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I, like the vast majority of retirees don’t worry about relocating because I prefer to stay put. It is a desire to remain close to friends, family, institutions and activities that are familiar to me. I may click on web pages of more exotic locales and may be intrigued — but I am not moved. About you?
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ReginaLove, that is SO great to hear! As for soy, it may help with menopause symptoms -- it it controversial. The best way to use soy is in the form of whole fermented soy foods (miso, tempeh, tamari and natto). Non-fermented soy foods such as soy mi
Agreed. I never thought I was vain until I had a mastectomy at age 39. I was devastated and told the doc I wanted to wake up with implants. Now at age 60, I am lopsided and wondering if I was just avoiding the inevitable. You get what you get and you
Sounds very interesting.
Spike, you are awesome! Love your perspective, thanks for sharing.I will turn 53 in 6 weeks and still break out.
May I also assume that your skin is still quite oily and shows no or very few wrinkles? If so...
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS!
1) Your skin doesn't look like beat-up luggage now, and probably never wi
Well I can’t respond from the position of someone who is retired….I’m 51 and still very much employed! But I love to travel, see new places, enjoy the scenery of something new and different, the food and the customs and the people of a new place…………
……and then, most of all, I love to come home.
I also love to travel. I presently live in a place where I have no family except for one son who lives with his father. I don’t really have any friends, just aquaintances from work. I can’t wait to retire, or if I can relocate bofore that, move back to where most of my siblings live. But then again, I also keep in mind that the grass is not always greener on the other side. Having been away from them for over 30 years and just visiting a few times a year, my relationship with them might not be as good as it is now, if and when I move back to where I still call home.
anir
I pray for a retirement cottage in Key West. Now, I just have to put some action behind that prayer.
Hey, that sounds good to me. Key West is great. Lots of boozing going on there though. Lots of people living in houseboats. Very happily i may add. I yet do not know where i will retire. I know i cannot stay here, the taxes alone will break me. Thinking of buying a smaller place.
For you…enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkUjdIZJ7_s
LOVE THAT BEAT! I am a dancer and can sure drink when i want to, but KW is for die hards. I do not think it is cheap anymore. I live in So Florida and visit often and wonder where the “normal” people live. Surely would love to buy a small place there. When you find a small apartment for less than $100K let me know.
Hello Elisa…
We moved from the northeast to the southeast and left all family and friends behind.
I was pretty much separated from my siblings (at an early age) and we have nothing in common.
I exchange Christmas cards with some old fiends, but even that is dwindling.
My own children are gone and live far away, sooo, my husband and I run a small business (mostly him) and I do tons to keep things running smoothly, around here…not much time for boredom.
Retirement is years away, because of the nature of our business, and so we will just “enjoy the ride”. We’ve already done our moving ‘thing’.
I think staying close to who you care about, familiar territory, is wise and nurturing.
When we retired we sold our home and started full time in our motor home traveling to the many wonderful places in the US. New places all the time it was great. Now we spend 6 months in Baja California Mexico. We are about 30 feet from The Sea of Cortez! Then we spend the next 6 months in the mountains of New Mexico. We still take trips to the northwest to see family and friends. I know it is not a life style for every one. But I am very happy with it.
Good for you. It’s what you enjoy!
your lifestyle sounds fatastic, i also have a touch of wanderlust and cannot see myself remaining in one spot after i retire next year.my husband and myself have already purchased a very small home with very little maintenance or financial overheads, where we intend to live for the summer months { i live in canada} and during the winter months we intend to travel all over the US by motorhome, this way i can still spend time with my own children and grandchildren for at least half of the year. cannot wait for next year to roll around.
I remember when my husband & I first got married & talked about the day we retired. Our dream was to buy an old home & fix it up, by the east coast some where in one of the Carolines, warm weather ocean breezes, you get the picture.
It’s 39 years later, the dream is still there, but we decided to travel first, before we pick a place to call our retirment home. So hopefully this time next year we’ll be traveling to places inside in great land of ours, first stop, the National Parks of the USA!!
I’ll send you all post cards. LOL
If you find yourselves with time on your hands, investigate hooking-up at a volunteer organization or national park. Lots of interesting volunteers to meet and greet.
Sounds awesome! I like being near my family but think I could handle 6 weeks to 2 months being someplace else. I love the fun and sun of the beaches and my husband loves the snowcapped mountain chalets. We do compromise and each get a turn to choose. It has just not happened often enough. I thought of opening a travel agency and trying out some of these spots for longer. We have been to Gornergratt,Switzerland. There were seniors walking around everywhere! But..then we visited Destin Florida and the snowbirds were there too! Like the T-shirt says, “Girls Rule.” In this case, “Seniors rule!” I think I’ll get a shirt made for these locations.
Boy, have I got news for all of you! Five years ago I retired and became a long-term, long-distance volunteer at organizations that offer free room and board in exchange for workplace skills. Been to Alaska, Florida, Arkansas (Heifer), and now Albuquerque. I choose to volunteer six months of the year, be at home six months of the year (you can do less or more). All you need to do is get to your choice of destination – and you don’t have to cook! For many years I was a single parent, no money or travel, so when I heard about this “retirement on a budget”, I was overjoyed. I have a fun, interesting, exciting, budgetwise life. It’s great!
I love reading all the ideas. We thought we had it figured out but we don’t. We live in a very northern state and 5 years ago had actually put money down on a town home in SC that never got built much to our disappointment. So we bought a motor home and traveled for 9 months without a schedule or timeline. It was wonderful to not have the committment of the 2nd home, taxes and being locked in to a particular destination. Want to to it for a couple more winters and then perhaps decide on a more perm destination. This country has so much to offer and I am selfish…I want to see it all.
We didn’t go this winter and it worked out fine as the weather has been so cold in the southern states. So I enjoy my own snow and fireplace for now.
The dilemma now is we want a motorhome for the lower 48 and one here because we love camping and fishing here and being tour guides to our friends and family in the summers. hmmmm… then it involves storage of the one we leave down south, double insurance and expeses, tow car we can leave etc. So still trying to make sense of it all. Will probably sell our home here and build a shop/apt structure to be able to enjoy summers here then just fly out to our motor home or future 2nd home. Sure is a good time to invest tho, so looking…see what I mean…just can’t seem to put it all together just yet and stay within our means. Still want to do some international travel but just flying isn’t very desireable to me right now. Keep your ideas coming.
I am happy to stay home as well, however, I have had e a dream to have an RV and travel. Unfortunately, because of the economy, my financial situation and being single over the past few years, I have chosen to make the most of my circumstances and enjoy my community, friends and family more. Sometimes we can’t always do everything we want, I like the saying, “I choose to make lemonade out of lemons.” Since I am now 66, the idea of traveling on my own in an RV doesn’t hold its appeal it once did. I have been rethinking how I can do a little traveling by car with my dogs and maybe camp out, since overnights in motels is costly. Any suggestions?
You would be surprised how many single woman rv solo. Some work a little along the way. We had a friend that was told she only had six month to live. She sold every thing and bought a rv and traveled all over the west. In the end she was in a wheelchair and walker,but still she would go out and pick up wood for a fire and pretty rocks to fix up her camp. She was a wonder. As it was she lived almost four years more then what the docters said she would. Her life style kept her alive and vibrant. I am sure she is looking down at us.saying go for the gusto.
a friend of mine, who had wintered in the us via her motorhome for many years, lost her husband 2 years back. ….after the initial shock, she has continued in the lifesyle she had become familiar with….she says some of the rv parks have offered her a small job as a welcome hostess or even doing a few minor cleaning jobs around the place in exchange for parking fees ….something to think about, hope it helps….also check out all the under 10 dollar per night camping sites on the web, there are many to choose from…goodluck
Would love to know more about your friend. Would you send her my email. Am writing a second book and would like to speak with her. See http://www.secondcareervolunteer.com
Thanks so much.
Doesn’t have to be. Yes, I wrote a book but you don’t have to purchase – just check out my website http://www.secondcareervolunteer.com May give you some budget ideas. I love my long-distance volunteer lifestyle.
Hi LDvolunteer! My friend and I think secondcareer sounds interesting. Thanks for bringing this lifestyle to our attention. We will both be purchasing your book.
Thank you! Wrote it to get the word out so others could enjoy this fun (and inexpensive) lifestyle. My motto – GET OUT AND GIVE BACK!
I moved at 62 to be closer to my children and grandchildren. I was exactly ready for retirement yet, so found work that was not high pressure and didn’t have to prove myself anymore on a management level. I was forced into retirement sooner than expected because of the economy. However, I am enjoying a new community and lifestyle up in Northern California (lived in Southern California most of my life). It is a new adventure and the only tough thing is making good friends at this late stage in life. It takes years to develope intimate, close relationships and I don’t have much time to waste. However, I do love living here and am patient about developing strong bonds with others.
I have to confess, my children never moved out of the area. Both of my childrem married into families that believe in being close to their children. And I am very blessed that we all get along.
Glad you mentioned “we all get along”! That is why I love my volunteer retirement lifestyle. I get to go elsewhere for 6 mos and when I return, the HUGS and love are apparent – not that they would not have been if I were to stay year ’round, but we all get to renew our friendship(s). So nice.
After seeing some friends have life altering health problems when nearing retirement age with their dreams of ‘having fun finally’ derailed. My husband and I decided it was time to do some things–like travel. We traveled in our motorhome with a group until we got the hang of it. See a sign for something intereting–like at White Sands and Hale Bopp going to be there to speak? No rush to get to next destination–great! Having a great time with the family–found a great campground for a few months–they wanted to come visit US for hot tubbing, swimming and fun. Wonderful way to visit the grandkids, too. Run the water and electic out to our camp in the driveway–the grandkids come knocking on the door. They would rather have hot dogs with Papa than dinner in the house–it’s camping! Especially for the little ones. Then, too, we had our own bed, bathroom and privacy.. So made it much easier on all of us. We treasure those times. It is for the fairly young as the driving, parking, setting up camp with all the hoses and attachments are not an easy task to do over and over and over as you travel. Sedona, AZ, the Hoh rain forest are two of my favorite places to remember. We stayed in Vegas long enough to make life long friends. Thirty minutes or so and all was clean and out the door. But in the end I long to be closer to family even now when we have built our dream home. Priorities change –our children have children–the wanderlust subsides Little grandson with huge blue eyes wraps his arms around my leg and sings Mimi mimi mimi when I go to visit—heady stuff. ; )
I was never seduced by warmer climates, “having fun” places, etc. because, let’s face, when you lose a spouse you seek your children for support and grandchildren for love. We are staying put.