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Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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So far (7 yrs) stayed put (Due to 50% value drop in home, that is QUITE desirable and built & designed from scratch by me).
Traveled a lot (but never enough)
Search showed few places better for tastes / desire of: Near airport / culture / edu, but still live in country. (Am currently in a development protected National Scenic Area, but 20 minutes from a NICE international airport, with 30 minutes of metro / healthcare / culture)
so:
Bought a SMALL home on rural acreage nearby (~ 1 minute away) taxes are $1000/yr, vs current $1000/ month. This new place will have a shop with apartment for me, and several RV sites for shorterm hosting of friends / $300/ month tenants. House stays rented for $1000 sustaining monthly income, and a 10% return on investment. (Still need to sell / transfer ownership of current house "Casa Grande")
+ of staying...
EZ (no moving !)
travel is very EZ. N-S and E-W Freeways and airport / Amtrak; 20 minutes away
Nice area
Very nice neighbors
Quiet
Beautiful https://www.google.com/search?q=colu...Hcf-2QX27uygCA close in, but remote. This has huge advantage if you have seen some of the atrocious commutes of other remote pristine places. Coast is 1 hr awayhttps://www.google.com/search?q=colu...iw=922&bih=508 Mtns 1 hr away (Hood, Rainier, Adams, St Helens,) (+ I live high for region, in mtns actually) Columbia River and great hiking 5 minutes away Cost of living VERY cheap, excluding property taxes and healthcare ~ $100/ month each for food & ALL utilities
- of staying
Cost / capital tied up in Primary Residence (~$0.8m, I would rather have WORKING as asset, than sitting as a LIABILITY) Rain... 280 days of drizzle (but I can be in dry in 30 minute drive or 1 hr $39 flight to Sacramento, Spokane, Boise, or Reno. Lack of adventure... I REALLY want to live overseas again (and I will, LW) Too much stuff... Hard to sell when you have stashed in barns, house, attic, sheds will likely donate to a camp. Dial-up
The OP is lucky to have a year-round city to live in. For we northerners, a place in the sun becomes an imperative. We have stayed where we are (after downsizing to a condo from a house), but we have added a sunny destination to avoid the winter months.
I am coming to the conclusion that I will stay where I am, and if I can't afford the house, move into a mobile home. The winters don't bother me *at all, I loathe the humid grey summers, and I have moved around in my younger life in search of the "right" life and place. There are a couple of Western towns I'd like to spend more time in, sort of as an experiment, but I think I've concluded that I won't be in them fulltime. My growing-up history is well behind me and I feel no attachment to that, and my only family is two very old elders who live down there. I won't be going back when they are gone.
My only real history is here, where I came at age 20 for no particular good reason. Left three times to find the right job and right place, bellyflopped back here three times. I decided there is no right job for me, not if I'm to earn a living! and through a surprise series of circumstances, have been able to build a beyond-my-dreams house at age 48. After ten years here, I still marvel at how much I love my house, a true sanctuary.
I am car-dependent, if you consider supermarket, pharmacy, vet, and auto mechanic within three miles to be "dependent." There is an excellent hospital and healthcare eight miles away, and then it's 30 miles into Boston for tertiary stuff. I can pick up hours at my job when I retire, flexibly, and many retired people do that- pick up some hours, pay for a trip, etc. One woman is eighty and does that, and she has more money than a small nation.
Why think of moving? It's expensive to live here, in every way. I am enamored of the high mountains, the white-top kind, and secondly of Utah's red rock country. I'd like to take a trip on old Rt. 66. I have taken vacations out those ways, and realize that they are really places for vacations, not for living, as I would likely try to replicate my current life (in retirement) with fewer options.
I also fear isolation, finding it not easy to make friends, good friends, at any time, but especially as I get older and people are so scattered around. I suspect this is a common concern, especially for those who don't have family. But boy, is it fun to look at real estate and imagine living somewhere beautiful or fun, and I realize, my perusing is, "Who would I be if I lived here, what would my life be like if I lived here?" as opposed to any real desire to move.
I didn't read this thread . . .just responding to the title . . .seems some people are OBSESSED with moving/not moving in retirement . . . WOW . . . get over it. I am sick of reading about it (RANT) . . . AND I KNOW THIS IS WHAT CITY DATA IS FOR, SO PLEASE IGNORE MY OUTBURST and carry on with your relentless fascination with this subject.
I didn't read this thread . . .just responding to the title . . .seems some people are OBSESSED with moving/not moving in retirement . . . WOW . . . get over it. I am sick of reading about it (RANT) . . . AND I KNOW THIS IS WHAT CITY DATA IS FOR, SO PLEASE IGNORE MY OUTBURST and carry on with your relentless fascination with this subject.
And the ones who talk about it the most are the ones who'll never move.
Well, you know, after searching somewhat extensively outside of New England for greener pastures, I've found out who I really am: a New Englander. Sure I'd like a better winter climate, no doubt about it. And I'd like lower property taxes. However, the logistics of moving away from family and friends at my age just doesn't make sense though moving away was a good fantasy while it lasted.
In making the decision to stay in my region, I must give some credit to LiveContent with his down to earth observations, he has often illustrated his viewpoint about familiarity, family, friends (and two more F's I'm forgetting at the moment). He has also emphasized mobility/transportation factor, which is A-#1 on a senior list of must-haves, imo.
You have your townhouse, your friends, your routine, and you seem to be able to well afford your lifestyle. I would see no reason to change, in fact, for such people changing could prove to be a real mistake. The best way to satisfy wanderlust is to travel, or at least take day trips.
It's funny how fast the years pass. A few short years ago I was traveling the upper South, enchanted with many areas and seeing myself living there. Now, a few short years later, though I still love my explorations and am glad I did this, I'm feeling less mental energy to move anywhere but within New England - I think it's the familiarity + family that I'm not willing to let go of.
...The Familiarity, Friends, Family, Food, and Feel of the area means more as you are old...
I think it does holds true because most people retire in place, either in the place they were born, raised and worked or the last job that spend most of their working years.
I grew up in area where many people were part of the large wave of immigration of the late part of the 19th and the early part of the 20th Century. I still remember their voicing of remembrance of what they left, with the lost yearning of people and places of time past. Most were from families that for generations lived and died in the small towns in villages of Europe and they were the ones that broke that chain of continuance. Some never forgave themselves; some could not live without that loss and some returned.
It is important in our country that many people move to bring new ideas to other areas. It is also very important that we have those who stay and keep towns and cities well established with traditions and remembrance of its past. If a town only has "stayers" then it becomes stall and perhaps dies with the ideas that are not renewed; if a town that only has "movers" then it becomes transient with no sense of place.
Livecontent
Last edited by livecontent; 02-19-2012 at 07:31 PM..
I didn't read this thread . . .just responding to the title . . .seems some people are OBSESSED with moving/not moving in retirement . . . WOW . . . get over it. I am sick of reading about it (RANT) . . . AND I KNOW THIS IS WHAT CITY DATA IS FOR, SO PLEASE IGNORE MY OUTBURST and carry on with your relentless fascination with this subject.
When I see a thread title that I know I'm not interested in, I don't bother to respond in that thread, I just move on to something else. It seems to me that would be a sensible practice which you could consider adopting.
its sort of like war. if u fought a lota battles here & won, u know the territory very well u know the enemy u know the game. your chances of survival when u are old if u stay put r very good.
When I see a thread title that I know I'm not interested in, I don't bother to respond in that thread, I just move on to something else. It seems to me that would be a sensible practice which you could consider adopting.
Thanks for sharing, but unfortunately, you don't get to dictate my posting habits. Glad you are so evolved though!
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A modest suggestion
