What kind of retirement do you want?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to move back to Manhattan or west side of LA.

Wow surprised to see so many more people here that want to retire in a city.... I thought I was the outlier!

I think it's so important to be able to walk places in retirement. Elders who live in the suburbs and are car-dependent are trapped once they're no longer able to drive.

Actually it’s really unsafe to walk everywhere when you are too old to drive. You will fall or get hit by a car.

Nah, many elders are just fine to walk, but can’t drive. What’s the alternative, sitting at home, quietly waiting for death?

You are wrong, But sure sit confident in your ignorance.

Over 55 communities have shuttles.

Also there is grandparent UBER. Plus a grandpad and they can order their own Uber.

Crossing the street is very dangerous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want to move to a one level house in a lower cost area nearby DC and then use extra money to travel A LOT. When I'm old and can't drive anymore then will move to apt in the city

The last thing you want to be doing is making a big move when you are so old that you can't drive anymore.

My MIL is now going through this. The thought of moving now is very daunting for her.

You want to make that move before you get to that point.

The concept of not being able to drive but navigate crosswalks in the city is laughable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to move back to Manhattan or west side of LA.

Wow surprised to see so many more people here that want to retire in a city.... I thought I was the outlier!

I think it's so important to be able to walk places in retirement. Elders who live in the suburbs and are car-dependent are trapped once they're no longer able to drive.

Actually it’s really unsafe to walk everywhere when you are too old to drive. You will fall or get hit by a car.

Nah, many elders are just fine to walk, but can’t drive. What’s the alternative, sitting at home, quietly waiting for death?

You are wrong, But sure sit confident in your ignorance.

Over 55 communities have shuttles.

Also there is grandparent UBER. Plus a grandpad and they can order their own Uber.

Crossing the street is very dangerous.

Well, if you don't use it, you lose it. You gain mobility by being...mobile. I'm not waiting around for a shuttle because I'm no waiter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually really want to move to a retirement community where there are lots of planned activities. I read an article about that Margaritaville place and I’m ready to move there now! I’d love on-site golf, tennis, dining, etc. But we are only in our mid 30s with young kids so that won’t happen any time soon.

It's like a cruise that doesn't go anywhere.

DP.. IMO, that's fine. If I want a real cruise (I don't ) I can go on one.

The benefits of a 55+ community are that there are a lot of people who are not working whom you can do things with. If I pick up and move, I will have to make new friends, so a 55+ community is kind of a captive audience for that.

I also want to travel a lot for long stretches, and I like the idea of having my neighborhos who are home all the time keep an eye on my house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want to retire to a condo with an elevator in downtown Portland, Maine with an ocean view, walkable to shops & restaurants. DH wants to retire to a smallish SFH outside of Portland with some land. We’ll see who wins!

How much does a condo with an ocean view cost on Portland Maine?

Here's one for $1,495,000: https://www.redfin.com/ME/Portland/130-Morning-St-04101/unit-2B/home/170460283.

[Anonymous]

I want to have different phases of retirement. Since my wife is planning to retire a few years before I do, I would like to live in an older fixer-upper house during that time. She wants to get a dog, do some hiking and kayaking and such, and I want to renovate a house. I don't mind a longer commute--something on MARC or VRE would be good, and I figure by then teleworking a few days a week would be the norm. Ideally we'd keep our place in DC as well so we can stay over when renovations get too messy or if we want to see a baseball game or a play or I have an early meeting.

When we're both retired, I'd want to sell the now-renovated fixer-upper and our DC townhouse and move to a spacious condo in an elevator building in or near DC. The kind of place where we have a decent amount of room, but an accessible bathroom and no stairs in the unit, and there is a staffed front desk and ideally an indoor pool and gym and covered parking and the like. We would volunteer a lot, travel, I want to get a personal trainer and be in the senior olympics, that sort of thing.

If we got to a point that cooking, cleaning, and such got hard, I'd want to move to a continuing care community--not sure where. Probably depends where my nieces and other younger family members, and our friends, end up so there are people to keep an eye on us (we don't have kids).

[Anonymous]

DH and I will retire when he's mid-60s, me late-50s. I have no desire to move away right now. I like my community and look forward to getting involved in volunteering, spending more time with my friends, taking advantage of theater and museums in DC. I'd like to spend time on extended visits to other parts of the country (some places I just want to explore, others to spend time with family) via rentals but not interested in maintaining two houses. Picking up and starting over in a completely new place has zero appeal to me.

At some point, if our children do not settle in the DC area I expect we'll move to live near one of them. If they settle here, we'll eventually downsize from our SFH to a townhouse or condo.

[Anonymous]

My criteria so far (I am early 40s) are, somewhere:
- lower cost of living so my retirement funds can stretch more, - opportunities for active outdoor lifestyle, which I enjoy. And
- not too far from my kids (if that will be possible).

Can’t tell now where this magical place will be.

[Anonymous]

DH and I are planning to get a nice RV and tour the country. Ideally, we will do the "camp host" tour where you stay for a month and act as the welcome committee and help out other visitors. Then we will see where our kids land and figure out where we should live. We have tossed around the idea of having a small home/cottage in a few different places that we rent out on Air B&B near our grown children. This would give us a way to be near by but not need to stay with them. It would also mean that we could hop from place to place and visit each of our kids during the year. We have vowed that we will not make them come to us for holidays. Our plan is to host a family get together during a non holiday time (spring/summer/fall) where we will rent a big cabin with lots of bedrooms or a cluster of smaller cabins that we pay for, in the vacation spot that our family went to most years.

[Anonymous]

The DMV is pretty good as home base. Three airports, Amtrak. Pre covid especially we did a lot of <3 week trips. We were working up to an overseas stay like in the UK for 3 months. But this summer we had a trip away for 1+ month and it surprised us that we missed our home. And our home is nothing special. But it's where our comforts are, our stuff, the familiar, routines. Think we missed being rooted. So, I think the 2-3 week max works better for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been thinking about retirement (I'm 45, so still a long way off), and my husband wants to move somewhere nice for retiring. When I think about moving some place nice, I kind of cringe a little - it's like where you go to slowly die.

No matter my our financial statusI would love to be engaged with my community, friends, family. Be able to walk everywhere. Be able to give back to my neighborhood and community in some form or other. A community with all different ages and life stages.

Going to a retirement town seems like the opposite of that - joining up with other old people, spending a life of leisure, preparing to die... does everyone want this?

We have a winter home in an area with plenty of retirees but we live in a regular neighborhood and not in a gated or retirement community. I’ve gotten incredibly active in the community just as I did 25 years ago in our home town. We can walk to the beach and downtown and we’ve made a lot of good friends. We are all going to die someday but during the winter I can now be outside every day, work in my garden, watch the sunset and enjoy life.

[Anonymous]

Definitely want to stay in DC as home base. Sell the house in AU Park, buy a 2 BR condo downtown and another 2 BR condo in Rehoboth for the weekends, and we will all be set for a long time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want to retire to a condo with an elevator in downtown Portland, Maine with an ocean view, walkable to shops & restaurants. DH wants to retire to a smallish SFH outside of Portland with some land. We’ll see who wins!

How much does a condo with an ocean view cost on Portland Maine?

Here's one for $1,495,000: https://www.redfin.com/ME/Portland/130-Morning-St-04101/unit-2B/home/170460283.

link doesn’t work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right now, DH wants retire at 57. I won't be able to retire at the same time - I'm a little younger but I'll try to have a job that can be done from anywhere when he retires.

We want to stay in our home for the first x many years of retirement while spending half the year or so in different locales. Portugal, Thailand, whatever.

As we get older, we'll see if the kids are having kids. We'll pick a retirement community or something near-ish the kids so we can be grandparents but hopefully not overbearing. We'll still travel as desired, if comfortable with it.

Best laid plans, etc., etc.

So what is the age difference (how many years will you continue to work while he's retired)? I have about a 3 year gap and so trying to figure out a nice balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want to move to a one level house in a lower cost area nearby DC and then use extra money to travel A LOT. When I'm old and can't drive anymore then will move to apt in the city

The last thing you want to be doing is making a big move when you are so old that you can't drive anymore.

My MIL is now going through this. The thought of moving now is very daunting for her.

You want to make that move before you get to that point.

The concept of not being able to drive but navigate crosswalks in the city is laughable.

Really? my mom has mid-stage Alzheimer's and can't drive but can navigate an NYC crosswalk just fine. As she says "even with Alzheimer's I don't get lost in Manhattan because the streets are numbered!"

Obviously she has an aide because otherwise she would set fire to her apartment but when she and I go out walking, she can walk and navigate the streets just fine. If I am living on the upper west side in my 80s walking to Fairway and get killed crossing the street, I would consider that a life well lived!