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Some friends of my parents are doing the retirement rounds - visiting different areas of the country that made their short list of places to consider retirement. They currently live just outside Dallas, TX. When last I saw their list, they had about 12 cities and metro areas they were still considering (down from about 20).
They just came back from a 5-day stay in Northwest Arkansas and she was gushing about how unexpectedly awesome it was - even better than she imagined. She said NWA has now shot to the top of the list and all others will be compared against it going forward.
Like lots of other folks, taxes and cost of living along with the weather are very important to me, and having lived in Los Angeles for 62+ years, I'll definitely be moving eastwards after my mom passes and my two brothers & I divide the proceeds from the sale of her home and the apartment building in which I live; California is not for retirees unless you're very well off, and the prospect of having to fork over sky-high rents to live in lots of so-so places and face high gasoline prices ($3.60/gallon right now) on top of that, as well as high prices for groceries, utilities and lots of other staples makes leaving a pretty easy choice.
Like lots of other folks, taxes and cost of living along with the weather are very important to me, and having lived in Los Angeles for 62+ years, I'll definitely be moving eastwards after my mom passes and my two brothers & I divide the proceeds from the sale of her home and the apartment building in which I live; California is not for retirees unless you're very well off, and the prospect of having to fork over sky-high rents to live in lots of so-so places and face high gasoline prices ($3.60/gallon right now) on top of that, as well as high prices for groceries, utilities and lots of other staples makes leaving a pretty easy choice.
Don't blame you a bit for wanting to leave, in the sense that yes, Los Angeles is a high cost of living city, albeit not as bad as San Francisco. One list I saw within the past year or so had Los Angeles as number nine in COL nationwide. I believe New York City, Honolulu, and San Fran were the top three. But I don't think your post was accurate in all respects.
1. Rents are high. I agree with you on that.
2. High gasoline prices. I agree with you on that too. Our smog laws mandate refining gas to certain standards which makes it more expensive.
3. Groceries: I do not think groceries are much if any higher than most other places. I travel some and I buy groceries in other states, which is the basis for my opinion. And there is no sales tax on groceries in California.
4. Utilities: I think you are dead wrong about utilities, and I predict you will find that out when you move elsewhere. Unless one lives in the desert (scorching hot in the summer) or the mountains (cold in winter), there is just not much call for either heat in winter or air conditioning in summer, especially compared to so many other places. Sure, I have and use both, but rather sparingly. We have the wonderful luxury of being able to open the windows at night in the summer to cool off the house - you may miss that sorely (depending on where you move).
Best of luck. You have lots of company in terms of getting the hell out of here after retirement. I just think the "very well off" requirement is somewhat over-stated. I am a retired high school teacher and I do just fine here.
We are not of retirement age yet, but keep looking and changing our city of choice, like you have. One thing we keep going back to is what we want to DO in retirement...
^^^ This ^^^
I'm of the opinion there is no such thing as retirement. You just change what you do, and you approach that with the same disciplines you learned over a lifetime career.
For us, the answer was we wanted two homes, one for ski season, and one for the rest of the year. So, during the winter we live in Park City & ski about 80 to 100 days per season. We spend the summers & fall in Las Vegas.
Why Park City for ski season? It is a wonderful resort town and family town rolled into one, and it is very accessible. Its a 30 minute drive from Salt Lake City, the roads are clear, and it gets well north of 300 inches of snow a year (sometimes 600) with 3 world-class ski resorts (Deer Valley Resort, Park City Mountain Resort, Canyons Resort). There is world class dining and nightlife as well. Skiers know the difference between western snow and eastern snow; Utah has perhaps the best snow on the planet for skiing, and great medical care.
Why Las Vegas for summers & fall? Las Vegas is an adult Disneyland, a true 24 hour city, more celebrity chef restaurants per capita than any place else on the planet, world class live entertainment, wonderful outdoor activities in national parks & recreation areas, an affordable cost of living, and one of the few places you can go snow skiing and water skiing on the same day (Mt. Charleston and Lake Meade). Plus there are lots of active retirees - most everyone retirement age is from somewhere else, so making new friends & social circles is very easy.
The downside is medical care - it is not world class. For medical care, we hop on a plane to Los Angeles or up to Salt Lake City.
And of course, summer & fall in Las Vegas is home to the World Series of Poker. Come on down, and don't forget to bring your ATM card.
Utilities are much cheaper in many places than in northern CA. Escort Rider is lucky that he can get away without much heat or AC, but that is not true of the inland valleys, mountains, or foothills of CA. With winter nighttime lows in the low twenties and thirties, and summer highs hitting over 100 many days of the summer, interior CA cannot be done without a good amount of heat and AC. In the desert interior summer temps over 110 are not unusual. PG&E prices per kWH and therm are also some of the highest in the country too. We currently spend less than $60 month for electricity most months (a few higher, a few lower but not significantly so) and our summer fill-up on propane was $1.79/ gallon, we have a 500 gallon tank and use less than 400 gallons per year in our 2 story home (propane back-up heat pump, propane stove, dryer, and water heater). Gasoline prices this week $2.80/gal.
Utilities are much cheaper in many places than in northern CA. Escort Rider is lucky that he can get away without much heat or AC, but that is not true of the inland valleys, mountains, or foothills of CA. With winter nighttime lows in the low twenties and thirties, and summer highs hitting over 100 many days of the summer, interior CA cannot be done without a good amount of heat and AC. In the desert interior summer temps over 110 are not unusual. PG&E prices per kWH and therm are also some of the highest in the country too. We currently spend less than $60 month for electricity most months (a few higher, a few lower but not significantly so) and our summer fill-up on propane was $1.79/ gallon, we have a 500 gallon tank and use less than 400 gallons per year in our 2 story home (propane back-up heat pump, propane stove, dryer, and water heater). Gasoline prices this week $2.80/gal.
You're probably getting your power from the TVA, and even if you're not, competition from TVA keeps east TN electric bills relatively low.
Yep, TVA's price per kWH is AT LEAST 30% lower than the lowest tier of PG&E's rates, and our local utility board charges a flat rate per kWH based upon TVA's rates with no tier structure at all. As a former utility worker it was something that I looked into. I didn't want to have to spend my retirement keeping the house at 65 degrees all winter like we did in CA.
One thing that I've noticed living here in Indiana that I didn't expect is that I've yet to run the heat at all this year. I live on the second floor, so heat from the unit below me rises, but I can keep the windows open pretty much all day and never be below 65. It's also not super hot around here in the summer, so AC doesn't have to run quite as hard as it did in Kingsport.
EscortRider---I agree with you, and you may have a point about grocery prices; i was flabbergasted when I went to Fort Lauderdale/Miami for the first time in 1979 for a vacation, and was shocked when the cashier at a grocery store in Ft. Lauderdale told me that groceries were taxable. Florida has no state income tax and neither does Tennessee so they obviously have to raise revenue with other taxes; Jason L. Riley pointed out in the WSJ yesterday that the sales tax in Tennessee is second highest in the country, whereas California's taxes are just high across the board.
Choosing a place in which to retire isn't easy; that's for certain.
My remarks about grocery prices were based on 16 years in the grocery industry (1969-85), at which time we had 6 or 7 major chains; nowadays it's Ralphs & Vons as the 'Big Two' with Albertsons being a marginal player and Stater Bros. in the IE and OC.
I didn't know that about Tennessee's energy prices, although I knew that they had to be lower than California's, and that's a pretty hefty difference---thanks for pointing that out.
Last edited by Marv101; 10-24-2014 at 09:36 PM..
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