When you retired did you move somewhere else or stay in familiar surroundings?

When my husband retired 13 years ago, we moved an hour away from the big city. It's a semi-rural area with a small downtown, and yet we are close to everything (P.O., banks, stores, hospital, community college, restaurants) and ten minutes from downtown. It has cleaner air than the city we came from, which was an important factor because I was becoming asthmatic in the city, and the cost of living was lower, too, so our money could last longer. Because this house is less expensive than where we came from, the sale of our city house was ample enough to pay for this house and renovate, with solar panels, new siding, new windows, wood floors, etc. Then he passed away 9 years ago, and I've been maintaining it.

So now that I've recently turned 65 and considered "retired" (not really, recently started teaching online!), I am not planning to move anywhere. My mom keeps wanting me to move to Florida to be with her, but it's too hot for me and I can't handle the stress of hurricane seasons! I did live there once, and we even had a small home down there, but I could not stand the heat! My sister and her family live there and help her out. Mom is in her upper 80s and is still living in the house she and my dad bought when they were in their 50s. I have gotten used to my house these past 13 years, and the people in this area are nice folk. Besides, I like to experience the four seasons!
 
Jaiden said:
My husband and I stayed in NH after we retired - we lived in a fairly rural area and loved being out in nature and the changing of the seasons. But after he died, I felt very isolated, so when I had the opportunity to move to Florida with my son and his family, I decided to embrace the adventure. A lot of my friends said it would be too much of a radical change and predicted I'd be back - but I love it here!
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Excellent choice, and I gather the recent weather wasn't a problem. BTW, Your very cute Tuxedo is a dead ringer for ours. (-8
 
Pre retirement we moved around a lot. With early retirement being the goal we traveled around America looking for what we thought would be the perfect place for us.

We settled on the low humidity sunny southwest 2300 miles away from the cold northeast. No regrets ever.
 
moviequeen1 said:
I never thought I would be in a job lasting 27 yrs here in my hometown,Buffalo,NY
I retired in 2011,live in same neighborhood where I grew up,my childhood home is 2 blocks away,I live in same apt I bought in 1988
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MQ..have you never had an inkling to move somewhere else ?

I can't imagine still living in the same place where I grew up.. but my old school friend still is... When we left school she went to work for the company that she still works for now..and she still lives in the house she grew up in... but she's happy enough because she takes a month to travel every year so she's been to Australia, Canada, the USA etc...

That just wouldn't work for me..
 
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I moved a few times as a child then more often once married - Europe, east coast, west coast). We were forced to move to eastern TN for work, late in DH's career so once he was able to leave (on disability at age 60) we moved AS FAST AS WE COULD back to New England! (where we met) WE COULD NOT WAIT!

Our boys are scattered - for work - and we left them all behind to live our dream retirement in Maine!
 
I decided to move to the nearby city because I go there anyway and do all my shopping. Plus, all the hospitals and doctors are there. And my church, which is very important to me.
 
My wife and I were both Colorado natives. I worked for a large Colorado based company that started expanding outside of the state. I was able to transfer to be part of the 'start up management' for these expansion efforts. Accordingly, over the next twenty years my family and I relocated multiple times. It was a challenging fun time in our lives. After many years while living in Memphis, I was recruited by a large electronics company, and we then moved to Kansas City. After 10+ years I retired in KC our kids were all in college or on their own. My wife and I decided to stay in KC, after so many moves it was great to sit down roots again. We love our time hear, although we do travel a lot...
 
1989, divorced with 3 children, depressed real estate prices - 33 years later, I am still in the same house.

It had a "basement suite" - all three wanted to live in the suite - their next move was out of the house LOLOL Actually it was a good experience as they were required to live independently (shop, clean. cook, no raiding my fridge). Now I have a University student in the suite (at low rent as I don't want to change tenants every year)
 
I got retired and divorced at the same time. Long story. Moved 2 provinces away. Whether that was good or bad, I don't know. It's what I did at that time and it seemed the right thing to do at that time. Now, 23 years later and many, many miles down the road, I'm not sure if that was the right decision?
 
Moved to a retirement community about 15 miles up the interstate. A five-bedroom house on two acres was too much for me, and the other oldsters were starting to leave as well with younger families moving in. I really like being here in a cottage, with about 300 other old folks as neighbors. Most importantly I am within an hours drive of my children and grandchildren!
 
spectratg said:
Moved to a retirement community about 15 miles up the interstate. A five-bedroom house on two acres was too much for me, and the other oldsters were starting to leave as well with younger families moving in. I really like being here in a cottage, with about 300 other old folks as neighbors. Most importantly I am within an hours drive of my children and grandchildren!
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Sounds perfect.
 
Born and raised in rural Iowa. Moved family to Chicago burbs and finished my working career there 27 years later. Retired at 61 and decided to move back to our hometown as we still had one parent who needed some help and we already owned a house there that was inherited.

After last parent passed we decided we hated the winters and didn't care for the rural Midwest vibe, so we wanted to relocate where they didn't use snow shovels. There are no grandkids to consider so an 1150 mile move to a retirement community I'm Florida was in the works. We didn't know a single person here but we heard it was easy to make new friends if you pit yourself out there.

We have been in our Florida home going on 4 years now. It turned out to be the best decision we have ever made. We have lots of friends and are as active as we an be. We don't have to travel too often because it feels like we are on vacation every day.
 
HoneyNut said:
After I retired I sold my house that was in a rural area in Nebraska because there was too much maintenance work (fences, barns, very long gravel driveway to shovel, etc) and it was lonely once I wasn't interacting with coworkers all day. I mostly miss all the birds I could watch from my windows, everything from hummingbirds to big owls.

My mom and I had shared the house and so I'd seen all the stages of aging, and decided I should live/age someplace that was walkable (to grocery store at least), had no stairs, and had someplace to socialize when the weather was bad (my mom got to the point where she wouldn't go anywhere if it was a windy day because she might easily get blown over).

I was planning to settle permanently in the same area (but in Omaha instead of rural) because my daughter lives in that area and the housing is cheap(er). But, while traveling I decided to move to where I lived when I was younger (which feels a lot more like home than Nebraska did).

I think I've found a good spot in a retirement community in Maryland. There are tons of activities available within the retirement community (golf, indoor/outdoor pools, classes, clubs, woodworking shop, art rooms, clubhouses, tennis, pickle ball, bocce, shuffleboard, ping pong, billiards, fitness center, restaurants, walking trails, etc.) and if I get to the point someday that I don't drive, they have free shuttle buses around the retirement community (and to a couple shopping centers). It's also located outside a big city (Washington DC) with lots to do and good public transportation. I chose a high-rise building that has no stairs (unless I go out the back door), and it has places for people to socialize on the ground floor (couches, chairs, card tables, library corner, kitchen & bathrooms). I'm still waiting to close on the condo.
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This really sounds wonderful @HoneyNut. I'd be interested in learning more about the community but understand that for privacy reasons, you may not wish to share it.

I moved about 1500 miles when I retired to a community I had never lived in before but somehow felt like home. I was by myself. I bought an older house that needed EVERYTHING and have been slowly bringing it back to life. But I worry that it will all become too much for me in a few years. So I consider retirement communities but I have so much research to do before I make that move.
 
Lived in Ohio until I retired @ 62. From there, >Florida > Hawaii > Arizona > back to Ohio > back to Florida. I have no idea what is next,
 

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