Where to retire - What's your dream?

Discussion Open Forum
1

I hear that. Good job and good luck![/quote]
I plan on Australia, Taiwan and a 3rd country, maybe Italy. Somewhere I can have a house perched on a cliff overlooking clear blue ocean. I wonder how many of us have similar plans in that they intend to combine their home country with 1 or 2 more. We could start a time share.[/quote]
I want to live somewhere amidst BC’s Gulf Islands. One direct flight away from Taiwan and from Toronto, where my folks live. The air is clean, the scenery spectacular, and the cost of living - well, probably cheaper than the states! This is a property I saw for sale recently. Looks perfect! Click here for the video! Even better! :slight_smile:

2

$1.65 million. Are you an English teacher Maoman? Maybe it’s time for me to get back into teaching. That’s a nice place. And with all those guest suites, there’s plenty of room for all the inlaws that will move in with you. :wink:

Actually, my younger bro has already got a house somewhat along the same line of your dream place. He’s an architect/builder and built his own house on Whidbey Island, a half-hour ferry ride from Seattle. The house is on 40 acres in beautiful forest and you can’t see any neighbors’ house from their place (although that mightn’t be so bad, because the closest neighbors are good friends) but you can see the ocean, where they go kayaking and see whales, eagles, otters, etc. My bro also has a crab trap that he’ll check from his kayak when he’s out catching salmon. Of course there are plenty of good trails for running and biking. The island is home to lots of wacky earth people like them. And they’ll often take off for a weekend of hiking, kayaking or skiing close by. And he’s not even retired yet, but has been fortunate enough to find lots of interesting construction work (strawbale houses, yurts, etc) to keep him busy on the island. But he’s only 43 years old. I suspect in another 20 years he’ll have grown tired of the place and moved on.

My main questions about your place and my brothers as retirement venues are (1) will the cold wet weather be too much for arthritic geriatric joints and (2) are they too secluded? I don’t know, just wonder.

But I’m also looking at the Pacific Northwest presently (not that I’m anywhere near retiring). My last job was just terminated and I’ve applied for lots of jobs in SF, Portland and Seattle (among other places). The Portland area looks great to me. Nice mid-sized city with arts and culture, but just minutes away from lots of affordable homes with large lots, trees, wilderness and privacy. And houses cost 2/3 what they cost in California.

On the other hand, if one wants a warm dry climate, San Diego is beautiful. Or, if one wants a cheaper and more exotic warm climate, I have a good friend whose folks retired in Baja, Mexico and they love it. Warm ocean, good mexican food, lazy pace. Another guy I know, a former attorney, has retired in Phuket after visiting there for 20 years and running a diving business there. That sounds reaaaally good, but. . . somehow I don’t see it happening for me.

3

What happened to southwestern Europe, a castle in portugal anyone?

4

I spent many a days in this neighborhood. I tried to talk Mom into keeping Grandmother’s house.

realestateincambria.com/photogallery/

MJB…you know this place, don’t you? :wink:

5

There’s a little place in the south of Equador called Vilcabamba. A river, forests, mountains, farms, and really nice people and cheap to live. It’s right on the edge of a pretty cool national park, too. It boasts of the highest life expectancy in South America with many people to be claiming to be over 100 years old. There’s a cafe, a couple of grocery stores, a sugarcane plantation and not much else.

Man, would I ever like to go back to South America. The way I spend money it looks like an option. Canada sure isn’t. Who can afford to live there?

drc

6

i think i might spend my final days on the north coast of Honduras. incredibly beautiful caribbean waters and very low cost of living. i could build a nice place cheaply and enjoy the wonderful culture there.

scuba diving, mountain climbing and ending each day with a rum & coke or two sounds like heaven to me.

7

Himalayas. Somewhere that speaks Tibetan and Nepali.

8

I hear you. I hate it when I ask for a McDonald’s Happy Meal in Nepali and they just like look at me thinking," Dude, what the fuck is rolling out of your mouth? I can’t understand I thing you are saying". :laughing:

Sorry SJ, I couldn’t resist. :blush:

EDITED: Wow, the word, “fuck” actually made it through the auto-borg. I thought for sure it would have been translated to something like, “pleasant fornicating activity” or something like that.

9

Looks like Maoman and I will be neighbors when we’re old. I plan to retire to the Gulf Islands too. That Pender property is too expensive though. You should be able to get the same (with a little less land perhaps) for half that. Property values on the west coast are being kept artificially high because of mainland Chinese money. Just wait till their economy takes a dive in a few years and you’ll see property values come down to what they were in the late 90s.

But yeah, the Gulf Islands. What a paradise. Half the rainfall of Vancouver but all the natural beauty. And some of the best feta cheese in the world is made here. :slight_smile:

10

[quote=“Durins Bane”]I spent many a days in this neighborhood. I tried to talk Mom into keeping Grandmother’s house.

realestateincambria.com/photogallery/

MJB…you know this place, don’t you? :wink:[/quote]

Yup…this was a must stop for us on our many trips camping in Big Sur.

I don’t care where as long as I have an ocean view and access to a decent spearfishing spot…The Canada thing looks wonderful and part of my family has already migrated to the southern end of the San Juan Islands. But 49 degree ocean temps? A drysuit just to jump in the water? My old creaky joints could never handle that, so it’s someplace warm, tropical and cheap for me…

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[quote=“MJB”][quote=“Durins Bane”]I spent many a days in this neighborhood. I tried to talk Mom into keeping Grandmother’s house.

realestateincambria.com/photogallery/

MJB…you know this place, don’t you? :wink:[/quote]
Yup…this was a must stop for us on our many trips camping in Big Sur.

I don’t care where as long as I have an ocean view and access to a decent spearfishing spot…The Canada thing looks wonderful and part of my family has already migrated to the southern end of the San Juan Islands.[/quote]
Great. Muzhaman and I can visit you guys in the winter, and in the summer you can come up and enjoy Canadian island life.

Note to self: Must make money. Lots and lots of money.

12

Just use your common sense. A lot of people bought multi-million dollar houses on the beaches here and now all they have is multi-million dollar piles of trash. :frowning:
I bought on high ground a far (1/2 mile) distance from the water so I enjoy the beach but my house is still standing! :smiley:

13

Wow . . . . those properties (Canada & Central Cali) look great. Expensive. Others have stated dreams of retiring further south in Mexico or Central America where it’s warmer and cheaper. Couple of questions for the latter:

Do you habla espanole? (Obviously I don’t, I’m sure I’ve msp)
Have you checked out the health care?

I would love to have a home, maybe retire to one of these spots, but the concern about health care gets to me. You won’t necessarily be as healthy as you are now, and will you have access to care there?

What do you all think? Nothing to worry about?

Bodo

14

[quote=“Bodo”]You won’t necessarily be as healthy as you are now, and will you have access to care there?

What do you all think? Nothing to worry about?[/quote]

I think retiring is a bad idea. I’d like to be able to continue doing some work indefinitely. Keeping active helps you keep healthy.

I also think that it’s good that so many people intend to buy close to the water. I’ll be able to come and visit. Here’s an approximation of my retirement home, which will have a crew of 5 bikini girls - which will also help me stay healthy and happy.

15

Until they get seasick and stick their mouths and asses overboard every five minutes :wink:

16

True. The Central CA link includes two property listings: a “cute” (ie. small) 2 bedrm cottage for $450,000 and a 3 bedrm for almost $700,000. That’s what properties cost in California, which is why I’m now looking at Portland (not for retirement but for now).

[quote]Others have stated dreams of retiring further south in Mexico or Central America where it’s warmer and cheaper. Couple of questions for the latter:

Do you habla espanole?[/quote]

Not a problem. Just add an “o” or an “a” to the end of most words and you’ll do fine.

Actually, my friend’s parents who retired in Baja speak fluent spanish, my friend who retired in Phuket speaks fluent Thai, and my parents know an elderly American couple who spend half the year in Colorado and half the year at their place in Italy and I believe they speak decent Italian. I think you raised a good point: if one lives there for a prolonged period one would want to speak the language.

[quote]Have you checked out the health care?

I would love to have a home, maybe retire to one of these spots, but the concern about health care gets to me. You won’t necessarily be as healthy as you are now, and will you have access to care there?[/quote]

Another good point. It’s one thing for a bunch of 20 something and 30 something year olds to dream of living on tropical beaches or on secluded islands, but you’re right. By the age of 50 or 60 or 70 such healthcare concerns will be more important.

My parents are in their mid-70s and live in a beautiful house in the SF Bay Area, with beautiful wood floors, a nice kitchen, private yard and outstanding view of the bay. I’m sure they’d like to live there till they die. But the stairs up from the garage will soon be too much for them, soon they won’t be able to (or more accurately shouldn’t) be driving, so how will they get groceries, go to the post office or the doctor. And in typical American fashion, our family is spread out thousands of miles apart, with one son in Seattle one in Denver and one in Taipei. So they can’t rely on us for assistance. Consequently, I believe in the next year or two they’ll start looking at old-folks homes. Maybe that subject doesn’t belong in this thread on “dream” retirement plans, but it’s the reality. Fortunately, for those who can afford it, I believe there are some fairly nice retirement homes in beautiful locations like La Jolla (prime San Diego oceanfront location) with good food good service and hopefully decent companions.

I agree that a tropical beach or a sailboat with bikini babes sounds preferable, but if one can’t climb upstairs, gets confused and leaves the stove on or can’t remember how to get out of the room, then sadly the above may be more realistic eventually, in addition to the need for simple access to decent affordable healthcare as noted.

17

I want to stop being so fucking ordinary and become smarter and be somebody totally amazing like Timothy Leary and end life in Tokyo in a wonderfully expensive apartment with eight cats, completely supported (financially) by my fans who adore me just because I am so completely out there and fabulous, but who leave me alone just because I say I want to be left alone. And I want to be so bloody ugly that I am actually beautiful, and I will write, make movies, discover new pathways in the brain, invent a way to breed people with purple eyes (a whole race of Alexandria’s Genesis!) and be a sex goddess until the day I die on my 180th birthday.

18

Spend the spring-summer-early autumn on or near a Mediterranean island, either Greece or Croatia because it’s cheaper than Italy or Spain, go for a walk along the beach in the morning, have breakfast, lunch and dinner outside, at a table with view over the sea, spend most of the day writing on a laptop, reading, going for walks.

I’ll have to win the lotto before I can afford that, though.
Right now, it looks more likely I’ll be spending the rest of my life in Taiwan, a dozen floors up, with a great view but not much more in the way of enjoyment. I keep dreaming, though.

19

http://www.escapeartist.com

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That is what I have in mind as well. I’ve just been told Croatia has some of the same beautiful spots as Italy and Greece when talking about Ocean side living.

As long as the political situation is reasonably stable it could work out cheaper. Better if there is an expat community to mix with as well.