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Would a road trip, short, not so short, anywhere you figure your 2009 Corolla ( I like those cars too), would reliably take you, and at a time when it's feasible to you, do anything to satisfy that desire to get away? Maybe with one or more of your friends?
Maybe rent a small cabin in the NC mountains for a week, see the sights there and share expenses with your friends? Or somewhere else you feel a hankering to see.
I understand all too well that need to get away, to enjoy a change of scenery and routine once in a while, and it doesn't matter how much you love your surroundings, how many dear friends and other loved ones are around you, or how comfortable you are with the familiar in your setting. Sometimes that urge to roam still calls to you, at least a little, I know it does to me.
Perhaps there is a way for you to affordably satisfy that urge, maybe?
Travelassie, have you ever had a dream? Maybe for something you could do someday in the future? Or perhaps a dream that is just a dream, you know you can't do it but it's fun to dream about it. Have you experienced that ever?
If you have, then try to understand. I have a dream (not like Mr. King). Whether or not I make it a reality or not will be determined at some future date.
I am not looking for ways to achieve my dream. I'm just talking about it. I thought that was what this forum was all about.
Just sitting here today in front of my computer when I should be doing some domestic work. But it's too fun to read some threads and what people post. Some I learn so much from; others aren't for me. We are all different and that is a good thing. Keeps life interesting.
Anyway, I've mentioned before how I wanted to move to NC. Then life happened and I didn't and it really looks like it won't happen, at least not any time soon.
I have friends in my life who have indicated they would prefer that I did not leave (), but the kid inside of me keeps thinking but I want to go. But where? No longer enchanted with NC, reading all of your posts make so many places so appealing.
In my younger years I wanted to get in the car and go....... drive all over the country. Stop in little towns, get little jobs, live in a room, keep life simple but learn, learn, learn and make so many friends. I still think of that now. Especially if I see a movie of someone doing something similar. I have no family ties to keep me here.
I know this thread if a frivolous one. But it's where I am "at" right now. Where are you??
I have to be somewhat cold and calculating.
For various reasons, my retirement funding is less than I think it ought to be, meanwhile, real estate here in the Bay Area is as you've heard completely insane. So, not quite house poor but close. To boot, intergenerational wealth will stop with my parents due to various missteps they made in life.
It is what it is. Therefore, retirement will mean simultaneously downsizing and relocating to a lower COL place. Interestingly, while my preferred places are on the Coasts (PAC NW, Mid Atlantic, maybe a few others) I am not ruling out the Great Lakes region (which I supposed you might stretch into Upstate / Central NY where you apparently are). I realized a long time ago that I'm going to need to be flexible about location when the time comes and I accept that.
I find it hard to believe you could not break even pretty soon after moving out of New York state. The taxes, the damn awful weather, the salt on the road rusting your car into oblivion within 10-15 years of new - no thanks. Not sure NC would be that great a fit, you might as well grin and bear one more winter there as it's already started - but anywhere south and/or west of Denver, IMHO would be a good move (except for Cali, of course).
Me, not retired yet, but am already in the place I want to be.
But you know, I am thinking about a couple of things I intended to do in retirement, that are not gonna happen. First, a guy I had coffee with some mornings, ex-Navy I think, high IQ, taught chess as a part time job. I always thought when I retire, I want to get him to really teach me to play chess. Well he passed away earlier this year. I always thought I would listen to Talk of the Nation on NPR. Well that went off the air a year or two ago. And now Dianne Rehm is going to retire well before me.
Not sure what the point of that is, maybe plan to do stuff when you retire that involve people younger than you, not older than you?
Central NY state does not have high real estate values and has low wages. There is not much arbitrage possible leaving that area. The only difference vs the typical retirement places in the South and West would be as you note certain aspects of taxation. But even that is not completely cut and dried most especially considering property taxes and other costs one might encounter in the typical places.
Just sitting here today in front of my computer when I should be doing some domestic work. But it's too fun to read some threads and what people post. Some I learn so much from; others aren't for me. We are all different and that is a good thing. Keeps life interesting.
Anyway, I've mentioned before how I wanted to move to NC. Then life happened and I didn't and it really looks like it won't happen, at least not any time soon.
I have friends in my life who have indicated they would prefer that I did not leave (), but the kid inside of me keeps thinking but I want to go. But where? No longer enchanted with NC, reading all of your posts make so many places so appealing.
In my younger years I wanted to get in the car and go....... drive all over the country. Stop in little towns, get little jobs, live in a room, keep life simple but learn, learn, learn and make so many friends. I still think of that now. Especially if I see a movie of someone doing something similar. I have no family ties to keep me here.
I know this thread if a frivolous one. But it's where I am "at" right now. Where are you??
I feel entirely like you. Had I not raised a family, I think I would have chucked just about everything and moved to either Hawaii or the Cook Islands. I lived in Hawaii as a younger man and I have to tell you, that and the rest of the pacific in general looks ever more appealing the older I get.
It's hard to stop the voices in your head. I found out the best way was to tune everything out. Shut the PC's down, TV, phone, everything for a change. Get in your car and just go. Wherever you go, that's where you will be.
Good news is that we have a beautiful country if you will only take the time to go see it? Sometimes the most fulfilling moments in my life have been sitting in a car, in the middle of nowhere, looking at nothing and no one in particular......for hours on end. Hard to describe the peacefulness this and nature bring sometimes until you just do it.
For now, it's me driving to the middle of nowhere and starting a little campfire contemplating on nothing of much interest. It is the most satisfaction I get along with riding my motorcycle from time to time.
It's merciful.
Get out. Do not let the four walls close in. Rage against the dying of the light! Get busy living or get busy dying. Damn right.
My finances are the main reason I do not move; moving is very expensive. I live in a senior income-based apartment complex so pay no taxes, no income tax, either. As far as the weather goes? I'm used to it. Today I am wondering where is the snow?? There should be snow at Christmas time. Instead pouring rain and high 40s/low 50s temperatures. Disappointing.
But it's what makes the world go around and keeps things interesting.
Would a person moving in from out of state be able to qualify?
For various reasons, my retirement funding is less than I think it ought to be, meanwhile, real estate here in the Bay Area is as you've heard completely insane. So, not quite house poor but close. To boot, intergenerational wealth will stop with my parents due to various missteps they made in life.
It is what it is. Therefore, retirement will mean simultaneously downsizing and relocating to a lower COL place. Interestingly, while my preferred places are on the Coasts (PAC NW, Mid Atlantic, maybe a few others) I am not ruling out the Great Lakes region (which I supposed you might stretch into Upstate / Central NY where you apparently are). I realized a long time ago that I'm going to need to be flexible about location when the time comes and I accept that.
,
If you want to stay in coastal California, have you considered () Orange County, specifically, Laguna Woods? OC is expensive, but it's nothing like it is where you live.
You could sell your Bay Area home and purchase a LW condo for $200K. The only hitch is that HOA fees will probably be around $600/month.
What's more, there is senior housing in Irvine and other cities down here, including new construction in Aliso Viejo: USA Properties Fund :: Vintage Aliso
Vintage Aliso Senior Apartments
"Currently under construction, the 202-unit apartment community located at 2C Liberty, near the intersection of Liberty and Aliso Viejo Parkway in the City of Aliso Viejo.
The four story center loaded corridor building will be operated as an affordable senior residential facility with 18 one bedroom, and 184 two bedroom units. Twenty one units are proposed as affordable to residents at 50% of median income with one hundred seventy nine units affordable to residents at 60% of median income.
On site amenities include a swimming pool, community garden, recreation center, exercise equipment, and pet washing station.
When residents begin to occupy the project, USA inaugurates activities and social programs that become the heart and soul of the community. For the most part, these activities are held within the large fully equipped community room or within the outdoor garden space."
I assume you are probably familiar with it, but if not, this general area is half-way between LA and San Diego.
I've been in Denmark for 20 years. I have grown children in the Bay Area, Salt Lake City and London. They love me and while we don't see each other often enough in my eyes, they have their own lives to live. And so do I, here.
Travelassie, have you ever had a dream? Maybe for something you could do someday in the future? Or perhaps a dream that is just a dream, you know you can't do it but it's fun to dream about it. Have you experienced that ever?
If you have, then try to understand. I have a dream (not like Mr. King). Whether or not I make it a reality or not will be determined at some future date.
I am not looking for ways to achieve my dream. I'm just talking about it. I thought that was what this forum was all about.
Of course I have. At this point in my life, though, I've adjusted my life expectations to the reality of things. And the good thing is that when I look around at my reality, I know I am very lucky and have every reason to be content, and I am, even if we never get on the road to those destinations I would love to see, or see again.
I guess I misunderstood the intentions of your post, was just trying to address what I thought seemed like restlessness in what you said.
I feel as if people aren't getting the point. Giving suggestions as to what the op should do when she has stated many times that she has to get out of debt first is insane.
She does not have the money to travel until that is taken care of. But, she can take your suggestions & write them down for future reference.
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), but the kid inside of me keeps thinking but I want to go. But where? No longer enchanted with NC, reading all of your posts make so many places so appealing. 
) Orange County, specifically, Laguna Woods? OC is expensive, but it's nothing like it is where you live.
