We still haven't made any progress on the moving issue. We looked at three towns which were an hour or two away from Las Vegas and all of those places were meh so those places are off the list. The family wants us to move to Connecticut but it is still snowing there and it is almost MAY!!! Plus property tax on a $275k-$300k house there is around $10k per year. Hubby's answer to moving to Connecticut is "No Way". One sister wants us to move back to Seattle. Home prices have increased exponentially there since we moved from there about seven years ago and the traffic in Seattle when we were there last year was crazy bad. So that's a no.
A daughter wants us to move to Florida. That may have been an option until she was Facetiming with us and we watched a snake slither into her house. She screamed, hubby screamed, then we watched as she got a broom and somehow got the snake out of her house. Hubby hates snakes. I think he is still traumatized by that so Florida is a definitive no.
One of the boys will be retiring from the military soon and they are deciding between staying in Tennessee and moving to North Carolina. Both of these places, along with Georgia where we lived for about six months before moving to Las Vegas, are options. We love the weather there, home prices are cheap, property taxes are reasonable, and there are military bases and military medical services in the all of these places. The only thing we don't like is that there are no casinos in any of these states (hubby loves to play poker) and all of these places have tornadoes (so many tornadoes in these areas! eekkk).
So we are still discussing and debating and looking at all options (even Oklahoma came up on the list as they have lots of casinos and cheap new houses...but again, so many tornadoes!). The search continues...
North Carolina historically has had few tornadoes(I grew up near the VA/NC border)....at least on the eastern end of the state. You'll have to contend with humidity and hurricanes there.
ReplyDeleteYou may want to look at whether states you want to move to tax retirement income. That could have a significant impact on your finances(along with housing costs, cost of living, property taxes, etc.).
If I remember correctly NC did away with pension tax breaks a few years ago(there is a standard exemption up to $15K for married couples tho)but still doesn't tax SS bennies. The state tax rate is a flat 5.49%. And they do tax vehicles.
And I remember that NC was a retirees mecca back in the 1990's but laws/taxes have changed a bit since then.
Tenneessee seems a bit more tax friendly in most ways(no tax on SS or retirement income). There is no state income tax but they make up for that with the highest aggregate sales tax in the country.
In terms of taxation you also need to look at each states govt. financial health. States mired in deep debt(like IL, NY, RI, etc.)may be a wise choice to retire to now(and most of these states also have deep pocketed state programs for special groups like low income, etc.)but with state pension boards going broke, etc., state lawmakers could change just whom is taxed there and by how much. Look at the fiscal soundness of each state's government too.
We are in the midst of looking around too. We can leave here in PA once the daughter graduates and since LA is no longer part of the plan for us, it's hard to decide. My brother wants me to move back to VA. Beach where I grew up but it's just too much(traffic, people, crime, etc.)for me now and nothing like when I lived there before. Plus I don't care for the humidity, hot muggy weather and the hurricanes. But then again up here I am so over the snow. ugh. Good luck deciding!
Thanks that's great info!!
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