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mathjak107

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bayside ,queens , ny
well , somehow found my way to this interesting forum . my wife and i just retired last july , i am 63 and she 65 .

we live in queens in nyc and i spent my last 40 years working as a motor control specialist and as an investor in our markets and nyc real estate . i take a big interest in retirement planning and try to stay current in all the latest research .

my wife and i have a passion for photography and are semi pro .

oh yeah , i don't use my cap keys much as i type with one finger on my left hand because i have some diabetic neuropathy in my finger tips and toes so they are overly sensitive . but i find i can type comfortably with one finger on my left hand and the shift key is a pain to use

anyway looking forward to posting here .
 

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Hello and welcome!
 
well day 2 here ha ha ha .


i already put up up bunch of posts . guess i got to a lot to say ha ha ha . maybe later i will go through some of the financial threads . retirement planning and investing has always been a big interest of mine .

started out as a teenager dabbling in the markets and progressed through the years in to more and more types of investments .

our biggest deal was becoming partners with one of the country's biggest real estate moguls and taking an interest in a bunch of co-op apartments in a prestigious building over looking central park . they had original rent stabilized tenants in them so rents were very low . but we offered lease buyouts of 100k so we got to sell quite a few off enabling us to retire in nyc .
 
Welcome, mathjak! I believe I recognize you from another forum. If you're who I believe you are I know your input will be valuable, and I think you'll be happy here as well.
 
yep , i am who you think i am ,. i got tired of all the arguing and bickering at the other forum and decided i was no longer going to be a contributor there anymore .

looking for a new family ha ha ha
 
mathjak107 said:
well day 2 here ha ha ha .


i already put up up bunch of posts . guess i got to a lot to say ha ha ha . maybe later i will go through some of the financial threads . retirement planning and investing has always been a big interest of mine .

started out as a teenager dabbling in the markets and progressed through the years in to more and more types of investments .

our biggest deal was becoming partners with one of the country's biggest real estate moguls and taking an interest in a bunch of co-op apartments in a prestigious building over looking central park . they had original rent stabilized tenants in them so rents were very low . but we offered lease buyouts of 100k so we got to sell quite a few off enabling us to retire in nyc .
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So then you want to stay in NYC. I've always wondered why anyone would want to live there. The hustle-bustle is so foreign to a country girl. Glad you like it. That's what it's all about, doing and being who and what is right for us.
 
well for starters this is where our kids and grand kids are ..

we had a 2nd home in the pocono mountains in pa we thought we would retire to . but as we got closer to retirement we realized it really lacked everything we would want as retirees .

no public transportation if we can't drive

limited medical facility's

not many specialists

not much to do all winter

that walk in the wood or walk around the lake grew stale ....

once we did everything local we really were running out of things to do .

if i wanted to work a little only low paying jobs were available .

even to get milk took 20 minutes to get to a store and back and we were only two hours from manhattan .

in short we realized everything we want is already here in nyc where we live .

so we sold the house and we are staying put at this point . one thing we have plenty of is time now and filling that time is important .

between manhattan less then 1/2 hour away and long island our days are just endless with things to do and photograph
 
All the stuff you mention is exactly the reason we are in country. My husband grew up on Long Island and worked for ten years in Manhattan. He was glad to escape. I grew up in Oregon in the country, moved to Portland and lived nearly half of my adult life in and around the city. But I'm a country girl at heart, and the one time I was in NYC, it seemed noisy and I wanted to scrub the sidewalks. So it's all in what we like.
 
don't forget we don't live in manhattan . we live in an area in queens that is more long island like then manhattan . my sister is near scottsdale but she misses the city
 
Not quite as bad, but I still wouldn't want to live there. Most of my family are gone, and the ones who remain are pains in the backside, high maintanence. The one thing that I do miss is having a good doctor. But most of the friendly old timey ones died out. And the ones who remain think drugs are the answer to everything. We order a lot of our groceries online and they are delivered to the door. That doesn't work with milk and eggs. There's a little store two miles away. The neighbors are peaceful. It's perfect here, for the most part. What a city boy finds boring, a country girl finds perfect.
 
quite a few retirees leave the tristate area .

even having a paid off home may not represent much in in affordability .

think about this , when we all bought houses back in the 1970's in long island a house was about 30-35k . today taxes are are 15-18k so the fact you paid off a 30k mortgage may really not mean much in affordability . it may represent a piece of your utility bills today .

but high cost of living areas are high cost not in a vacuum .

they are high cost because they are desirable and that is usually because the high paying jobs are there too .


a 600k plus house that goes up 3% a year is worth a whole lot more then a 150k house that goes up 3% a year and that 600k may even go up more than that house in cheapsville percentage wise ..

so a retiree is usually in much better shape relocating at retirement to cheapsville then the loca's in cheapsville are who lived and worked there . in fact the higher wages give you a higher lifetime social security check that stays the same no matter where you relocate .

so at the end of the day there can be a big advantage living and working in a high cost area vs cheapsville and then relocating later
 
You make some good points. However, if you hate where you live the whole time you lived there, it's not really worth it. My husband and I gave up our jobs in our early 40s. We both sold our houses and moved to where we wanted to live for the rest of our lives. We were fortunate enough to pay cash for the place we live now, so there was never a mortgage. We've lived here for twenty-five years. We lived frugally so we could pursue our writing goals and lifestyle. It's been quite wonderful. Our investments are more than enough to keep us happy. We planned carefully and it paid off.
 
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