WHERE will you retire?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Help me - near beach/bay, coffee shop,tennis, walkable, cute, a little history, proximity to airport (hour) healthcare I guess, mix of views for discussions but definitely a few red state types. Affordable.

Savannah

Is Savannah affordable? I've never been there, but it looks pretty in photos. Are there gators? No gators for us, that's a priority.

Asheville is a possibility, or maybe we'll stay in the DC area, but move further out to a quieter place. Our kids are likely to stay on the East Coast, so we'll be near enough.

I've never heard of someone considering alligators in their retirement planning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Knoxville, TN. Great weather, good airport, low COL, no state income tax, 30 minutes from Great Smoky Mountains.

Tennessee has a 9% sales tax and a 6% tax on your dividends and investments, aka 401k. I don think know how high the property taxes are. All these no income tax states get their revenue some where. Otherwise, the state(s) would be totally dysfunctional.

NP. This is where we retired. And, we LOVE it! Weather is more moderate than further north, great outdoors things to do. Very little traffic. Great doctors and hospitals. Wonderful concerts, theater, etc. COL is way, way less than DC. Yes, sales tax is high, but we spend less than we did pre-retirement. There are many exemptions to the state tax on dividends and investments. We owe a whopping $75 this year.
And, property taxes are about 1/3 of the DC area, if not less. And, no property tax on vehicles as VA has.
And, pp is right....... you can’t beat the Smoky Mountains. And, the lakes!
But the very best part is the people. They are so friendly and accommodating here.

But aren't they all Republicans?

I cannot live in a state filled with Trumpsters. That's my #1 priority for retirement.

How can you NOT know that most urban areas are blue and rural areas are red? Hence most cities in the south have many democratic residents.

If you live in an urban area in the South, you will have many democrats (and liberals) around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Help me - near beach/bay, coffee shop,tennis, walkable, cute, a little history, proximity to airport (hour) healthcare I guess, mix of views for discussions but definitely a few red state types. Affordable.

Savannah

Is Savannah affordable? I've never been there, but it looks pretty in photos. Are there gators? No gators for us, that's a priority.

Asheville is a possibility, or maybe we'll stay in the DC area, but move further out to a quieter place. Our kids are likely to stay on the East Coast, so we'll be near enough.

I've never heard of someone considering alligators in their retirement planning.

Seriously. We have alligators in our backyard occasionally. They are scared of people. It is never a problem.

[Anonymous]

Georgetownies. Where does a person who attended Georgetown undergraduate, post graduate, married a Georgetown graduate, sent their kids to Georgetown feeder schools.....then Georgetown u for college (alter servers, showy volunteering, the right clothes). Can these folks ever survive outside GU?
Where do folks like these end up?
I digress.

[Anonymous]

I haven't read this whole thread, but I am wondering how many of you are considering where your adult children will be living? I want to retire someplace else but don't want to commit to retiring outside the DC area until my kids are launched. I like the idea of being in this area in case they want to come back after college and live at home to save money for grad school, for example. Once they are settled, we'll choose!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read this whole thread, but I am wondering how many of you are considering where your adult children will be living? I want to retire someplace else but don't want to commit to retiring outside the DC area until my kids are launched. I like the idea of being in this area in case they want to come back after college and live at home to save money for grad school, for example. Once they are settled, we'll choose!

You can't plan your retirement based on your children. I have adult kids. One in Colorado. One in DC. One in Georgia. One in Wyoming. One in Florida. We are a very close family. They all come home several times a year to visit. But they live far away.

[Anonymous]

Central or southern Virginia- lovely rolling hills and mountain views!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Help me - near beach/bay, coffee shop,tennis, walkable, cute, a little history, proximity to airport (hour) healthcare I guess, mix of views for discussions but definitely a few red state types. Affordable.

Savannah

Is Savannah affordable? I've never been there, but it looks pretty in photos. Are there gators? No gators for us, that's a priority.

Asheville is a possibility, or maybe we'll stay in the DC area, but move further out to a quieter place. Our kids are likely to stay on the East Coast, so we'll be near enough.

There are gators in the low country, but not in downtown Savannah. Just stay out of areas with lots of freshwater ponds. That's where the gators hang out.

[Anonymous]

Looking at Portugal, maybe Greece.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Help me - near beach/bay, coffee shop,tennis, walkable, cute, a little history, proximity to airport (hour) healthcare I guess, mix of views for discussions but definitely a few red state types. Affordable.

Savannah

Is Savannah affordable? I've never been there, but it looks pretty in photos. Are there gators? No gators for us, that's a priority.

Asheville is a possibility, or maybe we'll stay in the DC area, but move further out to a quieter place. Our kids are likely to stay on the East Coast, so we'll be near enough.

I've never heard of someone considering alligators in their retirement planning.

Seriously. We have alligators in our backyard occasionally. They are scared of people. It is never a problem.

I could not live with that. Nor could I handle the mosquitoes, cockroaches, the list goes on. No.

[Anonymous]

I'm 8 years younger than DH who is in his early 60s. One of our kids who's a HS freshman has a chronic illness. Because DH will have to go on Medicare in 4 years and DK will just be graduating HS, I will have to go on ACA with our DKs if I can't transition to full-time work with benefits - right now DK's condition means I've pieced together many part-time gigs.

If the current Freedom Caucus iteration of ACA destruction passes this week we will most likely attempt to buy citizenship in an EU country (probably can only afford an eastern one or Portugal/Spain and eventually get our kids EU passports). Otherwise, we love Latin America and will move somewhere there for half a year and maintain a small place in a lower COLA area that's warm in the US. Our healthcare would be mostly taken care of overseas when possible, although we would have to maintain Medicare supplemental/insurance here too.

We are disgusted at the turn our country has taken in particular this year and don't really care to have our kids/potential grandkids suffer through their adult lives here. Our DKs are on board.

The US has allowed itself to be passed by much of the rest of the world in terms of substandard infrastructure development/maintenance, rampant, unfettered corporate malfeasance/tax evasion and outsourcing/automation without consideration for workers and awful health care access over the past 2 decades and shows no signs of a quick turnaround even if the current bozos are thrown out - which won't happen for awhile with the Republican gerrymandering going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read this whole thread, but I am wondering how many of you are considering where your adult children will be living? I want to retire someplace else but don't want to commit to retiring outside the DC area until my kids are launched. I like the idea of being in this area in case they want to come back after college and live at home to save money for grad school, for example. Once they are settled, we'll choose!

We will be several years into our retirement before we can expect our children to be settled. Plus, people have an annoying tendency to move elsewhere when opportunities arrive- especially in the first 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 8 years younger than DH who is in his early 60s. One of our kids who's a HS freshman has a chronic illness. Because DH will have to go on Medicare in 4 years and DK will just be graduating HS, I will have to go on ACA with our DKs if I can't transition to full-time work with benefits - right now DK's condition means I've pieced together many part-time gigs.

If the current Freedom Caucus iteration of ACA destruction passes this week we will most likely attempt to buy citizenship in an EU country (probably can only afford an eastern one or Portugal/Spain and eventually get our kids EU passports). Otherwise, we love Latin America and will move somewhere there for half a year and maintain a small place in a lower COLA area that's warm in the US. Our healthcare would be mostly taken care of overseas when possible, although we would have to maintain Medicare supplemental/insurance here too.

We are disgusted at the turn our country has taken in particular this year and don't really care to have our kids/potential grandkids suffer through their adult lives here. Our DKs are on board.

The US has allowed itself to be passed by much of the rest of the world in terms of substandard infrastructure development/maintenance, rampant, unfettered corporate malfeasance/tax evasion and outsourcing/automation without consideration for workers and awful health care access over the past 2 decades and shows no signs of a quick turnaround even if the current bozos are thrown out - which won't happen for awhile with the Republican gerrymandering going on.

We are looking at states like Massachusetts which already had a program like ACA (prior to its adoption) and will likely continue if the feds abandon it - for similar reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Central or southern Virginia- lovely rolling hills and mountain views!

The landscape is absolutely gorgeous, but the political climate, religious fervor of places like Lynchburg and lack of diversity are likely deal breakers for me. Possibly a college town might work, like Roanoke or Lexington, but I don't know much about them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any non-white people on this thread? Where are you comfortable retiring to? I'm first gen South-Asian and not sure how welcome we are in rural communities...

I'll probably be scuttling btw India and the US, winter to summer.