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I agree whole-heartedly. Once I retired we moved from the Left Coast to the SW Missouri Ozarks and bought a home on the shore of a large lake. Just the view alone would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in California. Our house is modest but more than ample for our needs and quite rural (20+ miles from anything of note) and the peace, quiet and serenity are priceless, as is the scenery.
The area is quite southern - we're nine miles from the AR border - but also encompasses the best that the SW has to offer in terms of friendliness, hospitality and heartland values. Making this move was something we'd planned on for years and we've yet to have cause to be disappointed.
As you pointed out, it's not for everyone and many would find it difficult to adjust not only to the simplicity and the society but to the weather as well since we experience and enjoy four distinct seasons. It's all a matter of expectations. If one needs ready access to shopping, upper-scale cultural pursuits, demographic diversity, etc., such a location is not for them. But for us, what the area may lack in those respects it more than makes up for them with its natural beauty, abundance of nature, clean air and lack of noise and light pollution.
We're happy and content here. In the end that's all that counts.
We're 13 miles from Arkansas. How far east are you, 'Mudge? Sounds like you are pretty darn close to me. LOL
Too many people who whine about how expensive it is to live in the USA have champagne tastes. Many of them are really saying they can't afford to live in coastal California or in one of the big cities like New York or San Francisco. I know one guy who is just fit to be tied because he found out he couldn't afford to live in Honolulu which was a dream of his.
As you say, much of the Midwest (Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa, South Dakota, and Missouri) all have many places where housing could be obtained at a very reasonable expense. These places may not meet some individuals expectations of "grandeur and elegance", but if that's true, I 'd say the problem is with their expectations rather than what these places offer. The same is true of many of the southern states. One can live along or near the coast in Biloxi, Mississippi or near Mobile, Alabama and not pay a fortune to do so.
One hint: If the place can be found on a list of "the top 50 destinations for elderly people to retire in" its probably going to be above average in cost. Its the old law of "supply and demand".
Have you ever watched House Hunters on HGTV? If you watch a dozen episodes or so - you'll get an idea of the vast array of possible housing options in the United States. I watched 2 episodes this week. One featured finding a place in Manhattan Beach CA - the other dealt with some suburbs in the county where I live. What a difference! In Manhattan Beach - I would have to pay about 3 times what my 2800 sq house on almost an acre is worth for a townhouse less than half the size on a postage stamp sized lot. And I live in what is probably the highest priced area in our county.
BTW - since the real estate bust - a lot of Florida is priced very reasonably (and NE Florida - where I live - has always been priced reasonably compared to other parts of the state).
I don't know if we've ever been on any list of top places to retire (we mostly get on lists of top places to send your kids to school - since our county has been rated #1 in the state). But I think it's a pretty nice place for older people (major downside - not a problem for us - is you really need a car here unless you're living in a senior facility that provides transportation). Robyn
Have you ever watched House Hunters on HGTV? If you watch a dozen episodes or so - you'll get an idea of the vast array of possible housing options in the United States. I watched 2 episodes this week. One featured finding a place in Manhattan Beach CA - the other dealt with some suburbs in the county where I live. What a difference! In Manhattan Beach - I would have to pay about 3 times what my 2800 sq house on almost an acre is worth for a townhouse less than half the size on a postage stamp sized lot. And I live in what is probably the highest priced area in our county.
BTW - since the real estate bust - a lot of Florida is priced very reasonably (and NE Florida - where I live - has always been priced reasonably compared to other parts of the state).
I don't know if we've ever been on any list of top places to retire (we mostly get on lists of top places to send your kids to school - since our county has been rated #1 in the state). But I think it's a pretty nice place for older people (major downside - not a problem for us - is you really need a car here unless you're living in a senior facility that provides transportation). Robyn
Also on house hunters international you can see that the charming spots in Paris and Rome and the like sell for prices like NYC only the properties are decadent looking with old fixtures and poor amenities. Usually over $1000 per square foot.
How tragic. Not that children are mutilated, but that your travel agent did not experience the joys of one of the oldest cultures on earth. What kind of idiot does not even bother to see for their own eyes what a country is all about. How can she ANSWER any questions about the country from prospective clients? She is a poor travel agent, indeed.
India is poor, so what? Happiness has nothing to do with money. Some of the finest, most beautiful people in the world don't have a pot to pee in. If you cross poor cultures off your list you miss some incredibly, life-changing experiences. What a pity.
20yrsinBranson
Actually - my travel agent saw a lot in India - did tons of sightseeing. What she also did was take extreme food precautions - which is very advisable in certain parts of the world. Heck - my dentist's wife is from India - and when they visit family there once a year with their kids - they only eat certain kinds of food prepared by family or very high end restaurants. The best way to ruin a vacation in a place where you should take food precautions is not to take food precautions (ask my husband - who spent the first day and a half of our cruise up the Nile in our cabin with an amazingly bad case of "turista" he got after eating a salad in Cairo - I am sure that if he had been 65 - and not 35 - that "turista" would have knocked him out for a much longer time).
My travel agent also stayed in luxury hotels owned by a particular chain. That was the purpose of her trip - to visit various properties to see whether she could recommend them to her clients (she works for a luxury travel firm).
FWIW - my travel agent didn't like India. For the same reasons markg mentioned - being surrounded by lots of really poor people most of the time is something that many people find depressing. I'm in that camp as well.* Heck - if I wanted to surround myself with poverty (although poverty that isn't anywhere as extreme as the poverty in India) - I could simply take a 45 minute drive and walk around parts of Jacksonville.
Have you seen Slumdog Millionaire? Interesting movie.
And like Tevye said in Fiddler on the Roof:
Dear G-d, you made many, many poor people. I realize there's no shame in being poor...but it's no great honor either...
Finally - one of the things my husband and I most like to do when we travel is to explore the cuisine of a country - without having to worry about what we eat. The food can be weird - and/or things we've never had before (many things we ate in Japan were like that). My only requirement is I want a reasonable degree of certainty that I won't get sick eating it. Which is why we stick to first world countries these days.Robyn
* - We spent about 11 days in Egypt quite a while ago. I did enjoy some of the attractions in Cairo - and I especially enjoyed our cruise up the Nile. And I'm glad we did the trip when we did - because the kind of travel we did in Egypt really isn't possible now (on top of everything else - a lot of the tombs we saw are now closed to the public due to deterioration as a result of exposure to carbon dioxide from the breathing of tourists).
More than a dozen years ago I met a lady from Chicago who retired to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. She raved about it. She apparently had worked for the Chicago Tribune and was now retired on a very modest pension. She praised the beauty and the historical charm of the city, that fact that it had a HUGE community of retired gringos like herself: their own clubhouse, English language library, social clubs, etc. According to this lady, had she stayed in Chicago, she would barely manage to survive by living in a one-room studio in a sketchy area ... but now she was renting a charming house with servants who come by to clean 3 days a week, luncheons in fine restaurants, other friendly retirees, etc.
I'm not sure if that situation would be the same today.
I have a lawyer friend from Philadelphia who retired to Bangkok, Thailand. He absolutely loves it. I visited him a couple of times in Bangkok ... he has a nice 2 bedroom apartment in a fashionable neighborhood near the main restaurant, shopping, and nightlife districts - not far from the US Embassy. He likes to travel and is always is taking week-long mini-vacations to places like Malaysia, Bali, Australia, Cambodia, Nepal, and Hong Kong.
From my experience it seems that retiring to one of these places is not a good idea if you are very low on funds. I've observed that if you have a middle class income in the US there are places where you would be considered "rich" and really enjoy the perks.
I thought my new home would be in Micronesia.... I visited 2 distinct Islands. ( Micronesia is a US Territory. ) I thought, wrongly, that they had access to lots of fresh vegetables, and local fruit. What a rude awakening I was in for....... First, for the oddest reason I cannot figure out; the government there, is absolutely terrified of : The Honey Bee. They dont have honey bees and do not want to import them. Consequently, they dont have pollenators as such. ( They think little of all the wasps and rats that abound. ) America is able to grow the bounty of food that it produces because we have pollenators, as such the honey bees do this incalcuably valuable work. So yes, Micronesia can grow bananas, some citrus, some coconuts, and a few other things, but very limited in scope. They have not mastered poultry raising to feed it's people so much frozen chicken parts is imported from Georgia. Canned Spam and Treat were highly popular in a country whose hourly wage is $1.60 hour. Did I mention frozen turkey tails imported from the USA ? They are 98 % fat....... Yum....... I went to the library there. It was comprised of old paperback love stories and old issues of Cosmo, Vogue and People Magazine. No technical books. And shipping things over there is ridiculously expensive. I was looking into sending a certain type of fan belt for an air compressor to a friend there that asked for my help. The part only weighed in at 1 pound and would cost about $22. US. But with cheapest freight, shipping would be $185. .....................Very happy to return to the USA !
No one seemed to mention that Americans are welcomed to live in Thailand. Yes they are so welcomed to come and live there. They are so welcomed to come and live there that, Americans must leave the country for at least a few days after living in wonderful Thailand EVERY 90 days of stay. It might be waived if you have a valuable job working for the government. However, it must be a beach if you grow old and infirmed there and are not working at the time.
( look into it for yourself, first before moving there, so there are no suprises .)
From my experience it seems that retiring to one of these places is not a good idea if you are very low on funds. I've observed that if you have a middle class income in the US there are places where you would be considered "rich" and really enjoy the perks.
Good observation. I agree.
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Living In Places Outside the USA
