If you were going to move would you consider an international move ever? If you were going to pick another spot in the good old USA where would you like to be? For me I could see Austin in my not too distant future. If our country goes hard left I would have to look at the options at that time but I am going to start the process next year. I would love to look at Panama. I have seen several clients and friends move over the years. The most popular places have been Costa Rica, Philippines, Equador and Brazil but I know a lot of Brazilians. i can't forget Monaco for those with a lot of cash. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Strongside:
I’ll have a house in either Austria or Belgium when I retire. I have an office in Belgium but frequent Austria...both great people, great food, great culture, and most importantly...great beer.
Similar to me. My wife is Austrian. Lived there 20 years ago. Should have never left. We plan on retiring between there and our beach condo.
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
I'm not interested in the tropics, other than Hawaii. Too hot. So no Brazil, Philippines, Caribbean, etc. Plus, all of the Caribbean islands I've been to have been rather dumpy in terms of infrastructure.
No place with lots of corruption.
No place in the eastern USA. I love the western landscape and culture. If I'm in America, I'll be in the west.
No place where the Americans have weird accents. Give me a prime-time television accent, please.
No third world countries where I get hassled on the street by people trying to sell me stuff. On my recent freighter journey, I was physically grabbed by people on the street in both Hong Kong and Vietnam, trying to stop me to give me their sales pitch. Any country where people do that can go to h-e-double-toothpicks.
I could live in a country where English isn't the main language, as long as it's widely spoken. I'm too old to learn a new language.
With those rules in place, here are my top ten places to live on this particular summer day, taking into account general cost of living.
1. Denver. Hey, I like it. It's ideal in a lot of respects.
2. A beach city in the LA area, e.g., Laguna Beach. Small-town living in a major metro area.
3. Juneau or Kodiak in Alaska. Just because it's gorgeous. My wife would veto this, but I would vote for it.
4. Paris, France. I'd deal with the language just to live there.
5. Some place in Utah or western Colorado near the cool parks and rocks.
6. The central coast of California, perhaps.
7. Hawaii, though I'd worry that I'd miss the seasons.
8. Maybe Santa Fe.
9. I'm running out of options. Sydney? Sydney's nice, but it's expensive.
10. Maybe Toronto or Quebec City?
I really liked Japan when I was there, but realistically I wouldn't live there. Cambodia was intriguing, because you could get services there and it was still cheap, but it was really hot. I could probably do London or Scotland.
Edit: ideally, I'd be a vagabond and move to different places for six months at a time. I could really enjoy that type of existence.
You forgot to add Kansas City to your list. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dirk digler:
I really would like to move to Colorado but I hate winter and I think Missouri winter is bad enough.
The winters in MO are worse. Spent the first 19 years of my life in northwest Mo and the last 25 in CO. MO's weather is worse all the way around. Hottest temp ever recorded in Denver, 105. Average about 2 days per year over 100. Winter you get snow in some places but it melts off, unlike MO where it falls in December and stays until April. [Reply]
Growing up in the military - then serving 22 years myself, I have lived in nearly every country. Wife and I try to get back to Scotland every other year or so. LOVE it there.
Although I was born in England (Lancashire) I could never live anywhere near London. Nope - ain't gonna happen.
I was stationed in Germany during the 70s and I actually loved it. I speak fairly fluent German (Thanks Grandad!) so I had no trouble assimilating quickly. I thought seriously about retiring from the Army and remaining in Heidelberg - but I decided to come back home.
Lived in nearly every state in the Union and we just finished out second home in Wyoming - but Kansas remains our "home town". [Reply]
I'd need about 4 places and the money to maintain them all. Marin County, Ca. for summer, Key West for winter, and a split between the KC area and the south of France for fall and spring. [Reply]
I've been doing a locational analysis of retirement locations, taking into account taxes, housing costs, and cost of living. If folks are interested, I'll post the results. I just finished it this week and looked at 80+ locations (nearly all in the USA, mostly in the west but with some other places like Florida.
Tax structure makes a big difference in retirement, depending on how you get your income. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
I've been doing a locational analysis of retirement locations, taking into account taxes, housing costs, and cost of living. If folks are interested, I'll post the results. I just finished it this week and looked at 80+ locations (nearly all in the USA, mostly in the west but with some other places like Florida.
Tax structure makes a big difference in retirement, depending on how you get your income.
Would love to see this, Rainman.
My wife and I both grew up in San Diego; perfect thru high school, but would never retire there.
If I could afford it, somewhere in the Bavarian Alps. I'm fairly fluent in German, people there are awesome, as are food, hefeweizen, and scenery. But not an option.
Current job keeps me here in Kansas, but we're considering western South Dakota or Wyoming once I retire. Low humidity, not brutally cold in winter, beautiful scenery, and great tax situation. [Reply]
If its domestic, I'm staying in rural KS. unzoned property, relatively cheap acreage, I can basically do whatever I want. I don't have the mountains or the ocean, but simply being able to build or do whatever I want easily offsets that.
If I'm moving internationally, I would try for Ascension Island. I looked into a few years back when going through my divorce. Its very remote, relatively unheard of, and stable. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Warrior5:
Would love to see this, Rainman.
My wife and I both grew up in San Diego; perfect thru high school, but would never retire there.
If I could afford it, somewhere in the Bavarian Alps. I'm fairly fluent in German, people there are awesome, as are food, hefeweizen, and scenery. But not an option.
Current job keeps me here in Kansas, but we're considering western South Dakota or Wyoming once I retire. Low humidity, not brutally cold in winter, beautiful scenery, and great tax situation.
Cool. I'm figuring out how to organize the cities now, and once I do that I'll start putting them up. I included a couple of places in western SD and in WY, and they stack up really well due to friendly tax structures. [Reply]
I'm basically too old to move now but if I could I would love to live in Ireland. Second choice would be Australia. My main worry is what happens to my retirement payments if I move out of country? If I moved stateside it would be Georgia (to be closer to my son - not sure he'd be thrilled :-) or Texas. Also it would have to be rural, not big city. I'm a redneck all the way. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tatorhog:
If its domestic, I'm staying in rural KS. unzoned property, relatively cheap acreage, I can basically do whatever I want. I don't have the mountains or the ocean, but simply being able to build or do whatever I want easily offsets that.
If I'm moving internationally, I would try for Ascension Island. I looked into a few years back when going through my divorce. Its very remote, relatively unheard of, and stable.
That's an unusual retirement destination, but it would be interesting.
I went to Easter Island for my 50th birthday, and I think I could live there. It's a small population, but with the tourist economy there were good restaurants, and the island is beautiful. There were some big roaches, but maybe you get used to those.
It's such a small island, as is Ascension, that I don't know if it would eventually make me feel boxed in, though. You can't do much of a road trip in those places. [Reply]
