Retirement and moving question

If you could retire tomorrow would you move to a different place? The only thing that is keeping me in the Miami area is my job and my wife’s job but if both of us could retire tomorrow we would move to somewhere in the Florida panhandle area. Maybe to a suburb of Tallahassee. I’d be just fine living in a town with about 25k people.

We’re both fed up with the never-ending surge of people moving down here and its concomitant traffic congestion.

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I would move to where I am. A retirement move is nothing more than an acknowledgement that one has now chosen where they wish to die. I don’t care where I die.

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I honestly couldn’t say. I quite like it where I live but maybe southern France, Switzerland or Italy. Netherlands for the cycling infrastructure even though the eastern Netherlands are only about a 1.5h ride on a road bike away. Switzerland has pretty decent cycling paths as well though and it has nice mountains whereas the Netherlands are flat, windy and wet…

The more I think about it I’d probably stay where I am :sweat_smile::face_with_peeking_eye:

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I can certainly see that perspective. In my case, I’m just tired of living in a crowded area.

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Boy can I understand your feelings. While 40,000 is not an inconsequential population that number has quadrupled since we moved to Corona in 1989. When we moved into Corona 1989 we were literally at the edge of town. Our main cross street ended at a dairy farm and the cattle were still grazing in the fields. Now that dairy farm has been gone for over 25 years and that main cross street that always had very little traffic has become one of the main throughfares with heavy traffic at practically all hours. In 1989 getting around town the traffic would be a problem at certain times of the day. Now it is all day long. Homelessness encampments had not taken over the city parks.

I know in California that these problems are not unique to the city of Corona so any move to escape them will require moving to another state.

Wheels

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I get it. The “fly south” thing has always bothered me. Thus the morbid slant. The millions who lower their latitudes are straining the electrical grid and water supply and stressing the planet a whole order of magnitude beyond what their neighbors who stayed home will inflict. They are free to do it of course. In the case of Florida, no state income tax comes at a cost. Snowbirds are the cost.

But, to finally answer the question, if forced to move in the US, it would be the San Juan Islands, Washington. If forced to move worldwide, it would be Switzerland.

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Switzerland is awesome if you can afford it. I have a good friend in Germany who recently went to Switzerland for a vacation trip and he told me he had a serious case of “sticker shock”. Many things were 2 or 3 times more expensive compared to Germany.

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Ooh there’s a good solution to FLs problem…institute a state income tax for anyone who’s come here since 2000.

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FWIW, I retired to the panhandle. Moved from where my job was in the West (USA) due to what I saw was the ‘normalization’ of crime (and other questionable things, IMHO). A city of ~500K+ (if you connect all the suburbs and neighboring towns, likely much more).

Anyway, I grew up in FLA. Lived in both the panhandle and central FLA until about age of 25. In short, there are roughly 21million reasons I chose the panhandle.

However, our sleepy little town is growing, fast (from ~5,000 to over 6,000!!!). It’s not cheap but that sorta depends on what you spend your money on.

The ‘worth’ of my home has doubled in the last 10 years which will only serve to benefit my children when I die. My property taxes have gone up in kind (nothing new there) and insurance has tripled. Again nothing unexpected there as it is a thing statewide. Growing up with hurricanes I made sure I built a modest home that could withstand almost anything (cost me ~10% more to build)[1], and being modest we can afford to pay to fix things out of pocket (that planning ahead thing).

There remain cheaper properties not far from here but they are of course inland; we are here because, IMHO, woman have a thing for looking at water (I care what is IN the water).

No place is perfect. I’ve moved so many times in my life it wasn’t an emotional challenge; was used to it. The logistic however is a PITA.

PS: If you notice my icon thingy that beach I’m face down in is ~600 yards from my back porch.
PSS: I’ve noticed too - here’s how we tie this into a Flight Simulation forum - per-capita there are a LOT of former pilots living here.

[1] And me and my wife did 99% of the work on the home, the interior that is. Don’t recommend that but it saved us a ton; was coimpleted faster; I learned how to make a door from a pile of wood and some hinges; we have a lot of tools; etc, etc.

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The great thing about living in NJ id that everything else seems fair by comparison. Zürich included!

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We go there every so often for doctors - and the closest Costco. Its a college town; the ‘mountains’ of Florida ; lot of oak trees. It’s kinda nice, but still too many people for me :). Nothing like MIA though.

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I’m in Texas purely because this is where my job is. I hate moving, (both job and location, which is why I have been here for 12 years now. I have no emotional attachment to Texas though.

For retirement I’m happy to be wherever my wife is happy. If that is here in Texas then so be it, but I’m guessing we will end up somewhere there are mountains.

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Bingo. We planted the flag here cos my wife thought this little town was ‘cute’, and the water (Gulf) looked pretty (compared to nearby places). Me, the fishing is pretty good. Yin, Yang thing. I can live pretty much anywhere (other than a big city that is). And it wasn’t over-populated, ie; Destin, FL was my initial target but it is NOT the place it was in the 1960’s. It’s become Ft. Lauderdale. :slightly_frowning_face:

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“Nothing like MIA though”.

Bingo!

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From the perspective of someone who lived in Miami 8 years, including college, then moved to Atlanta > Europe > Atlanta > Charleston, SC, I agree a lot with @jross’ point of view. During the little bit of time that I’ve spent in Tallahassee, I liked what I saw.

My wife and I really love Charleston. I still have friends in South Florida, so it’s not hard to draw comparisons. After living here 5 years, Charleston still feels like the proverbial big village, compared to MIA and ATL, which grew way too crowded over time. But Charleston also is growing pretty rapidly, ~375k. We did get an REI not too long ago, which IMHO was about the only thing missing.

We tend to get along with the slightly right of center politics. The state is red, but Charleston had a democratic mayor for 40 years, who led the movement to remove the Confederate flag from the state capital. There are lots of retired military here, but hey, if you are a vet you get preferred parking and a 10% discount at Home Depot and Lowes. The kids go to a pretty good public school, where I don’t have to worry about them getting brain washed by an over zealous right or left leaning teacher. That’s what college is for :laughing:

Concerning religion, there are a lot of churches here and occasionally I feel like I’m getting pitched to. Sort of like when you go to lunch with a good friend, a third person joins us, who offers to pick up the tab, but then pitches life insurance. It’s not too difficult to tiptoe around though.

Of course we are a sea port, if you are into boating, and SC takes natural resources very seriously. So, lots of outdoor activities. There is high humidity, but it’s mostly the middle of June through the middle of October. The rest of the year is amazingly mild.

About the only thing that you wouldn’t like are taxes. But the cost of living is generally lower. Our home insurance and property taxes are half of what they were in Atlanta.

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I’m never gonna make it to retirement.

But if by some miracle i do. I’m going to texas.

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I aint going nowhere. Bury me where I lived. I’ll see the world through a series of tubes and pages.

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So assuming we’re talking about both of us retiring right now, we still have small children with special needs that would require services. That would mean a large-ish city with a well-funded, progressive school system that will advocate for our kids.

We’ve talked about the DC area, as I have family there, and we’ve also talked about Northern California, where we also have family and close friends. But those were also in the context of potential moves for work opportunities as well.

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Why Texas?

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I just love the place. The people, the mix of cultures being so close to the border. The sheer size of the place and the relative stability of it.

I had an absolute blast in texas.

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