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

Well, I'd have liked to move to Spokane, or even Yakima, but the subsidized housing is locked up as much here. So, the devil you know, better then the one you don't.
 

When hubby worked we moved around a bit. After nearly 15 years in an abusive place, we decided to request a move from the housing council. When we saw our new house on the viewing day, we knew right-there-and-then that it was going to be our retirement pad.

Unbeknownst to me or daughter, hubby had been given only 2 years to live back in 2017. I'm assuming he fought through pain and decorated it with an amazing fervour and enthusiasm. I've found our Todo List on his laptop a couple of months ago and once a month, I try to get the next item in said list. I'll be officially retiring soon but this is it, it's home. He isn't here to enjoy with me and daughter but I can't walk away. The peace we've found here is a blessing...

At the beginning of 2022, I was a wife and a carer, life was magical, loving and simple. Then, out of the blue, I became a widow and friends said, "you're also single again..." Too many changes too quickly. Circumstances might change the end of the year, if the post gets sorted out... Soon, please? Then I'll be a retiree... OMG and it's too soon to feel comfortable with being widow. Geez Louise! However, after a year of losing the love of my life, the pad will still be here, and so will I.

PS expecting a wee curtain of snow in my corner of beautiful Scotland. Blessed be!
 
His last two years sound like he filled your home with love and left happy memories for yourself and your daughter. And, although he is gone from this world maybe he is there watching over you until he feels that you are strong enough to go forward on your own.
 

I have lived in this apartment complex for 51-1/2 years. I own my unit and our carrying charges (co-op speak for HOA fees) are about 38% of average rentals for comparable 2 bedroom garden apartments in our area. When you go to the expensive Bergen county or Jersey City, 22% of their average prices. As we move further south prices may be a bit better but what we pay here can't be beat. If I were to move, I'd want what is considered a luxury apartment, which would easily be 4 times what we pay now or more. So that has been a deterrent for me seeking to move anywhere else, even though as I got older I felt like I'm supposed to be living the beach life. My compromise with myself was to purchase a beach front timeshare in Atlantic City that I can stay at any time I want (except I have no desire to go during the winter).
 
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After I started working from home (around 2009) I didn't need to live near New York City anymore. So we did the math and moved to Richmond, VA, where my wife grew up. We saved roughly $50,000 per year by doing so. (Lower property taxes, utility bills, gas and food prices, state income taxes, home ownership costs, and pretty much everything else.)

We've been here 13 years and it's been great. There are a few things I miss and many, many things I don't miss at all. Best thing is that we have a lifestyle we could never afford in greater NYC.
 
In 2008 the company I worked for was being sold with no chance of staying on. In advance of the sale my wife and I decided
to move to where we would ultimately retire. At the time our kids lived in Rhode Island, Idaho, Puerto Rico and Georgia so we
just needed to be near an airport. So in 2008 we moved from NJ to SC where we are currently living. It turns out that there is
a US Government facility nearby which led to a second career until I retired in 2017.

Overall it has been a good move, though there are some times where I miss my roots.
 
Gary O' said:
We lived there six years, year round
Bought a place in town a couple years ago.
We go up to check on it every few months
Isolated was the great part
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Yes, I wouldn't mind isolated in the summer but not in the winter. Reading your posts, I think you miss being there all year round but, you probably have the best of both worlds now. :)
 
I've probably written this before on other topics but, I'm still living in the house where i was born. That's a total of 89 years, excepting the 4 years in the military, back in the early 50's.
My grandfather built the old place in 1921 and lived here for his lifetime. He and my grandmother sharing it with my folks and I, when I came along. My wife and I then lived here with my folks until they passed in the mid 60's.

We've lived here since, giving the home to our youngest daughter and SIL back in 1995, retaining a lifelease for ourselves. Since we GAVE them the home and property we live rent, tax, and utilities free which is a blessing in today's world. We've been here as their 2 kids have grown into their 20's and the whole group is a blessing to my wife and I as we approach 90.

All 4 of our kids are now in their 60's and we see them and the flock of grand and great grands often including the furthest away, a distance of 90 miles. Worked out well for us.

We spent many years wintering in Florida and spending spring and fall at another daughter's cottage in Maine. Happy retirement years but now beyond our abilities as we reach our present ages, 89/87. 😪
 
officerripley said:
Wow, I don't think I've ever met anybody in my entire life who was still living in the house in which they were born! Heck I don't think I've even ever met anybody who was still living in the same town they grew up in. Everybody moves around all the time these days, I guess. You have to I guess to follow the jobs.
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I'm still living in the same town I grew up in Officer...so yes you have (re: the second sentence). :D Well..okay so we never met in person but we've been online friends for a long time. 🤗
@DaveA That is amazing! What you did with the house worked out very well for you and your wife, thank goodness. Sometimes just the opposite is true.
 
DaveA said:
I've probably written this before on other topics but, I'm still living in the house where i was born. That's a total of 89 years, excepting the 4 years in the military, back in the early 50's.
My grandfather built the old place in 1921 and lived here for his lifetime. He and my grandmother sharing it with my folks and I, when I came along. My wife and I then lived here with my folks until they passed in the mid 60's.

We've lived here since, giving the home to our youngest daughter and SIL back in 1995, retaining a lifelease for ourselves. Since we GAVE them the home and property we live rent, tax, and utilities free which is a blessing in today's world. We've been here as their 2 kids have grown into their 20's and the whole group is a blessing to my wife and I as we approach 90.

All 4 of our kids are now in their 60's and we see them and the flock of grand and great grands often including the furthest away, a distance of 90 miles. Worked out well for us.

We spent many years wintering in Florida and spending spring and fall at another daughter's cottage in Maine. Happy retirement years but now beyond our abilities as we reach our present ages, 89/87. 😪
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Your story brings The Waltons of Waltons Mountain, Virginia to mind. :)
 
I live in the same area I grew up in. I can go from one part of the valley to another through back alleys if I had to and not get lost. It's that familiar. The people speak the same language with the same accent and attitude as myself, so it feels like home.
 
When I retired, over 20 years ago, we bought 40 acres of nice forestland, and moved there. It has been great! However, as we age, I can see the day coming when we may have to sell this place and move back to a more urban area...closer to hospitals, etc. We're not really looking forward to that day.
 
Don M. said:
When I retired, over 20 years ago, we bought 40 acres of nice forestland, and moved there. It has been great! However, as we age, I can see the day coming when we may have to sell this place and move back to a more urban area...closer to hospitals, etc. We're not really looking forward to that day.
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You and Don are the only ones I’ve met who have made a move into ‘the woods’ and further from community who have reported being happy about it .. except for my in-laws. They retired to a place I never tired of visiting, in a house he helped build at Duck Cove on the Point Reyes peninsula. We could be there in an hour and a quarter from where we live just east of San Francisco, across the bay. It was situated just north of Tomales Bay state park at the end of a mile and an eighth gravel ‘driveway’. There were only about a dozen homes there and they were the only full time residents with everyone else maintaining multiple homes.

My FIL had been a machinist and de facto materials engineer/inventor and could make or fix almost anything. My MIL had been an elementary school teacher, joining a garden club when they moved here and creating a very nice native plant garden. When they bought their parcel they had to do so on a lease back from the government as the whole are was taken over by the park system. It’s a shame but the prospect of maintaining a second home never appealed to me. The hassle of keeping up just our own is enough for me. Some pictures from Duck Cove:

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On the occasion of Jim’s 95th. By then we’d found him senior housing in Point Reyes Station but would drive out to his old place for occasions. His cat (in his lap as he naps) went on living there for some years and he would drive out to take take care of him. Later when he went into assisted living the cat became everyone’s cat and lived on their after Jim passed.

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The view from the ridge above the cove which was often the goal of our walks here. The small town on the other side of the bay is Marshall. If you turned around 180 degrees up here you had a view beaches on the northern edge of the Point Reyes peninsula jutting out into the Pacific.

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And here is a video I took going dow mn that road to their house probably from after both had passed and we were settling what remained of their things before it went out of our hands.

 
Don M. said:
When I retired, over 20 years ago, we bought 40 acres of nice forestland, and moved there. It has been great! However, as we age, I can see the day coming when we may have to sell this place and move back to a more urban area...closer to hospitals, etc. We're not really looking forward to that day.
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Planning ahead usually will make that day a little less awful when it comes, maybe even nowhere near as awful as you thought it'd be. The alternative unfortunately will be what some friends are going through now: they also dreaded "that day" but kept putting off doing anything about it and are now probably going to be both stuffed into a bedroom in their kids' house. And even when it's a just-stay-here-'till-a-nice-seniors-place-opens-up situation, the average waiting time to get into 1 of those even halfway-decent seniors places is about 3 or 4 years.
 
We moved clear across the country, as we loved the Pacific Northwest and were young enough to embark on an adventure. We ended up staying there for 18 years, only returning to Maryland because we had finally reached an age where we wanted (needed) to be nearer to our children. We loved it out there and never regretted following our dream, but we did finally recognize that the dream was over. What works for you in your 50's doesn't necessarily work in your 70's.
 
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