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That sounds lovely, and I know there are a lot of happy snowbirds out there. But that's another of my old dreams that I've become less sure about. One of the good things about retirement is that life is simpler, and the thought of maintaining 2 homes far apart geographically is a little daunting. Does anyone else feel that way, or am I easily "daunted"?
I was working on that problem when i was in my 40s ! I built a beach house on a dune /island off the west coast of Florida. WE had 20 miles of pure white sand, cool nights, and not bad days in the winter.
m I was also building my "summer place" in NC. mts @ 4,000 feet........ Times change , people change. I sold the beach house after 6 months( living on an island with no bridge has its problems), for three times what it cost me to build it..... My Mountain home was over budget, five stories ,killer view, and very low taxes 6 miles from a resort town with good medical. We seldom needed AC , no bugs, it seemed ideal , even though it did get very cold in Winter, fog, ice, mountain roads , but we loved it. Almost the ideal place for any of us to retire too. We lived there 18 years.
Now I am old , but have built my final home on the shore of Lake Superior in Michigan's UP. I have a 50 mile view from my mountain top of the lake. Marquette has great medical, 20,000 people and growing fast. No loss in home values, and unemployment is rare if you have skills.
Of all the places , I would say the NC mountains were the most ideal, but , the temps could often go below 0. and snow was measured in feet, just like it is here in Marquette., but the springs and falls were long. The great thing about Marquette is it does not get very cold in winter, summers are mostly cool and no AC is needed ( not this year). Living up here is great, people are progressive , liberal , and lots of young people because of NMU... I guess this is ideal, but we do get a lot of snow. I miss The NC mountains, but not the politics. If I were younger i would have moved to Canada, that's for sure. Its a growing, safe, prosperous,everyone has medical, and home values did not go south like in the US.
I have lived a lot of places, starting out in rural Iowa, than Chicago where I made my money ( still do). Then Detroit, MPLS. Atlanta,Sarasota,FL., Highlands, NC, Omaha, Denver, Seattle( the islands in Puget Sound were also ideal climate wise)...
The bottom line is , I guess the UP is the best...most of the year. Many folks are looking into retiring here. its only 12 miles from an international airport. 320 miles from Chicago , and the traffic is not bad. The City and County has won a lot of awards for the best place to live, to retire, and for all the restoration and beatification of our lake front.
I don't want to sound morbid, but for me, wherever I choose to live now depends on where I want to "draw my last breath."
I agree with newenglandgirl on above. Having moved around a great deal for professional reasons I think I have only one more move in me. I need to make this one count in terms of selecting the right place and situation to settle me for the remainder of my life. Probably why I am increasingly anxious about getting on with the decision and putting the logistics in motion. Not very much pressure there!
That sounds lovely, and I know there are a lot of happy snowbirds out there. But that's another of my old dreams that I've become less sure about. One of the good things about retirement is that life is simpler, and the thought of maintaining 2 homes far apart geographically is a little daunting. Does anyone else feel that way, or am I easily "daunted"?
Yes, I'm daunted. And we now have 3 homes, fairly far apart. The plan right now is to winter in Florida, in our newly-acquired condo in Dunedin. In the spring and fall we'll be in our condo in Toronto, and in the summer, we'll be off and on at our cottage in the woods up north. It's 5 hours away by car. None of these places are particularly posh, especially the cottage (which I inherited.)
It's all kind of scary, and we'll probably dump one property or another within 5-10 years. But for now, it's great. We get out city fix, and our fresh air, trees and water fix, and our palm trees and sun fix. The most important thing: NO MORE WINTER!!
That sounds lovely, and I know there are a lot of happy snowbirds out there. But that's another of my old dreams that I've become less sure about. One of the good things about retirement is that life is simpler, and the thought of maintaining 2 homes far apart geographically is a little daunting. Does anyone else feel that way, or am I easily "daunted"?
I have two homes -- one in NV and one in WI -- and while I thought I'd winter in NV and summer in WI, I'm finding that NV is home and the WI home is seldom used. If the market was better, I'd sell the WI place and relieve myself of the expense and concern. Since I have become so involved with friends and activities here in Henderson, I don't want to leave for long periods of time. And this was a surprise to me.
Open manholes everywhere because of missing covers. City officials don't care if someone falls in. Food uncovered in a store being handled and put back by people. Partially gutted fish tossed on a table in the same store. Rotten vegetables there. Apparently you have to either have a car or rent a bus to get places since the city buses don't go anywhere. Blind people only allowed to be in certain areas. ISP technicians worse than Best Buy, leaving cables strung across hallways for extended periods of time, all the while not fixing your Internet access problems.
Seems the only good thing is everything is cheap compared to here.
I don't think I'd find where you live to be acceptable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by steveso
When I decided to retire early, I also decided to retire overseas. I was sick of the cold winters in New England and the high cost of living where I lived. I made trips to an area of the world I liked, Asia. After traveling to China, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia I decided to move to Malaysia. Malaysia has a program called Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) which is tailored for retirees. I have been living here for 3 years now and I love it. I can live much better here than I could have in the US, because of a lower standard of living. You can check out my story at my blog at Retired in Malaysia
There is no ideal place ... or all places are ideal ... or any place is ideal? Isn't the ideal place just a function of the space between your ears ... it's what you choose to decide to make ideal. With the right thinking the most un-ideal place could be considered ideal and vice versa.
Information , that's what we are here for., to help people, through our own experiences , make intelligent decisions.... I moved to the UP , 4 years ago , cause it was on my bucket list. I had little choice, but , I sure did a lot of investigation before I made the jump. Most of it right here on City data.
How has your thinking about the ideal place evolved?
Hasn't changed a bit.
As long as it has pine trees, in the mountains, and not in the desert .... I'll be happy.
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I think I could only do (or want to do) one more major move too.
Two homes
