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I'll never move further than Westchester County and that's pushing it. I have older relatives that retired to the south about a decade ago and they are starting to have health problems. Things are too far apart and there is no public transportation. The big houses they bought when they sold high and got out of NYC need to be maintained and their kids live here where the jobs are. The relatives that retired in the city are fine. My 80 year old great aunt lives in her co-op, has a home attendant, and her grand daughter checks on her so she doesn't have to go to a nursing home. Living way out isn't ideal for the elderly unless they have strong support or a lot of money to pay for live in help that can drive.
In my experience, people who have left NYC did so because they got tired of the city life, and do much better elsewhere, and mostly have left to Pennsylvania or Florida. Whether it was for retirement, a slower life, better opportunities like buying a home for themselves/families, or improved quality of life (or a mix of the above).
As for myself, I plan on maintaining my residence here, but also have a vacation home in florida where much of my family has already migrated to. In a perfect world winters would be split between Florida and the Caribbean, and the late Spring/Summer/Fall in NYC.
Strangely...this scenario sets up my life alternating between the 3 largest areas where PRs live: NYC, FL and PR. A trifecta!
NYC is a very good place to retire. Unless you are the type who thinks old age is for rocking on a porch or slowly driving back and forthe to a Mall until your vision gets so rotten you must stay home, NYC, especially Manhattan, has ease of travel, lots of exciting often free things to do, diversity, culture, art, music, drama, superb liibraries, and more doctors per block than any city in the World as well as excellent hospitals in abundance.
Remember too, that the onerous NYC and NYS taxes fall by the wayside for many retirees.
If you have been here a good long while, your housing costs are FAR lower than what the newbie faces...and where else can seniors get unlimited travel over THOUSANDS of miles for $52 for a month?
But if you HAVE to be where the grandkids are (there are people like that,) well then that's A reason to leave Town but if you are an independent, intelligent person who believes life goes on BEYOND retirement, then you cannot do much better than NYC.
I plan on staying put and I've been retired for a while. Once you dump the hateful job, life in the City can be quite wonderful. I can wake up each morning and say "What can I do that is exciting today?"
My husband and I agree. While I was working I wanted a nice quiet place in a bucolic setting, but we made no rash moves after retirement. Now that we are retired for a time, we realize that we would just wilt from the boredom in suburbia or in the country. New York is great for retirees.
PS, AZ and FL are not our only options. Unfortunately, many NY'ers do not visit the wider country that we call the United States because they look down on many areas for various reasons. I'm very proud to say that I've been to 36 states, lived in 4 of them for extended periods of time, and hopefully I will get to visit as many areas of all 50 before I retire so I can make a very informed decision as to where I will spend my relaxing years. Our beautiful state is actually #1 on the list right now, but again, unfortunately, many NYC dwellers don't even partake in the beauty we have right here within our own political borders.
Visiting various places gives one a cursory view of the area. Once you move to a place and settle down you get a much better idea of what you've bought into. It's like getting a job that sounds great but once there, you realize that the political atmosphere is byzantine.
The thing about New York is that you can usually find lots of people who share whatever interests you have. My building is a no children condo with lots of opportunities to meet neighbors if you are a social type. Try to retire in the burbs and get a service that delivers groceries to your door - groceries that you ordered from your dwelling. Little things like that compensate for the sometimes too hot or too cold weather.
I think, when planning a retirement move, a person should think ahead about perhaps not being able to drive or requiring help in an emergency or not having to travel very far to visit friends or doctors. It's also reassuring that you are not responsible for chasing down plumbers or other contractors when things fall apart. It's nice to know that you can take off on vacation without worrying about the place being robbed because it appears empty or mowing the lawn or shoveling snow.
I have a friend who lives in the burbs to be close to family. Some moved away. Some (I think) resent her calling them whenever her plumbing fails or the driveway needs plowing or the lawn needs mowing. New York is also easier access than Po-Dunk. She also awoke one morning to see a bear on her deck.
Visiting various places gives one a cursory view of the area. Once you move to a place and settle down you get a much better idea of what you've bought into.
There's two key things in the quote of mine you used that I'm not sure you caught:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Airborneguy
I'm very proud to say that I've been to 36 states, lived in 4 of them for extended periods of time, and hopefully I will get to visit as many areas of all 50 before I retire so I can make a very informed decision as to where I will spend my relaxing years. Our beautiful state is actually #1 on the list right now, but again, unfortunately, many NYC dwellers don't even partake in the beauty we have right here within our own political borders.
You are certainly correct though: many people pick up and move to an area without properly planning for such a big, life changing decision.
Another common theme here seems to be the loss of so-called "services" and convience when moving to small town America. While there is certainly SOME truth to that, I'd venture that some posters reliance on these needs comes from the fact that they have lived in a city their entire lives. You are acting as if no older Americans live in small towns (hence my comment about AARP folks earlier). Life times spent in certain ways prepare one for dealing with only certain things. Farm Boy might not do well with the traffic in Manhattan, while City Boy will likely have a harder time living in a place where everything isn't at their beck and call, this is a theme that has been in place since cities came into being. My co-worker has lived in Brooklyn his entire life. He literally laughs when I tell him my idea of a vacation is to head to the mountains to go fishing. His idea? A cruise or all-inclusive somewhere. Anytime I've done a vacation like that, I find myself surrounded by NY'ers. What kind of vacation is that?
Take this for example:
Quote:
Originally Posted by goldengrain
Try to retire in the burbs and get a service that delivers groceries to your door - groceries that you ordered from your dwelling.
I've lived in NYC for most of my life, and have never had groceries delivered and never plan to. I'd have to make some phone calls to friends, but I'm sure their parents and grandparents did fine in middle America without this service (if they don't have it by the way, because they probably do).
Quote:
Originally Posted by goldengrain
It's also reassuring that you are not responsible for chasing down plumbers or other contractors when things fall apart.
This is specific to living in a building, not necessarily living in NYC per se.
Quote:
Originally Posted by goldengrain
It's nice to know that you can take off on vacation without worrying about the place being robbed because it appears empty or mowing the lawn or shoveling snow.
There's entire swaths of this country where burglary and robbery happen once a year, in the whole town, and people talk about it for decades after. "Safest big city in America" means something, but it doesn't come close to approaching what a small town sees in crime. One of my buddies from the Army told me that he never had a house key growing up. He wasn't even sure if his parents had one either. That stuck with me. I'm fairly confident that people who leave their doors unlocked year-round aren't worried about going on vacation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by goldengrain
She also awoke one morning to see a bear on her deck.
Sounds like a place I'd love!
Discussing this topic doesn't have to degrade into insults about people not being able to live "independantly" and "absolutely having to be near their grandchildren" either. It is interesting to hear other people's point of view, but I believe that many of the posters who seem to think retiring outside of NYC is like moving back to the stone ago don't have any first hand experience with small town America. Having actually LIVED that way for a few years, and having very close friends whom I frequently visit in this setting, I do agree that city people tend to become dependant on certain aspects of city life that are not available in the small towns.
PS.. everything outside of NYC is not SUBURBIA. I posted about this earlier. It's comments like that which make it quite clear that having outside-NYC knowledge is not a common trait of people who live here.
Yea, its a bit like a frined of mine from Manila who could barely comprehend of trying to live without her own cook and maid. And she was working in a Mall there when she had her own domestic workers - thats how poor the rest were.
Amazingly she is surviving here having to do her own cooking and cleaning. Poor thing.
That brings me to the fact that you can live like a king in some countries where you can still collect US social security.
Well not so much. A bunch of states don't have an individual income tax at all - so its irrelevant that they don't tax pensions because they don't tax income period.
States with no income tax have to raise revenue in some way, so they hike local property taxes (which raises rents) or have a hefty sales tax.
What you want to look for is states that specifically are good for retirees.
There are a lot of sources for finding good states to live in, but that includes good things for families with kids and people who need jobs.
Kiplingers is where I used to go. They had an annual issue which compared states for retirees. One of the things that the individual MUST do for himself is to research the property tax of the community he wishes to live in. I noticed that, for Florida, that could vary greatly.
If money is not the only concern, then look for things for you to do, clubs, discussion groups, travel groups. Look for the availability of senior services, buses to take you shopping or to the doctors when you are ill, home nurse availability. Check out the nearby hospitals for how they handle geriatric problems. Note the predominant religious and political leanings of the populace.
There's entire swaths of this country where burglary and robbery happen once a year, in the whole town, and people talk about it for decades after. "Safest big city in America" means something, but it doesn't come close to approaching what a small town sees in crime. One of my buddies from the Army told me that he never had a house key growing up. He wasn't even sure if his parents had one either. That stuck with me. I'm fairly confident that people who leave their doors unlocked year-round aren't worried about going on vacation.
It is easier when you have a building staffed and with security measures.
Years back, when I was young and in suburbia my friend was going out with a cop. He said you don't want to tell your local police that your on vacation for a month (or week). Depending on the community, your address gets on a list that, if it is worth it to the crooks, gets robbed.
Sometimes you think you are safer but it's really a crap shoot.
Yeah, that bear on the back deck might sound cute but they can do a lot of damage and if you are a woman living alone in a big house it can get scary.
If you have the bucks to move to a place for early retirement and to somewhere else later on, that's just fine. Most people intend to move once only and they should keep in mind that they will get old and will have to depend on others more as they age.
Our place has wide hallways and doorways, levers instead of knobs, a sit tub rather than traditional. It's really not a nice thing to think of, but some advanced planning can save a lot of angst later on.
Maybe some here have adult kids who they know they can rely on. Not so, for us. We would not want to if we could, truthfully.
Years back, when I was young and in suburbia my friend was going out with a cop.
There it is again... I don't know why I bother.
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