Where do you think is the best place to retire in the US? Not West Palm Beach or some such other place that only a tiny fraction of us can afford, but the city/area you believe provides the best bang for the buck in housing prices, other costs, quality of living, available health care, and, of course, driving the FCar. What are median housing/annual cost of living figures for your favorite(s)?
Retire? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA HAAHAHAHAAHA HAHAHAHAh HHAHAAHAHHAHAHAAAH breathe....breathe... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA HAAHAHAHAAHA HAHAHAHAh HHAHAAHAHHAHAHAAAH Let me show you my 401k.
My first choice is outside the US....New Zealand But if I were to stay in the US (assuming I do retire) I would want to go to somewhere in northern Cali but away from the city. Somewhere in the sticks.
uhhh... ok... you made me look at mine... which I have been avoiding for six months... now I'm depressed... thanks... Mike in Kuwait
The other suggestions are good... I've been to just about every state in this country, and for me, the most enjoyable places were Seattle, SoCal and New England. If I was going to retire and being near family wasn't an issue... maybe New Mexico, waaaaay out in the middle of nowhere. If I wanted the best of all worlds, probably northern Cali. Monterey or maybe a little bit south of it.
I want oceans or lakes. Summer in the Upper peninsula of Michigan. Lots of cheap lakeside property. A real lake. Winter either in Cuba, Costa Rica, or Baja. 2 berdroom grass hut OK. VW Thing. Electric would be nice; cold Beer, Scuba tank compressor, and Ferrarichat.
I already have my retirement place set up and paid for...... My lake house at Elephant Butte Lake, NM
Western Montana.... from Whitefish to Big Fork, Polson, or somewhere in the Paradise Valley. Distinct seasons within an overall moderate climate. Reasonable real estate prices. Lots of freedom and natural beauty to enjoy. Outside of the US, I think New Zealand would be a fantastic place to live.
Right here, where I have been spending several weekends with family members www.636bayview.com, but I have a minor problem: I don't have an extra $5.0M burning a hole in my wallet I leave kicking and screaming wondering what did I do wrong in life that this particular house (or one like it) is not mine.
My best friend is 72 and has been retired for seven years. He can't believe he had the time to work as many years as he did with all the things that are keeping him busy now! Yard work (lots of gardening), general house upkeep, summers choping five cords of wood, golf, fishing, family visits....yada-yada-yada.
You would have been able to retire 2 years ago if you had the insight to invest in my company, GRQ, LLC. Diet Water made myself and our investors a lot of money. You declined to invest in this venture. GRQ, LLC's only failed product was the Home Liposuction Kit...$75M spent on product development, lawsuits and failed USDA approvals...no pain, no gain. GRQ, LLC had a great product in the Snay Coil, a Magnetometric Fuel Atomic Ion Proton Alignment Kit that allowed for fuel economy increases if up to 65%, but Big Oil leaned on us a bit too hard (has anyone seen my wife?) so we had to cease production and sales, but not before we'd amassed $233M in net profit. I recall that GRQ, LLC approached you to be a spokesperson for our Home Vasectomy Kit (due to your knowledge of this subject), but you turned that down when you realized we would be selling baggies with surgical grade rubber bands on QVC. GRQ, LLC can't win all the battles. I'll give you a chance to invest in GRQ, LLC's latest product, The Nitro Station. On the back of nitrogen's popularity as a tire inflation gas that is spreading from racing application to the new fuel economy and green economy, The Nitro System is a Green Eco Friendly System that offers a substantially lower cost than the $10 per tire of 90+% nitrogen tire filling stations that are popping up all over So-Cal and New England. For only $4.99, The Nitro System will fill your tires with 78% Nitrogen which offers 99% of the benefits of 90+% nitrogen tire gas to 100% of all customers switching from 90+% nitrogen stations, at a 50% reduction of cost. The product development costs have been paid, and now I only need investors to fund the initial run of The Nitro Station. GRQ, LLC has 50% of the 100% costs in the bank. But wait, there's more! GRQ, LLC has developed an Investment Object Insurance Objective that is backed by the world's largest insurer and hedge fund. We've tranched the portfolio based upon the investor's individual risk exposure and desire for annual ROI. Our 3% ROI package is AAA rated but requires a higher initial investment. This seems counter intuitive, but bear in mind that our AAA rated tranches are automatically insured. GRQ, LLC offers investment tranches from AAA rating to B-. with a DD category for those that like to speculate on breast augmentation surgeries. The DD Tranch (also called the L'Amour Tranch on Wall Street) offers large, in your face returns with only a pocket full of Lincolns...but with extraordinary risk of loss of funds. There you go, Uro, pick your investment vehicle. The only downside to my investment vehicles is that they aren't Classiche Certified.
A good friend of mine retired at 65 and then enrolled at the local Uni to brush up on his math. He helped a lot of young folk therewho were struggling with math, and he loved every day of it. There was an older fellow who at 82 bought a house and a bit of land on the Kenai...the place was a bit of a wreck when he bought it, but he made it as new and better. He put in a dock and deck, repainted the house and landscaped the area to a tee. Every morning at 5:30, the old man would start the motor on his boat which burbled quietly in the still waters of the slough as he idled out of the canal and into the river proper; he'd vanish from eye and ear for a few minutes. Then his engine would echo an even hum that varied in pitch against the waves and the current as he bounced up river in slow motion, and it would fall silent as he dropped anchor and cut off spark. He'd fish there in that same spot for two hours, then he'd pull up anchor, vanish downstream a bit, and return, underpowered outboard moaning against the current until he cut the throttle as he slid into the slough...so he wouldn't wake his neighbors. I could...and did set my watch by this guy's daily patterns. What was odd about this old guy is that he had a crew of 10-15 people with him all the time, but he almost always went out fishing alone. The only person that would fish with him was his 5 or 6 year old great grand daughter. She'd bird's nest her line and he'd patiently fix it. Over and over. The other people were his daughters and sons. Et cetera. Not a single one went fishing with him or helped build a dock. Or repaint the house. He passed away some few years later, pushing 90. He had one lung since he was 74 and learned to deal with it. The house he rebuilt by himself sits empty and silent 10 months of the year. Sometimes a young lady comes along, maybe all of 18 years old, and she takes that little riverboat out and the motor moans and the hull slaps against the current until she drops anchor and she fishes there all day long. Sometimes she pulls to shore and casts her line, a slim young female curvy figure in river wet denim blue jeans and a ball cap, brownish blonde hair pony-tailed out the back of the cap, determined, unsuccessful at fishing but not wanting anything else. Two turns up, more fish than she can ever dream of. She'll learn that someday. The man that taught her how to fish was worth North of 200 million. How and where do you want to retire?
Retired for 4 years in mid-'04, became semi-retired mid-'08, plan to hold that status indefinitely and stay here. There are infinite places here in the USA I'd rather live than Dallas or Texas. But, this place certainly doesn't suck, for many reasons. I won't elaborate on them at length; on a personal level, most important: -cost of living is all-round low for major metro area -professional network and upside economy that supports it -my wife's doctors are here (25+ year neurological condition, rare) First two allow us to afford the $$$ insurance required to care for the third. Life's OK. I count my blessings often.
Hawaii is one of the best places in the world for Sr. care. With Hawaiian tradition that pays great respect, time and attention to the Elderly, it's a well sought after location to spend your Golden Years.
My, my... I must say I like the idea of the "economy" level of nitrogen in tires using 78% rather than 90%. Just an outstanding idea.
+78 Agree. That idea is golden, it is like "a breath of fresh air". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_atmosphere