Funny you mention that (about family).
My middle daughter moved to a suburb of Phoenix, and my olderst, just two weeks ago, moved to southeast LOUISVILLE, KY!!!!
I practically go by their house every day on my way home from work. Yeah, the one drawback Is my 150 mile round trip commute. But it’s worth it, since I’m averaging 70 mph on the whole thing. :)
We absolutely love it here. And the ANNUAL property taxes on our 32 acres with a home, barn, shed, and two creeks, is less than one months Toyota Camry payment. And when we turn 65 it goes down about another 25%.
Oh, and though this is an income tax state, it doesn’t apply to SS. Not one cent. It’s like you never received the money, even if you still work and earn a good income.
If you’ve been well employed your entire life, you can live quite comfortably here on SS alone, even more so if both of you were.
However, if there was no such thing as air conditioning, I would not live here.
Visited a friend in backwoods Tennessee recently, wonderful place, I need to figure out if I could swing it.
If I could just figure out how to live comfy and get my monthly expenses (including transportation, *taxes*, etc) below 2K/mo, I would so kiss the rat race goodbye.
(Sadly, while my house is paid off, between insurance and TX property taxes, my house isn’t paid off, Tax/Ins is 5K+ a year, and I don’t have a McMansion)
Very nice, I’m happy for you. I would love a farm, I have a couple greenhouses that I built and am growing my own fruits and vegetables and micro-greens. LOL about the air conditioner.