Retire where?

[AngusT]

This is a great thread to read. We are traveling from Tampa and are currently in Milledgeville (Macon area). Very nice area, nice to see the news not covering local murder as the top story (no murders). Not willing to be here in the summer, to much heat. But still a great local area and would suggest anyone looking for a great snowbird stop to add it to the list.

[F4Gary]

Originally Posted by 530ktm

And where is where we are now?

Love these posts. I guess we are just supposed to read minds.

Same with southwest Arizona. Yeah, that really narrows it down.

[Old Scout]

No snow and no state taxes--now that's a great combination. Besides, according to an old country song, there are a number of western states that will have both mountains and sea shore--once the "big one" hits and most of Cal slides into the Pacific--just saying {smile}

[530ktm]

Originally Posted by Old Scout

No snow and no state taxes--now that's a great combination. Besides, according to an old country song, there are a number of western states that will have both mountains and sea shore--once the "big one" hits and most of Cal slides into the Pacific--just saying {smile}

Unfortunately California will never slide into the Pacific, only LA will continue to get a little closer to SF.

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by AngusT

This is a great thread to read. We are traveling from Tampa and are currently in Milledgeville (Macon area). Very nice area, nice to see the news not covering local murder as the top story (no murders). Not willing to be here in the summer, to much heat. But still a great local area and would suggest anyone looking for a great snowbird stop to add it to the list.

Here's the crime report and although it is low as the town is small, there is crime there.

Crime is everywhere. You're not going to escape it.

Crime in Milledgeville, Georgia (GA): murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, auto thefts, arson, law enforcement employees, police officers, crime map

[hammer55]

if you retire from working in ca. then you pay income taxesin ca. no mater where you live, or am I mistaken

[RV Vagabond]

Originally Posted by hammer55

if you retire from working in ca. then you pay income taxesin ca. no mater where you live, or am I mistaken

You are mistaken. Several years ago there was a court case where CA was trying to tax non-residents on retirement draws that were earned in CA but they lost, so they can no longer enforce that.

[Mr_D]

If you're already a WA resident and have already paid sales/use tax it isn't too bad since there's no income tax. But that about 9% sales/use tax adds up!

[B Bob]

Best-place-to-move-to is very personal. Best thing is to go spend some time in the places you think might be good for you to relocate to.

You mentioned ocean, mountains, and good weather. In the west that is only CA. The Oregon Coast is beautiful but way more rain and cold weather than S CA. On the east coast there are lots of States that have ocean and mountains within fairly close proximity. But the weather is generally going to be really different than S Cal.

The obvious problems with Southern California are crowding and costs. The real estate is to the moon expensive except for Riverside and San Bernadino Counties. And the crowding is everywhere except in the mountains and maybe Borrego Springs. So if you want to get away from so many people and spend less on housing you need to leave S Cal.

Having a motorhome makes it pretty easy to pick a place that has one bad season for a house. You can use the motorhome to travel in the bad season.

[rver98]

Some great insight here. Thanks for all the ideas!

[ralphie]

Google "best places to retire" and you'll probably find several evaluations done by entities like Kiplinger. The problem is every evaluation uses its own criteria and weights some aspects higher than others. Here's a good example: recently Punta Gorda FL was highly listed. It's a nice little town a few miles south of me. I agree that it's a nice place, but if you wouldn't like the high heat and humidity of FL summers, it would be a better place for a snowbird. It's on the water, but not close to a beach. Housing costs are relatively low. It's better known as a retirement community than good for nightlife. Traffic is much better than the east coast of FL. Schools are okay and there's no state income tax. Nothing was mentioned about Hurricane Charley that really dealt it a blow in 2005. Will that happen again, who knows? You need to find and review as much information on potential places to retire. We spent a lot of time in our RV over a two-year period deciding where to move in FL.

[CountryFit]

have a good friend who bought a house and moved to nv from cal. no income tax, house is cheap (so is property tax) and he gets anthem national coverage under obamacare! the only negative side is the dry weather but he goes north in summer and south in winter so no issues for him whatsoever he is very happy with the move.

[Arizona RV]

Best of luck to you and your new home!

It is so fun to read about retirement relocations. There is beauty everywhere in this great country of ours!

My husband and I both retired (30 years each) from the Boeing Co. in Seattle, WA. We loved it there being close to the ocean and the Cascade Mountains, etc. The weather was fairly mild and did not bother us while we were working, but after retiring we quickly grew tired of the prolonged drizzle and the dark gray skies for weeks at a time (not to mention the chaos of the growing population and stop-n-go traffic everywhere).

We spent several years trying to find the right location to move to and 5 years ago ended up in the beautiful small town of Sedona, AZ. Located midway (location-wise, elevation-wise, and weather-wise) between Phoenix and Flagstaff... we are about 10 to 20 degrees cooler than Phoenix year round, but we do have 4 seasons and even get a few inches of snow 2 or 3 times through the winter. Very little traffic (not counting the tourists), large ratio of retirees, relaxed atmosphere, lots of great restaurants, tons of beautiful hikes, clean air, blue skies, low crime, fairly reasonable taxes... we could not be happier! We highly recommend it!

Sharon

[DHart]

No place is perfect; there will be give-and-take with whatever choice you make.

We moved from Washington State to Scottsdale, AZ three years ago and absolutely love it.

Being RVers, of course, we can travel during the hottest period of the year, if we want to. (Or any other time, as well.)

Then again, if you're living in a house and don't have to work outside, even the hot summer here isn't that bad. Dry heat is not as uncomfortable as wet heat.