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I don't know where it is yet, but my sweet spot will include maple trees, mountain streams, 4 seasons, abundant wildlife, a good growing season, a good library, and proximity to a university. I have a few places in mind, but right now it is anyone's guess.
At this point in the process I am a mass (mess?) of contradictions- on the one hand in order to feel comfortable where I am, I am trying to put down roots and make connections where I currently live, but on the other hand I feel pulled in other directions, but wonder whether that is just a case of the grass is always greener. I strongly suspect that the "sweet spot" is as much a state of mind as a state of place. A large part of me wants to move away once I semi-retire so that I can start over again in a place where I can create a life that is truly a reflection of me. That for me will be my sweet spot.
I don't know where it is yet, but my sweet spot will include maple trees, mountain streams, 4 seasons, abundant wildlife, a good growing season, a good library, and proximity to a university. I have a few places in mind, but right now it is anyone's guess.
At this point in the process I am a mass (mess?) of contradictions- on the one hand in order to feel comfortable where I am, I am trying to put down roots and make connections where I currently live, but on the other hand I feel pulled in other directions, but wonder whether that is just a case of the grass is always greener. I strongly suspect that the "sweet spot" is as much a state of mind as a state of place. A large part of me wants to move away once I semi-retire so that I can start over again in a place where I can create a life that is truly a reflection of me. That for me will be my sweet spot.
As far as four seasons go, that's a nice thought that I hear often, esp from people who live in two-season areas. Yes, it's lovely that the seasons change. This provides variety, changing landscapes visually, and of course requires adjustments to each transition healthwise and gear-wise.
What one doesn't tend to realise is that in some parts of the country, like New England these days, "four seasons" is not necessarily a neat balance of 3 months in each. NE winters, as you know, can last up to 5 months, requiring good outdoor gear and heating the home...and driving in it (though other than rural, most roads are immediately taken care of).
Our spring has shortened; we go from winter almost right into summer (slight exaggeration, but true). We just went from summer's really hot days to nights cool enough to put the heat on and haul out a few longies, though the days are quite fine. It's such a mixed bag. Point: be sure to visit your desired place for several weeks in each season, to get a reality check.
Your first paragraph speaks to many parts of New England. If you really like to be out there, check out Western Maine. If you must have the ocean + mountain, check out Mount Desert Island in Maine. You do have to be rugged enough to withstand the cold, and if you are you may do well there.
As I'm preparing to travel to find my retirement "sweet spot" in Arizona, I'm wondering how others found their sweet spot. Even if you decided to remain where you lived before retiring, what was it that made the area your sweet spot?
Was it because you have family in the area? Was it due to the scenery? Was it due to the climate? Did finances have a large impact on your decision?
Please share your thoughts
- sweetest: 2 1/2 year old grandtwins, girls
- downtown: small, vibrant, clean, interesting, walkable, clustered amenities (downtown pluses include a Main Street deli, library, movie theater, quality bakery, post office, bookshop, and park)
- drivable to major cities for events
- nonmetro enough to be clean, a landscape to look at and love
- a feeling of being able to leave your front door open, even if you know you shouldn't
- a feeling that when you sit in a certain spot there, you don't want to leave
Unfortunately several places fulfill all these wishes and some more than here, but only one place fulfills the first. Here.
[quote=twelvepaw;41493500]I don't know where it is yet, but my sweet spot will include maple trees, mountain streams, 4 seasons, abundant wildlife, a good growing season, a good library, and proximity to a university. I have a few places in mind, but right now it is anyone's guess.
QUOTE]
I have been retired for 4 1/2 years and have traveled a lot. I was full time in an RV for 2 years and half time for the remaining time. My wife recently commented about finding that special place; i.e., sweet spot. Nonsense. There is no special place that is best. I lived 4 years in Arizona....it is not there especially in the summer time with 100+ degree temperatures.
The sweet spot is being able to travel and live in different places at different times of the year. Currently, I have been traveling since the beginning of August......Oregon coast, SE Oregon, Yellowstone, southern Utah. Tomorrow or the next day I will be in Zion or maybe Bryce or the Grand Staircase. Then on to maybe Moab or Hovenweep or Santa Fe or New Orleans or ...
There is no sweet spot with low taxes, great weather, beautiful scenery, great museums, culture and wonderful people. And if there was such a place, what would you do? Sit there, enjoy it, grow old and die? Retirement is the time to get off your butt, experience different places, do different things, learn something new, accomplish something new. That will not happen in some magic place. That can happen anywhere or no where.
I believe I've found the best place I could, that I could afford. It's nearly perfect, and that's the best you can get, I think.
First, I needed somewhere I could afford, the cheaper the better, with subsidized senior apartments.
Next, I learned after moving to a place that was affordable with great recreational areas, but was HOT for half the year, that I couldn't enjoy the outdoors for half the year there, because it's too hot to be outside. Hence, Arizona would never be on my list.
So, climate was more important than I originally thought, and I was lucky to find somewhere even cheaper, that's cool year-round, with lots of beautiful outdoor places I can go with my dog off-leash.
The only thing I really miss here that I had in the SF Bay Area (which I couldn't afford to retire in), is a great senior center with lots of organized trips, including day trips. I love being able to sign up for a group trip without having to drive or find someone to go do something with me, or go alone. But, there is nothing like that in CA, once you get north of Santa Rosa or Sacramento.
So, my way of coping with that, is to do like others have mentioned, and travel some. I'm saving up to put a camper on my little pickup, and I'm going to join some camping groups. There are lots of camping groups, including single seniors and women only groups. Plus, with the camper, I can drive to a bigger city if there's an event I would like to go to, and then find a nearby campground or even a parking lot to stay overnight in.
But, you don't get it all. I love that I can take my dog to the beach or the woods and I'm often the only person there, or there are just a few people, and nobody cares if she's off leash. And there's minimal traffic, and short wait times everywhere. I had to go to the Social Security office here in town last week, and there were only 2 people there waiting. You don't get all that - and a high-class, well-funded senior center with lots of bus trips every week.
I have written this same basic post multiple times because this is a topic that appears and reappears in the Retirement Forum, but here goes anyway:
I am fortunate to have lived in my sweet spot continuously since 1966, namely the greater Los Angeles area. In the years leading up to my retirement ten years ago, I never gave the slightest thought to relocating, as I knew I was were I wanted to be. Why? A combination of factors: climate, nearby mountains, rich and varied cultural environment. In previous posts I described the rich cultural environment in some detail, but that hardly seems necessary.
There is one major and one minor disadvantage here but they are worth enduring for the deep level of contentment and comfort which I have. The major one is the traffic congestion, which a retiree can partially overcome by choosing the time of day and day of the week for going certain places. The minor one is the cost of living, which is not as bad as many people make it out to be but which still must be considered high.
Youngest son is disabled and unable to work. Before he became ill we used to sponsor a little girl in sierra Leone. she slept on a dirt floor with a leaky roof, so, essentially, she slept in mud. My son cried on reading this and said that when he grew up that he was going to own his own house, and that when he met a poor girl he would marry her so she would not have to sleep in mud.
I told him that if he wanted to do that he had better start earning money now. So, the next day [bty he was nine years old] he opened a lemonaid stand. Within a week he was walking dogs and cleaning poop out of peoples backyards.[This is what is called Autistic perseveration] When he had saved enough money, he bought and placed several vending machines. And then he got sick.
Most of the times he was too ill to work the vending machines, so my husband and I did it for him and saved the money.
So, as he got older, he was/is less ill. He is way behind others his age in so many ways and will probably never be able to work any regular type of job. He was so depressed and I told him "Why don't you buy that house you worked so hard for when you were little?" He said "Mom, one, I don't have near enough money, and two, I doubt if I will ever be able to live on my own." I told him that I had just been looking at a little fixer upper in Pueblo for $30,000, and that even IF he can never live on his own {I believe he will be able to] he could rent it.
it took six months of weekends to turn that into an adorable, clean, safe house. During that time I kept slipping and saying stuff about "my town," meaning Pueblo, which, of course was not my town. I cried when I said goodbye to Pueblo after the work was finished. I k
I kept telling my husband that I felt that we were supposed to be living there, but he would say that it would be at least ten years before we could even think about that.
Then, my husband became too ill to work, and that was no longer an option. The place that had allowed us to rent a spot for our camper the past 3 years decided no more weekend parking, but then certain good things fell into place, which gave us $130,000 to buy 3 houses in pueblo.
When we walked up to the house we live in [700 sq feet, but remember, we had been living in a camper trailer] I started shaking. Before the realtor opened the door I knew this was my new home. And, it is down the block from my sons place.
I am allowed to have the chickens I dreamed of, and room for the vegetable garden that I have actually only been interested in the past few years [ spend some time in nightmarish circumstances and you lose that fear of insects]
This is my sweet spot. I have always loved the ocean and the mountains. I have wondered who could possibly want to live in the dessert. Well, now I live in the dessert and I LOVE it. It is a quick walk to the bus stop, a ten minute drive to downtown, senior citizens center, arts clubs and the Pueblo Reservoir. I expressed my interest in working one on one as a volunteer at the schools helping developmentally disabled kids to read, which is something I have always excelled at, and was told that not only did they need me [probably at semester change] but that I would be paid a small nontaxable stipend and be reimbursed for transportation as well!
I baked 12 dozen cookies last week, plated them and delivered them to my neighbors and they all seem wonderful so far. Also, I wanted to facilitate a GRASP group [ support group for adult Autistics] and had initially been told that since the foundation is struggling in so many areas that they were not going to start any new groups, but they are making an exception for me to start one here. [ I just need to jup through a few hoops first]
Pueblo IS my sweet spot. if someone had told me a few years ago that it would be, I would have laughed in their face.
I strongly suspect that the "sweet spot" is as much a state of mind as a state of place.
This is so true. We are in the process of finding the sweet spot and have a place in mind. However, I realize that you have to be in a good state of mind - ready and excited about the upheaval and change to make it a successful transition. There are some things though that can't be overlooked - like climate and affordability - which our current location is not doing well with. We can pay cash for a house in the sweet spot city that would be double the price here. And sleeping with the windows open on a summer night will be like a dream come true after so many years of air conditioning. Little things like that matter a lot to me as well as the big ones.
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