Well, you are full of good questions today
I only have 1 sister still living in IL. My wife has her family here.
Yes, the cost of living here is high. I have many clients who have or will retire in other states. Maybe my thinking will change later BUT these are my thoughts now - I will have worked for 22 years to pay off my house in Huntington Beach. I have killed myself with 1-2 hour traffic for those years & it will be 30-35 years by time I retire. Between kids games & work, I really haven't spent much time, relaxing & enjoying HB.
HB is a great place with perfect (for me) weather. Weather is 24/7/365. So if something that you like every second of every day is good, why change? I grew up in IL & I HATE the cold - that's why I chose to go to school out here.
When I retire, I won't be driving as much, so the traffic won't be much of an issue. The way I figure it, why kill yourself to live in HB & pay for a house & when you can retire & enjoy it, then move away from what you have worked for.?
Again, my thinking, along with health & other factors may change, but right now that is the way I am looking at it. Who knows???
HB does sound like the perfect place to retire. Weather and family. When your family gets older it will fall into place for you. Retiring too soon without money saved and invested would take everything away from all you’ve worked so hard for. We have too much family to move anywhere else. This family helps their family like nothing I’ve ever seen. We’re very blessed.
SoCal has the most perfect weather.
We had family there, many decades ago. I loved visiting them....going to the beach, great restaurants...and, walking out into their back yard and picking so many fresh fruits, just for a snack or meal.
I wish there were a way for conservatives to take back the once GREAT state, of CA.
I can deram, can’t I?
Totally understandable.
But who knows what CA will become in the next 15 to 20 years and you may be really ready for a move.
“Again, my thinking, along with health & other factors may change, but right now that is the way I am looking at it. Who knows???”
Sounds like you have a plan with good reasons, but with some flexibility in case things change. Great idea!
We were going to stay in California, retire in the mountains. When hubby turned 67. Social Security age. But I did the calculations and if he actually worked till 67 he would pay in hundreds of thousands of dollars and only get about $40,000 back, if he lived to 85. And that’s only his part $200k+, with his employer the government gets over $400k. Between that, his boss being unethical and wanting him to falsify environmental records, and liberals taking over the cabin community, our plans changed. He decided to retire at 53 instead. And we move to Tennessee not knowing a soul. But knowing it was drop dead gorgeous there and there had to be conservatives there based on the last hundred years of voting. Even when the South voted Democrat, this area voted Republican.