I always joked that my retirement would kick-in the day the paramedics cut the skin-tight security uniform off my C-cups and failed to revive my clogged heart. For some reason I’m always old and wearing a security uniform in these scenarios. But… it appears a proper retirement might actually be possible. I’m skeptical about it, as is my nature, but the numbers seem to indicate it’s an actual possibility. Who could’ve predicted such a thing?
Oh, there are still five or so years to go, and many terrible things could happen between now and then. So, I’m not spiking the ball just yet. But it’s fun to dream and plan. And Toney and I are doing a lot of that now. It’s not the only thing we talk about, but it’s definitely in the rotation. Is it a threshold you’ve already crossed, or is it close enough to be a subject of discussion? I’d like to get some of your thoughts.
Like, where are you gonna live? We’re not planning to stay here, for various reasons. Mainly: snow and ice in the winter. Funk dat. Plus, there’s not a whole lot to do here. It’s not a terrible place, and it’s actually pretty good for raising kids. But we want our final chapter to be somewhere where there’s shit to do. And when I say shit, I mean a beach (maybe) and a vibrant beer and restaurant scene. And plenty of places to walk that are not straight up a steep grade, or down one. Cost of living is also a consideration, of course, and just the general quality of life.
The Myrtle Beach area is high on our list at the moment. Not Myrtle Beach itself, of course. We don’t crave that level of insanity (or crime). But somewhere close enough that we can dip in and out of the craziness. We’ve walked through many model homes around that area, and it’s appealing. But we don’t feel like we’ve even scratched the surface of the tip o’ the iceberg. We’re definitely open to other ideas.
What are your thoughts on a location for retirement? What criteria are you using? What’s important? Do you have any off-the-radar super-secret suggestions for us? Like I say, we’re still in the early stages of the hunt, and welcome all information.
And speaking of “here,” something occurred to me a few days ago that blew my mind a bit. I left West Virginia when I was a couple of months shy of my 23rd birthday. And we’ve lived here since early 2000. So… almost exactly the same amount of time. When I retire — if it happens — this will be the place I’ve lived the longest. Also, I was with Time-Warner for 17 years, and in November I will have been at my current job for 15 years! I’ve NEVER worked in the same building for that long, not even close; the TW run was in three different states. That shit is wild. To me, anyway. This chapter of our lives has clicked along at a terrifying tempo.
If you’ve moved around, like me, what places have you liked and disliked? I loved Atlanta, but that was when I was in my 20s. No way I could deal with that cluster-fuck at my current age. I have romantic feelings about it, but it’s because I was young and swinging for the fences when I lived there. California was not a favorite, and I have no desire to live there again. Too congested and expensive and one-seasony for me, thank you very much. I loved growing up in West Virginia, and will always be fond of it, but I can’t see myself returning permanently. The only place I’ve lived that’s a possibility for retirement is North Carolina. For some reason the Raleigh area is calling me a bit, Toney too. We’ll likely schedule a scouting expedition there, in the not too distant future.
Our previous scouting trip, to Tampa/St. Petersburg, was inconclusive. We weren’t blown away, to tell you the truth. It, like California, seemed ridiculously congested. Every time we had to go to Publix, or whatever, a substantial amount of time was sucked from our day. And it added to my blood pressure/teeth grinding problems. Also, people weren’t super-friendly, which was surprising. The South is generally filled with friendly folks, but I’m not sure Florida is really part of the South. Lotsa transplants, right? The trip didn’t disqualify that area, but it knocked it down the list.
What do you have on the whole general subject of retirement? Please share in the comments if you’re so inclined.
And before I call it a day here, I’ll share a couple of articles that list the “best places” to retire. Some of the selections are ridiculous, in my opinion. Completely ludicrous! Let me know your thoughts. Here’s one, and here’s another. I don’t know much, but could draw a line through many of those places, automatically. Sheesh.
Also, be sure to check out the podcast and the monthly column at Substack.
And I’ll see you guys again soon, very soon.
Have a great day, my friends!
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Welcome back, great post.
I’m a little closer than you are to retirement, by a couple of years, thanks to my company offering a ‘5-point’ bonus to those employees over a certain age. That means I don’t have to work 2.5 extra years to get full retirement, which at this point in my life is very exciting news.
When I retire, we will be staying right here in Wake Forest, so if you’re planning a swing through the Raleigh area come by for a beer. Plenty to do, not a ton of ‘terrain,’ and the beach is only a couple of hours away if you live in the eastern part of Wake County. Be prepared for ridiculous housing prices though; everything in this area has blown up.
I’m 2-4 years away from retirement. I’m vested enough to retire now (at age 61). In two years I’ll qualify for full lifetime medical benefits, but if I wait four years, my pension will be half my current salary.
We’ve lived in Santa Clarita (near Jeff’s old stomping grounds) for 25 years. My wife (who grew up in Florida) really wants to move to the Carolinas. Our daughter just got married a month ago and they moved to Utah, so that may pull us back in a westerly direction. Too soon to tell yet.
Jerry in WV says
My retirement date is April 30, 2023. I have 8 months to go. However, after March 10, I will only be working 1 day a week so I can burn up my annual leave. I plan to work with my replacement the month of February. I manage a State agency, so I want a smooth transition. With my military time included, I have 27 years of service. I will retire with full medical benefits and 54 percent of my salary. I will have mandatory retirement from the Selective Service System on May 1, 2025. This was an unpaid position that I was appointed to, in 2005, by President Bush. It is a 20 year appointment. I plan to remain in WV. My wife is already retired and our home is paid for. There are other things that keep us here as well, but we do hope to travel more than we have over the last few years.
Larry Nelson says
We are almost the same age, so we are also deep into the retirement planning as well. We sold our house in CA in the fall of 2020 (too early, left a ton of $ on the table) and bought a house in North Georgia (too late, the value doubled in a few years) at the base of the Appalachian trail. Thanks to our CA equity we paid cash for the home and are in the middle of a major remodel, without borrowing money. I still need to work until we get Medicare, so the next five years could be interesting. The major objective is to get out of California, where we still are renting a great townhouse, right on the water, in a great little town.
I just hit eligibility to retire now with full pension. But 7 years ago, we decided to build our dream retirement home in southern coastal Maine, which came with a hefty mortgage to pay. Maybe in 5 years I can retire, though we’re kind of living it now. We have beaches, restaurants, breweries, music venues, playhouses, lakes, rivers, mountains, and hiking trails. Portsmouth NH is next-door, and Portland or Boston is less than an hour away. Just bring snow tires.
We retired years ago. I didn’t want to leave my kids and grandkids, so we stayed in place until the upkeep took too much money and energy. First moved into a 3 Storey townhouse. Too many stairs, although we loved it there. Next moved to a 1-floor plan in an over 55 neighborhood. Lovely neighborhood, nice people, lots to do, and an area we are still familiar with. If we could move to the beach, I would, and Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach fits the bill nicely. Rarely any snow, flat ground, good restaurants, and nice beaches nearby.
Eugene B. Sims says
Brad, David I., and myself are “close by”…
Welcome back, Jeff! (I can’t help but notice that US News lists Scranton as one of the best places to retire.)
I recently turned 64, and while I do own a clarinet, I’m utterly incompetent on it. I’ve been eyeing retirement for a while now, and I’ll pull the trigger as soon as I can afford to. No pension for me; my dad worked at the same place for 30 years and had a pension, but those days are long gone.
I’m currently in northern Virginia, and I would kind of like to stay here: the house is paid for, and most of my friends are here. Plus, there’s a huge variety of music, arts, food, etc. But: the area is kind of expensive, and the summers are hot as balls. If I moved it would be north, not south. But I like the fact that there are hospitals nearby. We old people need to consider that. Also, there may come a day when I’m not able to drive. On that day, I don’t want to be living up on a mountain in the middle of nowhere.
Side note: you can adjust your age by changing the numbering system. In hexadecimal I’m 40, and in Celsius I’m almost 18.
I’ve got a ways to go before I can really see retiring. I will be 63 when my youngest graduates high school, so I’m not sure I won’t retire directly into a casket.
My wife had other plans. She wants to buy rental properties and fill a short term rental niche (1-3 months), like for corporate travel and such. We’ve dipped our toes in, so we’ll see. She imagines this will be our income stream in retirement.
I’m not even close to being a hippie, but my wife wants to pretend she is. We’ve discussed joining the Peace Corp as retirees. We’ve both got skills they want and from what I hear they generally send older couples to more cushy areas. I don’t know. Maybe.
As far as relocation, I don’t know. I’m in the north and while I’ve seen a lot of the country I’ve never pulled up stakes and lived anywhere out of state for more than a couple of weeks. I will say that winters are getting harder as I age.
There are a couple of problems I have with going south. The first is the result of the body composition study I did recently. It turns out I’m 87% butter and ice cream. While that makes me delicious, it also makes me very melty in situations of high heat/humidity.
The other thing is that in the north winter kills the bugs. I don’t see anything creepy crawly for 5-6 months a year. If I found one of those giant flying cockroaches in my house like you guys get I’d have no other choice but to burn the place down and start over. Other places have scorpions or tarantulas. No thanks. I fear I’d be spending most of my retirement money on having to pay for a full time Orkin man to stay on site.
I should have done what my brother did and married a plastic surgeon. He’s 49 and may be retiring shortly. She works still but has multiple income streams and plans to be out by 50.
I don’t have a “normal retirement” like a lot of other people. I’ve been working for myself for the majority of my life – and there’s no 401k or parking places or paid vacation. I’m going to have to work until I die.
Places to go for retirement, I don’t have a specific. Staying somewhere that’s too sparsely populated to catch the eye of “compassionate do-gooders” (that fuck everything up) seems logical. Good luck finding such a place.
I’d like to retire somewhere I can walk to get lunch or to a real bakery or decent restaurants. I have to drive everywhere now, and I’d like that to stop. Near a good airport and public transportation too. Downtown Chicago keeps coming up as a good place to retire but I don’t see it myself and then there’s the Chicago weather too… but if you’re 40 stories up, retired, and it snows who cares?
I met a retired couple who own 3 simple homes in Florida, the UK, and Canada. They spend 4 months in each getting the best of the weather in each location and a change of scenery always on the horizon. I like this idea but I can’t afford it and we have too many pets.
Greg Baumann says
I retired at 65 3 years ago. My company (very generously) provided full benefits for part time work down to 20 hours per week (if your department head thought you were worth it). I did a 18 months at 32 hours and a year or so at 24 hours. It was a great way to ease into things and figure out what I wanted. What I realized was that as much as I enjoyed my job and the people I worked with, I just didn’t want to do it full time. And then I realized that with the increased ratio of overhead (email, meetings, etc) to the actual work that I liked, it just wasn’t rewarding enough to work part time. I left and haven’t looked back. I have lived in in-town Atlanta for 40 years or so in an old house that we restored ourselves. Our son live here also. We have no intention of leaving until we have to. It helps that we have a cabin in the north Georgia woods to escape to for contrast.
We have a condo in Rhode island. I’d like to retire there but Beloved is he’ll bent on selling it and buying a house. Keep in mind he’s 74 and I’m 60. A house??? A mortgage? Grass to cut, gutters to be cleaned? No effing way. Rhode island will still be the destination but a house?’I just yes him to death and continue scrolling through listings of places we can’t afford or maintain.
Nice post, Jeff. I missed you.
Today I was behind a car that had the license plate “401 RI.” You get it.
Looking at a place in the top ten:
Just make sure you do your research. Try not to move to an area where you have to run the gauntlet of meth heads and hoopies just to get to the door of the 7-11. As in Parkersburg, WV.
Boy howdy. Recently went back to Partyburg after a couple year hiatus and holy macaroni is it bad now! The meth heads, opiate zombies and fentanyl moms have completely taken over. It looks like a scene from the walking dead in that area where the Oasis, Blondies, and whatever that strip club is called are located. My central american wife who was raised in Miami (for context) still isn’t over the dude quasimodo-ing his way down 7th St. with his tongue hanging below his chin. Went to Marietta for dinner and she’s now declared that’s where we’ll be staying for future visits to see my kin in the area.
Entered a long-planned retirement in June 2020…so obviously a lot of plans went on hold.
You have kids, so you’ll have to consider where they might end up. Of course neither you or they know where that will be, but when the time comes you’ll want to think about that.
If you’re changing houses: go single level. You might might not need this now, but eventually…we all will.
Similar: unless you area gardening/DIY freak: look for smaller lots and newer construction to keep you out the weeding and home repair routines.
Do some serious research about the the local (municipal and/or county) and state politics. We live in a county that led by people who are 100% on the opposite side of my political spectrum. Don’t underestimate the impact that local politicians who don’t share your values can have on your golden years!
Also, related to the single level living: how’s the availability of health care. You are almost certain to acquire a specialty doctor (or four) as you age. We have, for conditions old and new. We are fortunate that none are more than a 30-minute drive away.
If you have far-away travel plans, access to a major airport for easier access to those places is better than a place that only has a handful of flights to a couple of places each day.
Anyway: even with the pandemic and some unexpected (but now resolving) health surprises: retirement is the greatest gig ever. You’ll never have to join “the people” in a big box store on a Saturday again.
I firmly second the living near your progeny consideration (and your other points as well). It’ll be far easier for them to deal with assisted living facilities, cremations, or what have you, if you live near them rather than halfway across the country.
Farmer’s Daughter says
These are all such good points deaninmd. Especially living not too far from your children. Hard to believe now, but when those grandchildren come along, you’ll wish you weren’t too far away. I’d like to add that if you intend to do/go/see things, do it early in your retirement. As we age (a term you will come to hate as it comes out of every dr’s mouth) your can-dos can’t keep up with your want-tos.
I’m 62 next month and certainly I think about retirement. But I still feel like I have some runway left at my job, and I really do like what I do for a living. So thinking about the R word makes me wonder if I would really be happy. Mortgage is almost paid off, and there will be enough money to live well. Our youngest just started high school so 4 years from now we will be empty-nested and that might well trigger the change.
Wifey wants to retire with a “pied-a-terre” somewhere in the US, but spend some years in retirement living in different countries – dollar cost averaging between places like Belize (cheap) and France (not cheap). I always thought I’d like to build houses for organizations like Habitat in other countries. Wifey thinks while I do that she could teach English or Math to younger kids.
I’m very lucky that I’m fully vested in the NC public employees system so I get very cheap (and good) health care for life from that. I don’t even need to stay in NC to reap the benefit.
If I had to guess I’ll pull the trigger at 67, about 5 years from now.
And remember the old saying: “no one lies on their deathbed wishing they had gone to work more often.”
Hey Jeff, this may be helpful….I retired at 61 two years ago after 42 1/2 years with the same company! At the time the wife had full benefits (she’s 6 years my junior) and everything was hunk-dory. Then her company folded up all of their U.S. stores (they’re Canadian, the bastiges) so that was a slight speed bump, having to enter the marketplace and pay through the nose, but not a dealbreaker and I’ll be eligible for Medicare in a year and a half. We have traveled down to North Myrtle Beach once or twice a year for about 12 years now. In two years we plan to relocate to Little River, which is the next town north of Myrtle. I’m on a mailing list for a couple different realtors so I have new listings in my inbox every day. For what our 3 bedroom ranch is worth in Jersey we can get a larger, newer and nicer place in Little River. Just something to think about. If you wanted to head a bit further south, Murrell’s Inlet is also a nice option.
Ian in Scotland says
I used to think Kelowna B. C. would be cool, then I discovered Majorca.
That won’t be happening anytime soon though.
I’d go with Tenerife personally, but that’s a lot more difficult than it used to be. Thanks twits!
Some good friends of mine just retired to Barcelona. I’m looking forward to visiting.
Barcelona’s a great city. I haven’t been there for ~30 years but I have happy, hazy memories of evenings of tapas and drinking. I don’t understand why every city didn’t copy Barcelona’s octagonal city blocks.
Sebastian Valmont says
I am not quite in my fourth decade of life, so nowhere near retirement but already have a decent chunk placed aside in my 401k and working on paying down my house which already has a large amount of equity. My goal is to pay off what little debt I have remaining, contribute the maximum amount on my 401k and work until I reach the zenith of productivity/comfortability. I.e. until I get too old for this shit.
Once I “retire,” I’ll sell the house and move somewhere with land and decent people, far far away from where I live now (Portland, Oregon area.) The crowds have grown ridiculous along with the cost of living- almost as bad as California at this point. Start a bunch of projects I’ve always wanted to do- write novels, contribute to a website, hike some of the famous trails (Pacific Crest, Appalachian, Oregon Coast, etc.) Build my own cabin, garden…you know, “old people” stuff. Travel around the country via road and explore every square mile of this beautiful country. Spend time with loved ones before they leave this realm forever. I may write professionally or take up a part time job to stay healthy and focused, but that’s about it.
Jeff mac says
No update since August? Looks like old Jeff punched out already.
Love you Jeff, but please, we in Raleigh can take no more transplants. If one comes, leave politics in PA.
This is a disappointing way to end a brilliant, if nonprofit, writing career. I know you tied a bow on the WVSR by publishing the old posts, which was nice, but you write so well. It’s too bad that talking pays and writing: not so much. I can’t say you didn’t try. Thanks for everything you did write. I think it should have been good enough for Letterman. It was more than good enough for me.
my warmest regards,
Doug McCallum says
Shall I assume from your post that you know something I don’t regarding young Jeff?
Well said, John.
Happy Holidays, since we are not allowed to say Merry Christmas anymore.
Merry Christmas, Not_Bob!
Merry Christmas, Clue. I’ve missed hearing from you. And Jeff.
Happy Solstice, Johnny. I’ve missed hearing from you (and many others) as well.
Left the Christmas decorations in the attic again this year, but that wasn’t as surprising as The Surf Report retiring, eh? Or maybe it’s just on sabbatical.
Yeah, like Dr Hunter Thompson or Bob Dylan.
I’ll look for you in old Honolula
San Francisco, Ashtabula
You’re gonna have to leave me, now I know
But I’ll see you in the sky above
In the tall grass in the ones I love
You’re gonna make me lonesome when you go
What the heck, I’ve left this poem here every Christmas for at least fifteen years. I suppose this is the last time. I wish you all a peaceful Christmastide.
This poem was written before the turn of the 20th century, during the rapid expansion of capitalism in the US, by Edwin Arlington Robinson. It is a sonnet about a man who, in the course of business has to financially ruin a friend. It’s just business, but Christmas comes and the man has brief second thoughts.
by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Christmas was in the air and all was well
With him, but for a few confusing flaws
In divers of God’s images. Because
A friend of his would neither buy nor sell,
Was he to answer for the axe that fell?
He pondered; and the reason for it was,
Partly, a slowly freezing Santa Claus
Upon the corner, with his beard and bell.
Acknowledging an improvident surprise,
He magnified a fancy that he wished
The friend whom he had wrecked were here again.
Not sure of that, he found a compromise;
And from the fulness of his heart he fished
A dime for Jesus who had died for men.
Well then, on a somewhat related note, I learned a new word this morning. Except I turned three quarters of a century old last week and my memory decided it could slack off even more, so I promptly forgot it. Then I remembered that I’d texted my son to share said word, and was able to retrieve it. It perhaps could apply to EA’s businessman though. Snollygoster.
A feeble attempt to keep things going, what with it being an almost obsolete (like us?) word, but it’s all I have at the moment.
Since it’s appropriate today and tomorrow, I’ll add scurryfunging – last minute cleaning up before guests arrive.
Merry Christmas Surfers. Glad to see you on here. Stay safe, well and happy. Miss you all.
Jerry in WV says
Merry Christmas, Surf Reporters. All is well in Cross Lanes and my hope is that it is the same wherever you may be.
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate.