Retirement....what state and why?
 

Let's say you are ready to retire and you have the choice to retire anywhere you want, where would you go and why? We have a few years to go, but already talking about it...considering location, weather, taxes etc......
What would be your choice???

I grew up in upstate New York. I then worked in south Florida for 30 years... just LOVED the weather. But I retired to Minnesota! Why... because my daughter lived here and she asked me to come and babysit the DGKs. It has really been worth the hassle of the bad weather :thumbup:

We live in VT and spend winters on the AL coast. Best of both worlds. But I would not want to live there permanently. Our family is in New England.

England. My husband may not be included as he say's he'll never go back (for more than a visit).

We are looking at Mississippi. No taxes on your retirement.

I can hardly wait for more responses to your question. I too, am considering a move and am looking at places along the gulf coast. Best for property taxes is suppose to be Fl, but you have other factors like no state income tax in TX. Medical facilities, recreational opportunities, family all come into play along with the price of housing. I'd like to explore the southeastern coastal areas, but have not had the opportunity to get that way yet. Best of luck on your research!

I would not retire to NY the taxes are so high here , if you like hot sticky weather Florida but you have tornados and hurricanes or at least when I was there I had to evacuate several times. I love Calif but you get to rock and roll and yes its expensive there also. So consider the weather where you desire to live and do alot of research.

i am retired and hope to stay in North Dakota. was born and raised here.
i now there is a lot of warmer places to be but so far i love the four season
we have here.

House bought and paid for, children and grandkids near by, friends. Nope..staying right in the middle of Oklahoma, even if we do have to dodge the tornados once in a while.

I don't think a person can retire to a region because of the weather, because it is changing constantly. Is family a factor? Friends? Urban or rural locations are everywhere. After 14 years in rural Montana, I chose high desert rural AZ. Do miss the convenience of many stores in Phoenix, but love the quieter, slower rural area. "The grass is always greener on the other side." Just list what is most important to you.

Iowa...where I was born, raised, live and all children and grandbabies are here. I would miss our 4 seasons also! Would travel to lots of other places, but couldn't go far from the beautiful state of Iowa.

Claudia

Texas. No personal income taxes. Great weather. 4 hospitals listed in the top 100 in the US. The medical school in Dallas has 4 (four) Nobel prize winning research doctors! just for example - as you get older, your health gets less uncertain.
Cheaper cost of living than many other places. Minus points - no mountains, but has beaches. Lots of churches, art museums, trains, planes and anything else you need or want. Lots of cheap land still available.

Pretty much us here in NW Missouri. We talked about moving...we loved Georgia when we lived there. But our kids, well our daughters anyway, are within 20 minutes of us. Our son lives about 4 hours away but talks of moving closer.
Would hate to have a house payment again, so unless we win the lottery, we will stay here. If I had my druthers, I would druther be in northern Georgia!

I would either go to CO or NM... beautiful scenery, nice weather, healthy life-styles... *sigh*...

We had NO plans on retiring to FL. We visited a few areas and fell in love with a lifestyle here in The Villages. I suggest you visit where you think you are interested. We love Tennessee and thought we would end up there, but after 2 days of driving on hilly, curving roads - yes, with beautiful scenery- we decided our first choice wasn't right for us. After moving to FL we went on a trip west and we stopped in Boulder CO and I could live there! Enjoy checking out different areas!!

P S Florida does not have State income tax and property taxes are low.

We plan to RV around the country for awhile, staying about 6 months each in some states/regions to live in their beauty. After that we'll probably come back home to southeast Tennessee, if that's where our daughters are living. We hope to remain close to them & their families til the end.

If I could, I'd move to one of the Atlanta suburbs. My reasons: 4 nice seasons, no hurricanes, an airline hub, and good medical care. Plus some good quilt shops.

Love all your responses so far....keep them coming. My family is in Germany and retiring there is out of question, just too expensive. My husband's family is in N.C. but we both are not in love with that state. Our daughter is in California and our son is back in school and will move wherever he will find a job. Like I said, we still have some time and keep exploring all these options.

In my opinion, you need to prioritize what you enjoy.

Top of my list is an urban area because I like having lots of activities around me, lots of choices within a short drive away, great emergency and hospital care, choice of doctors, etc. I've seen many couples retire to lake cabins, but that is absolutely not my dream for retirement. I don't want to grow old in isolation. I want to be near colleges and universities where I can audit classes, attend theater and musical events, and where I can meet regularly with other quilters (and where there are several quilt shops within driving distance!). I also want top-notch computer and other media connections with the rest of the world.

Next priority for me is family. There's just no substitute for being close to family and friends. So, I would choose an urban area near family.

Third priority for me is climate. If I had a choice, a climate similar to that of Tennessee would be my choice, with Costa Rica a possible second choice. Have been to Florida and it's just too hot and humid for me. However, my urban/family priority pretty much rules out lower priority choices involving climate, taxes, etc.

So, my advice is to decide what's most important to you in terms of everyday life. Are you rural or urban? Do you want to be near family? Do you want a college or university nearby? Weather? For me, anyway, taxes are last on the list of priorities. If everything else is perfect, taxes would not ruin it for me.

Retired and moved to Northern Nevada (near the Reno area). Weather is good, get some snow but not enough to stop you from doing anything, Lake Tahoe nearby, skiing in the mountains, fishing at the lake, nice slow pace of life and no state income taxes. Can get a little warm at times, but we seem to always get a cooling breeze in the evening. We love it after the busy lifestyle in California.

I'm retiring right here if my girls are here. Family and friends are so much more important to me than location.

We'll never leave Wisconsin, but we love travel and hiking so that's what we do. We like winter. It slows things down so we can get inside things done, like quilting!

I just retired a couple of months ago & haven't moved from just east of Dallas. I love the rural area, but closeness to the big city. Our property taxes are pretty low, no income tax, weathers pretty good most of the time, @ a month of extreme hot in summer, but A/C helps a lot. It's good here. If I were to move, it'd be central Florida. Around the Winterhaven area. Love the pace there.

Believe me - people need to think about their families when they retire. Years ago I read in Ann Landers, or equivalent, a letter from a woman who retired to the south and then her husband passed away. She had no really good friends and her family was miles from her to the North; however, she did not have the money to make a move, nor relatives who could help her. It's best, I feel, and speaking from experience, to stay near family. It will save a lot of heartache and a lot of money (trying to sell the home - particularly in today's economy). You never know what the future has in store for you.

I agree with you 100%. I think this is the best state.

We live in Ohio and have been retired for some time. All my family and friends are in Ohio. We love being with the grandchildren. We winter in FL but I'd never leave home.

We are looking at Cuenca, Ecuador. I am from Minnesota, he is from California. We both are pretty sick of Minnesota winters. This area of Ecuador has a great group of ex-pats, and they use the dollar for currency. Even on my own SSI one can live quite comfortably, and never have to do housework again because there are plenty of people that are housekeepers. Then there is the gardener (once a week), driver (when needed to get to that fabric shop), and doctor (who makes housecalls) and there is still money left over for good eats both at home and out. Plus the weather is gorgeous...

Anita in Northfield, MN

We've lived in Fl. for 20 yrs and had one hurricane Charlie to evacutate and we might have been able to stay home even tho it was a Cat 4 the house didn't get an awful lot of damage mostly the pool cage. It's hot in the summer. Tornadoes we have water spouts they don't usually come on shore. We don't have a state income tax. We do get if this is your primary home you get Homestead which is the first $50,000 on your house you don't pay taxes on. We live in Port Charlotte south of Orlando they get worse weather than we do because the cold fronts get there 1st and by the time they get here they've kind of burned themselves out not to say we couldn't get something and also this is the West coast the East coast also gets worse weather. The storms they tell us we'll get a thunderstorm and it goes to the other coast. We need some rain. We are from RI and our little darlings followed us down here. Just check it out before you move anywhere to see how you really like it vacation is wonderful but when you move somewhere you see things are very different in other areas of the country I found that out the hard way but we love it down here. Good Luck. Sue

We are looking at NC. My husbands daughter is there with her husband and our granchild. We'd love to be near them Our Daughter is also thinking of moving there in the near future. Hopefully our son will follow so we all will be together. We have good friends there as well. But if we all stay here in New York that would be fine too. You know what happens when you make plans. lol

FL doesn't have a state income tax and property taxes aren't too bad depending on where you live. Pick a state that doesn't have a state income tax though. I think there are about 5 - FL, TN, and NV. I'm not sure what others.

We retired to NC and the taxes are some of the highest in the nation. Gas tax is 2nd highest and state income tax is 5th highest. I love the weather but not the taxes. I wanted to move to TN - same weather. less taxes but DH has family here and was born here.

I am being forced to retire too early this year due to NY State School budget cuts, it's either retire or go on unemployment............I am not old enough to quit working-so it's the private sector for a job hopefully...
when I am READY to retire, I am probably staying where I am--I'm a farm girl and the land is for me. Maybe the
taxes are nasty----maybe the weather too (winter anyway), but the rolling mountains, dirt roads, fields and streams, and the great show of color in the fall, are just too much to give up for any other area.

Stay where ever you are. You have a "life" there, and it will be much easier to add to that life than try to make a new one among strangers. Never count on married family to be your life, they already have one!

I have lived in many states, but I like the Carolinas the best! I just retired and always thought we would move South, but we'll stay here where are grandchildren are.

TEXAS !!! heading to the Beautiful Hill Country !

Tired of Houston crowds and traffic ... and the threat of more hurricanes !

TanyaL,
Agree with you, except for the "no mountains" part ... Texas DOES have mountains ! Maybe not the size of the Rocky Mountains etc, but we have the Guadalupe Mtns and Davis Mtns and more in West Texas, beautiful Big Bend, plus our "mini" mountains out in the beautiful Hill Country !!
Agree, the Med Center here in Houston and MD Anderson are top-rated in the US, there's no better place to get care if you need it.

Another Texan chiming in for our great state! In many areas you can live in the country and still be only an hour or less from the city, be it Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, or Midland/Odessa. So you can have the best of both worlds. People are friendly, too, even if you are a transplant from another area.

What are your interests - obviously quilting, but what else? What medical plan do you have? What medical problems/disabilities do you have, if any? Any financial pitfalls? Where do grandchildren live? Do you like to travel?

All of these should factor into your decision. I personally like to own a couple of homes. One in an area where it's warm and comfortable in the winter and one where it's fairly comfortable in the summer. It's fairly easy to buy the Park Model homes in different areas (read about a woman who had one in Florida and one in Connecticut).

We have a home in Northern California and one in the desert area of AZ. I'm looking at maybe finding another home in the midwest near my grandchildren. I really prefer spending three or four months in an area and then going somewhere else for a few months. Spending a lot of my time near my children/grandchildren/great grands is fun, but wears you out. I like my downtime.

Ocala, Florida
 

We retired here in 2003 after trying visitation packages at different communities. We live in On Top of the World (OTOW), which is featured in this month's "Where to Retire" magazine. You might go online and see if you can access it. Florida has no state income tax, 6% sales tax, low taxes. Ocala is in the middle of Marion County, known as horse country, as there are 30,000+ horses in the county alone. No beaches, but you are surrounded by beautiful horse farms and forests. Gulf is 60 miles away, Atlantic 90. Lower risk of hurricane so homeowners' insurance is lower and easier to get. OTOW has its own website so take a look. Although they only offer new homes, they also have a real estate department that handles resales. If you buy a villa in the older area you will be buying a home on a 99-year lease and will be paying community fees of $300-400 per month. But that pays for outside insurance, all the amenities, security, infrastructure. Homes in the resale side have gone for as low as $35,000. For that you would have purchased a concrete block home with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, garage, airconditioned, probably about 1,000 sq feet and all the amenities the former residents had installed. Take a look at our community. We like it better than the Villages. We also looked there but 90,000 people are just too many!

we are in CT-we came from Australia-both are far from family and I sometimes get the guilts. I like being alone-not isolated. I do have interaction with the people in the neighbourhood and am near an major hospital. We are in rural north west CT so we have all the seasons and a beautiful view of hills and a small valley.
When we moved back to the US I looked at taxes on websites and believe me when I tell you they do NOT tell the whole truth. I researched on the internet as we had been out of the country for over 14 years and had no idea of the current tax situations. My husband is thinking of moving as the taxes in CT are the highest in the country.
I love New Zealand-both north and south islands-love Australia, especially Tasmania-really like Ireland and Scotland but not England. My husband likes the west-NM, CO.
I have no idea where we will really end up but I do know I am tired and would really like to just stay put in one place longer than 4 years!