Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How do you decide where to retire?

(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?