what are your connections to a retirement place? (55, grandparents, weather)
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What are your connections to the place where you have retired or will retire?
a). Lived there previously
b). Have family in or near the area
c). A favorite vacation spot
d). Read about it in a magazine
e). Saw or heard an advertisement
f). Real estate agent told about it
g). Other (please explain)
Last edited by JayDaughtry; 05-03-2007 at 11:56 AM..
Reason: to match poll
My answer to the poll would definitely have to be "other". I hope to retire in Tennessee. I am originally from the south and would like to return to the kind of lifestyle I experienced as I was growing up. Tennessee offers many things that I like such as a lower cost of living, no state income tax, low property tax, conservative values, friendly people who care about their neighbors, green rolling hills and mountains. I could go on and on..... I need to escape the kind of life and environment I now have in California.
What would you say it was that originally got you interested in TN? Did you visit there as a child? Do you have friends who have moved to the state? Have you taken business trips to Tennessee? In other words, what sparked your interest enough to prompt you to dig deeper to find that the state is a potential match for you?
...
Tennessee offers many things that I like such as a lower cost of living, no state income tax, ....
Tenn does tax dividends and interest, exactly where many retirees get their income. It irks me that they think investment income should be treated differently than any other income so it helped to me drop that state from my list.
What would you say it was that originally got you interested in TN? Did you visit there as a child? Do you have friends who have moved to the state? Have you taken business trips to Tennessee? In other words, what sparked your interest enough to prompt you to dig deeper to find that the state is a potential match for you?
I'm not jguillot but knowing I didn't want to audit classes in a regular university, I was looking for a place with a retiree school that offered a particular selection of class types (science, economics, history) instead of the usual fluffy classes offered retirees. I also like to read non-fiction, fish and take photos and I'm conservative who can now be more active in politics since I retired from my government job. I found the school first (in addition to the classes I desire has a nonfiction book group), then researched the town and found it has an abundance of fishing areas within 40 minutes of the town and a camera club among other things. It happens to be in East Tennessee and it is conservative based on it's registered voters. I subscribed to the weekly paper and read the daily paper online.
Visited for a week last Fall, have since retired and I'm moving there next week. I have already registered for summer classes and applied for 2 trips. I'm sure right after I get my driver's license, I'll have my fishing license. I'll show up for my first monthly meeting of the camera club in June and hope to join the nonfiction book group in the Fall. When a certain candidate decides he plans to run (soon, I hope) for office, I'll pop into my new local congressman's office (he just happens to be one of the people pushing my candidate to run for President and coincidently, he maintains an office in my new town) and volunteer.
Tennessee also happens to be cheap which is a plus but not my reason for selecting it. I don't know anyone who lives there, have never read about my town in any publication (in fact, never heard of it unrtil after I found the school), and has acceptable weather (I'll see about the summer). I don't have family there, never lived there, never vacationed there unless you count the weeklong retirement scouting trip, am renting and no real estate agent was involved to snow me on the place. While the town is actually a city (own fire, police, schools), it has a suburban population that is very similar to where I live now, around 28,000, and is spread out over a lot of land.
As I've mentioned in other threads, I think the key to a successful retirement is being actively involved in things (of your choice, not that you settle for) to make up for the 40 hours I'm not working, so why not choose my new retirement location based on activity offering first?
My grandparents lived in Springfield, Missouri, so I saw it now and then back in the 1950's. Then when I started searching online for a place meeting my criteria. it kept popping up. I probably noticed that since I had been there now and then as a child.
We went to visit and thought it was wonderful! Although we are keeping an open mind, it is #1 on our list of potential retirement locations.
I imagine Springfield MO would be a very family oriented conservative place, I have never been there, is that a fair assumption of the area?
I think so. It is a very conservative, Christian community. I do not attend church, and I am an economic conservative (though not socially conservative).
It may be difficult to make the adjustment coming from New Orleans. We are also considering Huntsville, Alabama, places in northern Arkansas, like Hot Springs or Fayetteville, and even staying here if there is more improvement here than we anticipate. We aren't holding our breath waiting for the latter, though. We have to stay here for three more years before we qualify to retire.
People in Springfield seemed friendly and welcoming, generally speaking. My dear friend Frank plans not to broadcast the fact that he is a lapsed Catholic, since Catholics are not in the majority there at all. As for me, I was brought up Protestant but I am not going to go so far as to attend church.
It seems like many places in the USA are not really welcoming to all, I mean its a fair assumption, and something that people need to really consider when they make a decision on where to live. I see nothing politically incorrect in saying it. What I do find as not being policially correct to ourselves, is when we don't face that fact. As for me I say live where you need to based on the cost of living and the resources you need in life, such as the housing, the shopping and recreation, as well as good medical care in a place that the crime rate isn't sky high. If the resources you need are not being met, then there is no connection to the place even if you grew up there.
I recently moved to the Sacramento, CA area to retire, from Columbus, OH. Kind of an unconventional move to many, with the higher cost and taxes.
But we have an adult handicapped child, and California's program is far superior to Ohio's. The clincher for us is our kids moved to Los Angeles, so we are only five hours drive away, nothing at all for me to do pretty regularly.
Add in all of the California activities and the weather, it sure is worth the added cost to me.
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