OT Moving back to hometown now that we're retired

[Kingfisher]

Thinking about moving back to hometown after all these years. It's only 30 miles away and wife and I visit frequently for bike riding and dinner, etc.
I do love the small town atmosphere, college town, battlefield (town is Gettysburg) and just about everything else. Grew up there since the 60's, but moved away to different places after college in mid 70's.

Am I being too nostalgic for the old days? Anyone else ever made this kind of move back? I'm 61 and wife is 68, kids all grown and spread out.

[eddief]

if it does not have the things you mentioned, then it sounds like the old place may offer a lot more than the current place. What could be negative about nostalgia + other great attributes?

[oldpotatoe]

Thinking about moving back to hometown after all these years. It's only 30 miles away and wife and I visit frequently for bike riding and dinner, etc.
I do love the small town atmosphere, college town, battlefield (town is Gettysburg) and just about everything else. Grew up there since the 60's, but moved away to different places after college in mid 70's.

Am I being too nostalgic for the old days? Anyone else ever made this kind of move back? I'm 61 and wife is 68, kids all grown and spread out.

A little different but after 20 years in the USN, moving all over hell and back, retired(small 'r') and moved back to where I went to school..Boulder. Small town, not Denver..

[Ralph]

Someone famous once said "you can never go home again" or something to that effect. So I doubt if it is like you remember re living there.....VS just visiting.

I could never move back to that small NC town I grew up in. (although it would be so much cheaper to live) I have grown accustomed to a different world.

[Jad]

We all have different perspectives; I live about 350 miles from where I grew up. There are parts of the place I am nostalgic for, but most are tied up in memories of family, and when I do visit infrequently, I can see the place is no longer the place. It has changed at least as much as I have and the changes, for me, are not for the better.

But since you live only 30 miles away from Gburg and visit frequently, you have a good sense of the current place and why it could work for you now. I would say your positive associations with it from having grown up there, fondness/nostalgia, are just bonuses for being in a town you happen to like anyway. Sounds like Gburg has qualities you'd like in a place to live no matter your history with it. I say enjoy it for both reasons.

[downtube]

It is not just the town you grew up in, it offers a lifestyle that better fits your time in life. The fact that you grew up there is secondary, but I am sure there is a feeling of security in that town because you are so familiar with it. My wife and I are very similar in age to you and are tired of the big crush in the area we live in. We have started looking hard at smaller towns away from any huge pocket of humans. The only stipulation would be a there needs to be quality medical services in the area. Ride on

[biker72]

Someone famous once said "you can never go home again" or something to that effect. So I doubt if it is like you remember re living there.....VS just visiting.

I could never move back to that small NC town I grew up in. (although it would be so much cheaper to live) I have grown accustomed to a different world.

Same here. Moved to Texas from eastern Iowa back in 1961. Got acclimatized to the heat and have become a cold weather wimp. I would't last one winter in Iowa.

[rugbysecondrow]

Someone famous once said "you can never go home again" or something to that effect. So I doubt if it is like you remember re living there.....VS just visiting.

I could never move back to that small NC town I grew up in. (although it would be so much cheaper to live) I have grown accustomed to a different world.
Thomas Wolfe wrote the book You Can't Go Home Again, and I believe it.

My favorite book, Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck recounts a time he went back to a place of his youth in California, the Salinas Valley (I think). It is a power chapter of the book, one that felt all too familiar as I have gone back to my small town in Illinois and felt both a mixture of comfort, but also being an outsider.

Your situation is different as you didn't move away, you move a couple towns over, so not the same thing. Cheers

[Ken Robb]

My best pal/roomie from college stayed in Chicago working in PR until he "retired" and moved back to his home town of Pueblo,CO. He planned to do just a little PR work for old clients. Well, his business has expanded to the point that I don't think he can claim to be even semi-retired.

The return to Pueblo has been wonderful for him. The town is better than when I visited there in our school days. Housing is modestly priced, Pueblo Country Club is very nice and affordable, new restaurants, redone riverside park, and it almost never snows.

My first job after college was in Lancaster,PA. which I thought was a nice little town for a lad from Chicago. I hardly recognize it now due to urban sprawl covering so much of what was woods/farm land in 1965.

I would guess that Gettysburg hasn't changed much physically since you left so if you like the current population/vibe I think it's probably a good place for you. OTOH this is a good time for you to consider moving to a place with warmer weather.

I could never go back to my old neighborhood. It was always an area where parents hoped there kids would do "better" and move "on up". Most of us did. I only know one pal from my HS class of 1200 kids who still lives there.

[Tickdoc]

I'm still in my hometown...and I may retire here.

Hell, I may even buy/acquire my mom's house when she passes. Same house I grew up in.

Moving to another locale sounds fun (esp if you watch hgtv) but I'm really happy where I'm at. Nearly year round riding, and an airport to jump anywhere else.

[witcombusa]

A little different but after 20 years in the USN, moving all over hell and back, retired(small 'r') and moved back to where I went to school..Boulder. Small town, not Denver..


OP, you consider Boulder a small town? I think of it as a medium sized city!
For myself, a small town is under 5k people...maybe under4k!!!

Think Nederland, not BOULDER

[fuzzalow]

Thinking about moving back to hometown after all these years. It's only 30 miles away

30 miles is no distance at all to me. So that makes it local enough that you had never left at all.

I just think that having a nice place to visit that close by means you can stay right where you are and have both. Of course, I'm viewing this through a prism of regional differences being what makes a move worth doing - but people move 30 miles to get into a nicer house and not to change the area that they live it all the time.

But if you want a lifestyle/cultural/environmental change I think you gotta go much farther away than 30 miles from where you are. Good luck and find what you seek but also home is what and where you make it.

[oldpotatoe]

OP, you consider Boulder a small town? I think of it as a medium sized city!
For myself, a small town is under 5k people...maybe under4k!!!

Think Nederland, not BOULDER

Compared to ColoradoSprings, Denver and Pueblo, yes. Area wise it really is pretty small but subjective. I've lived in 'small' towns, Beeville Texas(ok it was south Texas), Newport RI, Camarillo, CA...but subjective..Ned is tiny.

[josephr]

But if you want a lifestyle/cultural/environmental change I think you gotta go much farther away than 30 miles from where you are. Good luck and find what you seek but also home is what and where you make it.

+1 on this --- 30 miles doesn't seem far enough for me. I'm semi-nostalgic to move back to my hometown, but when I go back to visit my mom, its a hard dose of reality as to the "sh--hole" of a town its become. I've visited Gettysburg and it seemed like a really nice small-town without all the meth/heroin/economic cesspool of a rural southern city. That being said, I don't know if 30 miles is far enough for me to pack-up everything as I hate moving that much. Still, I've got family responsibilities keeping me here at the moment -- so contemplating any such of a move is purely academic.

[djg21]

Thinking about moving back to hometown after all these years. It's only 30 miles away and wife and I visit frequently for bike riding and dinner, etc.
I do love the small town atmosphere, college town, battlefield (town is Gettysburg) and just about everything else. Grew up there since the 60's, but moved away to different places after college in mid 70's.

Am I being too nostalgic for the old days? Anyone else ever made this kind of move back? I'm 61 and wife is 68, kids all grown and spread out.

I used to love racing the Gettyburg Crit. The race was fun, and I like visiting the battlefield. That's a neat little town!

[carpediemracing]

30 miles is so close.

My dad left Japan primarily because he wanted to be with my mom. For decades he talked about how he wanted to move back to Japan. Fast forward 32 years and he finally negotiated a 3 year transfer to Tokyo, with the option to stay there longer.

Of course in 32 years things change, my dad changed, etc.

He went to work that first day in Tokyo.

He came back home.

As soon as he closed the door behind him he told my mom, "We're leaving here in exactly 3 years and moving back to the US."

He then worked on making it such that he could retire in the US, and that's what he did.

For me, I lived from age 12 to college about 80 or 90 miles from where I live. I then moved about 8 miles away to the next town over, where I lived until I was about 40. As a bonus from age 0-5 I lived in another adjacent town, and my parents kept that house so we'd visit the old house now and then to check up on it.

From 5-12 I lived in Holland, and in that time we frequently visited friends and family in Italy and Switzerland, and did trips to France, Germany, Denmark, GB, and of course Belgium. I'd like to go back to where I grew up in Holland, and visit the two places we most often visited in Switzerland.

I do NOT want to move back to the town where I grew up, nor the town where I lived and where I owned that house. It's way too busy now. Up here... much nicer. Quieter. It's like the town where we moved to in 1978, now. Meaning the town where I grew up got super busy, super crowded, etc, between 1978 and 2016. This town is sort of like my old town in 1978. Still quiet, still not that busy.

[Elefantino]

Retired and moved back to my hometown to be with ailing mom. Also have other family in the Bay Area. But, truth be told and with two kids on the East Coast (Brooklyn and DC), I'd move back in a heartbeat. Having recently gotten a year older but still on the sunny side of 60, I see Asheville, Boone or somewhere in the Triangle as my final destination.

This ain't the California I grew up in. It, frankly, sucks.

[Ken Robb]

+1 on this --- 30 miles doesn't seem far enough for me. I'm semi-nostalgic to move back to my hometown, but when I go back to visit my mom, its a hard dose of reality as to the "sh--hole" of a town its become. I've visited Gettysburg and it seemed like a really nice small-town without all the meth/heroin/economic cesspool of a rural southern city. That being said, I don't know if 30 miles is far enough for me to pack-up everything as I hate moving that much. Still, I've got family responsibilities keeping me here at the moment -- so contemplating any such of a move is purely academic.

Hey, you could move to a house on the lake in Guntersville. :beer: You can even buy a legal beer there now. :banana:

[Fatty]

I only know one pal from my HS class of 1200 kids who still lives there.

Did you go to Lane Tech ?

[vav]

My favorite book, Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck recounts a time he went back to a place of his youth in California, the Salinas Valley (I think). It is a power chapter of the book, one that felt all too familiar as I have gone back to my small town in Illinois and felt both a mixture of comfort, but also being an outsider.
Cheers

Ha! Just read the book. Loved it.

As for going back to hometown, I am from Havana, Cuba. Born and raised there and you couldn't pay me enough to go back...not even with Barack :cool:

[2LeftCleats]

I'd never move back to my hometown while cognitively intact. But 6 years ago we moved from Indianapolis to our college 'hometown' of Bloomington. It was a pre-retirement move. it's been nice professionally and socially. Small enough to maneuver easily but culturally rich with the university. Great cycling and low cost of living relative to other attractive parts of the country. The kids are spread out so this location can be our home base after retirement, from which we can spend extended time away. We haven't regretted the move and rarely go back.

[grawk]

I'm considering moving back near where I grew up, but by that I mean about 3 hours away. I live 30 minutes form Gettysburg, and I consider it local. But if it's a lower cost of living for you and you don't need things you can get in the city you're in now (or don't mind driving 30 minutes for them), go for it. We drive to lancaster to go to Costco, and to Baltimore to go to H-Mart, so my perspective is different.

[Ralph]

If you are going to move.....pick a state with no state income tax. Believe there are 7 with no state income tax.

Florida, Texas, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Washington, Wyoming, Nevada ?

For example.....lots of folks move to Florida (where I live)...and make it their legal residence (buy cheap home, drivers license, car tags, register to vote, etc).....but they don't stay here much....just winter months. Near golf courses, lakes, beaches, good fishing, bike paths, never miss a day outdoors, etc. The savings can be considerable. Maybe enough to pay for a long summer trip N.

[jlyon]

If you are going to move.....pick a state with no state income tax. Believe there are 7 with no state income tax.

Florida, Texas, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Washington, Wyoming, Nevada ?

If you are going to be several more years working class I tend to agree.

But if you are retiring you might find the property taxes in these states is a greater number than the tax savings if you don't have much income as a retiree.

Trust me here in Texas big property taxes take much of what I save in income taxes.

[malcolm]

If you are going to move.....pick a state with no state income tax. Believe there are 7 with no state income tax.

Florida, Texas, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Washington, Wyoming, Nevada ?

For example.....lots of folks move to Florida...and make it their legal residence (buy cheap home, drivers license, car tags, register to vote, etc).....but they don't stay here much. The savings can be considerable.

they usually make it up somewhere else, but if you are retiring it may be a good idea

[shovelhd]

This ain't the California I grew up in. It, frankly, sucks.

I grew up (10yo+) in Fairfield, CT. I would never move back there unless I had to for family. It's nothing, I mean NOTHING, like when it was when I was there in the late 60's early 70's. It's a town so full of itself it's nauseating.

That's what I'd advise the OP. Make sure it's what you think it is before you move. If it is, then by all means, go back home.

[Ralph]

Just as an example.....look at a small town like this...in a no state income tax state. http://www.inverness-fl.gov/

This a small town in W Central Florida. Built around some big lakes. Sailing, fishing, water skiing, close to coast for fishing, plenty of golfing around, The 46 mile long Withlachoochee Trail runs thru it....and it's never crowded. Hundreds of miles of local back roads with almost no traffic.
Huge cycling community....bike club....admittedly a retired bunch....not racers. Up front...a town like this is not for younger upwardly mobile younger folks.

Bet you could buy a nice small retirement home for about $150,000-200,000. Real Estate taxes under $1500 per year. Live here in winter. This is just an example....thousands others. This is way less expensive than tourist areas.

[572cv]

I'm no expert or professional, but I understand that every state has its own set of conditions for retirees with respect to taxes. For example, NH does not tax earned income, but they do tax "unearned income" which is to say, dividends, interest. It's a flat 5% I think, but something. Delaware has special property tax conditions for retirees (no school tax on the property tax). And then there is the estate tax. Some states are really bad about this, so if you want to leave much of your hard earned wages to your kids, you need to be aware of this. AARP and others have comparative tables on line for all of this.

RE the OP, I recall that PA is not too bad, middle of the pack on all of this. Happy choice!

[grawk]

The new governor wants to change that

[OtayBW]

Me, too. I don't get it....30 miles and you're 'moving back home'??? You haven't left yet!
But good luck with whatever transition you're in! :beer:

[Ken Robb]

Did you go to Lane Tech ?

No: Morton HS. I started at Morton East and moved to Morton West when it opened in 1958. My class was considered one school with a bifurcated campus. The classes after mine (1961) were either Morton East or Morton West-two separate schools. Lane Tech, as I recall, was about 5,000 boys. Butkus went there, I think.

[Ken Robb]

I grew up (10yo+) in Fairfield, CT. I would never move back there unless I had to for family. It's nothing, I mean NOTHING, like when it was when I was there in the late 60's early 70's. It's a town so full of itself it's nauseating.

That's what I'd advise the OP. Make sure it's what you think it is before you move. If it is, then by all means, go back home.
Summer of 1964 I had an internship in sales on Long Island. A recent hire at Sperry on L.I. and I rented rooms in Bayside. We went to visit his folks at their family home in Fairfield one weekend and the highlight was target shooting at the dump. We really had FUN with that. :banana: