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I grew up in Wisconsin, graduated from college and moved to the West Coast. When I retire I will be moving to the East Coast. My family is also all over the US, some retired some still working. Some of us have followed our jobs (or employment opportunities) during our careers, some stayed in one place and switched careers as needed. It's all part of life's journey.
Hell NO, retirement means freedom from restrictions of geography!
There are financial restrictions. Unless you are retiring with millions, you're not retiring to a co-op on Central Park in Manhattan or a beachfront home in Hawaii. You're likely going to pick a place with lower housing costs and that doesn't take a huge tax bite out of your retirement cash flow.
There are pragmatic restrictions. You're probably going to try to pick a place to retire that's not too removed from first class health care. You're buggered if you pick somewhere rural and then lose the ability to drive.
There are personal life restrictions. As threads here cover endlessly, you may pick your "ideal spot", move there, and then discover after the fact that you really want/need to live where your family is located.
I live in a state that has almost always been economically depressed. Initially I got a degree in Chemistry but the jobs were so low paying that I went back to school to get an engineering degree and got a stable job with the federal government. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, I met many people with liberal arts degrees who moved to New Mexico and were unable to find jobs. Often they were from the East or West Coast and had previously worked for large or medium sized corporations in areas like Human Resources. In my state, those positions required Business degrees and/or went to locals or minorities. So I agree with GeoffD that the part of the country you live in will make a big difference in job opportunities. Read some of Jane Smith’s posts. Moving from Connecticut to the Washington DC area greatly improved her career options.
As far as feeling “committed” to a particular area, I definitely am committed to the Mountain West and have no desire to live in economically dynamic parts of the country that are generally large congested, metropolitan areas (and I visit those areas often on business travel so I don't think I am just stereotyping). I was able to get around the poor job situation in my state by obtaining a more sought after degree and working for the government which paid less than similar jobs in industry but was more stable.
I don't feel committed, I feel conflicted. Born and raised in WI, thinking about kicking this state to the curb and moving to AZ or some other such sun belt state gives me pause. I've grown to detest winter and really want to follow the sun, but I struggle with the idea of leaving WI, even after having called several other states home over the years.
Definitely. I want to stay in the West and particularly in my own state (where we've lived for 34 years). The spouse is from the south and never wants to go back, I lived in the NY/NJ/CT area as a late teen and never want to go back. Both of us traveled extensively for business in the US (and Europe, Asia) and nothing we saw particularly struck us as somewhere we'd want to live (well, parts of Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, England, Ireland, but I don't want to be an expat).
Although I live in a small city, I like going out to the mountains, coast and open areas in the West.
While I don't think we feel committed to one area, I think our preferences will limit us. First off, we'd like to be near an ocean, so that eliminates a large chunk of the country. We're from the west coast and the few times we've been on the east coast made us feel it's a different atmosphere than the west coast (not bad, just different), so we won't likely be looking there. The jury is still out on the gulf coast as we haven't visited there yet. California is eliminated because of the tax structure and cost of housing. So that leaves us with mainly the Pacific Northwest at this point, should we leave Alaska. The last time we talked about it, we decided there was no particular place we were interested in moving to, so we'll be staying put for now. Maybe this will change at some point.
Actually I have never really considered moving out of Texas. Just in all our travels never really wanted to live permanently some where else for one reason or another. So we just moved within when retired to be more rural.
I graduated college in 2010 and have lived/worked in six states since then - TN, VA, SC (briefly), IN, MA (for IN job), and IA. Some of the bouncing around was by choice, but most of the moves were out of financial necessity.
I've been thinking of trying to set up some longer term commitments in Indiana, but my employment situation is looking worse and I think I may have to leave town again if it looks like I will lose my job. I am essentially living life on a week to week basis and can't make any firm commitments like buying a house.
Retirees - were you able to feel more secure in one geographic area? Most of my family, most of whom are long-term retired or nearing retirement age, were able to live in mostly one region. Even if a job was lost, it was generally possible to find something else within commutable distance. For my generation, that just doesn't seem to be possible. What was your experience?
Actually, I think that whether this is true or not depends upon your field. I mean, if your field is something that has very limited opportunities in most geographical locations, you are likely going to have to move for your career, probably frequently. Think something like being a professional actor. OTOH, if you're in something that's a career found in many places, your more likely to find employment closer to "home" and don't have to move unless you want to. In other words, some career skills/tracks enable you to weather job losses easier than others because your job title is found in significant numbers all over the country.
Generalists tend to do better in this regard than specialists. Accountants are in demand in most decent sized cities in most areas of the country. Forensic accountants would likely be limited to larger cities, and if they're further specialized, maybe only in a handful of cities or in state capitals.
Also, in tech fields, developing expertise with specific software/hardware/network configurations can limit where you can find a new job if your current one goes south, but it also provides job security as well as paths to better compensation.
BTW, this has been true for previous generations, too. People who wanted to "get ahead" or "make something of themselves" frequently became job gypsies. People who were willing to settle for modest jobs, just stayed where they were planted.
I'm an east coast person, always. Actually, more like mid-coast and up. I entertained moving to be near a good friend who lives in Indiana but gave up the idea when I really was honest about it. It just seemed off to me when I pictured myself there.
Hm! Sounds like this has much less to do with place and much more to do with person.
I don't think I would be unemployed for long here if I did stay. With that said, I may not make what I do now, or I'd have to regress in terms of title. I don't know for sure.
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