Where to Move? Time to Retire and Find a New Life.

01.15.18 | chickensoup

[Chickensoup]

The kids are grown and gone. I live in the Northeast. I am looking to move to a small city or town or village. I am healthy, happy and adaptable.

I would prefer a place that has a conservative base. Every location on the lists of best places to move are leftist s***holes.

I am hoping for a place with four seasons, albeit, not as severe as the northeast. Elevations are fine, beauty is important, and so is the need of good, friendly people.

Any ideas?

[Aquamarine]

Savannah Ga is on the coast and not prone to take a direct hit from a hurricane because of its curved coastline.
You could drive to Charleston SC for the weekend although NYC would be too far.

[wardaddy]

It’s a good spot

Friend of mine who passed lived there with his man o war docked behind house on pretty tannic water

Rebel road would sure beat the Henpeck lane I honestly live on now

[SuperLuminal]

"Have you narrowed down which handful of states that would be? LOL!"

Honestly, at my age (84) selecting now would be considerably different than when I retired. All my children, grandchildren, and great grand children live within 30-miles of the Chesapeake Bay so that is what keeps us here instead where we would really want to be otherwise.

However, if I was deciding NOW, the first criterion I'd apply would be to try and avoid all kinds of criminal theft through the "death" taxes.

Therefore, here is a list from taxfoundation.org data to help make this first very-important cut.

The following states have NO estate tax or inheritance tax:

• Alabama:
• Alaska:
• Arizona:
• Arkansas:
• California:
• Colorado:
• Florida:
• Georgia:
• Idaho:
• Indiana:
• Kansas:
• Louisiana:
• Michigan:
• Mississippi:
• Missouri:
• Montana:
• New Hampshire:
• North Dakota:
• Ohio:
• Oklahoma:
• South Carolina:
• South Dakota:
• Tennessee:
• Texas:
• Utah:
• Virginia:
• West Virginia:
• Wisconsin:
• Wyoming:

The following states have BOTH state tax and inheritance tax:

• Maryland
• New Jersey

Estate Tax only (With high-end ranges from 12% to 20%): OR / WA / MN / IL / MA / RI / CT / DE / DC / HI / VT

Inheritance Tax only (With high-end ranges from 15% to 16%): PA / NE / IA / KY

[SuperLuminal]

See # 483

[MarMema]

Yes, northwoods winters are great. Spent a lot of time in northern Minnesota, including winter. More sunshine and drier air than farther south encourages getting outdoors.

That's what it is! It can be five degrees, so bright and wonderful, and it just doesn't feel that cold. You go out to do something like fill birdfeeders and you look for another reason to stay outside because it feels wonderful.

Thanks for explaining it so well.

[Mr.Unique]

Heard it has one of the highest STD rates in the country.

Sure, but the are downsides too.

[CottonBall]

Nice research, thank you! We weren’t too worried about the death tax when we moved, but I guess we got lucky on that one.

I was more worried about being taxed while we are alive :-) although it’s definitely wrong to take other peoples money, and they have the right to leave it to anyone they want to, we always figured my son should be able to stand on his own 2 feet. So that just wasn’t the major consideration when picking a place to move.

[Thibodeaux]

ping

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Now that was funny.

[CottonBall]

“I have heard wind and flood insurance is just soaring for beach front property. That is my biggest fear. I don’t want to sink $10,000/year into insurance only to have it keep going up.“

you’re doing some excellent research here!

I have a bit of experience about windstorm insurance. When we lived in Corpus Christi, although we were not on the water, windstorm insurance was required. It was about $1200 a year for our 2000 square-foot house. But this was about 15 years ago. Many companies weren’t offering it and then you had to go to a government insurance which was even higher.

That insurance was on top of regular homeowners insurance! And flood insurance was on top of that. So if you wanted to be completely protected from the hurricane, you had to buy both wind storm and flood insurance, to the tune of about 2000 a year. If you could find a company that would offer it. Corpus Christi hadn’t had any hurricanes for a long time, but we had to pay higher rates because of all the other hurricanes that had happened. And that was long before these big ones.

We were having problems in the Sierras with fire insurance. Again, many companies are not offering it or would drop you at renewal time. So then you had to find a government insurance that was quite high. We had several neighbors that had to go that route.

I can’t believe we found a place with no natural weather issues. So far so good… House insurance cost us about 800 a year and that is for replacement value. With no additional riders required.

[steve86]

“laws and taxes will be as bad as CA or NY or WA”

WA has no income tax. Property taxes are middling. East of the Cascades is mostly conservative territory.

[BluH2o]

Western Colorado Mesa County. Approx. 295 days of sunshine annually, high desert type climate, four distinct seasons winters are generally mild, terrific vistas. Colorado River irrigates award winning vineyards and peach orchards, also other crops (if you get my drift ;). Mesa County is one of the more conservative counties in Colorado and voted for Trump. Much to the chagrin of the local paper, which, per usual in the journalistic world is top heavy with liberals.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I want to live on the coast but the conservative places are all in the south where I fear wind and flood insurance are pricing me out.

I was hoping to hear from some of the Beach Front Freepers what they pay in wind and flood insurance in Florida, along the Atlantic and along the Gulf.

It is hard to find people who will volunteer what they are paying for these things.

[CottonBall]

i suppose you can call some insurance companies, using an address you find on zillow?

[CottonBall]

oh we were on the gulf side in Texas. I suppose our rates would have been similar to the rest of the gulf since we were told rates were spread across the gulf to cover areas that had hurricanes, but that was before the big ones.

good luck!

i never cared for beaches so i suppose that’s a good thing in hindsight, lol

[OneHun]

Nice and important research work. Thanks.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Not a bad idea. Thanks for that.

[Paul R.]

Haha - yes, one time when I was in Canada... And when I was in the Philippines years ago (3 trips, 6 +weeks total), at least in the areas I was in, both rural and urban, there were few insects. I think I saw one mosquito the whole time. I assume all the chickens (not to mention geckos on the ceiling of an average home) must get a lot of ‘em.

The Northern Gulf coast sounds nice. But I’ll never be able to afford a $100k place, much less what you are describing. Caring for my parents is pretty much destroying what modest future I thought I had. Retiring to Bohol* (Philippines) at around age 80, if I last that long, may be the only choice left... :-(

*I’ve never seen it, but it looks nice. At least we might be able to get a place near the water (through a relative of my wife.)

[Trump Girl Kit Cat]

Medical care in the Philippines is AWFUL, be very careful before retiring there !!!! We have had a couple of freepers retire there and have passed away from seemingly simple illnesses!!!! They were much younger than 80 years old!!! Be VERY CAREFUL about leaving our country when it comes to medical care in your senior years!!!!

[Vaduz]

Agree mid west states are better.