Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Thank you. You know what is funny (not really)? When those same people complain that the people in the new town are stupid. Who just spent a lot of money relocating to a place for which they were so ill suited? Not the locals.
What exactly is a paraprofessional in the medical field? Is it the same as a nurse practitioner?
Arizona is one of the states I have never been to. I didn't consider it for retirement because of the heat and it's too far for a drive to see my sister or friends in NY. I don't fly anymore.
Speaking of heat, tomorrow looks like our last day of 90 degree temperatures. Woohoo!
It was 60F this morning when I typed my previous post on my front patio. I think that the high was 83F.
My cardiologist used to do the stress tests, the check-ups and read the pacemaker. Currently, that is done by a registered nurse, a nurse practitioner, and a technician. I am NOT saying that they are not competent BUT I am saying that they are less capable.
My wife is experiencing the same with her orthopedists.
I like to have a long and on-going relationship with my physicians as that leads to better care. I do not think that I have that here ... yet.
================================================== ==
As for newspapers, your mileage may vary.
If you have a small community paper that covers the local issues, the local politics, the local schools and the like, it is a great resource in determining whether you will fit in the community.
However, if it is one of those Gannett papers where the local input is minimal and everything is reprinted from the AP wire, you are not going to be well informed. Ditto if it is a large city paper where the experience staff has been retired and you have the minor leaguers writing (both Chicago papers).
5 or 6 years from now? Want to move to the Sun Belt.
I started thinking about my future retirement home about 5 years ago. I am about turn 56, and it will probably be about 5 or 6 years before I can relocate from the Chicago area to somewhere in the Sun Belt. I am not a fan of winter, and I will not miss snow, ice and cold weather. I need to stay in the Midwest for now as I need to be within a reasonable drive to my elderly father's home in eastern Iowa. Although I have lived in the Chicago area for 36 years, and it is home, my father is the only real tie keeping me in the Midwest. Although there are some thing I will miss about living in Chicagoland, the property taxes in Illinois will making living in Illinois once I reach my mid-60's not affordable.
I have a couple of friends who have relocated to Central Florida in recent years, both to 55 plus communities. I have been fortunate enough to rent in these communities for a couple of weeks at a time. A 55 plus community is probably where I will end up living. Florida is very high on my list for my future home, although I have not ruled out any location that does not get snow and has fairly low property taxes, so Arizona and Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi are also on my list. I was considering Austin and San Antonio, Texas, but have heard that property taxes in Texas, while lower than Illinois, are not a huge bargain.
So I am still in "search" mode, but as I have probably have a few years to go, I don't need to settle on a specific location yet. Locations with no snow and lower property taxes are what I am looking for, preferably with a 55 plus community.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,724 posts, read 58,067,115 times
Reputation: 46190
Quote:
Originally Posted by Schaumburger1
I started thinking about my future retirement home about 5 years ago. I am about turn 56, and it will probably be about 5 or 6 years before I can relocate from the Chicago area to somewhere in the Sun Belt. ... Florida is very high on my list for my future home, although I have not ruled out any location that does not get snow and has fairly low property taxes, so Arizona and Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi are also on my list. I was considering Austin and San Antonio, Texas, but have heard that property taxes in Texas, while lower than Illinois, are not a huge bargain.
So I am still in "search" mode, but as I have probably have a few years to go, I don't need to settle on a specific location yet. Locations with no snow and lower property taxes are what I am looking for, preferably with a 55 plus community.
Don't forget to check out Las Cruces, NM on your trip to AZ. I just say that, as I have noted a lot of Chicago retirees there. Not for me, but a nice area, none the less. Very low CoL and property taxes. Be careful about homeowners and car insurance in FL, it might dwarf your property taxes. some states are cheaper to visit than to live (I do that with Colorado, my previous home). Consider house sitting long term as an option to explore areas. Many retirees that stay with us have done several months in each of their favorite choices.
My 'hill country' TX property taxes (~$1500) are 1/10th my WA property taxes (both are income tax free states, so tend to have higher property taxes). WA increased from $800/ yr to $15k / yr since I did financial plan for retirement (nearly Same increase rate as Healthcare... $40+ / day each... yet we eat on $3/ day). Un-insured at the moment, and till age 65... (many more yrs))
Plan well, use vacation to get out and try a few places on during your winters. Since you have a SWA hub, you can jet all over the place very cheap. I keep about 15 flights booked at all times. (Free changes + free bags). The yr BEFORE you retire, consider getting SWA credit cards, and you can earn a free companion fare for 1 yr. making your cheap flights = 1/2 price!
My job as a Forester meant that I could live pretty much anywhere in the United States. I even had a job outside of Las Vegas with the National Park Service for a bit.
Early on it was always about good places to live. Moved and traveled a LOT during my twenties.
Finally found a wonderful town in my mid-thirties and that was the end of moving for me.
The issue is smaller towns are very different in their quality of life attributes. Larger cities are pretty much all the same. The only downside is that the towns population has more than tripled since we moved here and now we have all the chain stores and other crap that moves in once your population clears 50,000.
We have been looking real hard for another town, that is smaller but none have the natural attributes societial services or the high tech infrastructure like Wenatchee.
Given that you are a New Englander and seem to want a 4 season climate possibly without endless ice and snow, I would suggest you check out Bucks County, PA or Charlottesville, VA which is a college town.
.
... My 'hill country' TX property taxes (~$1500) are 1/10th my WA property taxes (both are income tax free states, so tend to have higher property taxes). WA increased from $800/ yr to $15k / yr since I did financial plan for retirement (nearly Same increase rate as Healthcare... $40+ / day each... yet we eat on $3/ day). Un-insured at the moment, and till age 65... (many more yrs))
When we lived in Wa, we saw many of our friends dealing with ever-rising property taxes. That was enough to scare us away from Wa.
I agree to stay away from states where you would be paying Income Taxes.
We started looking about 4 years before. We were able to narrow it down pretty quickly based upon our desires climate-wise, COL/taxes, and lifestyle. We wanted a place that would be easy to find new friends and find a community we could plug ourselves into easily. It's unfortunate that it's far from my siblings, but while we are close emotionally, we only saw each other about 5 times a year despite living in the same area anyway. So I go visit once a year and it's okay. We love our spot and we are really happy we did it.
To the OP: If you're considering Asheville, be sure to check out Hendersonville which is about 15 miles south. A really cool town. I have retired in place as there is nowhere better for me to live.
We actually found our retirement home almost 13 years ago, when we were looking for a place to spend extended weekends. It was a home on a small lake about 2 1/2 hours from the city we were living in.
Fast forward 8 years later to when hubby retired, (I continue to work self-employed, only need a phone). We've now been here full time almost 5 years and just put our dream home on the market a few days ago.
What attracted us to this place and made it perfect for so long all remains, but we have changed. We loved that it was remote, loved the privacy and country setting. This is still something we enjoy in summer, but summer is not long in central Wisconsin.
During the coldest months we now feel quite isolated, especially in winter when roads are not treated with salt and are often quite icy. We cannot walk outdoors unless we have cleats on our boots (very do-able) where we live because of that ice. Minimum of 1/2 hour for basic groceries has gotten old for my husband who is an excellent cook. He wants to prepare new recipes at the drop of a hat, but the trip to the store gets old.
Last year a small medical issue meant several trips to our nearest major hospital, that was 1 1/2 hour away. Longer on those icy days.
While these things were always okay in the past and we thought they would be easily manageable for us as healthy, independent people who really like our privacy, that feeling has changed. None of the details changed - we did.
Now we're still pretty young, as we retired in our 50's. I'm 55 he's 59. Would not have changed the time we have spent living in this wondrous place for anything. It is however helped us to realize what we want as we move forward.
We hope that our next home will be our last move. So, we compare a lot of things from our previous home and this one, think about the experiences of our parents and are making new lists of what is important to us.
Our children have shown us very clearly that their vehicles have wheels that turn quickly. They move! And for some reason insist on taking our grandchildren along with the wherever they move to. So our location is about us, what do we want, need and prefer.
It turns out that as long as you continue to have a heartbeat, you will be aging. You can't imagine how that surprised us! So, what felt right several years ago, and even a few years ago has changed. And we realize it will likely continue to change.
I encourage you to keep those things in mind as you search for the right place for you.
So, we now think about what sort of home do we want to live in and what would that location feel like. For us it's neither city or rural. Something in between.
We love the 4 seasons, though each year he finds the serious cold of our worst winters more uncomfortable. While I am not a fan of great humidity and heat. Now living on a lake relieved my issues, so thinking about a move near another lake or a place with a pool, probably a community pool comes into play for us.
We're outdoor people, love to hike, camp, work extensively in the yard. However we find that we are more easily drawn to more social activities than we were in the past. Determining how you are changing matters.
While the outdoors is important as I said, we find that we deeply miss opportunities to visit restaurants, specialty food stores, big box hardware (he's Mr. Fix-it) and even movie theaters. What do you find yourself drawn to, how is that different than it might have been 5 or 10 years ago?
Social opportunities. Do they matter to you and if so, to what degree? I love to have good conversation, open-minded discussions with others about so many things. Spiritual, political, environmental. Those opportunities are quite limited here. What sort of socializing do you prefer? If it's family and/or friends, are they nearby? If it's about building new social connections, what do you like? Is it centered around church, school, volunteer, etc?
Best of luck with your decision. So many have given you excellent advice. My hope is that you read it all, make notes and enjoy this process.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
5 or 6 years from now? Want to move to the Sun Belt.
making your cheap flights = 1/2 price!
