What do you like about where you live?

[WAB]

Grew up on a farm in Ontario and won’t go back. The Ontario I grew up in is gone.

Retired in Alabama.

Positives:
Low cost of living
Birmingham is a foodie paradise
Our farm is stunning:
Great bass pond
100 yards from my reloading bench to my shooting bench
Steel at 100,200,300,600 and soon 800
Great deer, turkey, quail and dove hunting out the back door.
2 hours to the Atlanta airport

Negatives
Summer
Summer
Summer

 

[schwerpunkt88]

Florida...the hurricanes! Definitely..

 

[Fatback]

I live in South Georgia. Been here since I was 10 years old, so 41 years. I’ll probably stay here after I retire. Some of the positives are we live in a still relatively rural area. I own some land that I can hunt, fish, trap, shoot on however I like. We have very liberal hunting seasons and have good deer, turkey, small game and bird hunting. The freshwater fishing for largemouth bass, catfish and panfish can be world class. We are only a couple of hours from the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico for saltwater fishing and beach time. Cost of living is pretty reasonable. Taxes are not crippling like what I hear about in some other areas of the country. Most everybody in my part of the state is still relatively conservative and we mostly share similar beliefs about God, family, work ethic, etc…. Still have good, second amendment supporting firearms laws.

The negatives include a lot of the more liberal folks who have migrated to this part of the world after destroying where they are from, especially a lot of the folks in Atlanta. The summers here can be long and miserably hot and humid. Lots of things want to bite or sting you when you’re out in the woods traipsing about. Until the last couple of years I wouldn’t have said this but the last couple of years we have really been impacted by hurricanes, which sucks.

Overall, the positives outweigh the negatives and the fact this is where my wife and children want to be also plays a big part in me staying in this area. However, if it were just me, I would find a way to spend the falls up in Alberta, the summers down in Africa and the best spring months when the turkeys are gobbling and the fish are biting here in South Georgia.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

I’ve live in three different houses in my life.(27 years) All out in the country in pike county Illinois. My current house is two miles from the one I moved out of, and the first one is in between those two.
I have good neighbors, meaning anyone within 3 miles or so. Most of us are farmers and would do anything to help one another out.
There is lots of opportunities for a man like me here. I could get a job doing most anything around here. Some people would have a hard time finding something in their field. Farming is the major industry and I love it that way.
Pittsfield, the county seat, has 4500 people living there. That is about perfect for me, as if has a Walmart, farm store, and a grocery store. It’s about a 10 minute drive from home. The nearest big town with Home Depot’s and chain restaurants is Jacksonville, a 40 minute drive. Springfield IL is one hour and St. Louis is two.
The hunting is good, but hard to find land to do it on as out of state deer hunters have most of it leased.
I love living in the country, there’s just nothing like pissing off the porch.

 

[Doug Hamilton]

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 was born in Northern California (Napa) and lived there until I was 40. Job issues forced a move to Washington (aka California North, yuck). Plan was to.move to Idaho when I retired (5 years ago). So why am.I still in Washington? Daughter and grandkids are here. Wife says she isn't going where they aren't. Yes, I heard the trap snap shut!

 

[SFRanger7GP]

We live in 2 of the best places in the world.
Wichita Falls TX is the Little Town that refuses to grow. It has had about 100,000 people for over 85 years. Pros: It’s Texas. The town has everything you need to include most the major big box stores. Great hunting for deer, hogs, turkey, waterfowl, varmints and sandhill crane. Cons: If you want to hunt, you need to get a lease or get a friend that has one. There is no fine dining but we have great diners, BBQ, Tex Mex and real Mexican food and Fort Worth is only 100 miles away. Heat: It get’s a bit warm in the summer.

Which brings me to our other town, Apia Colombia. It is 70’s in the day and 50’s in the night year around. It’s a coffee town so the entire economy depends on it. Very low crime, the cantinas seldom close and the cost of living is low. Pros: It’s a coffee town in Colombia and the others pros are listed above. Beautiful mountains and wonderful people. Cons: It’s a small town in Colombia and the big city is 1.5 hours away. Colombia can be challenging at times and most foreigners cannot adapt. If you don’t speak Spanish it will be even more of a challenge. Biggest con: no hunting and gun ownership is limited. Having said all that, we love it there and I call it my Fortress of Solitude.

Good luck and safe travels.

 

[Rimbaud]

Something else to consider, and discuss with your financial advisor (s), is how much money you can draw each year from brokerage. A lot of people are surprised to learn that they can only take 4%, or 3% (% often depends on who is giving advice) of whatever it is they have saved/invested. If you take more than that %, you trigger a depletion schedule in your account. I only mention that in hopes it helps some think through the expense side of where they want to live. Many people have been lucky that the markets have advanced so much, but the gains have been historically unusual. Strong stock market helped my in-laws who lived into their 90s maintain a reasonable quality of life. Their life style was diminished as they aged, but they lived a long time. We’re in NY, out on eastern Long Island, on the water. Beautiful here. High quality of life, but we deal with high taxes forced on us by incompetent government. Everything is at our fingertips, but I’ve yet to find a great place to shoot. Still head down South, where I grew up, for deer season, and boar, and travel to hunt. In time, and I’m not near retirement age, we will need a place in the country where I can have a place to shoot, hang all my trophies in a big study, hike, hunt, and not be unduly taxed by corrupt ideologues who have no respect for people’s rights. Always enjoy hearing what everyone is doing as it helps to calibrate my own thinking.

 

[CZDiesel]

I love where I live and the best thing is seeing God look down on you in Pikes Peak! Every day just driving or walking or whatever that peak is dominate and beautiful!,,
Colorado Springs is a beautiful and gorgeous city that was very affordable with all the amenities and not much traffic until recently…
All do California has decided to move here in the last three years and now prices and traffic have gone through the roof! We’ve had over 250,000 relocate here in just several years! I hate it! But I guess we are still much better off than most places?

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

I love where I live and the best thing is seeing God look down on you in Pikes Peak! Every day just driving or walking or whatever that peak is dominate and beautiful!,,
Colorado Springs is a beautiful and gorgeous city that was very affordable with all the amenities and not much traffic until recently…
All do California has decided to move here in the last three years and now prices and traffic have gone through the roof! We’ve had over 250,000 relocate here in just several years! I hate it! But I guess we are still much better off than most places?

I had a friend I went to grade school with relocate to Colorado Springs for a career opportunity. 20 years ago I went and visited him. Beautiful city! I took my rental car as fast as I could drive it, to as far as I could go, up Pikes Peak! I’m certain it was a front wheel drive sedan… I should have rented the Mustang!

 

[CoElkHunter]

I’m on the Colorado front range - just west of Denver.
I’ve been here my entire life - 51yrs now, and my family has been here in the same area since 1904.
Virtually everything I loved about Colorado has been diminished over the years.

Too many people here now. Traffic is awful. The mountains are crowded. Politically CO is way blue now.
There is unabated building which burdens the infrastructure and water supply.
Big cities have a very large homeless population and our cities and highways are littered with trash. It’s actually quite embarrassing how filthy the roads and downtown are.
We have a huge problem with uninsured drivers and road rage.
All this and housing prices are out of control - among the most expensive in the entire country.

Sure, we have four seasons. Well, at least we have a couple weeks of Spring before it gets hotter than hell and we have a couple weeks of fall before its cold for a few months again.
We can have a 70deg day any day of the year but it can also snow in early June and again in late September.
I do like that we don’t have hurricanes or much flooding. We get big snows on occasion but they are few and melt pretty fast usually.
We do have bad hail storms here which do a lot of damage.

I have no idea where I will retire to but family won’t be tying me down here as my own kids are trying to figure out what state will be best for them to move to since they wont be able to buy in this market as we were when we were young.

+1. I moved to Colorado from Californicate in 1989 to escape almost everything THERE. Now, everything and everyone from THERE is now HERE. They’ve absolutely destroyed the fabric of what once was a great place to live and raise a family. It’s become a left wing Marxist nightmare! If you want to destroy your state, create THOUSANDS of tech jobs like former Governor Hickenlooper did here and bring in THOUSANDS of the left wing locusts from the West Coast to fill those jobs and watch your state become a left wing “sanctuary” shithole for those escaping what they destroyed through their voting in the states they fled and have continued to vote the same way and have absolutely destroyed the quality of life here in Colorado.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

What I like about Phoenix:

Not a damn thing anymore. My attitude perhaps made worse in that we're still well over 100 degrees in the first week of October. I know we had a run of 14 straight days with record daily highs as of this weekend. Hopefully it's over.

What I like about Arizona:

A lot actually. If you can draw an elk tag here, it is typically a damn good hunt. Lots of pretty places on the Mogollon rim but it's getting too crowded. And every weekend in the summer the Phoenicians invade the high country.

So it will be back to Idaho for us in hopefully the not too distant future. Specifically Pocatello which I'm going to guess is not where @baxterb calls home in Idaho. By his description I'm guessing he's in the Boise area.

Pocatello has its share of new comers and technically I'm an outsider who lived there for 9 years, left and is now going back and I guess still as an outsider. But then I didn't try to change Pocatello, I did my best in fact to adapt to the small city life (approx. 60K people) because that is what I wanted. I really don't care if people drive 35mph in a 35mph zone, I prefer the slower pace while in town. I prefer polite drivers. I like that when I pull into a Circle K in January at 0 dark thirty in the morning I can leave my truck running while I go into get a cup of coffee. I like the fact that if I get up in the morning and realize I left the front door unlocked or even open, I don't really get that bothered by it.

Fly fishing for trout in southeast Idaho is amongst the best in the world and I consider it my duty to educate trout with my self tied PMDs. They gulp down my fly, give me a minute or two of fun trying to get away, I gently handle them and pull the fly out, give them a stern warning that it could be curtains for them if it weren't for me being a catch/release guy and put them back in the water.

This time around however there'll be a new activity of riding the Harley to see the Sawtooths, ride down through the Lemhi valley, perhaps up through the pan handle or wherever the bike happens to be pointed

Yah you could say I love Idaho. When we left I was only 34 and would don shorts and a t-shirt in the spring time when the temperature was already all the way up to 45 degrees in the morning. Now at almost 57, I'm not sure I can handle the cold as I once did. We shall see.

If not, well that's why places like Gulf Shores, Alabama exists. Warm gulf waters, beach, some fishing out on the salt and perhaps popping in to folks like @WAB and I think it's @Hyde Hunter that calls AL home.

 

[gbflyer]

Southeast Alaska. Small town, no property tax, cheap land, clean air, good fishing, hunting opportunities are many, nice people, plenty of work for those who aren’t opposed to a dirty job.

Too many libtards, too much National Park land, it rains 100” a year, not much eating out, expensive fuel and electricity, homes cost more to build than their worth, 20 miles of road to nowhere.

 

[Scott CWO]

Despite the relatively new political situation, parts of Colorado are hard to beat. I’m in Livermore, about 20 minutes NW of Fort Collins and 40 minutes south of Laramie. Fort Collins is a clean small city and has everything you might need from a city and college town and the Denver airport is 80 minutes away. There are flights to Laramie and Fort Collins as well from Denver if you don’t mind an extra flight and layover in Denver. We usually just drive to Denver when we fly.

State income tax is a fixed 4.6% and property taxes are lower than most states.

There’s fantastic fishing in the North Park area 90 minutes away and average fishing much closer. Within minutes you can see and hunt deer, elk, pronghorn, moose, mountain lions and bighorn sheep if you draw a license. Within a couple hours you can see and hunt mountain goats. You can hunt deer on the Eastern Plains if you develop a relationship with a rancher or hunt deer on public lands in the foothills and mountains. Wyoming is close and there’s good fishing and hunting within one to three hours of me in WY.

Weather around Fort Collins is moderate with fairly easy winters and the snow that does fall melts pretty fast due to mostly sunny weather. We don’t get nearly as much snow here on the eastern side of the Continental Divide as the western side of the CD and that’s why most ski resorts are west of the CD. We can get a couple weeks of very cold weather each winter and a couple weeks of very hot weather in the summer but it’s usually much more comfortable weather. Laramie and Cheyenne are quite windy, especially in the spring, so I wouldn’t want to live any farther north than Livermore because every mile further north gets more windy.

I’ve sold a few 35 acre parcels of my land but probably won’t sell any more. My neighbor has 40 acres for sale for $400k that adjoins Hwy 287. It’s a nice piece with good grass and a few good building sites for a house and barn/shop. There’s an electric power line to tap into for power. You would have to drill a well for water. We would welcome a conservative voter for neighbors.

 

[Sabre]

From all my travels my first pick would have been Colorado if it hadn't gotten so far left in politics and so popular (crowded).

If I was looking for a place to retire and my goal was to hunt as much as I could, I would look for a western state similar to western Colorado scenery with a large variety of big game animals to hunt and a lot of public land to hunt it on where tags weren't impossible to get.

I like a lot of midwest states for their deer hunting. However, it would be ideal to be able to deer hunt, elk hunt, and pronghorn hunt every year and get some other big game species tags every once in a while as well.

 

[baxterb]

What I like about Phoenix:

Not a damn thing anymore. My attitude perhaps made worse in that we're still well over 100 degrees in the first week of October. I know we had a run of 14 straight days with record daily highs as of this weekend. Hopefully it's over.

What I like about Arizona:

A lot actually. If you can draw an elk tag here, it is typically a damn good hunt. Lots of pretty places on the Mogollon rim but it's getting too crowded. And every weekend in the summer the Phoenicians invade the high country.

So it will be back to Idaho for us in hopefully the not too distant future. Specifically Pocatello which I'm going to guess is not where @baxterb calls home in Idaho. By his description I'm guessing he's in the Boise area.

Pocatello has its share of new comers and technically I'm an outsider who lived there for 9 years, left and is now going back and I guess still as an outsider. But then I didn't try to change Pocatello, I did my best in fact to adapt to the small city life (approx. 60K people) because that is what I wanted. I really don't care if people drive 35mph in a 35mph zone, I prefer the slower pace while in town. I prefer polite drivers. I like that when I pull into a Circle K in January at 0 dark thirty in the morning I can leave my truck running while I go into get a cup of coffee. I like the fact that if I get up in the morning and realize I left the front door unlocked or even open, I don't really get that bothered by it.

Fly fishing for trout in southeast Idaho is amongst the best in the world and I consider it my duty to educate trout with my self tied PMDs. They gulp down my fly, give me a minute or two of fun trying to get away, I gently handle them and pull the fly out, give them a stern warning that it could be curtains for them if it weren't for me being a catch/release guy and put them back in the water.

This time around however there'll be a new activity of riding the Harley to see the Sawtooths, ride down through the Lemhi valley, perhaps up through the pan handle or wherever the bike happens to be pointed

Yah you could say I love Idaho. When we left I was only 34 and would don shorts and a t-shirt in the spring time when the temperature was already all the way up to 45 degrees in the morning. Now at almost 57, I'm not sure I can handle the cold as I once did. We shall see.

If not, well that's why places like Gulf Shores, Alabama exists. Warm gulf waters, beach, some fishing out on the salt and perhaps popping in to folks like @WAB and I think it's @Hyde Hunter that calls AL home.

You would be correct! But I dig your side of the state. ;-)

 

[DLSJR]

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…

Jeez, I was gonna post but you essentially made every single point I was go7ng to include. California was a great state for so many years, but when I retire I’ll be living elsewhere, probably the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe most of the year.

 

[PerH]

What I like about it down here is, it’s more open areas and the weather is nice . But stormy also , but that’s just way of life . And having all kind of offices and most stores needed within 1 hour , instead of say 20 miles ,50 miles 100 miles as it was other place .

And no people snoping , controlling and meddling into others business on all kind of levels just to have some to brag or hide away , as it was the other place .


What I don’t like is the too much focus on art and culture and all money goes to that instead of the poor people , traffic and general needs . Just look up Kunst Silo scandals and you’ll see what I think of

( I wish it was 1500 ha deer park around exclusively just for me , but that’s me )

 

[Altitude sickness]

I live 5 miles from the nearest small town, 2 hours north of Detroit. Primarily farmland with a lot of wood lots for small game and deer.

It’s gotten very liberal with democrats running the full chamber and governor.

Weather. We do not get extremes either way.

Great fishing, boating and hunting, thousands of miles of trails for hiking , snowmobiling, motorcycles, horse trails.

I went Brook and Brown trout fly fishing a week ago. Tomorrow I’m going King salmon and steelhead fishing in the Big Manistee river.

Deer bow season is on now.

A few pics from a week ago “up north”

 

[CZDiesel]

I live 5 miles from the nearest small town, 2 hours north of Detroit. Primarily farmland with a lot of wood lots for small game and deer.

It’s gotten very liberal with democrats running the full chamber and governor.

Weather. We do not get extremes either way.

Great fishing, boating and hunting, thousands of miles of trails for hiking , snowmobiling, motorcycles, horse trails.

I went Brook and Brown trout fly fishing a week ago. Tomorrow I’m going King salmon and steelhead fishing in the Big Manistee river.

Deer bow season is on now.

A few pics from a week ago “up north”

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Incredible! Absolutely gorgeous!!! You are very blessed! I hope the f’n libs don’t ruin what you have built!

 

[sgt_zim]

Grew up in Louisiana, been in Texas for 33 years now. I love Texas, but it isn't a place to retire to, not for me. I'm done with the humidity, and a summer that lasts from May until October. Our population has nearly doubled since I moved here 30+ years ago, and is far too crowded for my liking. My tax/insurance escrow is larger than my P&I payment.

Our projected weather for the next couple weeks.

My youngest stepson graduates HS in May, will very likely go out of state to pursue a degree in engineering. Once he's gone, we're empty nesters.

My eldest son finishes his surgical residency in '27, he and his wife very much like the inland PNW, and he'll probably set up practice in WY or SD. We will move near them. The only other thing keeping us in this part of the world is the proximity to my elderly parents - Mom is in hospice care now. After she passes, I don't see Dad lasting very long. WY or SD would also put us closer to my wife's mom, who lives in Kalispell. It's certainly a long drive to get there from Rapid City or Cody, but nearer than we are now.

Near a college town like Missoula would be optimal for the missus, but Californians have destroyed the RE market there.

Like @mdwest - I want rural but not particularly remote. I can take living in a smallish town like Rapid City. It's smaller even than Baton Rouge was when I was a kid back in the 70s and 80s.