Reading Rock Chuck's thread on his new retirement property got me to thinking . . .

What are your top three criteria for a retirement locale?


1. Hunting and/or Fishing
3. Beach
4. Mountains
5. Nostalgia (emotional connection to the locale)
6. Gun laws
7. Cost of living
8. Cultural stimulation through history, art, etc.
9. Gastronomic opportunities
0. Pursuing a dream

or any others you might want to add.

Of your list, and for the next move though not retirement:

1), 4), 6), 7), 10), added in professional opportunities for my wife, professional opportunities for myself, and quality of life for raising a family, among others. She and I have spent years researching and analyzing what we want and where offers that. There is no perfect place, at least not for all criteria, but the next move will get us much closer to several.

I've been living here for over 31 years so I guess I might as well retire here. I did think of Mesquite NV after this winter but nah I'll stay here.

Very important - stay within easy distance of decent medical care. After that, it's all personal preference.

It'll be a few years from now but the decision on where and when to retire has been largely made. Just a little fine tuning on the exact location is all that's left. Criteria numbers 1,3,5,6 and 7 all played a part. Access to decent medical care also influenced out choices. I spent a fair amount of time talking with physicians and other medical professionals about the quality of care I could expect in potential retirement towns as well as where the related regional medical centers were located if one of us needed more serious care. That factor alone made us deop one or two possibilities.

I'm here!

Everything you listed is in my town along with a mild climate at 745' ele.
Most of it world class....
I won't be leaving, if I can help it.


The beach would be a little chilly 8 months out of the year,
although some golf year round here.... airplanes and vacation beaches are available too.



P.S. don't tell anybody...we are full.

I guess I will spend my retirement in Wy.. Already have 15 years in so may finish it out here.. The only other places I would consider would be Idaho, or Mt.. But after almost half a century here, it would be tough to move..
Although I like traveling, and spend quite a bit of time in the travel trailer.. This winter,we are due for a southern tour.. Maybe some quail, dove, shooting, and fishing...

Where in Carbon County are you ??

Have you tried Find Your Spot?

It's 10 to 15 minutes of questions to find out & prioritize what you like most, then they give you a top 20 list.

My wife & I did it independently, & it turns out we've got more than 10 places in common! Unfortunately, #4 on her list was right here in friggin' Cincinnati.

Anyway, it's not an altogether bad place to start lookin'.

Good luck, & keep us posted.

FC

Yep!

And today is Day One of retirement!

Close to family and good health care.
Grand Junction will be the place of my retirement.

Mine is cause I have a place to go...

now when?

that is a different story

Snake

Nice, you made it.
I'll try.
Congrats.

PNW taxes: OR has only income tax. WA has only sales tax. For a working man with a couple kids and making about 50k, WA is lots cheaper for taxes. However, for a retired person, OR is cheaper. OR doesn't tax SS and you get the extra deduction. If much of your money is tied up on a Roth, even better in OR. Property taxes aren't much different between the states, both high. Ideally, you could live in WA and shop in OR and avoid lots of taxes but the only place you can really do that is Portland/Vancouver. There just aren't many towns across from each other for the entire length of the border.

With the exception of the beach access and fine dining, I'm retired here in Lander Wy and planning to stay. Yuma AZ in the Winter, of course.

I liked Alaska awfully well and didn't think I'd ever leave. But got to looking and Idaho really looked good. Just about every "nicest place to retire" magazine article you read will have the Boise area between #2 and #8. Low crime, low cost of living, Good prices on housing, Mild weather. I think we'll be staying.

How is the water level currently there in Lander ?
Was there a couple of years back with the Guard for flood relief.

Im in the process of building my retirement home in Metro St. Louis area. I moved from Alabama where I retired and where medical, housing, taxes and general cost of living were much more inexpensive than Metro St. Louis. The reason i moved here is where my children and grandchildren are located. The hunting is not so good, but shooting facilities are great and medical is much better than Alabama. I am legally permanently disabled, so the tax situation does not hurt. The roads and general infrastructure are much better here in Missouri than Alabama. My property is rural and i have resident deer and other critters to keep me entertained, but i do most of my hunting out state anyway. For me its family, and religious facilities.

You're already here.

11] .gov leaving people the hell alone.

Gunner

1,6,7.10.and 11 are important to me.

Simple!

I'm gonna be 'planted' 100 yards from where I was born!!

I just filled it out and the top 6 towns are within 50 miles of where I am, top 3 within 10 miles of me.
I'm just here because of work, I'll retire somewhere else.

My 3 retirement wants.

1. No neighbors within a half mile and an area where I could hunt, hike, or ride an ATV right from the house.

2. A pond with fish for the grandkids to catch.

3. A view with wildlife seen on a regular basis.

Sounds like my place.

Gunner

Deer hunting opportunities and getting out of this rain.

yep.
We call it the cabin.
35 minutes from the house.
Maybe I already got it better than "retirement".
Don't tell Poobah.

Shonuff BTB.

'THE POOHBAH' knows all 'Slave.

Gunner

1) Proper or few firearms restrictions

2) Mountains to traipse through

3) Plenty of "The gamest fish that swims" (smallies) and a few muskies to boot

4) Good deer hunting

5) Four seasons

5) No bloods/crips

I determine where I don't want to live and make sure I don't live in one of those places.

Yep, lots of folks living in areas waiting to die. I wonder how we made it this long.

That's not on my list.

I'll retire where my daughter approves of.

Where my 3 sons and their family live. Hard to get Grandma away from her 7 grandkids.
Lived in the state for 70 years already, can't find to many bad things to say.

family, ocean and a place to hunt, so i'll just stay put.

I'm assuming you're in Lewiston. If so, is the stinky pulp mill still there?

We chose for maybe five of those reasons as well as the just liking the character of the people. This took two retirement locations for us and they have been purchased. One in the mountains of north Idaho and one in the Texas hill country. We are set and in a year or so retirement will come and we will enjoy both places greatly.

There are some really great deals on Real Estate in Detroit!

I retired in Miami, and we moved back to North Florida. Now, I am back living in both places.
Chit happens, and that was as big a factor in where we settled as anything else.

True. I read just a couple days ago that auctions of foreclosed residences in Detroit are bringing a whopping $1000.

Wanaka, New Zealand ain't all bad for a winter choice.

In the 60's 70's it was pretty odiferous.
Gov. Regs have changed.
If you get an inversion you can get a wiff.....but I don't think it's bad, for the most part.
If that was my biggest problem I'd still trade it for world class steelhead, salmon, smallmouth, upland birds, public OTC whitetail, mule deer or elk hunting, waterfowl, miles of hiking, biking and ATV trails, skiing, coyotes, wolves, bears, sturgeon and turkey.
Cheap living expense, taxes, fuel, housing, real estate and conservative values.

Other than that, yeah a paper mill ruins everything and pays it's workers too much.

Big congrats, Poob!!!!

Yes, and ID, unlike every other state in the PNW, tends not to send democrap libtards to Washington to accelerate the rest of the country's destruction.

Was there last month. I'd love to go back.

i'm screwed

love it here, well want to live farther out in the boonies

but this is no country for old men

guess I'll forgo the medical care for other quality of life issues that are more important to me.

if/when med concerns become necessary, may be forced to make a move

I retired at age 40. You have to take a lot of things into consideration.

Standard of living, Airports, how far to buy a gallon of milk - vs- the gas to get that gallon of milk, maybe stop drinking milk?

Start by listening to the words from the song "Luckenbach Texas"

they can't make a map of where its best to die off imo....I'm there .....and I'm trying to stay above dirt till it comes...u can't put a price on a good time...

Well a 200 to 400 sf cabin off the grid, in good game country with some decent trout fishing is all that I require. Since I am alone I don't require much room, Just a couple of good rifles, some flyrods, Cast Iron Cook ware. And a good dog. No phone, I would even consider giving the internet a toss thou that might be going to far. A simple quite life- fish when I want to, hunt in season, a good lending library that I can get to from time to time- reading good books is better for the mind and soul.

Sounds like several of us have the same ideas on where we want to live/die off, I'll get "the compound" perimeters under survey.

Gunner

Just curious, but was there supposed to be a number 2?

Frank Church comes to mind and I refuse to call that wilderness by his name. It's Chamberlain basin to me, then and now.

Idaho sux and Lewiston stinks.

It was fishing, but then I realized hunting and fishing go together like salt a pepper, so I combined them. he he

I am always puzzled by those that refuse to move to a better place because of family. I have an azzload of NorCal friends in this rut. When, as a parent, have you retired?

7. Happy wife - Perhaps this falls under nostalgia. She's from New England and wants to go back - I told her NH is the only I could live up there and the further north the better

8. Politics - No big cities. Big cities breed liberals. Big cities take over the politics of a state.

9. Winter, or perhaps more importantly, no long hot humid summers

10. Health Care - that can handle whatever we need in aging

11. Educational opportunities - Small college is fine, community college is fine. I'd like to do some more adult ed classes and wife wants to get her masters in history.

12. Community - I enjoy doing social things occasionally and want to have a group of friends that enjoy similar.

We're about 9 years out (I'll be 60) but Littleton NH area looks promising. House on a small lake that I can row/fish/paddle on. We'll build a single story house that will suit us be accessible and suitable for us as we age.

If it wasn't for the wife I would likely end up in SW Wyoming or the Black Hills but love her and can't imagine growing old without her. My time in NH has found it full of quality people.

Too many people have wasted their life for a job and money. Later they want to live somewhere nice and spend their last days. I figured I might as well live where I would vacation and have never left Montana...

saw this place for the first time at 9 years old

can still picture the bull moose walking out of 7 feet of water

ate grayling and fried potatoes morning, noon and night

when I graduated high school, five days later I was on a plane back to this place.

was dismayed with all the changes brought by the TransAlaska Pipeline so left for a few years.

but came back, for as the commercial says, this is the last best place....for me anyway.


but if the Ruskies grab this place, you boys in MT and WY best skooch over a bit, cause here I come

That is the ideal situation. While I hate Maryland, I like my job and I have friends and I have figured out how to make the best of it. If I was 22 or even 30 and here I might do something rash but I'm 50 and it is not worth derailing this to try and move early. There are some opportunities to go north early I will pursue but right now we stick. If I was in Florida my answers might be very different!

^^^^^^^^

This. Exactly.

Years ago I was acquainted with a guy who was making good money and so was his wife. This was in the 80's and between them they were making close to 100k a year. They'd bought some land somewhere in MT. Their plan was to save every cent and go build a nice cabin as soon as they had enough saved to retire on. At the time they were 50ish and living in a pickup camper to save everything they could. I wonder how it worked out for them.

We here in Wyoming encounter those people every so often, move out here from some armpit of creation, buy 5 acres outside of town or up in the trees and build what they arrogantly call their "cabin". Log home, 5000 square feet just for the two of them with all the possible amenities. Three car garage, huge stone fireplace ( maybe two or three), Jacuzzi, 5 bedrooms each with bath, all copper kitchen, you get the idea, just a nice little "cabin".

Thought about moving to a more conservative place when I retired, but added it up and decided this place was OK.

I'm 61 and Been here 26 years, and born in this county, actually 4th generation native, so my roots run deep.

Got 15 acres that are 7 miles away from liberal Eugene Or. (hate that but close to medical facilities) and 1/2 mile from my nearest neighbor.

90 minutes from the coast and 90 minutes from the mountains. Gobs of lakes and streams all around me.

Just over three years to pay on the place, and she's all mine.

Good enough for me!

Virgil B.

I know of one of those 'cabins' built near Sun Valley quite a few years ago. They even built it over a creek so they had the creek running through the living room. Then someone discovered that after the creek went through the living room, it also went under the bathroom and that was their septic system. All hell broke loose needless to say.

jnyork - Happens here, too. Folks built huge McMansions all around sleepy little Huntsville. Property values suddenly jumped to GEEEEZus... People who had lived in Huntsville since the Mormons arrived suddenly couldn't afford to pay the tax on their house (built in 1847). Took several years for the city/county to get it equitably adjusted, but by then a whole lot of people had been forced to sell at firesale prices.

As to the original question, we've already decided - and we've already retired. Staying right here. Realized that moving closer to one daughter meant moving farther from the other - and also realized that either of them might change jobs and states at any time. House was paid for years ago, it suits us, and selling it to buy another one made little sense. So we did a whole-house renovation that thrills us to the bone.

As with many other locals here the USAF was primarily responsible for establishing our new roots in Nebraska.We enjoy the Midwest and now have lived here longer than my younger days in West Virginny.Still miss those hills and hollers on occasion tho...

Come on over to Wyoming, we have REAL hills here.

Here....everything I own is paid for, so I am not leaving....

That's how my wife ended up in Anchorage for 35 years. Her father was Air Force. He spent 25 years trying to get to AK and finally did for his final hitch before he retired.

Well you hit the timeframe for my memories perfect. Always thought it was nice place except for the smell. Sounds like it's improved so I'll keep it on my list of places to go.

Saw this on Google news. Seems relative to your question.

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/ret...spx?ec_id=cmct_01_comm_PF_image_headline

That was an interesting link. Like the man said . . . If you're in a position to choose, "What kind of lifestyle would you like around you?"

Interesting to note that almost all of those states have lower that average crime rates, some of them WAY lower, yet these same states have the nation's fewest draconian gun laws. How is this possible?

There is a lot I like about Nebraska, and our son and his family live there, but the taxes are a deal killer, especially for retirees. Iowa never held much appeal for me, never felt like home; seems you have to be a native to appreciate it. Inheriting a farm and being a Cyclone or Hawkeye fan helps.

Midwest weather sucks.

We've been in SW Utah for a year, love it. Very gun-friendly too; seems Mormons don't have any problem with guns.

To each his own.

Paul

I retired about 12 and a half years ago at 51 years old to a place where my house was paid for. We have fishing for lakers, walleys, and northerns and bass 1/4 mile from our front door, and I have shot a moose 140 yards from my back doorstep. Five does walk through the yard most every day, and there are always a few noce bucks to be seen. Other than that, nothing to really hold us here, though.

I think I'll quit working next year at 65.

Why go anywhere? We retire where we live.

Of course it'll hopefully involve long summers and falls in Alaska for the "vacation" every year.

But i'd not want to move again. Moved once out of Houston when I was a kid. Couldn't have been more thankful.
Moved from Moms down to a trailer about 200 yards... then about 75 to a house. All on our property.

Of course I wished we were even more remote in many ways. And that we couldn't see houses. Used to not see any, but can see 1 now, 2 or 3 if we look really hard from the right place...

I think it is a shame to have lived ones entire life in the same place. Folks that have do not know, at all, what they have missed.

The real shame is that I have lived my whole life in Montana and you don't know what you missed...

LOW taxes, sun, few gun laws, sun, cost of living, low humidity, sun, ---Oh, and did I mention sun??

You just did a pretty good job of describing SW Utah, where we moved a year ago.

It isn't utopia, and the Mormon influence isn't to everybody's liking or comfort, but it's working for us. Sure love the sunshine and scenery (including as a bonus factor the two legged variety).

Desperately in need of good gunsmithing, but that's the case just about everywhere.

Paul

I agree, everyone needs to retire and go to Utah.

IF I were to move it would be a little further south and west to be closer to some friends, but no more than 150-200 miles at the most. in the mean time the Black Hills aren't a bad place to be.

One of the "secrets" about Utah is that its reputation for being overwhelmingly Mormon and conservative seems to keep it from being overrun with liberal immigrants, despite its attractions. Lots of Californians, but the ones I've met and made friends with are good people with solid traditional values. I lived in Colorado for over 25 years, and I've seen the changes. Colorado in the 60s and 70s was as close to utopia as I've ever experienced, but that is gone forever.

One of the biggest contrasts with Colorado is the dearth of bars in Utah, especially in the resort areas. Can't even find a pizza joint where you can have a beer. Weird, even for a light drinker like me.

Paul

(drool)...

SD is my first choice.. And when weather sux there I'd just hook up the toy hauler to the PU and head south to TX or AZ... I've seen sun in those places... That's a rare commodity in these parts lately..

Easy, I was already living there. Born here as a matter of fact. Place has been in my family since 1889, deeded, I don't know when they moved here but it was after the civil war. miles

SD is where I'll stay! However, AZ may be my wintering grounds in a couple of years, when I get old (ha ha). I have family in both AZ and SD and family is important. But freedom and hunting is too. I feel free in SD and in AZ. I never have felt free in the damn liberal states, especially when I have to pay their damn taxes or had to worry if I might be breaking their damn gun laws. I've lived in New York, Virginia, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas, Nebraska, So Dakota, North Dakota, Monatana, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and California. I've also lived in Africa, Australia, Guyana, Peru and Guatemala. I've visited Florida and New Mexico a lot and Europe a few times. I've hunted in other states.

If I didn't have family here in SD and in AZ. Wyoming and Monatana would be great for me also, then maybe Idaho. And if I had to carry a pistol to feel safe against two legged varmints that would rule it out also.

I am one of those Nor Cal dudes in that rut.

I desperately want to move to western Wyoming, but I would need to divorce my wife and lose at least half of my net worth to do so.

How can you not understand this type of situation Ed? Are you single?

My wife a has a bunch of extremely close friends here, an ailing mother, grandkids and doesn't much like cold and snow.

I'm pretty much f.u.c.k.e.d. unless I just load up all my s.h.i.t. and take off and find a room for rent or a small apartment in some town there.

Here, even though I'm surrounded by people and politics I despise, I do have a little sanctuary in the mountains and believe I'm better off than many who live in some subdivision or urban environment in a red state.
I still have better hunting and fishing than many who post here.

Though it seems to be over priced a bit, I was drooling over this little retreat that I found and found myself daydreaming about it muchly.
I've heard about some of the area's commodities including it's notoriously violent wind storms but I love this area.

http://html5.obeo.com/?tourid=879794&ver=0.060

Happily married for 27 years with three sons. After college my wife moved from SoCal to my town in NorCal where my parents (Italians) also lived. They both advised soon after I started my career to go see the country, the world and worry not about them. So we started that journey in 1996 leaving California for West Texas with boys in tow. Since then we have lived in a four or five others including Alberta and Queensland, Oz. Myself alone in a few other places. We visited family whenever we could, either us heading to see them or they heading over to see us. All worked fine, really. Today only my Father is alive at 84. My siblings are scattered too, one in Pennsylvania and the other bouncing between SoCal and Ontario Canada. I will retire to my places in Idaho and Texas in a year and take trips to see Dad, my brother and sister and my old buddies from years ago still in California. It will be fine too. That said, I suppose such a life is not for everybody. It just worked for us.

Are there fish in that stream?

Congrats to you Ed, you are a lucky guy.

I'm married to a great woman, but she simply doesn't follow politics and due to the fact that we have a nice home in the country with few neighbors, she doesn't get bothered by what goes on outside our "island" , maybe I need to follow her lead.
There are many who would pay money to drive my scenic commute to work each day and we have some of the most mild weather on the planet, but alas it is Kalifornica.

Everybody makes choices.

I enjoyed traveling for jobs but now wouldn't consider it. My father traveled Mon-Fri when I was growing up. Missed a lot of time with him. Now I have a son and would happily live with less so I can be with him everyday.

The plan is to have a place in the SE and a place up here in the PNW for retirement.

If there is anything illustrated by this sort of thread, it's the fundamental truth of the saying:

"To each his own".

That said, I find particularly interesting the observations of those who've lived in several different places. I'm happy for those who brag that they'll live and die in the same place their entire lives, but it doesn't provide me with much in the way of helpful information.

Paul

decide for yourself.

the dakotas and wyoming are always toted as the best for retirees, low taxes, no income tax and very conservative states. yes we get winter, some places worse than others. lots to hunt and fish and see out here.

that said we don't want a bunch of people flocking here, especially from liberal states.

Again, I think it is FAR more important to know where you DON'T want to live. So long as you don't end up in one of those places you are by default living someplace where you do want to live.

It's going to get harder and harder to prevent a bunch of Kaliforicators, New Yawkers, refugees from Seattle, etc, from flocking in, they just keep coming and ruining what's here, just look at Colorado as an example, Colorado used to be a wonderful place 30-40 years ago. The trouble with all these newcomers is they come out here to escape where they are, then as soon as they get here they start in changing "here" into the place they just left.

That too.

I grew up in small towns and have lived in big cities and, while I can't say I hate either, I choose not to live in them at this stage of my life. I find the best balance to be small to medium size cities, but it has to be the right environment.

One of my quirks is that I don't relate well to provincialism, but sometimes you have to compromise and put up with some such things to get your priorities.

Such is life.

Paul

If you would prefix the word Kalifornicators with the word liberal, you would have it right.

With all due respect you ain't any more special than the guys I run with, they are as hard core as anyone born & bred in your place of residence and hate the liberal, pot smoking treehuggers worse than you do because they are forced to live with so many of them.

Town/area location/size has nothing to do with provincialism in my experience. I too am not a fan of it, but people are just as provincial, if not more so in Boston as they are in Wynne, AR.

The only difference I've found, is that those in bigger cities are less aware of their provincialism whilst those in small towns don't know what the word means.


Weather was important for me. I wanted 4 seasons with none of the extremes. Sorry, I'm not doing 30 below and 4' of snow just as I'm not doing 10 months of 90 degree weather.

Of course no income tax and low property taxes were also high on the list. I can't fathom giving $10K a year in property taxes and paying income tax to a state that wants to register my guns. It's akin to having sent your kid to Micheal Jackson's Neverland Ranch for a sleepover.

I'm now living in a small town near a larger city. It used to be considered the sticks, trailer homes, rural, and sort of looked down on. Its beautiful setting is an attraction, and there are a lot of high end places going in. One such enclave is sort of artsy-fartsy, and a current local issue is coyote trapping. Predictably, the banners are mostly newcomers, not the traditional locals.

I'm a newcomer, but my sentiments are more with the established locals. I don't believe in moving to a place and trying to change it, or expecting to be accomodated. I'm old school that way.

Paul

Yep on that.

To put a fine point on it, it depends somewhat on how you define something like provincialism.

Paul

Here is a kid from California that will be a newcomer to a different western state next week.
Worried about him wanting to change your state?....

Will he be looking for a job in law enforcement?

He was hired as a strike team wildfire fighter.
He will be fighting forest fires all over the west this summer.

Just curious as to how you picked Wynne, AR. miles

Nice! Good for him. Sounds like some good old hard work.

Thanks MM.
He's a tough kid that learned the benefits that come from hard work long ago.
I will worry about him a bit though as there are certainly safer career choices, but he loves that line of work and has been on some pretty big fires already as a volunteer.

He'll be based out of Nevada but will be on call if needed elsewhere.

I'll miss him dearly but hope he finds a place to settle somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.

Wife and I retired in Southern Colorado, for the following reasons:
1. Cost of living
2. Proximity to fishing (15 min. to Pueblo Reservoir and Ark River)
3. Inexpensive real estate
4. Near our farm, with hunt opportunities for wild turkey, whitetail deer, ducks, geese, dove
5. Near mountains
6. 15 min. from a first-class shooting range
7. Not too far from family in the Denver area
8. Lots of sunshine, relatively (usually) mild winters
9. Community is relatively friendly to gun ownership, shooting sports, hunting, etc.- we recalled our anti-gun senator last year!

Speaking of provincialism, I lived in Pueblo for some eight years in the 70s and 80s and, whatever its attractions, it was one of the most provincial places I have ever been, despite being about 100K population.

An attorney I worked with had a couple of pithy observations on that point. He said:

A true Puebloan believes that if you drive north of Pinon (small burg on I-25 toward Colorado Springs), you'll fall off the edge of the earth.

If I ran for local office, the high school I graduated from would matter more than my law school.

It is nice that they now have a decent gun club and range. There was none when I lived there.

There was no shortage of local "characters", mostly related to politics. I have more stories from that brief period in Pueblo than from any other place I have lived, for much longer. Boring it wasn't.

Paul

Sounds like a great guy, you can be proud. Folks of his quality and background are always welcome here.

Thank you JN, Didn't mean to get snappy with you, I'm sure we could be good neighbors.

No worries. I lived in Sacramento for 6 years when I was still in the AF, left there in 78 and it was getting crazy then. Moved to my wife's hometown in Susanville where we lived while I went to the gunsmith school, so I am familiar with the Northern California area and the people there. Wish you guys good luck with your secession.

Arbitrarily, though I thought it prudent to pick 2 places I've done more than just driven through.

my folks left almost that exact area. only they were 30 minutes from pueblo reservoir and 56 minutes from the arkansas river.

I'm curious to where you moved from if there RE was cheaper and a lower cost of living.

you couldn't pay me enough to move back to colorado

Here is a prime example of it:

I was at a BBQ in Florida and talking with a man about my age (this was a dozen years ago, so we were in our mid-30's). He asked where I was previously stationed and I told him Alaska. I mentioned how much I enjoyed Alaska and that I was looking forward to returning.

He never asked a single question about Alaska, all he said was "I can't imagine that Alaska has anything that Jackson County doesn't have"

To which I replied "You're right, you can't imagine it"

man, that's a gorgeous place.

Colorado1135,

My wife and I moved to our present location after living in the Castle Rock area for a number of years. Real estate was markedly higher than where we live now- in fact, we made a fair chunk of money buying and selling RE in that area in an escalating market. As far as cost of living goes- a lot of it was simply related to having to drive to Denver to work every day, and the price of gasoline and wear and tear on vehicles.
At our present location, I do contract work, involving computers and phones- cuts down on driving!

woowee! yeah I can see how it would be much cheaper than CR, that place has exploded in the last 10 years.
it's too bad Colorado has changed so much. I used to live in Penrose

I just hated only being able to draw a deer or elk tag every other year.

I have spent a lot of time there during my surveying career. I thought it strange for the Coast Guard. miles

I was stationed in Memphis but did a bit of duck hunting in Wynne.

Western Colorado is still a pretty good place to be. Sure there are a bunch of liberals and we have a bunch of new laws I don't care for but I am WEST of the divide. That makes all the difference. Being surrounded by public land from 11,000 feet to the Utah border makes up for the liberals. And like others My Wife wouldn't want to move.

That's a fact. I knew I didn't want to live in the east. I knew I didn't want to live in Washington, Oregon or California, so that eliminated several. Than to decide which of the states left make the most sense.

That makes sense. I forget about the Navy and I guess Coast Guard being in Memphis. miles

OK, this is the little Spanish town me and the wifey are
considering for retirement. Rota, Spain (west of Gibraltar on
the Costa de la Luz) There is a Naval base there with a nice
hospital. We are looking at a house one block in from the
beach, called Costillo Beach. One of the nicest in southern
Europe. It is located in the first photo on the far left
side. You can see an access street to the beach (the property
is close to that road, one block inland.) There are an
endless number of properties for sale at rock bottom prices.



This photo shows the prominade along the length of the Costillo
beach. Nice place to go for a walk every morning (for health
reasons of course! ;))



In this photo you can see the Naval Base in the background and
the air facility. Thi is a secondary beach called Rompadillo.




Back in the day . . .

We're about 20 years out from retirement, so at this point the criteria is:

1) Close to where ever the kids settle down and start their families. If they all stay in AK as planned, then we'll stay hear.

2) What funds allow. If we can swing, I'd say summers in AK and winters in the Bahamas. It's a great dream, but cash intensive. I envision working part time doing consulting work vs. completely retiring so that should help with the required funds. If I'm too feeble to work part time, I don't see the need for massive funds for traveling.

3) We plan to travel, so that will cover the cultural and gastronomic needs. We're decent cooks so having good restaurants nearby is not really an issue.