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A lot of people (rightly) fear slipping on icy sidewalks and breaking a hip or something else.
I find as I get older, humidity bothers me more than cold. I just collapse in the summer (eastern Mass.). Air conditioning is great, but it's still a clammy cold, and the air outside is still soup. I feel stuck inside in the summer like other people do in winter.
Everyone assumes that retirees mean "mild winters" when referring to "good weather." Not this aspiring retiree. I do think there are some genetics- my recent ancestors were all from the Russian steppes. Some kind of adaptation there.
I sooo agree with this.
Interesting group here - we all seem to long to retire in a different climate than the one we have been living in.
I've been researching retirement places for the last few years. We want lots of sunshine, warm weather all year round (because I'm cold when the temperature dips below 70), a non-desert location, and real trees. After visiting numerous states and communities we've decided to move to Florida. I know it sounds cliche, but I love how I feel when I'm in Florida, it has no state income tax, it has 242 sunny days per year vs the 137 we have where I currently live, there are real trees, I have family there, and it's warm to hot all year long so I'll be able to be outside without getting cold.
Great. I am a frequent visitor to W. central Fl. as my folks retired there and my job permits me frequent access. Not to dampen your enthusiasm, but please consider some of my findings.
Fl. is extremely humid and those that imagine it an outdoors paradise are fooling themselves. I have pulled a few weeds in my parents flowerbed and was able to wring approx. a pint of water from my shirt. If you resort to no exertion such as sitting on the porch you better load up with the deet or be very repulsive to aggressive disease carrying mosquitoes.
If you don't mind going to places off hours and having to share space with a multitude of others(including tourists and snowbirds) I guess it would make it for you.
Personally I prefer an area a bit more civil with a little class. I don't prefer wall to wall nobodys or areas patrolled by Barney Fife types. For all of the above we will be looking for a better place in the near future when we retire. Bless my parents and others that thought warm and sunny also meant proper and enjoyable. IMHO they are not necessarily synonymous.
Interesting group here - we all seem to long to retire in a different climate than the one we have been living in.
All good points, and interesting ideas. You know, sometimes I think I am younger than I am because I am in good health, and stay active. Thank God. In these thoughts, I still would love to retire to an area that has cold, snowy winters.
Of course, I'm thinking back to when we lived in snow country, and remembering the muffled sounds in the forest, the smells of fire wood burning, and feel (of the snow and cold) when you came in from outside. When I wake from this romantic reverie, I think, what the heck!?! Siberia even sounded like a swell place to live when I was around 8 or 9 years old!!!
Guess I'm tired of living in cities, too. Small towns are my best bet, I think.
brightdoglover, I know what you mean about humidity-- I'd much rather have a couple of feet of dry snow, than any amount of humidity. So, do you mean that you have Cossack blood? Mighty warriors, they were! If you posted this I missed it, but where are you folks thinking of moving to when you retire?
SeeBee, after growing up in North Dakota and living in Northern California for several decades, I miss snowy winters a lot. I remember skating parties on the frozen lake; I remember the magical full moon shining on the snowy yard. I'd love to see more of my close relatives who live in North Dakota, but I'm accustomed to going without a car and running almost all of my errands on foot. There would be days or weeks on end when I couldn't do that in North Dakota and I think I'd develop cabin fever in no time.
Summer is my least favorite season. I hate heat. I spend more time indoors in the summer so when I was looking for a place to relocate to, the summer season could not be longer than June, July and August. Georgia, Florida, Arizona, Alabama, Louisiana, etc., were immediately ruled out for their long summers.
On the other hand, one of my least favorite activities is scraping ice off my windshield so I was looking for a moderate amount of winter precipitation. I like cold weather so I didn't care if it was cold in the winter. But, I have found out that ice on the windshield isn't a problem when you don't have to be in your car at 6:00AM. In other words, retirement and an hour's worth of morning sunshine solved the windshield ice scraping issue.
I was just saying in another forum that I can take the shovel out of my car now. Last winter I only used the brush end of the ice scraper for about 2 inches of snow.
Summer is my least favorite season. I hate heat. I spend more time indoors in the summer so when I was looking for a place to relocate to, the summer season could not be longer than June, July and August. Georgia, Florida, Arizona, Alabama, Louisiana, etc., were immediately ruled out for their long summers.
On the other hand, one of my least favorite activities is scraping ice off my windshield so I was looking for a moderate amount of winter precipitation. I like cold weather so I didn't care if it was cold in the winter. But, I have found out that ice on the windshield isn't a problem when you don't have to be in your car at 6:00AM. In other words, retirement and an hour's worth of morning sunshine solved the windshield ice scraping issue.
I was just saying in another forum that I can take the shovel out of my car now. Last winter I only used the brush end of the ice scraper for about 2 inches of snow.
I'm a hot summer hater too, tho I've been in them most of my life. A garage solves that windshield ice problem too . But that is what I'm figuring too, when I don't have to get up early and get out the door, does a little snow and ice matter that much? As long as I can grow tomatoes.
Ifdrankly hated the cold when I stayed with my relative in the northeast;I never thougth that wineter could last so long. The coast of california is the best climate overall by far but It is just too hectic living there It was a nice place when I visted my uncle there as a kid but really has changed.I find that almost all my relatives i the northeast have moved to warmer climatesto retire and actually tolerate the summers better than I do;so go figure.
I grew up near Buffalo, NY and left almost 40 years ago. I did not leave because of the weather but because the area was financially collapsing and I saw better looking cities when I was in the Army.
I have been now in Denver for almost 30 years and I think it is a good compromise because the weather is not too cold and not too hot. Even, though I miss some of the areas around the Great Lakes, I could never return because I have severe arthritis, as well as other severe health problems.
I have found that I cannot take severe cold or high humidity. Cold airconditioning bothers me. Denver sits on the high cool semi-arid great plains; it is not in the mountains. This suites me just fine. I do not need air conditioning in the summer and the summer nights cool down. The winters are mild with occassional storms.
I think that living the cold Great Lakes area is not so bad because the soil, in many of these areas is more fertile than the West and the Southwest. It has nice small picturesque towns, and of course all the waterways. If I was younger and in better health, I would pick an area to live where I could survive, in bad economic times, on a small self-sufficient farm in a small town--I would pick an area in the Great Lakes.
I could never return because of health but if I stayed and never left, I would not have known that there were different effects of climate, and I would have suffered more but accepted the situation.
And to add, Denver is a much nicer, progressive, clean city than Buffalo.
I'm a hot summer hater too, tho I've been in them most of my life. A garage solves that windshield ice problem too . But that is what I'm figuring too, when I don't have to get up early and get out the door, does a little snow and ice matter that much? As long as I can grow tomatoes.
I get sinus headaches from air conditioning (home or car and used to be office) blowing on me so that's another reason why I hate the summer. After 80 degrees, I can't be outside for more than an hour or two and when I come in, the heat has zapped my energy. Then, I turn the air conditioner on and wind up with a headache. My favorite outdoor temps are in the 50's because I'll stay outside all day with just a sweater or light jacket and don't need the heat or air conditioner in the home. I'm more active when it's cold. I even prefer 30 degree outdoor temps to 80s...as long as there is no precipitation.
Unfortunately, I don't know anyplace where it's in the 50s all year.
I'm thinking other people may have outdoor seasonal allergies so one climate is better than another for them when the allergy season is shorter.
San Diego and other on the california coast have by far the idea climate to live in.But it is expensive and the lifestyle hurries because of it being so idea climate wise.Frankly the areas with lond cold winters probaly have fewer peole wanting to live there as demonistrated by population changes since peole ahve become more mobile in society and don't just stay where they are born.
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The Swamp
A garage solves that windshield ice problem too 
