Ahem....Vermont will be implementing single-payer health insurance, i.e. universal health care*. That could mean 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars per year to a resident. This is why hearsay is not admissible in court.


* This is not meant to spark any kind of political or philosophical debate. The op asked about low cost of living. Health insurance is a major expense for virtually all.

I'm intrigued by the idea of retiring to Tucson, AZ. I'm getting more enamored with warmer weather and less accepting of the colder weather. Hot and dry might work very well for me. The non-weather aspects of living in Tucson, at least as far as my ideals, which include a life filled with cycling, seem very appealing.

Of savings or taxes?

I thought it would have been obvious, but maybe I should have specified that I meant money an individual would not have to spend on health insurance, or health care if otherwise not insured.

Marquette, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. College town, never had real estate boom or bust, top 50 hospital, Single track everywhere, 9 months of winter and 3 months of tough sledding. Nice airport - used to be a SAC base with B-52s and KC 135s and FOUR Presidents have visited. Obama, Bush 43, T. Roosevelt and Taft.
Lots of great local beer and funny accents. http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/...mag/index.html

Some intriguing thoughts. I have to travel to Minden NV from time to time, the town is not for me - a desert. I will look harder at S. Lake Tahoe, I may spend an extra few days there on my next trip.
Boise Id or Idaho Falls are interesting. Never been there but will give it a look.
I like NH but property taxes are pretty high and services are a little scarce.
If the property taxes in NY were not out of control I would stay here but like som many others, they are going to tax me right out of the state.
The peoples republic of Vermont is a none starter, although beautiful - it would be hard to retire there.
Health insurance is somewhat of a factor but not much - I am lucky, I will have worked for the same company for 40 yrs and still have a defined benefits plan.
I do want to be close to my kids, my older daughter is mobile and can work anywhere, my youger daughter is too young to know where she will be, but if we have settled on a retirement location she will have that option as well.

Texas & Az are not even on the radar screen. I lived in Tx and have visited Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth & Houston, none appeal to me, I know nothing about West Tx but can't see as it will appeal, too far south - like Az or NM.

At some point I am going to need to determine a process by which I can narrow choices and decide.

Cyclinfool, I just noticed you're in upstate NY. I'm not sure where you are, but I'm near Albany. My town has very reasonable taxes and great services. As a matter of fact, most of your criteria is met here. I'm just getting weary of the winters. I want to be able to ride my bike regularly 12 months of the year.

Nobody has even mentioned my #1 criteria - presence of family.

There's more to life than being on an extended vacation. 4 of our 5 kids live in the St Louis area along with 12 of our 15 grand children and all 4 greats. Nothing makes me happier than spending a few hours with any of that group. No matter what badness may befall Mrs. Grouch and me, I can't imagine our extended family not circling the wagons to watch out for us. I'm not going anywhere.

Tax rates haven't changed all that much in recent years. Take a look at the charts and adat in this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxatio..._United_States

Many of those examples you cited aren't broken or can't easily be fixed with higher taxes - the performance of public schools keeps going up, higher education costs are skyrocking due to many factors, road maintenance lags because more cars on on the raod and people drive more that cause the surface to deteriorate in half the time, and all the homeless people are seen for many other reasons. Traffic law enforcement produces revenue but isn't increased for other reasons

Many areas do very well with lower personal taxes and make up revenue through other means.

But there are so many more reasons to pick an area for retirment than just lower taxes.

I've learned what appeals to me doesn't necessarily appeal to others, but given that, I've always been greatly attacted to this part of the country:

http://www.alpinetexas.com

Not necessarily just this town, but within a ~90 radius there are only a handful of other towns, most if not all smaller. I just love the area in general. It has its own particular conditions, issues, etc., but so does everywhere else. Besides, their website has a photo of cyclists riding by a local mountain. Can't be all bad! :lol:

Location

As to the list:

1. Low taxes, low cost of living
2. Good medical access
3. Community with shops within walking/riding distance.
4. Outdoor activities
5. Cool climate - moderate humidity (not too dry, not too hot)
6. Clean water, clean air.
7. Mountains, lakes - easy access to good skiing, biking and hiking
8. Good airpor

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Reasonably, depending on what you call cool. But humidity is one thing it does not have.
6. Yes, but it's not a 'wet' area; on the contrary, it's fairly arid.
7. Mountains, yes. Lakes, no.
8. Yes, but not airline-connected.

One reason (of several) this whole area appeals to me is that while I've not lived in huge metropolises, I've always lived around lots of other people within close distance. I like the idea of open spaces, mountains, blue skies and dry air... and it's here a-plenty. I just don't know if it can happen for me.

Except for the last sentence, there isn't much here that I could agree with, or is even true. Do not worry. I won't go there...

Love the area also...raced there numerous times. The last two were burned out by wildfires.

Medical care there is iffy. Alpine Med is a pretty basic, anything beyond that and you either life flight or drive two hours to El Paso or Midland. Same with commercial flights.

In the past it had been a huge people/drug smuggling corridor. Not sure what the situation is now.

Great scenery and wildlife. The road riding is great though limited to the few roads in the area.

I suspect there are enough Californians in Bend that the natives won't cause too much of an issue. I am a native Oregonian and think of Bend as paradise. Oregon also has no sales tax. I love skiing at Mt Bachelor.

It still amazes me that so many assume that everybody has produced offspring or feels the same way about family as they do. I've no children. I've got 5 siblings, and numerous nephews & nieces. I'm glad they are around and care about them very much, but I don't feel a need to be geographically close to them.

I could back up everything I said with data but I doubt you'll accpet facts

I would not retire to a state with high unfunded liabilities and high taxes. Call me silly.......

I'm sure it's not exactly Houston in terms of healthcare, but then again I've grown up and lived in areas that weren't exactly Houston, either. Your point is taken, however. I'm in good health now with no obvious signs of issues, but it's something to consider. Of course, it's one factor of many.


I've been going out that way (Ft. Davis, actually) since the late '80s and that's really never been obvious, from what I can see. But I've not looked at the stats. As with any (more or less) border area, there's a noticable INS presence. I've just never had a feeling of danger due to anything like that. Maybe I don't frequent the right places. :D Right now, all other things being equal, I'd pick it over where I live, FWIW. But once again what I like, not everyone else does.

Facts, if they are truly facts, are never disputed by me. Which facts are important, I'll most certainly have an opinion on. You really were making a bunch of broad statements that didn't mean much, and you offered little explanation. For example, I'll assert that there is not a direct relationship between how and why roads deteriorate and become damaged, and what needs to be done to repair them and how that repair is paid for. Really, they are two separate issues, and you conflated them as to be the same issue. Quite simply, the reason roads deteriorate has absolutely nothing to do with tax rates.

Along with Retro Grouch, we want to be near our kids, as we are now. And, Andy needs our advocacy at all times.

Also, since Medicaid benefits for home and community based services are not transferable state to state, and waiting lists are insufferably long in almost all states, Andy, if we moved, would no longer receive the critical services he needs to survive. He would go to the bottom of the waiting list in the new state - generally 10 to 30 years+.

So, we better like Colorado, cause we are stuck here.

Please see www.noewait.net and

http://www.facebook.com/NOEWAIT

I am stuck in Minnesota for health insurance reasons. But I do love Minnesota. In the summer. I travel in the winter.

Dnvr, I gotcha.

Big Bend Park was a a huge point of smuggling for years....118 miles with a few inches of water between the two countries. Good article from '92. And a current assessment.

Drug (and people) smugglers aren't obvious. That's why they call it smuggling ;).

Of course I lived and worked in Oakland for years...

It is a very neat area. Wouldn't mind having a vacation home/ranch there.

I visited BB once in 1962. I went to the Rio Grande River, and thought to myself, just a few splashes and I could be in another country. I could see the folks on the other side. Sort of a strange feeling.

But, that was before all the smuggling and the so-call "War on Drugs!"

If we didn't use them, they wouldn't grow and smuggle them.

Many thanks for the comprehensive reply - I'll research the area closely.

As I said in a previous post, we are looking at many areas, and we often fly in for a few days to look around. Not only do we get to see the potential retirement areas - but we also get to take a lot of short vacations, and see the country :D

I love my current neighborhood and don't want to leave these great people and nice town. I'm sticking around here for good. We have plenty of room for the kids and their families to come visit the house they grew up in. I'll update its entertainment value.

I AM considering looking for some regular rental locations for those terrible Jan-Feb-Mar months. Current possibilities include several gulf coast spots AL, MS, etc (beach property there is off-season and cheap in the winter but perfect for my riding and golfing). But I'd like to get some friends to consider the same idea.

https://www.retirementliving.com/taxes-by-state

I would live in VT in a heartbeat. And, I am not wealthy. Just retired middle class.

Having watched a lot of people move to NC (where I live) to retire, be very careful to check out that the services that you might need are in fact available.

It's great to be affluent and healthy in a low-tax southern state. If either of those change, life can be not so good.

The eastern part of NC - to which my parents retired - is pretty much in a "race to the bottom" against 3rd world countries as far as wages, taxes, and services go.

As I prepare for retirement myself, I am more concerned about quality of life issues than low taxes. For example: When I can no longer drive, how am I going to get around this city? When I (or a loved one) need a rehab center, what do those look like? Can I get to/from medical facilities without a car?

New Bern - at least when my parents lived there - was littered with empty "dream houses" built by folks who moved here and built the house they had always dreamed. And many of them go to live in the dream house for 2-3 years.

Just my thoughts ...

plus 10...

I've spent most of my life in Vermont and now live across the lake in NY. Great quality of life in Vermont, schools rated in the top 5 in the nation, wonderful aha type of moments when driving (or biking) when the view says to you "I'm so lucky to be here". Every state gets their taxes somehow. Vermont has a high property tax as that's how their schools are funded. Here in NY, its an extra 15cents a gallon on gas, higher sales tax etc. Live where you'd like , but really you should not assume that paying a few hundred or a grand less in taxes will ensure that you chose the right place. I'd be thrilled to spend my elderly stage in Middlebury VT. Has a hospital, a respected college with a summer language program that draws people from everywhere, a small ski area and more then enough to do. Travel for 3 months to warmer climes.

OK - I'm all ears. What town are you in?
I live in taxation hell - North of Schenectady and South of the Mohawk. We are here for the schools but in about 6 years that will no longer be a need.

On taxes in the various states... Yes, each state will collect their taxes in some manner, but some are much more retiree friendly than others. And some do have lower overall taxes, without a degradation of services. The state does get its income, but not necessarily from their residents. Take for example Texas, Alaska, and Wyoming who derive a great percentage of their state operating budget from natural resources, (petroleum in these states). Alaska even gives their residents a "tax rebate" every year. In Nevada, you have income from gambling, BLM leases to ranchers, and mineral extraction.

:thumb:


Just send my mail to Box 444, West Texas. They all know me out here.