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We'd love to stay in place, but this is one of the most expensive areas in the country, and no place to retire. When our friends and family expressed disappointment with our plans to leave, we told them that we'd be happy to stay if they'd all take up a collection and buy out our mortgage. We're still waiting for the first check.
Personally, I'd like to take a year of and travel the U.S. in a motorhome at a leisurely pace and explore the possibility of moving. I'd either find a place I'd like to move to or discover that my home is my castle and just stay where everything is familiar.
Change can be a breath of fresh air or it can be aggravating. You don't know until you try it.
All my life I've gone by the belief of don't quit your day job while exploring careers and I believe that don't quit your home while looking at houses also applies.
/\ BOLDED: That is an excellent idea that I can personally recommend, we did it for two years (a few years after retiring). We had an absolute blast roaming the US and southern Canada, all with possible relocation in mind.
We bought an Airstream Interstate Class B, took the two dogs with us and had various adult children look after the house. Our trips were anywhere from a few weeks to 4+ months at a time, with no particular itinerary or timeline.
We did do detailed research on each area to identify attractions, locales for possible relocation and general living issues before we launched. Then we just rambled the area until it felt like time to go home and recharge.
I can absolutely recommend it. The US is so darn big that it is hard to appreciate its scope if you haven't traversed it by road. The cultural differences are enormous (and very interesting), yet we found a uniformly friendly and welcoming attitude in virtually everywhere we traveled. The typical folks across the US, in our experience, were friendly, helpful and fun to become acquainted with.
Bottom line for us - we immensely enjoyed the experience and decided to stay put for the foreseeable future. That hasn't excluded returning to ultra attractive areas for a visit - just not somewhere we'd permanently relocate.
We'd love to stay in place, but this is one of the most expensive areas in the country, and no place to retire. When our friends and family expressed disappointment with our plans to leave, we told them that we'd be happy to stay if they'd all take up a collection and buy out our mortgage. We're still waiting for the first check.
... Good Idea! ... We're going to have to propose that to the kids who 'lament' every time we talk about moving away ...
You're in Virginia - We're in North California - "The Great Bay Area" - [cough-cough] ...
They say that all of New England is about the size of one state somewhere else. If that's true, I haven't moved around at all!
I arrived in Rhode Island from Maine, in utero. It was never my choice to move there. After 67 years, I moved back to Maine. My wife was born and raised in Fall River, MA. My brother, brought up in RI as I was, moved to Braintree MA. Then my wife's brother moved to RI to live near her (he never married).
Now by some strange quirk of fate, all four of us live on the same 33 acres in Maine! I have two daughters and 6 grandchildren, all still living in RI, and all of them will be up here on the same 33 acres this weekend, so we can have a big cookout for Father's Day!
There is some hope, however...we just bought a vacation property in Tennessee! It's not in New England!
Small world, my late husband was born and raised in Fall River, and I met him while working at Charlton Memorial Hospital and I am a life long Rhode Islander. Not sure current husband and I will remain here in retirement as the taxes continue to climb which is pushing many retirees down south and to other more tax friendly places.
I plan to stay put when I retire, partly because as discussed in another thread, I like not only the area but the job I'm in, and may decide to only go part time rather than retire outright. That and there are a couple of other employers of nukes like me available here, that's a bit unusual.
I did move to one place for work I really didn't like - Cedar Rapids area of Iowa. Georgia's summer with Idaho's winter, minus the powder and no mountains. Tall corn. No thanks.
But for the most part I have been as particular about location as I have about the career opportunity, so would have been OK staying put in Idaho Falls, or near Denver (although probably would have left CO by now, due to Californication of it)
Call us crazy but we consider moving to be a great adventure. We retired 10 years ago to Florida then moved after 5 years back to Massachusetts and now after 4 years we've relisted our house and have our eye on another Massachusetts spot. It won't be our last move.
Call us crazy but we consider moving to be a great adventure. We retired 10 years ago to Florida then moved after 5 years back to Massachusetts and now after 4 years we've relisted our house and have our eye on another Massachusetts spot. It won't be our last move.
I don't call you crazy at all. You don't mind moving. Some people mind it, as it is just so damn much work. I am in the latter group, but I don't see anything wrong with being in the former group.
You are both right. I see it as a great adventure but it is a lot of work and I don't want to do this again.
I'm kinda with ipoetry. We tend to spend 5 to 10 years in a place totally renovating an old home. It gives us a lot of satisfaction to have done this three times. However we're not so sure at all we ever want to do this again, as we are DIY'ers. Time to enjoy other focus. One great thing about moving is that you take a close look at what's needed (even the aesthetic belongings can be needed) and what's superfluous. Having moved three elderly folks and watched several others in their move, from what they say they were sorry not to have begun sooner divesting of possessions in homes they have lived in for decades. We know what our focus will be, and we'll save everything around that, and get rid of a lot of everything else over the next year or so.
I think I'll be retiring right where I am in New England. I came here at age 20, left three times for daydreams, bellyflopped back three times. I have my dream house that is suitable for older age, and it could be smaller (1250 sq.ft.) but isn't overly big, plus I basically live on the first floor now by design.
I have thought long and hard about this, as I am very drawn to southwest Colorado and vacation there frequently. I have bought and sold property twice there on a daydream. I could afford to move there in retirement. However, I realize I would live the same way there as I do here with fewer opportunities/services, much drier air and better views. I don't seem drawn to anywhere much cheaper than where I am, and abhor humidity and would never move south of New England.
I have my eye on a CCRC in Vermont should that need arise. It's on Lake Champlain, the weather is colder than where I am, and it's still New England. Should that need arise, I imagine my horseback vacation days will be over for physical reasons, and I will not want to be living in Colorado. I wrestle with this still, because I can't seem to let the West go, but I do think my thought of living there is a daydream, not an idea or a plan. I've moved several times in my life and find it very dislocating and found my daydreams of being happy and fulfilled for having moved just that- a daydream.
That's me, not anyone else. I think it's good to try your dreams at any age, and be ready for a pleasing or not-pleasing result.
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