What do you like about where you live?

[NIGHTHAWK]

In thinking about retirement and where I’d like to spend the majority of my time when I don’t have to work for others. Many states/areas come to mind. So, I’d thought I’d ask you the same question.

1. What do you like about where you live?
2. Where will you retire? Why?

I make a living working here (Ca) with my day job. I’m from here (native born and raised). I will likely keep a place here due to family and personal business obligations, but I won’t need to be here full time.

I love California for a lot of reasons:
1. Weather
2. Beauty and diversity of scenery. Mountains, ocean, bays, rivers, lakes, desert, microclimates in Northern Ca, perfect year round weather in San Diego, snow skiing in the Sierras, Lake Tahoe, etc…
3. All different types of fishing.
4. Bird and game hunting.
5. Culture - Not too important to me.
6. Lot of Family and friends here.
7. Personal history and memories of growing up in a small town 25 minutes from SF or Napa Valley…

Don’t like:
1. Expensive to retire here in general.
2. Politics.
3. Homelessness and the impact to daily life.
4. Anti hunting & anti fishing.
5. Gun control laws.
6. Housing costs.
7. Taxes are high.
8. Crime.
9. Environmental movement and their impact.
10. Traffic.

California Is just not the same place I grew up in… I’ve had a residence and business in Reno/Sparks since 2002 and like it there for many reasons, but it’s starting to change. It feels and looks more like Ca. That is likely due to the influence of people leaving Ca and coming to NV! Now I’m starting to look further. Looking for more space, friendlier people, more conservative politics or just less political influence, sportsman friendly, cleaner and more peaceful living. And, retirement friendly!

Thanks in advance…

 

[gillettehunter]

I'm in WY. I lived for 6 months in Ca and it has its good points. I've also lived in Iowa, Mt, Tx plus I've spent 3 months working in La as well as FL. I was raised in ID and have lived here for 37 yrs so I'm biased.
Good hunting. I'll take the blizzards over the tornadoes/hurricanes any day. No state income tax. Modest property taxes. Reasonable fishing. Plenty of places to shoot a gun. I like the people here. Biggest reason I'm still here is that my family is here.....
Bruce

 

[Tgood1]

In wv, def planning on staying once I retire. The list of reasons I love it here would cause irreparable damage to my fingers if I tried to type them all

 

[BourbonTrail]

I’ve lived in 9 states, and there are more things that I dislike than like in all of them. As for here, there’s good bourbon, and my wife likes it. It’s also familiar as my family has been here for 200 years.

Otherwise, I would move to Namibia or something like that. I’m not a fan of other people, so low population is my preference.

 

[mdwest]

Both my wife and I have moved around a bit over the years.. we were both raised in the South East (Tennessee).. I spent time in a variety of places via the army.. then lived in Northern VA / DC for a while.. then back to TN (the other side of the state).. and we've now been in North TX for the last 10 years or so..

What I like about DFW is also what I dislike in many ways...

Its a huge city.. with everything you could possibly want/need from a city.. theres always something going on, somewhere to go, something to do, etc.. and tons of options... want to go out to eat? pick a type of food, and then pick from 20 different places all within a 10 mile drive of you... want to listen to live music? pick a genre, and then pick from 20 places within a 10 miles drive.. etc..etc..

theres also lots and lots of work opportunities (very secure job market), lots of social opportunities (if you cant find a friend or two to spend time with in a city with 7.5M people.. the problem is probably you lol)... lots of faith options (wasnt hard finding a church here that we really liked for example..)...

and its TX.. so as a rule people are friendly, gun laws are not insane, its reasonably affordable, etc...

but... its a huge city.. that brings all of the problems that all huge cities have... traffic is horrible.. crime can be very bad in certain areas.. I dont find large cities very "pretty".. in fact parts of it are downright ugly, dirty, and poorly maintained.. while you have a hundred options for anything you might want to do.. sometimes lots of options are a bad thing.. it certainly doesnt make things "simple" or easy..

and while lots of people creates lots of social and work opportunity.. it also creates lots of hustle, bustle, and chaos..

TX is also not the tax haven a lot of people think it is.... while its true there is no state income tax.. sales tax is on the high side.. and property tax in the urban areas is absolutely out of control.. wheel taxes are higher than most other states.. etc..etc.. TX definitely gets its money out of you...

While it is "hunter friendly" in many ways (disabled vets get free hunting licenses.. we dont have silly cartridge restrictions like "straight walled only" or "shotgun only", etc.. and there is a wide variety of game here.. its actually hunter unfriendly in many ways... there is almost no public land at all in the state and hunting is a big "business" here... youre going to pay a small fortune for a lease or access to private land if you are not a land owner yourself.. or youre going to pay fairly large sums for a guide/outfitter to hunt on private property..


We're (wife and I) now starting to look at what retirement is going to look like... we're empty nesters now.. and while she still works in an office setting, I've been working from an office in my home for the last 16+ years... we're looking at properties in several different areas.. but are primarily considering western AR, northern TX, eastern OK (where those 3 states all intersect).. and are also looking at some options in the Western US (but Im not convinced the cold winters wont get them eliminated from consideration)...

Our primary requirements are:

Affordable acreage.. that isnt "scrub" land... our intent is to buy +/- 100 acres... somewhere like the TX hill country where land can easily be over $10K an acre really isnt in our price range..

Low property tax rates (with 100 acres and a house and some additional buildings on the property, etc.. we dont want to get killed each year when the tax bill comes due..

We want to be rural.. but not out in the middle of nowhere.. in short, I dont want to see or hear another human if I dont make an intentional effort to do so... but at the same time I dont want to have to drive 45 minutes to get a gallon of milk or have to go 65 miles to get to a doctors office or a hospital or a dentist if I need one.. we dont plan on going "out" regularly.. but having shopping options, dining options, etc within a reasonable driving distance is important (we dont need a Macy's or Nordstrom 2 miles away.. but at least having access to a walmart without burning a half tank of gas would be nice)...

Since we'll both still be working.. and my work in particular requires a bit of travel.. we're going to need to be within reasonable distance (an hour?) of at least a national airport...

hunting/fishing/gun friendly is important... we wont consider anywhere thats going to make those sort of activities difficult..

Weather is a consideration... but only in the interest of avoiding extreme weather.. we'd like 4 seasons.. anywhere that is under snow 6 months out of the year.. or is blistering hot 6 months out of the year.. or gets an outrageous amount of rainfall.. etc.. is out of the question.. but if the area is known to be a little on the hot side, or cold side, or humid side, etc.. its not really a big deal..

 

[BJH65]

In thinking about retirement and where I’d like to spend the majority of my time when I don’t have to work for others. Many states/areas come to mind. So, I’d thought I’d ask you the same question.

1. What do you like about where you live?
2. Where will you retire? Why?

I make a living working here (Ca) with my day job. I’m from here (native born and raised). I will likely keep a place here due to family and personal business obligations, but I won’t need to be here full time.

I love California for a lot of reasons:
1. Weather
2. Beauty and diversity of scenery. Mountains, ocean, bays, rivers, lakes, desert, microclimates in Northern Ca, perfect year round weather in San Diego, snow skiing in the Sierras, Lake Tahoe, etc…
3. All different types of fishing.
4. Bird and game hunting.
5. Culture - Not too important to me.
6. Lot of Family and friends here.
7. Personal history and memories of growing up in a small town 25 minutes from SF or Napa Valley…

Don’t like:
1. Expensive to retire here in general.
2. Politics.
3. Homelessness and the impact to daily life.
4. Anti hunting & anti fishing.
5. Gun control laws.
6. Housing costs.
7. Taxes are high.
8. Crime.
9. Environmental movement and their impact.
10. Traffic.

California Is just not the same place I grew up in… I’ve had a residence and business in Reno/Sparks since 2002 and like it there for many reasons, but it’s starting to change. It feels and looks more like Ca. That is likely due to the influence of people leaving Ca and coming to NV! Now I’m starting to look further. Looking for more space, friendlier people, more conservative politics or just less political influence, sportsman friendly, cleaner and more peaceful living. And, retirement friendly!

Thanks in advance…

I spent my life and career in California minus my time in the military. We retired to the foothills of Northern California, a little town called Pilot Hill, and I very much enjoyed living on our property and maintaining it. Yet I had enough. Perhaps it was my previous career and my moral compass, or my old neighbor Bob, a retired Air Force Chief Master Sgt and B52 gunner who flew missions in Vietnam and later spent a second career with Lockheed. He told me if he was my age he’d move in a heartbeat. So we moved to North Western Montana.

I loved every minute of living in Montana. Made some great friends and our 30 acre place along the Clark Fork River that backed up to national forest was breathtakingly beautiful. In general, native Montanan’s HATE Californians (perhaps for good reason) yet once I got to know them I was accepted and became good friends with them, sharing the same values, background and hobbies. After four wonderful years living in Montana, for family reasons we sold our place and relocated to south central Oklahoma to help care for my in laws. As long as I have property to shoot and hunt on, I can live most anywhere!

I guess what I’m leading up to, is wherever you relocate to, you will make concessions. There really is no place like California. Weather concessions like the cold, ice and snow of Montana. The sometimes erratic weather of Oklahoma, hot, sometimes humid summers. Only you can decide if it’s worth it. To me it was. I would change nothing.

My sister and her family relocated from the Bay Area to Carson City, Nevada and they really enjoy living there although they still have a place in San Mateo, they are Nevada residents now, but still spend part of the time in San Mateo. My brother and his family have lived in the OKC region for many years, running his businesses, and he very much likes this region and state.

Good luck wherever you decide to go.

Brendon

 

[baxterb]

I’m in Idaho and like the proximity to a lot my favorite activities. The people are generally nice and I am lucky to have gotten a house before it went completely nuts.

Things I don’t like:

The sheer number of people moving here is largely ruining what used to be a slower pace of life. There is no ‘pole pole’ here anymore.

The over-densifying of housing is just adding to the issue. They are trying to keep up with demand but filling former fields with condos and quadplexes. We are being inundated with the same old chain restaurants and stores and our former personality is being largely homogenized with every other developer-dream city. It has become The Tragedy of the Commons. The reason it won’t stop is comparatively speaking, this place is still quaint compared to where folks come from.

I have met and like plenty of Californians but there is indeed a type that comes here and loves nothing more than to a) tell you they are from California and b) tell you how much they preferred X Y or Z back in California. This is not a joke. People from Texas, Washington, etc who move here seem to never have this quirk. They just move here, assimilate, and go on with their lives.

I told my wife the other day I now understand the older guys I knew as a kid who wanted keep moving away from the encroaching masses to find some peace and quiet.

Not sure we will retire here. But not sure where we would go either.