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Haven't had any regrets, but we're still moving. Each place we resided after retirement (one foreign country, three US states) was the answer to one of our dreams. Eventually, we will live 'em all (our dreams), even though not all in one place.
Last edited by Ol' Wanderer; 10-20-2011 at 10:00 PM..
Well, we moved 2500 miles on the day I retired so we got you beat!
I walked out of the office at 1pm and was on a 4:30pm flight out of town. I don't regret one minute of the move. Being here in LV has been like being on a permanent vacation. And the cost of living is much, much lower.
Actually, there has been one minor downside: it adds a cross-country flight to an already long transatlantic flight when we go to Europe. For example, next Wednesday we have to get up at 4:00am to catch a 7am flight to Philadelphia in order to make our connecting flight to Barcelona. Then, after a weekend stay and two-week cruise from Barcelona to New Orleans (and a weekend stay in New Orleans before flying back to Las Vegas), we turn around the next week and fly all day from Las Vegas to Rome to board another cruiseship for a trip from Rome to Ft. Lauderdale.
However, on the bright side, it makes traveling to Hawaii, Asia, and the South Pacific much shorter, so I guess it will be a wash once we start traveling west instead of east.
MMoB your post made me smile. "Being here in LV has been like being on a permanent vacation" How wonderful for you! I leave for my permanent vacation in mid December and I can't wait. Headed to Okaloosa Island FL.
It's been a long time since I was in Vegas. My first trip there was when my husband and I got married, and I still remember being in awe of the place. We booked a room at Bellegio and I was amazed at how nice the place was, and FANCY to the extreme, LOL. I always hated buffets but the ones in Vegas... OMG rack of lamb and huge shrimp cocktail on the buffet at Bellegio. We got married in the back of a Limo and drove around drinking champagne, I was in heaven I learned how to play black jack that trip too... Vegas is like one huge playground for adults. We made a few trips after that and then started doing the beach vacations. Still, I will always have a fondness for Vegas.
Glad to hear it's been wonderful for you, and have fun on all your travels
Sometimes I think I should have worked longer so I would have had more money. But then I wouldn't have met my SO. I just have to remind myself there are things more important than money!
I still love Las Vegas. It was the perfect place for me to retire.
Sometimes I think I should have worked longer so I would have had more money. But then I wouldn't have met my SO. I just have to remind myself there are things more important than money!
Sometimes I think I should have worked longer so I would have had more money. But then I wouldn't have met my SO. I just have to remind myself there are things more important than money!
I still love Las Vegas. It was the perfect place for me to retire.
When Mrs. Tek gets stressed at her job, and it's been getting worse with the lack of Federal Money, I remind her that if she retires and we have a little less, it's okay. I prefer her to money.
When Mrs. Tek gets stressed at her job, and it's been getting worse with the lack of Federal Money, I remind her that if she retires and we have a little less, it's okay. I prefer her to money.
Good for you. Precisely the reason I didn't balk when my wife retired early. It didn't "help" us financially but was much better for her and, therefore, for us.
We just made a move to the southeast. We totally regret and wish we had taken more time to analysis. Once you sell, you can never go back and that is the horror of a decision we will always wish we had not.
If you want to move, think, think and think about it before you do anything.
I can't offer an opinion on where to move but I can give suggestion on how to research your retirement destination so you lessen the chance for a mistake.
1. Know what it is you want to do in retirement (how you are going to fill up a 35 - 40 hour former work week with other activities) and then look for a place to live where you can do those things easily and with the variety and quality you are accustomed to having. Don't compromise because of cheap and pretty. That glow will only last for a few months and then you'll be asking yourself, is that all there is to retirement? Examples: If you like to go to plays and ethnic restaurants, don't move near the ocean or to the mountains just because it's pretty there or it's cheap, if you have to drive 30 miles to do the things you like to do. If you enjoy bowling, don't move to some place where the taxes are cheap, the trees are pretty and the sun always shines but there's no bowling alley for 50 miles. If you go to the movies a lot, will you be happy living in a place that doesn't have a multi-plex even if your property tax is cheap? If you are a trout fisherman and the place is loaded with ponds and rivers, make sure there's trout in them. If you belong to any clubs now, see if the new location has the same kind of clubs.
2. Do a "city compare" (plug in the words on Google to find the first site listed) and compare where you live now to the town you are considering to see if things are better or worse or there is more or less than where you live now. The scores will mean nothing to you but in a side by side comparison of air quality, for example, you'll find out if the air is much worse or much better than where you live now and you know what it feels like where you live now. You'll compare the utility rate scores to see if they are much higher or much lower than where you live now. You can compare crime rates (violent and non-violent), grocery cost scores, water quality, religion, snow and rainfall, days of sunshine per year, voting (Democrat/Republican) percentages, males versus females, age averages, race, doctors per capita, income levels, etc. Hover your cursor over the item to see how the site defines them. I'd give you a link but the site competes with City Data and it will be deleted by the moderator.
3. Read the local event stories and events calendars in the local online newspaper on a regular basis before you move. What do people in the town like to do? Does it sound like the things you like to do? Look at the calendar of events page if they have one. Read the local crime stories. And most of all, read the letters to the editor and the town council/planning board meeting stories to find out what's planned for the town and what the town issues are. You know, it would be nice to know before you shop for a new home whether a mall or new school baseball field is being planned for around the corner.
4. When shopping for a home, go back at night and see what it's like after people come home from work and kids are home from school.
5. Go to an online yellow pages website and find out what's (stores, restaurants, supermarkets, houses of worship, movie theaters, doctors, medical facilities, etc.) in the town and adjacent towns. Is there enough of what you like and is it the variety and quality you are accustomed to? You shouldn't have to drive more than one town away for these things you want/do a lot.
6. When you visit before you move, don't just do tourist things and home scouting. Visit the supermarkets and clothing stores. Do they have what you like (products, brands)? If you are religious, attend a service. If you are still going to work, get up in the morning and do the commute to see what it's like. If you like to fish, do it when you visit. If you like to golf, do it when you visit. If you like to read, check out the library. Does it have the latest books in the genre you like to read? When you are in your hotel/motel room, watch the local nightly news show. If you can attend a local event do it and take a look at the people. Do they look/act like your type of people? You know, if you are all duded up in designer fashions with sprayed hair, jewelry and make-up, hoping for wine and cheese, and you get there and there are a lot of plain people in jeans drinking beer and eating hot dogs (or vice versa) you might not be in the town that's right for you.
7. When you visit, buy a street map (usually can get one in the town's local gas station convenience store) and mark it up with your observations of what you saw where. This will be immensely helpful to you once you return home. Mark the same street map when you read the local online newspaper especially when they identify the locations of crimes. If the real estate office in the new location calls, you can check your map to see what you previously observed there or what the online newspaper revealed about the area. Bring a camera when you visit..
8. If you are moving to a town you vacation in every summer, visit in the winter. Does everything in the town close up after 6PM? Are all of the stores/restaurants open year 'round? If you usually vacation in the mountains, for example, what are the mountain roads like in the winter? If you go to a hot town in the winter every year, what's it like there in the summer?
9. Ask questions in the state forums that don't require a "feelings" response but instead give you the information to evaluate. For example, "Do you get a lot of snow?" is a bad question. A former Floridian might think three inches is too much and a former New Englander might think 12 inches is just fine. Instead ask something like, "In what month does it start to snow and in what month does it usually end?" Or, "Per snowfall about how many inches do you get?" This way, you can evaluate if they get a lot of snow or it snows too many months of the year, not get the responder's feelings about it. And don't forget to ask about rainfall.
10. If you are close to your family ask yourself, "If I move to be near my children, am I sure they are staying put?" If you plan to return "home" for frequent visits, where's the airport? How close are you to the Interstates? How long is the drive?
11. Don't be discouraged about retirement based on what you see in retirement destination magazines. They are trying to sell things to upper middle class people by their advertisers. Ask yourself when was the last time you read a retirement magazine that told you how great the hunting was in Town X or how many baseball diamonds there was in town, how the bass fishing is, or where you can see bluegrass and country bands play in the park? If you came from out of space and read retirement magazines you'd think the only things important to all retirees are museums, marinas, the theater, shopping and golf. There are plenty of both kind of places but the magazines only address one kind of retirement. Also, consider that a lot of retirement book authors live in big cities. What you consider to be a great retirement may never have even occured to them to address in their books.
Excellent list. You should try to sell this to AARP or other relevant magazine. Maybe put it up as a sticky here on this forum.
One addition to #5: go to maps.google.com and search for "stores near name-of-town state" Then zoom in until it starts showing names of stores.
I am sitting here in a foot of snow outside of Chicago after sending most of the weekend in a hotel room.
No, I am very happy that I moved after retirement. I can't wait to get home tomorrow and take a long walk in short sleeves.
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