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People always assume the South is super low cost, when in many cases, it's little if any cheaper than rural places most everywhere else.
Every place gets its money one way or another unless it chooses to provide less services, which some places do. For example, virtually no rural area has paid, professional firefighters, but relies on volunteer fire departments. That lowers the taxes but raises home insurance because it's likely there will be more damage if there is a fire. Some states don't have state income taxes but charge sales tax on everything. Other states have personal property taxes based on the value of cars or RVs.
Thank you everyone for your great info. Not sure if we still can make up our minds though. LOL. We will still be doing some road trips and info gathering. Thanks again to everyone.
My husband will retire in about 5 yrs with a NYS pension. I already did retire and receive a very small pension and SS. He wants to stay in NYS because he says that the health care down South is horrible and as we age we will need good health care. We currently live in Cherry Valley, which is the Cobleskill/ Cooperstown area.
My question is this: Has anyone retired to NYS? Is it really more expensive than other states? (going on line seems to show that housing is more expensive in the south and property taxes run about the same as NY- with the exception of LI, Westchester, and other downstate counties of course).
If you did retire to NYS, where did you retire to, and why did you pick that area? All comments, good and bad, are welcome.
Thank you everyone for your great info. Not sure if we still can make up our minds though. LOL. We will still be doing some road trips and info gathering. Thanks again to everyone.
I decided I couldn't decide upon a retirement destination, either (at least not using City Data posts alone), so I've decided to buy an RV and spend a few years traveling so I can check these places out personally and at my leisure. Heck, if I enjoy it enough, that may just BE my whole retirement! If I don't like the weather, I'll just pick up and move my home on wheels.
we were going to retire to the pocono's. bought a 2nd home there and thought we would like that living.
well 5 years later we realized that isn't going to be such a good idea for retirement. there are definite disadvantages to small town life.
no public transportation if we couldn't drive , few medical specialists , limited medical facilities , nothing to do all winter , medigap plans are much more expensive than advantage plans with their limited network.
you may find the nearest in network hospital is 100 miles away or that you lack in network specialists.
medicare and medigap can run 12k for a couple if you need to go that route instead of an advantage plan . that can be thousands a year difference in your healthcare budget..
another factor to consider is if you need or want to work there may be little but mom and pop stores at minimum wage.
so we sold the house and are retiring right here in queens. everything we need is right here .
Not all of Upstate NY is rural. The bigger Upstate cities -- Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany -- all offer the same amenities to be found in any big metro but at considerably less cost than many bigger areas. The smaller Upstate cities offer most of the amenities, and generally even lower cost. In many parts of Upstate, living in exurbia or in a small town not far from a big city can be the best of both worlds.
I agree, though, that rural living is probably not the best option for seniors unless they're already living in a rural situation. For a long time, I had planned on moving back to my hometown, building a house on a lot carved from the old family farm, and living the country life I left almost 50 years ago. NOT gonna happen. After careful consideration, I decided that moving to a place that no longer had a hospital, had no full-time physician or veterinarian, only a small supermarket, and minimally 25+ miles to get to any of that stuff was not a place I wanted to live in the winter.
The alternative plan is to either rehab the camper trailer or hire Amish builders to erect a cabin with a composting toilet so I can stay there for 2 or 3 days at a time during the spring and summer.
I will be retiring in Upstate NY, BTW. Right here where I am in Jamestown, NY. All the places I have considered as retirement spots have serious drawbacks for me, most notably, hot humid summers or very high COL. I thought about moving further north to the little city of Dunkirk which is right on Lake Erie and on I-90, too, but I like my city, like my house, like my neighborhood, and love my many friends, so I'll stay here. Because of the Enhanced STAR program for seniors, I will pay little or nothing for school taxes, just city/county taxes. I will pay no state tax on SS or on my pension.
Since I'm a gardener, summer vacations are difficult for me to take, so I'll deal with the snow and cold by traveling down South to visit my numerous friends and relatives who retired there for several weeks during the winter and early spring. I already have a list of pet sitters who can keep track of the my kitties while I'm gone, and of course, my dog Tucker will come along with me (pet people tend to clump together with other pet people ). I think I've got a plan.
they were mentioning small towns like cobbleskill.
Yeah you better love snow, snow, and more snow. My folks live in the Finger Lakes and I guess are, er, "inadvertently retired" there for the nonce, and my father's about ready to start cramming the snow back down Mother Nature's neck. The other day he told me the plows are running out of places to mound the snow, and they haven't even had anything heavy in a week or so. It just keeps coming... and coming... and coming...
When my wife and I started to plan our retirement, we considered the Finger Lakes region; specifically, around Ithaca. I have a sentimental attachment to the area, having attended Cornell. I love the fact that there are four distinct seasons. I also love the fact that, as federal retirees, our annuities would not have been taxed by the state of New York.
We had no desire to retire any further south than we already were in Virginia, and our hope was that we could retire to the north. The south just doesn't hold any appeal to us. But, we also knew we wanted to retire to a place on a lake. And in researching real estate in and around Ithaca, we just couldn't find anything in our price range.
We ended up in Maine, and despite one of the longest, coldest, and snowiest winters this area has seen in many years, we have thoroughly enjoyed our first six months here.
we were going to retire to the pocono's. bought a 2nd home there and thought we would like that living.
well 5 years later we realized that isn't going to be such a good idea for retirement. there are definite disadvantages to small town life.
no public transportation if we couldn't drive , few medical specialists , limited medical facilities , nothing to do all winter , medigap plans are much more expensive than advantage plans with their limited network.
you may find the nearest in network hospital is 100 miles away or that you lack in network specialists.
medicare and medigap can run 12k for a couple if you need to go that route instead of an advantage plan . that can be thousands a year difference in your healthcare budget..
another factor to consider is if you need or want to work there may be little but mom and pop stores at minimum wage.
so we sold the house and are retiring right here in queens. everything we need is right here .
It sounds like you're planning to spend your retirement going to the doctor and hospital; do you have medical conditions warranting this or do you just anticipate it as a consequence of getting older or do you have the kind of doctor who has you coming every five minutes for tests and procedures you may or may not need? I notice that's definitely a growing trend in this country; so-called preventative care.
Maybe retirement is the time to throw caution to the wind and just do what you want to do? No "boss."
getting older has us concerned about health care . we are healthy but you never can tell. it can never hurt to at least have an outline for the things that may be important to you down the road.
Last edited by mathjak107; 04-28-2015 at 08:45 AM..
getting older has us concerned about health care . we are healthy but you never can tell. it can never hurt to at least have an outline for the things that may be omportant to you down the road.
I'm a fatalist about it. None of us will get out of this alive, no matter how often we run to the doctor? Might as well enjoy what time we have left! I have other priorities, but to each his own, as you say...
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retirement in NYS
). I think I've got a plan.
