Any Suggestions On A Place to Retire? (friend, smart, small)
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I agree with the above. Your 36 year old self thinks differently than your 60 year old self.
I second this opinion. You don;t know what might happen in the future. You are young. Touch the wood for anything bad, but life what it is, full of surprises, pleasant and unpleasant. If I were you I'd just put more money aside for retirement and make a decision when you get closer to that age. I'm closer to the retirement than you and I already had a change of heart related to my retirement plans in terms of where and what.
I agree about the Ozarks. I'm in Michigan, and traveled a lot for my job, so I could do a lot of comparing. My plan is to move away from Michigan and I have narrowed it down to Eureka Springs, Arkansas (arty, funky, beautiful area) and a couple of possibles in New Mexico.
I originally thought North Carolina would be "it" until I had to spend a few months in Charlotte and other smaller NC cities on a work project. Every single person I met asked me about my religion/church and whether I was a NASCAR fan. Nothing against religion, I'd just rather not discuss Jesus or the bible all the time. It's a private thing. NASCAR also appears to have near-religious fervor. So, not for me.
To the OP... If Colorado isn't your cup of tea, look for jobs somewhere that you'll like better, or get the skills that will then enable a move. After that you can buy the land and build a house. Twenty or thirty years is too long to not be happy.
I wouldn't want to own land in another state that I didn't intend to use for many years. It's just another expense and even a potential liability.
hikernut
Honestly I would LOVE to leave right now. My husband's parents aren't exactly healthy and my husband does a lot for them. I don't know what they would do if he wasn't here. Truly Colorado is not my ideal spot (I was not raised here like him) but we simply can not leave at this point in time. The land/home we are looking for would be for retirement but also for vacationing. The altitude, thin air, and constant forest fires in Colorado are having a negative impact on my health and I would need a place to go during the summers. I would walk away from Colorado with just the clothes on my back f it weren't for the fact that my husband is an only child and needs to take care of his parents who absolutely refuse to relocate at all.
Last edited by RockyMtHi; 03-27-2014 at 12:24 PM..
Reason: spelling
Not sure you can run and hide from a tornado. You can try the basement, as we did. But that doesn't always work. I was in mid-Mo when the New Madrid earthquake scare happened in the bootheel, declined (politely) to go down there with the pack journalists to report on it. Was also there in the Great Flood of '93—Mississippi and Missouri rivers and saw several towns go under including one we were about to buy a home in. Mother nature is lovely one minute and disastrous the next. Although we have our problems in the northeast, I feel a bit safer here.
I lived in St. Louis Co. for my entire life until I moved to the PNW in 2012. I never experienced a tornado, ever. The great flood of 1993 was more of a shocking curiosity to me, but I didn't live on a flood plain. While walking the beach on the OR Coast several years ago, we couldn't help noticing the Tsunami warnings posted prominently about. Get to higher ground in the event of a tsunami warning! I didn't think I could get to higher ground fast enough to outrun a tsunami, but there the signs were. Somewhat alarming. We visited a shop later, and the woman asked us were we were from, and of course we told her. She had lived in MO, and said she was frightened of being in a tornado the entire time she lived there. I told her I was alarmed at the tsunami warnings.
Here in Vancouver, WA, we are starting to hear about earthquakes. There were small tremors on Mt. Hood recently, and there have been tremors in CA. Honestly, the thought of major earthquake is terrifying. I need to do some research on how to be ready. Where ever we live there is some awful thing that could happen. I am sure the mudslide victims had no idea they lived in a dangerous zone.
The New Madrid scare was smoke and mirrors. The guy who predicted it was bogus.
Sounds kinda like SW MO to me. We put in several raised garden beds and added good soil. It wasn't all that expensive and we grow most of the vegetables we eat all spring and on through most of fall. While the natural topsoil is only about six inches deep where we are on the shore of Table Rock ,lake, trees, shrubs, bulbs and other flowers do just fine. Don't let naysayers scare you away. But by all means, definitely come and have a look for yourself.
A topic often missed in where to transplant articles/discussions soil conditions. Many a transplant to Carolina had to discover raised bed gardening after the fact.
I lived in St. Louis Co. for my entire life until I moved to the PNW in 2012. I never experienced a tornado, ever. The great flood of 1993 was more of a shocking curiosity to me, but I didn't live on a flood plain. While walking the beach on the OR Coast several years ago, we couldn't help noticing the Tsunami warnings posted prominently about. Get to higher ground in the event of a tsunami warning! I didn't think I could get to higher ground fast enough to outrun a tsunami, but there the signs were. Somewhat alarming. We visited a shop later, and the woman asked us were we were from, and of course we told her. She had lived in MO, and said she was frightened of being in a tornado the entire time she lived there. I told her I was alarmed at the tsunami warnings.
Here in Vancouver, WA, we are starting to hear about earthquakes. There were small tremors on Mt. Hood recently, and there have been tremors in CA. Honestly, the thought of major earthquake is terrifying. I need to do some research on how to be ready. Where ever we live there is some awful thing that could happen. I am sure the mudslide victims had no idea they lived in a dangerous zone.
The New Madrid scare was smoke and mirrors. The guy who predicted it was bogus.
Just 200 years late, he was. But they do tell us another can hit. We sit right on that fault. The books say it (the big on in 1812) was felt all the way to the east coast. Changed the course of the river. We now have a piece of Kentucky in Missouri. It did a rumble a few decades ago that was felt in Kansas City, some 250 miles away. Just barely, of course.
By the way, I'm sure you've heard that animals can predict earthquakes. There was a small tremor near San Francisco last year. My friend who lives there said her two cats were acting quite weird, running about wildly, before they felt it. Just a very small tremor.
As you said, wherever you are nature is still in charge and ready to charge.
The crime rate in Tennessee is high, but it is mainly in the bigger cities of Memphis and Nashville. If you could subtract their crime from the total it would be a much clearer picture. The crime we seem to have in East Tenn seems to center around either meth manufacture or personal issues between individuals (victim and perp know each other or are related). There is very little "crazy crime" like we saw in CA, such as gangs and innocent bystanders, random violence, stranger rapes and murders.
I wouldn't buy land anywhere 20 years ahead of time. So much can change in life. Health issues, marriage problems, job changes, family, children, grandchildren all can have huge bearing on your plans. Just save and invest and worry about where to go later on.
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