where would you retire to and why?
 

Hi, we are in our forty's and looking for a nice place to retire within the next 10 yrs. where the weather is good and cost of living is reasonable! Where would you go. Tired of the cold weather in the northeast!

Go to Barnes and Noble and pick up Rand McNally's Retirement Places Rated (broken down by climate, culture, health care, etc). Or read thru the archives here. This question has been discussed several times.

I would like to retire to the land of lengthy cocktail hour; a land where there's no need for heating or air conditioning, and I eat what I catch and grow. Of course the way my investments are going I'll be a Wal- Mart greeter. Welcome, wal-martians!

The heck with good weather and cost of living, I want to live where there's plenty to do and a lot of interesting people! I like the island Manhattan! I wouldn't last a week in one of those Florida communities, where there's nothing to do all day but paint your toenails and lay golf.

Nowadays with indoor heating and AC, the significance of climate is overrated, IMHO. Limiting yourself to places with weather that's continually nice, or never too hot or too cold, really limits your options and eliminates some great places.

We'd pick some place in the mountains, where we could ski any day we wanted.

I'm with Abram. Retired@ 57 to beautifull Northwest Montana. Ski all winter, hike Glacier Park and play tennis all summer with a few trips in between.
Life is good!!!

This place does not exist with the exception of one's ultimate retirement destination.

DH and I are starting to consider potential retirement places. When the kid is off to college (in about 5 years) we plan on leaving Austin. Our current preference is the Pacfic Northwest. What he plan to do is visit each potential area for the next few years as our vacation. Next summer the plan is WA. - Bellingham, Bremerton, Olympia, Wenatchee, Vancouver...

John - Montana is SO beautiful. How about the snow? You spend much time in the winter shoveling or with the snow blower? One place that has caught my eye is Couer d'Alene Idaho.

Ted - looked on Amazon.com for that Rand McNally book and they don't list it. (The only one they have is for retiring in Fla). Google doesn't show anything either. You sure on the authors?

Alooohaaaa, We had been planning on staying/retiring in Calif, but with the current "situation" we may retire someplace where it's cheaper...like Kauai. 8-}

We feel just like you do about the weather & cost of living in the NE. We are seriously considering Phoenix, AZ. Visited in July (hottest time @115) and we will be going back in November to see how it is in the fall. We plan to retire in about 2-3 years. We love Las Vegas but have ruled it out due to the poor health care system, among other things.

My plan is to make Texas my official state of residence (no state income taxes, donchaknow) and then get a cozy little cottage or condo on one of Mexico's many, MANY great beaches. Hammocks and margaritas -- that's the life for me!!

Have fun!
Mark
www.tiogringo.com

I want one of those huge RV's and a PO Box. I wanna live here and there, and everywhere for the first 5 years or so after travelling everywhere a place should have jumped out. Currently first choice is Neskowin Oregon, mountains to the left ocean to the right. The idea of tsunami warnings bother me a little tho.

Arkansas Nurse, You said it :-) My parents & aunt do this exact thing....My aunt is a nurse and takes 3 month positions working in different areas of the country. My parents after a few years now keep returning to Vancouver/Victoria, Cody, Wyoming, and British Columbia and Canadian Rockies.

AUSTIN
The answer to your question is no. The mountains recv. ample snow but here in the valley we get very little; course it's all relative. I'm comparing to Maine and Minnesotta where I lived previously.
Been to all 50 states and chose this area to retire.

There is a great publication that comes out several times a year. I am not sure of the name. It is something like Places to Retire. Go to a bookstore with a good magazine section . It is an excellent and informative magazine.

I'd be interested in learning more from the folks who mentioned living from a P.O. Box (things like how does your vehicle get inspected/registered each year, health insurance, mail pick-up, etc., etc.) Does anyone know of a website similar to Fodor's that deals with these things?
Thanks!

Retirement Places Rated: All You Need to Plan Your Retirement
by Richard Boyer, David Savageau, Rick Boyer; Rand McNally & Company; (August, 1987)

Retirement Places Rated
by David Savageau; John Wiley & Sons; (03 May, 1999)

Retirement Places Rated: All You Need to Know to Plan Your Retirement or Select Your Second Home
by David Savageau; Hungry Minds, Inc; (November, 1990)

Try these on Amazon.

There's this one too:

Places Rated Retirement Guide: Finding the Best Places in America for Retirement Living
by Richard Boyer, David Savageau, Rick Boyer; Rand McNally & Company; (December, 1983)


The one published in 1999, in the previous post, seems to be the most recent. There are probably lots of other books on retiring and places to retire, if you do a search on Google.

See also:

http://www.wheretoretire.com/

http://money.cnn.com/best/bpretire/

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...ce&s=books

http://houseandhome.msn.com/move/bes...toretire0.aspx

http://homebuying.about.com/cs/bestretire/index.htm



These are just a few sites I found on Google.

sshhhhh!!!!!

It's a secret! Otherwise all those that go before me could turn it into a tourist trap age home!!!!

ssshhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

To EastEileen.

Try http://www.coastresorts.com/forums/index.cfm or www.rv.net.

Millie: Look up the web site www.findyourspot.com. This site has a very detailed & specific set of questions about your likes/dislikes, weather, culture, education, medical, religion, jobs, real estate, taxes, you name it. Answer the questions as honestly & accurately as you possibly can. The results will be a listing of towns in the United States where you would be the most likely to want to retire in. It's not a perfect system but I found it helped me a lot.

Durango, Colorado and South Texas. My husband and I each went to high school in Brownsville, and we now live in Durango. Our families still live in Texas.

We'll stay in Durango from April to October each year, and somewhere in South Texas the remainder of the year. I love the mountains, and enjoy the warm winters in South Texas. I want to have a 4WD pickup with a camper to do some good travelling using these 2 locations as bases.

The first year my husband and I were married, we met an older couple in a national park. They had retired and were living out of an RV. They traveled around the USA, helping out in places that had experienced disasters. When they started getting burned out, they went to a national park for a couple of weeks to regroup, then headed off to the next place where they could do some good. My husband and I looked at each other, and decided that's what we wanted to do sometime. So, I guess we'll include that idea as well. I'd rather take a pickup than an RV so that I didn't use up so much energy getting from place to place. We're great at traveling light.

Three potentials:
1. Olympic Peninsula, WA State. Either Port Townsend or Sequim. Great climate (esp. in Sequim), nice people, reasonable house prices (Sequim is cheaper than PT), lots to do, beautiful scenery, also no state income tax (so far).
2. Whistler, Canada. Only if budget allows (i.e., win the lottery)
3. Europe. Not so far-fetched because we live in Europe now, will be living here for several more years at least. In Europe, either Cumbria (northern England), the Loire Valley (Provence is just TOO hot and my husband has already picked out "our" apartment in the town of Angers) or Normandy (lots of Brits to keep us Canadian/Americans company).

I've also thought of this but when I wonder of choosing a place to restart my life - I also wonder what will I do with the life I've been enjoying these many years.

We have our family, children, and now grandchildren (another due next month) and friends that we've made and kept these many years. I can't leave this and start over in a more reasonably priced setting. We may look for 55+ housing where they care for the yards etc and continue to see our family and friends right here.

I would love to travel more and we probably will do just that when we sell the old homestead.

As for living out of a PO Box, you have a friend or relative let ylu use their address as your home base. I hve a friend who does the 3 month assignment nurse thing. her home is in the West and she uses Dada's address, she is 50ish! I envie her but my turn is coming. Direct deposit of the $ into a bank account and using a debit card is how you would access your $, pay CC bills etc. Ahh the life.

Wanted to mention the down side, every state you work in that has a state income tax, you must file at the end of the year,that can be a drag!!

1.Edgar Town Martha's Vineyard, Mass. fro me the perfect spot for retirement .

2. Arizona where my husband thinks he's going .

3. Cannes where we actually have an apartment.