Retirement/relocation destination?

My wife and I have talked a lot about moving to Northwest North Carolina (Wilks, Allegheny, Ashe & Surry counties) or Southwest Virginia (somewhere in the Galax to Floyd region).

But we live in Durham, which I love. I think I'd be happy staying here for the rest of my life as long as I can afford to live relatively comfortably, which I'm not sure I will be able to do. Every time I start seriously thinking about leaving, I get cold feet.

Also we're in our mid-40s and have had this conversation in the context of potentially making the move sooner rather than waiting for retirement. But then I get anxious about raising my kids in a place without much diversity and I sour on it a bit.

I will likely inherit a gorgeous house in Staunton, Virginia from my childless uncle who carefully restored it himself. That could alter plans or he could do something cool with it in his will and I don't have to worry about it.

If I somehow manage to outlive my wife - or she finally comes to her senses and leaves me - there's a decent chance I head to northern Michigan. I'm tired of the summers and have fond memories of the lakefront communities from my childhood.

 

Hey! I’m looking for a home in Staunton!

 

If money was no object, I'd go to San Diego.

 

Staunton is pretty sweet. Two people I met at different stages of my life were actually childhood neighbors on Dogwood Drive.

I also had a frat brother who lived in Waynesboro for a number of years and enjoyed that, although it's pretty small.

 

That's probably the biggest personal benefit we have. We're fifteen minutes from University Hospital at UAB, and all our healthcare revolves around that system. Would not be true for retirees moving here, if anything rural Alabama is losing hospital services because the Al GOP refuses expanded Medicare here.

 

I'm about 6 years away from having to cash out. My property tax bill is fast becoming the same as my mortgage. That will be paid off soon but the tax bill keeps climbing. Makes me sad because I don't want to move.

 

I doubt Vermont will be my spot having been there done that.

I want something different with very little to no snow.

 

I honestly don't see property taxes or insurance doing anything but rising no matter where you live. I don't have a solution for that. It's just a stark reality.
I also don't know when or how this ride ends for any of us, but I do know it ends. I just refuse to live my life in a hole worrying about what's beyond my control.

 

I think you’re referring to me with this one.

We put in offers on two places — one on Canandaigua and one on Lake Ontario — and got outbid for both. It’s a good thing, though, because my wife has since left her job and started grad school so money is tighter now than it was.

We’ll see what happens, but one great thing about the Finger Lakes region is that if you’re not RIGHT on the water, housing and land are actually pretty cheap. I mean, a house we looked at that was across the street from the Honeoye waterfront was half the price of a comparable house 200 feet closer.

 

There's a big difference in that 200 feet, though.

 

Beyond where I was born and where I plan to die, about the only other place I've lived that I'd consider is the South Carolina Low Country.

 

I have long considered this question, but truly don't know what to do, or where to go.

I'm in Southern California, but think, often, that I'd like to move someplace else at some point, just because I'd like to spend some time living somewhere else, seeing/experiencing someplace else, and just generally make some changes.

My condo is paid off, and if I sold now, or soon, I could make a killing on it, which is one reason I think about selling it, and going someplace else that, hopefully, would be cheaper. But then, when I really think about it, and even though I think I wouldn't mind cold and snow, etc. (believing that, well, if I were retired, I'd just stay in when the weather's bad), I wonder how much that would really be true, and how OK with it I would really be. Especially given that, if I had a choice, I've always said, I'd rather be a little hot than a little cold.

Climate-wise, and for general ease of everyday living, California really can't be beaten, and the reality is that, just because of those things, I could see myself staying exactly where I am forever, even though I think I'd like go elsewhere. Those factors are just so significant, especially as people get older, and it's not something you look in the face and really consider until you actually get serious and confront yourself with it.

I also sometimes think I'd like to live in a tiny house (and I am a minimalist type who could probably actually do that), and maybe move into a tiny-house community. But again, I get thinking about it, and go, "Well, if you'd do that, it'd probably be easier and overall nicer and better off to just live in a small standard-sized home -- which is what I've already got!" (My condo is 810 square feet, 2 beds, 1 bath, so not "tiny" in the way of a tiny house, though not large, but still, substantially more spacious than an actual tiny house).

I've even given some thought to living in another country, and have some places in mind -- Costa Rica (where one of my brothers moved three years ago), Belize, Portugal, Slovenia, or Italy, if I could find the right location. But those would be big, probably complicated moves, and I think I'd need to be certain of them before I acted.