Son_of_Perdition
Senior Member
Greeting from the great Northwest - new here, retired in 2009 at 64. Married, don't let the user name put you off, I think I'm a nice person. Worked in areospace IT for 35 years, before that was a brickmason and all around master at nothing. 4 year retiree of the USAF. Moved from my mountain state that had weather extremes for all seasons. Didn't have any winter hobbies so getting to a warmer (although not hotter) climate was our first goal. Still getting used to all the rain but you don't have to shovel it.
I had joined another blogging/forum site but realized that most of the members were younger and most couldn't relate to situations encountered by the retired community. They seemed to be focused on couponing, snowflakes as they called them, credit card reward programs, dealing with mortgage refinancing and living large. I ruffled a few feathers with my decision to go to an entire cash/debit card existence. They called me a Dave Ramsay disciple which I had read but didn't follow his advice other than approaching debt aggressively. I was their devil's advocate. I orginally wanted to garner a little more insight into budgeting and living on a fixed income, something that hadn't been a strength in my former life and was new to the concept until the reality of retirement set in.
We choose to live in a 55+ manufactured home park with our now 13 YO cat. We had sold a large 5-bedroom 2900 sq ft home and while my wife enjoys gardening she and I had no desire to maintain a third acre lot. We enjoy travel having been in every state (including HI and Alaska) in the US except ND. ND was never on my itinerary, nothing against it just never went there. I don't fly at all now (too much during my career) and wanted to see the quirky sites from ground level.
Looked at CA but smog and costs were too prohibitive. Az was too hot in summers, Texas was too humid and hot. Florida was also too hot and too far from family. As for the hotter climates I didn't want to pull up roots every 6 months to avoid the weather and desiring to minimize and de-clutter our lives I had no desire to maintain 2 homes. I also knew my limitations and didn't want to pull or drive an RV, although that would be my next best choice.
Get a little long winded so I'll close.
I had joined another blogging/forum site but realized that most of the members were younger and most couldn't relate to situations encountered by the retired community. They seemed to be focused on couponing, snowflakes as they called them, credit card reward programs, dealing with mortgage refinancing and living large. I ruffled a few feathers with my decision to go to an entire cash/debit card existence. They called me a Dave Ramsay disciple which I had read but didn't follow his advice other than approaching debt aggressively. I was their devil's advocate. I orginally wanted to garner a little more insight into budgeting and living on a fixed income, something that hadn't been a strength in my former life and was new to the concept until the reality of retirement set in.
We choose to live in a 55+ manufactured home park with our now 13 YO cat. We had sold a large 5-bedroom 2900 sq ft home and while my wife enjoys gardening she and I had no desire to maintain a third acre lot. We enjoy travel having been in every state (including HI and Alaska) in the US except ND. ND was never on my itinerary, nothing against it just never went there. I don't fly at all now (too much during my career) and wanted to see the quirky sites from ground level.
Looked at CA but smog and costs were too prohibitive. Az was too hot in summers, Texas was too humid and hot. Florida was also too hot and too far from family. As for the hotter climates I didn't want to pull up roots every 6 months to avoid the weather and desiring to minimize and de-clutter our lives I had no desire to maintain 2 homes. I also knew my limitations and didn't want to pull or drive an RV, although that would be my next best choice.
Get a little long winded so I'll close.
