Been talking retirement options

Shelly and I were having dinner last Friday and the topic came up . So far Co, Maybe the Denver area is in the lead. I like SW Co but she likes big city's plus it's close to her brother. And we both have a number of friends there. So all I need to do now is get Jarrod ready to take over and wait for Shelly to retire from the County.

My wife is from Colorado (Montrose is the nearest city). We used to go back for 3 weeks every year. Her brother really enjoyed being "tour guide" so I have seen a lot of the state---probably more than many Coloradoins (Is that a word?). It is a beautiful part of the world.

Lots of luck with your plans.

Enjoy,

JimB

Jim The only part I have really visited is the SW corner where my aunt had a resort at Valsida ? Lake outside Durango . Beautiful country.

I only got one thing to say and for me it's four letter word S N O W. and I don't like the other four letter word C O L D.

Geez Don, you have more inclement weather than we do these days....but when you have heat, boy do you have heat

Dave Hawksford said:

... plus it's close to her brother.

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I'm a long way away from that time myself, but over and over I see/hear how the proximity of family makes a big difference as you age.

Interestingly same discussion is happening at our house.



Being overly analytical types we made a spreadsheet of criteria that seemed somewhat important to us. Obviously not all of them are equally weighted and some are proxies for other things that seem related in our minds.

For us the top criteria really boiled down to:

1. Could we afford to get the sort of property we want (this weirdly varies by region) in that area
2. Sunny and warm enough, loml is from S. CA and AZ, the northern winter thing is contentious.
3. Would we enjoy living there (community, etc..)
4. Other stuff

Items #1 and #2 drop a lot of the country off of the list. I'd really like a few acres and we're not rich so.. yeah.

Denver is just a cold and snowy city. Go 50 - 150 miles more west on I-70 and get into the mountains. Still cold (mostly colder) and very snowy but very beautiful.

Ryan Mooney said:

Interestingly same discussion is happening at our house.



Being overly analytical types we made a spreadsheet of criteria that seemed somewhat important to us. Obviously not all of them are equally weighted and some are proxies for other things that seem related in our minds.

For us the top criteria really boiled down to:

1. Could we afford to get the sort of property we want (this weirdly varies by region) in that area
2. Sunny and warm enough, loml is from S. CA and AZ, the northern winter thing is contentious.
3. Would we enjoy living there (community, etc..)
4. Other stuff

Items #1 and #2 drop a lot of the country off of the list. I'd really like a few acres and we're not rich so.. yeah.

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Hey Ryan. How about 40 acers in Arizona for 16,000. Be glad to sell it to ya, as i have no intention of ever moving back to a desert. It is in a realtors hands right now.

My wife and have been very close to purchasing property south of Montrose Co- and the water restriction in Colorado has moved our desire to North of Santa Fe NM -- in the mountains and really pretty--

colorado springs has great hunting close by dave and a full size airport and a good hospital.

Stephen Bellinger said:

Hey Ryan. How about 40 acres in Arizona for 16,000. Be glad to sell it to ya, as i have no intention of ever moving back to a desert. It is in a realtors hands right now.

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Well I lived in the Phx area for a bit over 9 years and I can sympathize with your desire to not move back to the desert. Warm is nice, 120F is no longer warm! And frankly I've chipped enough holes in caliche to put a tree in to feel pretty good about skipping over that. I'm guessing if its in an area where 40a is 16k the water situation is likely "interesting" (somewhere between none, hey look my well is delivering salt water, and worse) based on previous experiences .

Weirdly Hawaii isn't actually as bad as it first seems. Sure property is 2x as expensive for 1/8 the amount but you can grow things year round and ever place of any size at all (1 acre+) has an ohana (or 3, only one is legal.. but.. yeah) that you can rent for ~20k/year which covers a lot of the property cost difference and diversifies income long term. Note: I am well aware of the downsides of being a landlord so that's a definite mark on the con column. Culturally its not for everyone, but I lived there for 3 years and still have a bunch of friends so have overcome some small part of that hurdle (just don't get in a hurry to do anything, be prepared to "lubricate" all transactions with a case of beer and you'll mostly do ok - you can't live/eat like you're on the mainland.. because you're not). Might have to go full neander with the power rates though

Also in the running are some locations in the SE, they fail on some of the locality parts (family is all NW which is contrary to lomls warmth and sunlight criteria) but do well in some other areas re: cost/capabilities.

Heck I'll throw the whole list of "interesting attributes" (so far) out there; might spark some ideas anyway.

travel family (days)
tax rates (1 best, 3 worst)
growing season days
airport proximity (hours)
climate zone
homebrew store w/i 1 hr? (could add wwing or <other hobby> here.
snow "/yr
rainfall "/yr
sunny days
air quality index - 100 is best
other air quality index(lower better)
cost of living (100 average) entertainment
acreages in price range
violent crime (1 is low)
property crime (1 is low)
climate comfort index (100 is good)

Additional Disclaimer: in my case at least "retirement" is misstating it, perhaps more "alternatively lower income arrangement in trade for commensurate stress levels" would be more accurate, still plenty to do.

Paul Gallian said:

My wife and have been very close to purchasing property south of Montrose Co- and the water restriction in Colorado has moved our desire to North of Santa Fe NM -- in the mountains and really pretty--

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A similar climate is in parts of Shasta County in CA. Property there isn't as ridiculous as most of the rest of CA, but you have the rest of it (high taxes across the board, etc..).

Stephen Bellinger said:

Hey Ryan. How about 40 acers in Arizona for 16,000. Be glad to sell it to ya, as i have no intention of ever moving back to a desert. It is in a realtors hands right now.

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Got any game on it.

Ryan all i know about this place,is my inlaws bought it about 5 years ago. When they passed this year my wife inherited it. I do know that is in the foot hills of coronado national forest, in Chicahua mts. There's nothin on the place, but that's what they payed for it, so that's what my wife is asking.

Dave if it's anything like the mts around where we lived in NM, which ain't to far. There was a lot of good hunting. Deer, moose, elk even big horn sheep. lot of good hunting.

That's what I am looking for.

You should take a look at SW Missouri. You have the 4 seasons and they are not that bad Hunting ( I live within 2 miles of a Deer and Quail ranch) Lakes and stream everywhere so fishing is Great, Low cost of living and taxes entertainment in Branson. Where I live its only 20 min to the airport or 3 to 3 1/2 hr to Tulsa, Kansas City or St Louis. Really kicked back here

If all my family wasn't so close by I'd defiantly seriously consider moving to someplace with a milder winter and a summer with no humidity.

I'm about 150 miles SE of where Jay lives. To do it over, the Arkansas Ozarks would still be the choice. Lower living costs, beautiful country, doesn't have the extremes of weather, great fishing and hunting, etc.
However, being a retirement area, we do see a lot of retirees who come here then leave in a year or two because the wife wants big city amenties and huge shopping malls. Those are at least 200 miles away. Pa wants to hunt and fish. Ma wants to shop. Want to stay married to Ma? Go where she wants. It's that simple.