Meh, good schools can be an indicator of a place that is good to live in. They aren't the only one, but it is still readily available information about a location.
Meh, good schools can be an indicator of a place that is good to live in. They aren't the only one, but it is still readily available information about a location.
We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.
Good public schools are merely an indicator for higher taxes.
Congratulations America
Ignoring the fact that school rankings aren't exactly objective. A good school can also be an indicator of a good principal, good teachers, etc. It's an incredibly silly criterion to look at for someone who has no kids in school. Why look for an unreliable indicator when one can easily find out the median household income in a city? And the poverty rate?Originally Posted by littlelolligagged
Hope is the denial of reality
Don't most cities and towns have more than one school? Meanwhile places with good schools tend to have other services and amenities readily available.
However, my point about quality public education from way back then was that it benefits everyone , nothing more - and that I object to any exemptions for elderly (not that Geegee is)/childless people.
We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.
I don't disagree. But it benefits everyone in a very indirect and uncertain way. Why use very indirect indicators when direct ones are available?
Hope is the denial of reality
I'd narrow it down to a handful of locations, then look at every possible indicator - doing that for everywhere would be information overload, but if you wind up with a couple of places to choose between, why not use it all?
We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.
Because then you end up in GGT's shoes, being too indecisive to do anything.
Hope is the denial of reality
I've been talking about this with my mother. One issue that is surprisingly real is that the northeast weather can make it really hard for you to get around when you get older. Increased chances of slips and falls becomes a real thing, plus the weather can have an impact as we age. It's not for nothing that my centenarian lived in the northeast for decades, but now can't stand the cold. On the flip side, I would want to be there for my mother as she gets older and being Down South would make that next-to-impossible.Yeah, it's kind of a trick question. I want everything.If my family lives far away, I'd like an easy and inexpensive way to travel/visit. The "cheapest" places to live are in the South, but I don't like those climates or cultures.
I believe the cynical questions are: would the cost of living savings make it possible for you to rely on your kids less. And how do you want your relationship with your kids to be as you age.
I'm "indecisive" because I have too many choices, not because I'm bad at making decisions.
Great points, good questions! NE weather isn't a big concern -- snow states are really good at clearing roadways AND walkways. (Statistically, more slips and falls happen inside the home anyway, so that's a false metric.) While it's true that ambient temperature "comfort levels" change as we grow older.....my base has always been pretty low, even as a child.
When people say they "can't stand the cold", I wonder how much of that really means they don't like high heating costs? When they move to places like Florida or Arizona, but have the A/C on all the time, they don't complain about the high cost of cooling.....
Anyway, my plans are based on being independent, and NOT relying on my children. I want our relationship to be based on choice, not necessity. You know, visits here and there, holidays and special events, that kind of thing.
I can only "afford" that philosophy if I continue to spend my money wisely. (Yes, I know that's a luxury most people don't have.)
Hehe, I know this technique; first say something positive about whatever the person speaking before you, then obliterate it.
Congratulations America
Huh?There's bound to be something "positive" in any reply, but I'm trying to weigh the positives from the negatives. Maybe you have a different understanding, as a European, and don't have to figure out the unknown costs of health care or elder care, or how it's connected to where you live in your Golden Years, but Americans do.
And what makes the 'European' situation so different from the 'American' situation? Don't you have Social Security and Medicare?
Congratulations America
SS hasn't been a "pension" people can live on since most employers stopped using defined-benefit "pension plans" decades ago. The only people with great retirement plans are already 70+ yrs old using the old pension system (with spousal benefits), corporate executives with golden parachutes, or state/federal employees.
Medicare is just subsidized senior health insurance people buy with monthly premiums. If you're unlucky enough to need extended Rehab or a Nursing Home, Medicare only covers a portion of the costs, and Medicaid only kicks in for the destitute or people with no liquid assets. But that depends on the state -- PA lets you keep your primary residence but that's about it. Wealthy people who exploited estate tax laws (to give their heirs money/assets in order to appear as poor or destitute) have ended up creating claw-back laws.
In other words, where I'll spend my old age matters quite a bit. Some people say states with no income or estate tax is the way to go.....but those places often have higher sales taxes, or property taxes, or "fees and surcharges" that amount to the same costs. Some people say a warm climate is the best choice, but those states are either arid (with droughts and wildfires) or coastal (with hurricanes and flooding). Besides, I don't like heat or humidity!
Even if I decided to live in a tricked-out camper, and travel around the world like a hobo....I'd still have to "declare" residency in order to get a driver's license and vehicle insurance, let alone a passport or plane ticket. And I'd need a PO box to get mail and packages too.
Again, you're talking about factors that should be irrelevant to someone in your position. Sales tax? Let's say you spend $10k a year on products that have a sales tax (highly unlikely, particularly as most food is taxed at a much lower rate). The difference between a 10% sales tax and a 6% sales tax (which encompass a vast majority of the cities in this country) is $400 a year. Estate taxes don't affect your quality of life in the slightest. Considering that you're probably not going to work in retirement, the income tax is irrelevant too. The only tax that really affects you is the property tax, and there's sufficient variation that you could pretty much live wherever you want by finding some nearby town with a low rate.
Hope is the denial of reality
Gee, thanks for making it so simple, Loki! You should help out the many data-analytics sites while you're at it. Make a big venn diagram with all the costs of living and quality of life in every state. Pay special attention to border-living, like the high cost of having a car in VA, so living close enough to DC to have cheap public transit, that kind of thing. Think of the millions of people you'd be helping!
He's saying you can relatively safely ignore some of the factors you mentioned ie you can make a simpler diagram
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Having too many factors is a recipe for either indecision or inappropriately weighing the factors.
Hope is the denial of reality
Which factors am I weighing inappropriately? I've already said that quality of life, costs of living, and climate matters more than proximity to family or friends. Since I hate heat and humidity, that narrows the choices, but doesn't make it simple or easy.
I forgot to mention that I don't want to be a migratory Snow Bird (moving between two seasonal homes). Since this is likely the last phase of my life where moving remains an option, and where I call Home is still a choice....this decision is quite important.
Maybe I tasked the wrong group of people, in the wrong forum, for this kind of advise.
This is the one that concerns me the most for my own retirement, and I haven't come up with a satisfying plan to deal with it yet. Most other expenses are fairly predictable or can be made so, but property taxes is the hardest one for me to project into the future. Aside from the government being able to increase rates, property valuation can also increase which in turn increases the tax burden. I'm still not totally sure how to safely calculate for all this.
It's a confusing conundrum! People who thought they could pay off their 30 year home mortgage and live their Golden years in relative ease....are stunned when property taxes keep going up, and eventually become unaffordable.
Property valuations and taxes are hard to predict. If I pick the "best" place to retire....it might mean I'll eventually be priced out of the area as others decide it's desirable real estate. I learned that when my mother bought property in the FL cays, when land was cheap, but was forced out by RE speculators.
Don't dump too much money into one piece of property and it won't be an issue. It's generally not a good idea to have too much money in illiquid assets anyway.
People need to be more flexible. If a neighborhood becomes desirable, your house's price will skyrocket. Sell the house and move to a slightly less desirable area nearby. The real issue is if your neighborhood becomes undesirable, and you're stuck with a property with little value and in a neighborhood that might not be nice to live in.
Hope is the denial of reality
Loki, how many properties have you actually bought? How many mortgages have you carried?
It stays an issue on the time frames I'm looking at. Selling and moving elsewhere is also something I really, really want to avoid.
Do you want to be one of those 45-year-old retired bums?How many towns (with their own property tax rates) are within half an hour of where you want to live? Would it be too inconvenient to move to one of them if push came to shove?
Hope is the denial of reality
Well, I'm not averse to selling my house and moving. I've done that a few times before, so I know what that entails. Yeah, moving is a big pain the ass. It takes at least a year to get acclimated to the changes. It was easier in my younger years, when I felt an adaptability and invincibility....because I had so many years ahead.
I missed where you said how many home mortgages you've had.Do you want to be one of those 45-year-old retired bums?
Hopefully I won't have to wait that long to retire.Do you want to be one of those 45-year-old retired bums?
One at my current target. But if I have to move, it's not much of a difference to move as far as I need to. I'm not actually too particular on where I live in retirement, but I'm going to have this whole eccentric recluse thing going, and I'm not sure I can sell a property which features a twenty foot tall tesla coil atop an underground labyrinth situated behind a house with no windows that may or may not be guarded by cybernetically enhanced genetically engineered abominations, that's just a rumor, you can't prove they weren't on the property when I got there.How many towns (with their own property tax rates) are within half an hour of where you want to live? Would it be too inconvenient to move to one of them if push came to shove?
Get a trailer home.
Hope is the denial of reality
Property valuation is probably the larger risk. Right now I'm thinking strategically placed mounds of garbage.
My property is valuable....that's why I've asked for advise. My property taxes have grown to the point that selling/moving looks like an option. That's the reason I moved to the suburbs in the first place. When I had little children, it was clear that I was buying their education when I bought this house, in this school district...but I didn't figure the amount of retirees with fixed incomes who didn't want to see their property (school) taxes rise accordingly.
And now I'm approaching that place where all things converge. Now that my kids have graduated from HS, living in this school district has lost some of it's value, while my tax burden has increased. Now I know what it means when seniors complain about being priced out of their neighborhoods, or minorities complain about gentrification.
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