Retirement spots

I retired at 62 and have never regretted it even though I enjoyed my job. I spend half my time in Durham and half on a family farm in the mountains. I have a (renovated) farmhouse on 500 acres that I own but the total farm (owned by siblings and cousins) is much larger. I love the outdoors- hiking, kayaking and horseback riding- but after a few days I am ready to get back to the city. I miss the restaurants and activities that a city offers.
 
uncleradar said:
I retired at 62 and have never regretted it even though I enjoyed my job. I spend half my time in Durham and half on a family farm in the mountains. I have a (renovated) farmhouse on 500 acres that I own but the total farm (owned by siblings and cousins) is much larger. I love the outdoors- hiking, kayaking and horseback riding- but after a few days I am ready to get back to the city. I miss the restaurants and activities that a city offers.
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That's what I think I would like. A house in the city and a house in the country but in my head, I feel like one of them might be a waste.

By the way, is the farm a working farm? Like do you sell the goods? Do you make a profit or does it more offset the costs of operating? Is it actual work or more like puttering around on a tractor? Or do you rent it out to someone else and you can still walk around and do whatever?

Never done farm work and it sounds like something I don't want to be spending my golden years doing but at the same time, it's intriguing.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
How do you do germany? Do you own a house over there or do you rent something for a couple months or what? When you're not over there, do you rent it out?
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you don't need a visa for up to 90 days in Schengen over any 180 days
I have an agreement with an older lady to let a room, but quite honestly I am in Austria and Kranjska Gora about an equal amount of time. I also like the less travelled parts of Franconia.
I don't own it, so I don't worry about much.
 
We live full-time on Cape Cod, so no complaints there except for Jan-March. Our plan is to rent a month at a time in different locations when retired. I'd like to buy a place on or around Hilton Head (or NC intercoastal), but just don't want the headache of a second home. So renting in different places seems like the best option. That is another 15yrs away though...
 
I’m in my late 30s. Wife and I are on the right track with retirement savings but specific plans beyond that just aren’t even on the radar right now. I’m a little envious reading this thread on another boring Monday morning of work lol.

My parents are in their late 60s, both recently retired in the last few years, and they’ve opted for the traveling lifestyle instead of owning second/third properties to spend extended amounts of time at. We had a mountain house in western NC that my mom’s parents owned and her siblings really wanted to keep it in the family and share ownership. Dividing up when people could use the place was never a big issue, but my parents lived the closest to it and were the ones that had maintained it after her father died in the early 2000s, so my aunts and uncle didn’t fully grasp how much time and effort that took. When my grandmother passed a few years ago my parents talked mom’s siblings into just selling the place because they were tired of keeping up with it and knew that no one else would be able to do that properly if they didn’t. It was bittersweet but ultimately the right decision.

They take a bunch of long weekend trips around NC and I think they enjoy exploring different places rather than feeling tied down to one specific spot.
 
Not retired yet, but downshifted to part-time. I have been giving this some thought.

I already live in a pretty good location in the mountain suburbs of San Jose. Pretty high quality of life (restaurants, health care, cultural stuff, etc). Weather is pretty good: mid 70s almost year round (gets to low 80s in March and April), rainy season can be a drag (3 months of 60% of afternoon shower, 3 months of 95% chance of sustained afternoon shower). Beach is 1.5 hours away. Have thought about downsizing our house, but while we're currently empty nesters there's a non-zero chance my second son moves back after college; also my FIL spends about three months of the year with us (would definitely not want to be in tighter quarters in that situation. Our home is totally paid for and we really enjoy our hood (great place for morning walks).

My parents are in their 80s and I'm the only sibling living locally. It's a treasure to have them close by; haven't really entertained the thought of moving away while they're alive. We have given thought to spending chunks of time in other locations. Some places we have considered are Spain (Valencia and Madrid), NC, and Miami (though the US is probably out for the next few years).
 
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gtyellowjacket said:
Do you like that sort of place. Pretty cool, good weather outside the occasional storm, and tourists everywhere. Kind of a party atmosphere a lot of the time too which I'm probably a little too old for but do like socializing.

What are the positive and negatives from your perspective of that kind of place
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I mean "partying" is a choice. I proudly bought one of the smallest cottages on Sunset Key in 2009.

I socialize when I want to and go into they 'city' when I want. Hard to beat the weather and the open-minded vibe. Fits my lifestyle perfectly, but we are all different.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
That's what I think I would like. A house in the city and a house in the country but in my head, I feel like one of them might be a waste.

By the way, is the farm a working farm? Like do you sell the goods? Do you make a profit or does it more offset the costs of operating? Is it actual work or more like puttering around on a tractor? Or do you rent it out to someone else and you can still walk around and do whatever?

Never done farm work and it sounds like something I don't want to be spending my golden years doing but at the same time, it's intriguing.
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It's a beef cattle operation. The farming involves raising food for the cattle- hay, winter wheat, corn for silage. I did enough farming before I left home at 18 to last a lifetime. My extended family farms it and pays me rent.
 
uncleradar said:
It's a beef cattle operation. The farming involves raising food for the cattle- hay, winter wheat, corn for silage. I did enough farming before I left home at 18 to last a lifetime. My extended family farms it and pays me rent.
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That honestly sounds like the way to do it. Assuming you didn't have any experience and you were just some clown that wanted to buy 300 acres in a pretty spot somewhere, could you find someone to rent the property for ranching or farming to pay the taxes? Would it be enough to pay anything extra? Could you set the deal up where you would still be allowed to ride around on a utv or a horse or is that considered not kosher?
 
Depending on
mpaer said:
As a real general statement.....Living in the Mountains or the Beach can often mean not being near top notch Health care
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If we move back to NC for retirement, my thought is to live halfway between the mountains and the beach. Elon, Hillsborough/outside Durham/Chapel Hill or near Winston Salem - Duke, UNC, Bowman Gray nearby.

My wife's parents moved to middle of nowhere Arkansas for retirement. Nice community and golf, but pretty sparse on health care.
 
Batt Boy said:
you don't need a visa for up to 90 days in Schengen over any 180 days
I have an agreement with an older lady to let a room, but quite honestly I am in Austria and Kranjska Gora about an equal amount of time. I also like the less travelled parts of Franconia.
I don't own it, so I don't worry about much.
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Have you found that it's getting any more difficult to move around from the US to EU or within the EU in the last couple years, with lots of governments trending towards more isolationism?
 
rodoheel said:
Have you found that it's getting any more difficult to move around from the US to EU or within the EU in the last couple years, with lots of governments trending towards more isolationism?
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not so long as you stay on the move. I don't want to own anywhere other than WNC. Now for citizenship, it's become much harder because of Trump and hatred of the anti-fact crowd, not isolationism. course I haven't tried to rent in Poland.
 
We have a family house in the Columbia River Gorge that's been in the family for 100 years... it's always been my plan to retire there. I've become a bit concerned over the last decade with the decline of Portland, as it is the main urban outlet for the house.

My "plan" has been to retire in 10 years. However, I'll have to see how my mom and step-dad do between now and then. It may turn out that I need to be out there sooner than 10 years.

I do worry a bit about the transition from NYC to small town living. Fortunately where our house is has become one of the premier kite/wind surfing places in the country, so it's brought a lot of city-esque conveniences and luxuries that were not there when I'd vacation there as a kid.
 
I think about this sometimes even though I'm nowhere near retirement. The problem is that there is a difference between being retired at age 65 in good health and being retired at age 87 and needing assistance. Being near good healthcare is important in your later years.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
That honestly sounds like the way to do it. Assuming you didn't have any experience and you were just some clown that wanted to buy 300 acres in a pretty spot somewhere, could you find someone to rent the property for ranching or farming to pay the taxes? Would it be enough to pay anything extra? Could you set the deal up where you would still be allowed to ride around on a utv or a horse or is that considered not kosher?
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In western North Carolina you could easily cover taxes with rental of grazing or cropland. Taxes are subject to "Farm Use" adjustments and tend to be very reasonable. The problem is your initial cost- figure $8-10,000/acre for a good mix of pasture and wooded land in a pretty area. You could never cover the mortgage on such a property with farm rental income. Regarding your own usage- it's your land so you can ride or hunt all you want. Just don't shoot any cows.
 
I'm likely still a couple decades away from retirement but it's good to hear all the examples of the different ways people have done it. I'm mostly a homebody, born and raised in NC and have spent most of my life here, so I think the chances of us ever moving out of NC (barring unforeseen circumstances) are pretty low. My guess is that during retirement we'll largely live either where we do now, or where our kids end up if that isn't the same place. I could see us getting a vacation home in the beach or mountains at some point, money/health permitting, but I expect we'll mostly keep home base in the Triad unless/until our kids settle somewhere else and require us to re-think that.
 
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