Working on a retirement plan...7 years at most. I live in a very small town in the mountains of north Ga which has some of the best driving roads and most beautiful scenery in the country....we love it here.... but it is a good ways from the ocean and we “ need” saltwater in our lives.
Our solution is to spend April through November here and November through April on a sailboat. We want to hop around to see “ the world”. I have sailed the Bahamas down to the Turks and Caicos extensively. Want to see the southern Caribbean, Western Caribbean and Central America. From there, have the boat moved to Europe and see the Med. and perhaps the “Far East”.
We have also looked a canal boats to tour England and holland, you can pick one up for not a lot of money and sell it when your done.
Here’s the thing, nothing is permanent. Do something and if you don’t like where you are, try somewhere else. Ideas and emotions tie more people down than hopes and dreams will ever set free. Dream big and don’t be scared to make a change if it’s not right.

I want to go west to Sedona and my GF wants to go east to Hilton Head.. So looks like SC for me..

One thing I need to figure out is how remote from good health care do we want to be, and how ferry-dependent?

The other is, how isolated do we want to be? “We” being my wife and I. We may have different views about that.

Oh, and I just can’t stand humidity. Grew up in New Jersey, spent a good deal of time on the Eastern seaboard from New England to NJ, like a lot of places there but not in the summer.

Prescott is cool, if you like wearing cowboy boots and hanging out on whiskey row. It’s a little too much of a cowboy town for my taste though.

I looked in north Georgia (ellijay) a few years back. Prices were good and so were taxes. The unfortunate part is it is not near anything and at the time all the chicken farms had closed. The unemployment was bad and there were a lot of meth being made for income.
Next I looked in Tennessee. Next was Aiken, SC, New Mexico, Wisconsin. Who know's where I will land, but I just want out of NY

I get it, trust me: I sweat like a Redneck writing a love letter in the summer humidity...I hate it.

Both my kids will be staying on the East Coast. My daughter and her fiance live in Charleston and my son will be in Norfolk for the foreseeable future so getting my wife to commit to full time in the West is simply not going to happen.

That and I really want to be able to stay for at least two months in places I have been but never got to stay for more than a few days: Show Low, Crescent City, Kashmir, etc.

I have no desire for a second home so I don't plan to buy a retirement home until I retire. My wife on the other hand seems to think we should have multiple houses. I keep telling her we can rent a house anywhere in the world for any length of time and then rent one somewhere else. Why own a house you don't live in over 80% of the year?

You can get on/off Whidbey Island via car only and they have a hospital. The San Juan's not so much and the ferry system is getting more expensive and less reliable. You need to be legitimately well off to live in the San Juan's. My sister moved to Lopez Island in the San Juan's many years back and owns a grocery store there. Tech money has taken over since and housing prices have grown astronomically.

Wherever you move to. It's only as good as your neighbors.
Great neighbors make a Hell Hole tolerable.
Bad neighbor turn a great neighborhood into Hell.
We moved out of Los Angeles about 3 years ago.
We moved to Mariposa Calif.
I'm 20 min. from Yosemite, 30 min to Bass Lake great driving roads with no traffic.
2 hrs. to the Bay area & 4 hours to So. Cal.
Very active Porsche community in Fresno/Clovis.
I love it here.

I could live in Rotterdam

Ireland: Beautiful country, friendly people and I don't need to learn a new language.
Iceland: Same as above.

Settled in a CO mountain community...weather is perfect, hate heat and humidity. I would consider Tennessee (taxes, but not weather), but if I moved internationally, I'd look at Portugal (visas there a bit more flexible, weather is nice), or Ireland...as stated above.

I too like Colorado.

I like Sequim too but doesn’t have a real hospital so I’d say Port Angeles, WA.

I would take 90* and 90% humidity here in WI over the 118* and 30% humidity that we had when I lived in El Centro.

My wife says she can tell if I am still alive by checking if I am sweating.

181 days in Patagonia Argentina or Punta Arenas Chile and the rest back in FL

Plan is:
- Sell current CA house and use 1/2 to buy a manageable apartment in San Diego
- use difference to purchase a stone and wood beams country house in Provence, nowhere near the coast, where it's cheaper, in a nice village. Enjoy fresh croissants and good food 1/2 the year and use as jump off point to travel all across Europe. Fly back to the US for the other 1/2 of the time (winter likely).

Somedays, uncontrollable urge to go straight to part 2 and leave this rat race now while relatively healthy.

You already speak alcohol then eh?

Love that plan!

Love that plan!

Of course I do, I'm Irish, Polish and Russian.

Do it! Europe has so many different cultures, great food, stunning architecture in what is a small easily accessible and very safe part of the world

Could easily live in Costa Rica, beautiful country, could happily spend my days being a real silver surfer, eating cerviche, drinking ice cold Imperial and counting sloths :cool:

While living in Italy we found a place we liked so much that we bought a $cheap house with a $million view in a rustic 1000yr old farming village on the sunny side of a stunning Slovenian Alpine valley over looking a national park with a backdrop of 6000ft plus mountains

Haven't done it yet but I could have breakfast at my house in Slovenia. mid-morning Apfestrudel in Austria, pizza/pasta lunch in Italy and a seafood evening dinner overlooking the Adriatic sea in Croatia, all within an easy driving distance :cool:

Owning a our holiday home sounds an extravagant luxury but in reality ours costs less than owning/running a new car and we get so much more enjoyment than any new car purchase could give

When I retire I'd like to split my time between my mountain house and another small house in rural England when we're not travelling around the world staying in various places for a few months at a time to get a real flavour of each location

One concern I have when I retire and start staying for months in different parts of the world in a rental house is, what to I do? I'm a tinkerer so I need to be working on something. Do I just show up at some auto repair shop and volunteer? Offer to work on the house I'm paying to stay in?

^ you could buy a used car that has needs help, fix it and flip it. I do it when I run across the right project. More for fun and knowledge gain than money but it's kind of cool to make a few bucks off your hobby. Just make sure your rentals have a garage with good lighting

JYL - Me and my wife have been having a very similar discussion. We both grew up in the PNW in Washington, been living near PDX for 20+ years, but don't like the direct we see Oregon headed. We still have family in Washington and visit often, and it seems Washington politics is just as messed up as Oregon. That said, where else do you go?

Some towns in Washington we've considered: Pt. Townsend, Sequim, Cathlamet, Poulsbo, Toledo, Pullman...

Queensland Australia... "Beautiful one day, perfect the next!"

(9 hrs 30 mins flight time to Hawaii)

I spent a month in Townsville and would go back in a minute...in the winter.

Tell me more about the Baja place. Americans can only least the land or building and never own it? How safe is it? One of my friend is German and he owns a place right off the beach but not gated. He gets jump from the local gangs the past 4 times he was there. They smell him coming a mile away. Finally, he sold it two years ago and now lives in Toronto.

What the hell were you doing in El Central?

A good friend of ours is from Niland. She grew up there but can't wait to get the hell out of there. All her families are here in LA.

I have about 7-10 years to go, maybe sooner, who knows?

The thought of a retirement home had been on my mind for the past 10 years but decided to scrap that and do what you wanted, gypsy across the globe while we are still young but my wife isn't too keen on the idea. Live at one location for a couple months and come home. Simple live and meet new people and experience new cultures. I really like to try some of the Asian countries as well as eastern Europe and northern Spain.

Sounds like paradise. How much work is needed on that old house?

I will stay in CA. Possibly right where I am at in the East Bay Area. Every time I go visit possible retirement places, I find them lacking. My main concern is diversity. Mainly ethnicity, religion, socioeconomics, healthcare and age.

Ethinicity: I am an immigrant and I can't stand living somewhere where my origin is a subject, immediately after I open my mouth. People may just be curious but there often is also the "you aren't from around here, are you" aspect. I also need diversity so I can be with others that have an immigration background. Yes, this includes food options at restaurants.

Religion: Many cool places in the country are very religious. "What church do you go to" will be a question, and saying "none" or even "catholic" may make it hard for you to find new friends.

Socioeconomic: Some places that are out there have a steep gradient of wealth. The out of towners come for the weather, mountains, ocean etc., drive up the prices but the locals are all not that well off. You may have to live in a gated community to avoid getting cleaned out on a regular basis by the meth heads that live only a few miles down the road. At a minimum you'll feel like foreign object as soon as you leave your neighborhood or the fancy down town built with out of towner's money.

Healthcare: Some places can be surprisingly good, such as cities in the South, but moving out to the boonies may make getting decent treatment challenging. Leave alone emergency treatment. Here in my location, if you call 911 for a medical emergency it is about 3-5 minutes for the EMT to pull up.

Age: Typical retirement locations often attract loads of geezers. The last thing you want when you are old is surround yourself with a bunch of old people. It will age you in no time and will be super boring. It would be a nightmare for me to live on a golf course or lake and play golf or go fishing with a bunch of other geezers for the last 20 years of my life. I would like to live in a neighborhood with people that work, people with young kids etc.

IMHO many people move away for retirement from CA because they can cash in on a house and are looking for lower taxes. My goal is to just have enough dough to stay. Plus, if you stay in an area full of business opportunity, you can always make some money on the side. That also helps you age more gracefully IMHO.

G

You are funny, George but I agree with you to a certain extend. I think we even talked about that for a bit last time. Some old fogies are fine and are actual fun, most of them I found them to be dry, stuffy pain in the azz and like others to be just like them in order for them to get along.

I am staying right here in the greater LA area but like to buy a single floor house in the foothills somewhere in the San Gabriel Valley where the pace is a bit slower and quieter. Really like Sierra Marde, La Canada (A small house there is all I can afford), across to Glendora where sane people live. Family and many of my childhood friends are here and they don't seem to be going anywhere. I hear you on the foods. I can't live with just the typical steak and potato since I am spoiled my whole life with ethnic foods from around the world within 15-20 min drive away, the creative and variety of restaurants a large city offers.

Was built in the Yugoslavian Communist 70's from concrete and bricks. They sure did things right back there as all the plumbing is thick walled steel with welded joints :D

It's a tiny 3 bed house with a basement garage on a postage stamp sized plot so easy maintenance. Needs modernising ie new kitchen, bathroom, heating etc but I would love to add another floor on top with a full glass to ceiling gable end wall

So I can sit and stare at the view

I used to live in the San Gabriel Valley. It is a very nice place, Glendora Mountain Road, the national forest right behind it etc. You can still get to the ocean quick enough but lots closer to the mountains, lakes and desert. I have thought about moving back later in life because I still have a lot of friends there, thanks for that thought. It is cheaper than the Bay Area too and the climate is better, minus the smog.

Another possibility is the Sierra foothills or even the central valley, if you go to a college town like Davis.

Speaking of GMR - have we mentioned being close to some of the best driving roads but also road course tracks in the country? Laguna, Sears, Thunderhill etc.

The tap water in Davis is HORRIBLE.

I read about some of the valley's water being borderline unhealthy! Nothing a RO plant under the sink can't fix!? Davis is a bit hot for my tastes, but college towns are certainly a way to keep the percentage geezers in check. Plus, there is always a lot of biking. I'd like to live in a very bikeable town when I retire, so I can ride but also could work on bikes, help with bike non profit etc.

G

Like the reference to beaches......

Today:

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I use to ride my bike up GMR, Angeles Crest, or Big Tujunga to Mt Wilson once every couple weeks to train for bike races. Those are some of the best Porsche road around these parts and I know every inch of them very well. I have not been climbing them for as often as I like only because I hate hills.

I would love to get a 3/2 north of Sierra Marde Ave and Grand or a block or two north of the high school. Love it there, quiet and safe.

Its noice to be in the smaller towns or cities near the foothills of the Sierra for a month or two. After that, I would grow tire of having not too much to do. I grew up here in LA and would miss the big city life. I was not use to having everything close by 8-9 pm when I visit some of the places in ID or MT. If you miss that, you are eating at the local fast foot joint on the rode side.

Townsville is nice but humid. Did you get to Brisbane? I've often travelled there for work.

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