Texas! It's home, my kids/grands live here, any type of environment from coastal to mountains to plains to desert, semi-tropical to snowy panhandle, city to rural, no state income tax, friendly people, lower cost of living than many other areas, centrally located geographically so can travel in any direction.

Well, the only place that fills that bill of a wonderful place with everything that you want is Heaven. And you have to die to get there. LOL.
Everyplace has it's pros and cons.

Both retired and stayed put. "Almost Heaven, West Virginia......"

We're still a few years away, DH is 60 & I'm 53. But his family and my family are all within 20 miles of us, except for his brother. We are adding a bedroom to the main floor of our home so everything will be on 1 level. After watching my mom's health decline, I'm starting to say when I'm 70,I'm moving to a retirement home so I won't have the stress of a house to maintain. Hopefully, DH will still be around and agree with me. No kids, just DH's nieces and nephews. Hopefully 1 or 2 of those will assist us as we age. LOL

Plan on staying put in Michigan. As for snow, if I don't have to drive to work each and every day, it won't bother me as much. LOL

I would be happy to stay right where I am if I could just afford to retire in the first place. My family is within 30 mins. except for my two sisters and a brother in TX. He's been there for 30 years so no chance of him moving back to GA and neither will my sisters move back to GA. I will be staying where I'm at to be close to kids and grandkids. That's more important than anything to me.

Just want to retire. They say you know when you're ready. I'm ready, just not sure my pocketbook is...

Honestly, it's SO far off to me, I'm not sure.

Part of me says where family is. It's important now because my nephew and any future kids are young, and I can help with them now.

But more "me", I'm going back to Finland or Germany. It's where I was happiest for a long, long time.

I know how you feel I have lived in So Cal most of my life and I love it.....our plans have always been to stay in this area it is where we raised our kids and hopefully their forever home will be close by. However the cost of living is so damn high mortgages/rent, utilities, gas, and oh my god the taxes it's crazy!

Where ever you decide to go, rent for a year first! That way, if you find you don't like where you are, you can pick up and leave when the lease is up.

That's what we did when we moved to SC. I love it here, and have become involved with several guilds and charities. I feel like I have more friends here than I had in my 'home' state, but I think that is because between work and family, I never had time for a personal social life.

None of my kids live near our home in NJ (DH can't part with it - he has a hard time parting with a lot of things),so that was not a factor when we chose to live in SC. My sister rents the upstairs of the house for a low rent - just enough to pay taxes - or I would have insisted that it be sold.

For many people, the cost of living is an important factor when choosing a retirement home. Property taxes are low in SC. We pay about 1/8th of what we pay in NJ. However, sales tax is higher and we pay taxes annually on cars, boats, etc, that we didn't pay in NJ. I don't think it's equal to the property taxes in NJ, though.

If you have any significant health issues, if you relocate, make sure you move to an area that has access to all the medical DR and facilities that you need to manage your health.

Good luck to you!

been a lot of places but i am with ging ......gulf coast of florida can't beat it ,,,port charlotte ,,,englewood ,,venice

oh forgot to put why ......there are 10 inches of reasons outside right now .....but maybe i will get some things done since i am snowed in