept the property, obviously... although it didn't cost alot.

This is still true. Our property is in my Thai wife’s name. Don’t buy anything you can’t walk away from. In my US divorce my ex-wife kept the house too. I didn’t want to force a sale so I just got what she could afford to pay me for my equity share. Foreigners can buy a condo in Thailand in a building where 51% of the property is Thai owned.

Americans are taught that owning a house and land is the ultimate achievement in life. It is nice but in Thailand rents are incredibly cheap which alters the equation. If you are over 60 and you just divide the cost of a property by the rent then payback is maybe 15 years down the road. You are not going to live that much longer to enjoy to profit. Also there are few restrictions on your neighbors. If they build a condo next door or a pig farm or a karaoke restaurant then that property isn’t going to be that good of an idea. You don’t know the country, the laws, the people, and the real estate market or the building codes. You certainly want to rent for a few years until you figure things out.

 

[troutnut1]

Taxfoundation.org is a great place to start comparing tax burdens in different states BEFORE moving there.

 

[USGrant1962]

Taxfoundation.org is a great place to start comparing tax burdens in different states BEFORE moving there.

Yes. I see lots of comments here about how the taxes are the same in every state - they just get it in different ways. Totally false.

Taxfoundation, amongst others, compares total state-local tax burden and there are huge differences. Effective state and local tax burdens vary from 7.0% in Wyoming to 14.1% in New York (ignoring Alaska as a special case). A 7% (2X) difference is a month of pre-tax living expenses every year. Pretty important for FIRE/4% rule folks.

https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-tax-burden-2019/

Now this doesn't account for various special tax treatments for pension, SS, etc. but rather represents the total tax burden on state residents - a pretty good proxy for the cost of state/local government. You need to model your specific tax situation for new and old states. But don't believe the folks that say it is all the same in the end.

Since I semi-retired in 2017 we've had a notion to move back to PA from MD to be closer to family, closer to the family summer house that we now own, and lower state and local taxes. MD to PA is particularly advantageous as MD gives almost no breaks for retirement income while PA basically taxes none of it. Both have estate taxes, but MD also has an inheritance tax. And ordinary income, like from my consulting gig, is taxed at around 8% marginal SALT in MD vs about 4% in PA.

Darker is better in the graphic here:

https://smartasset.com/retirement/retirement-taxes

The amount of work to downsize and move ourselves, local social relationships, and general inertia have put it off. I think we are in the OP's conundrum.

Moving always sucks in the extreme, but more so in one's later years as by that time you feel like you should be done with all that.

 

[bonvoyage]

We are staying put here in northern NJ. It certainly costs more to live here than other parts of the country but the additional expense is negligible considering our net worth. I like our neighborhood and medical facilities are excellent with three large hospitals in the area. Other factors: we like living right across the Hudson River from NY city as we enjoy trying out new restaurants. Also, being within 25 minutes from a big airport from which we can get flights to any part of the globe.

 

[KarenF]

...

I'll never understand why someone would voluntarily live somewhere that they have to schedule their entire life around traffic patterns. NOPE. Find somewhere that is not overcrowded, and is not likely to become over crowded during your lifetime. I was reading just yesterday about Dawson County, Georgia, which used to be a great place and would have been perfect for us, but is now a blown-out boomtown area with all of the aggravations of suburban Atlanta.
...

We moved from the Augusta, GA area to right outside the Perimeter in Atlanta to be close to the grandkids and we love it. Yes, we do have to take traffic into consideration, but it is second nature now. There is so much more to do and we will never run out of restaurants to try! Plus, the grandkids have their own room at our house and sometimes declare that they are sleeping over. It is fun! It is challenging to make friends - I am averaging one new friend a year, but I am busy and happy. We do also see our old friends sometimes, as it is only a 2.5 hour drive.

 

[skyking1]

The tax burden would be the last reason we would choose to move, as we have family and friends here and nowhere else.
We would choose to move out of the HCOL area if we were in it. As it stands we are going from one fringe with elevated property values, to another area that is not quite possible for a commute to Seattle. It is really more of a retirement community.

 

[meleana]

Anyone? I near such a decision. Moving always sucks in the extreme, but more so in one's later years as by that time you feel like you should be done with all that.

I worked in home health care most of my life and also had to deal with ageing and dying depression era parents who lived in their original home and hoarded everything so I have experience with this.


I was forced out of my job/resigned at age 62 while hubby was still working at age 64 and he was getting tired with commuting and the corporate BS, the schedule of work, etc.


I had a pretty clear picture of what we would face in older years staying in a large home on a lot of acreage in a secluded area with pretty much no family or friends nearby.We lived in NY all our lives and wanted out for various other reasons as well. We lived in our former home for 32 years and our first home before that one for 10 years. Husband and I were both born and grew up in NY.



So I wasted no time hiring a fee only financial planner/advisor, searching for a downsized/low maintenance home in a state where our only child lives (yes- we did consider other states where we did have family/friends, but most were in Florida and that was a no for us due to the climate and landscape). As luck would have it were able to buy a brand new, very affordable, 1100 square foot one level cottage to be built in the last phase of a HOA community in a vacation area up the road from a gorgeous and popular lake in New Hampshire. (no income or sales tax). Our single, 36 year old son lives a half hour away and has lived in that town since he started college way back in 2006.


We vacationed in Vermont and New Hampshire for 22+ years so we were very familiar with the states.



The community is not a 55 plus but it is somewhat like that with snowbirds, part-timers, some renters short and long, and full timers. Many retired or only working part-time or from home. There are a few young families. Most are from Massachusettes.There is just one other couple here from NY and we never see them. They all have a lot in common being from the same state, so that is different for us in that we don't always know what they are talking about relating to their towns, sports teams, etc. But it's all good!



Then I interviewed a few realtors and hired a husband/wife team. And attys for both homes.



We had to move twice since our home sold quickly, but the new home was not finished being built and anyway my husband had a few more months to go for his official retirement.(a lot of work to do with that also). The young couple who bought our home actually rented their little former home, which was about 1/2 hour from our former home, to us for that 5 month period! So we swapped houses!


Then had to get moving quotes.

Ironically we closed on the new home the exact day of my husband's official retirement(12/31/2019). Uncanny. So we moved to the new home in February 2020. I was 63 and 8 mos and my husband was 65 and 9 months.



I will tell you moving is difficult and expensive. Husband was working the whole time as I was home packing, selling and giving away stuff, dealing with building a home long distance (it was 6 hours away). Yeah we took a couple of rides up there, but for the most part we were too busy dealing with the cleaning out and selling of our home.



There is so much to do when you move, physically and mentally. I kept saying the whole time it was a good thing we were doing it then because I don't know how much older people do it. We had no help. Just us.


Then when you do move, unpacking everything and doing what you need to do to become residents- drivers licenses, registering the cars, getting adjusted to the way things are done. Doing things in the new home that need to be done.



Thankfully I am super organized and we did very well! We like it here. We have great neighbors, a nice clubhouse and small pool, resident driven activities, a resident managed HOA that is not controlling with a low monthly fee that takes care of the tiny lawn the house is on, mulch beds, and the trash and plows the private road.


Moving into a community like this (and our is small- only 85 homes) gives you an instant social life (if you so choose). Also we had joined a group BEFORE we moved here outside the community which gave us more connections/acquaintances/friends in the state and local area. My husband immediately joined a sportsman's club since he was giving up his back in NY and also when I was able to in the first two years, I participated in some hikes given by the local town recreation dept.


Hubby took up fishing and I get to float and swim in the gorgeous lakes or hang by the pool in season.I can walk to one beach. Feels like we are always on vacation!


And since we've had the time we got involved a little with local politics. I will tell you the days fly by!


Also we are only 4 miles from shopping, movie theatre and live theatre, banks, restaurants, medical care, hospital, etc. We can walk across the street to a Cumberland Farms if need be. And there are actually a few seasonal restaurants we could walk to, as well as walk to the docks to take mail boats or the big ship out on the lake. A lot of people here have their own boats also and keep them at the marina right down the street from here.


BTW- besides the good tax climate, things like auto and home insurance are much less expensive. Property taxes are high but the overall tax burden is very low. And having the smaller home heating and ac, maintenance. cleaning, are much less of an expense.


In addition to no income tax, don't underestimate how much you save with no sales tax either. It's HUGE! That was a big surprise to us.


I will be 68 in June and my husband will be 70 in April. Last year I ended up with spine surgery. Never would have guessed I'd have a back problem. Up until then I was hiking and snowshoeing. It's been a challenging year for me but I am ok- just not like I was only a few years ago and I don't think I could handle that move again
My husband is thankfully doing well, but he does get more tired.

So the moral of the story is- there's no time like the present if you decide to move when you are older!