What were / will be your criteria for choosing a location for retirement?

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by Louis

Many thanks to all who've shared their thoughts and ideas.

I do have a question for the folks in the PNW who are on the west side of Cascades, and therefore get all the rain in the winter (but thankfully, no snow).

One of the trade-offs between W and E of the mountains, is of course warmer, wetter winters on the W side vs colder, drier winters on the E side. Is the rain and long periods with no sun something you've gotten used to, or is it still a noticeable annoyance that at times really bothers you?

The comparison here, would be, say, Eugene/Corvallis OR vs Pullman WA.

I spent 5 years in Eugene. Coming from New England, summer and winter in the PNW compared favorably to NE, spring and fall did not. The length of the winters does get pretty rough, but things get pretty weird if you venture too far from the I-5 corridor, so I'd still try to stay west of the cascades.

[commonguy001]

Originally Posted by Louis

Many thanks to all who've shared their thoughts and ideas.

I do have a question for the folks in the PNW who are on the west side of Cascades, and therefore get all the rain in the winter (but thankfully, no snow).

One of the trade-offs between W and E of the mountains, is of course warmer, wetter winters on the W side vs colder, drier winters on the E side. Is the rain and long periods with no sun something you've gotten used to, or is it still a noticeable annoyance that at times really bothers you?

The comparison here, would be, say, Eugene/Corvallis OR vs Pullman WA.

I’m west of the cascades down near Mount St Helens but did decades of Minnesota winters. I’ll take PNW winter over MN winter all day long. The day we flew out to look at houses it was -28 that morning in Minneapolis and -19 when our flight left. I don’t miss the humidity and summer storms either. It’s July 19th and I’ve used the AC for one day this year, just awesome.
Eastern WA and Idaho are really conservative if that matters. Some of that here but we have Portland to offset it some.

Edit, East west brain fart

[jlwdm]

Originally Posted by commonguy001

I’m west of the cascades down near Mount St Helens but did decades of Minnesota winters. I’ll take PNW winter over MN winter all day long. The day we flew out to look at houses it was -28 that morning in Minneapolis and -19 when our flight left. I don’t miss the humidity and summer storms either. It’s July 19th and I’ve used the AC for one day this year, just awesome.
Western WA and Idaho are really conservative if that matters. Some of that here but we have Portland to offset it some.

Western WA more liberals than conservatives - especially in greater Seattle.

Jeff

[commonguy001]

Originally Posted by jlwdm

Western WA more liberals than conservatives - especially in greater Seattle.

Jeff

Sorry, meant eastern
100% correct

[metalheart]

Originally Posted by Tickdoc

I am in this camp. Will be 50 next year and really no plans for true retirement in sight, barring physical limitations. My retirement plan is rather to cut back hours and watch others do the work for me. The work itself keeps me young and the interactions with people I meet make it rewarding. I would miss that dearly. Will Another 10 yrs make a difference? Maybe, we shall see. Doesn’t mean I don’t dream of a retirement home or of not having to go every day, but I feel fortunate that I am my own boss and can take off and travel as I see fit. Good thread.

Not to be the contrarian in this thread, but let me share my experience about this particular issue. I invested heavily in my career, undergraduate, 6 years of graduate school, a year of post-doc work and then I built a career. Loved my work, got to the point where I could call my own shots. I never saw myself quitting. Then I had a heart attack. The hardest part of that event was my wife's reaction, not knowing what the outcome of the ambulance ride would be. I cut back on work and spent more time doing shared things with my wife. That was sort of working, I was still engaged, still had time to share time with wife and family, and then I had a second heart attack, despite being active and two weeks prior spending 15 1/4 minutes on a stress test treadmill. At that point my priority became time and sharing with my family. I just could not be half in my work life and feel satisfied. I miss my profession and my work but time is the precious resource and we all have to make the choices that suit our priorities.

[Coffee Rider]

I plan on staying where I am. If I had an unlimited amount of money, I'd be basically the same place I am but in a house with a great ocean view. Fortunately where I am, I can still pretty much do anything I want (ride bikes) while still working a fair amount, etc. While I'd love to afford to be able to stop working any time (have FU money), working for a long time isn't too bad if you get to have a good life outside work and like what you do most of the time, the tradeoffs are worth it. That's what I tell myself when I rationalize just how expensive it is to live here, which we call the sunshine tax.

[FlashUNC]

Retirement. Hah, that's a good one.

[gasman]

I went to college here in Eugene in the 70's. Med school in Portland and New Haven, CT for internship/residency /fellowship. Been back in Eugene since the Mid-80's. I retired just about 2 years ago. I miss the daily interaction with patients and staff, especially now. But this will change.

Eugene and Corvallis are both really nice college towns. Corvallis is about 1/2 the size and a little sleepier. Great road riding in both places. I don't know that much about MTB riding as I only go a couple times/yr. I grew up in the SF Bay area and while the weather can't be beat the traffic there now is horrendous. My adjustment to the PNW was sort of non-issue. The rain is usually light and we rarely get downpours. The summers are great, much better than the heat and humidity of the midwest. east or south.
The east side of Cascades is pretty different from the west. Much drier and colder in the winter. I really only know Bend-which is overrun with tourists during the winter. It is a pretty hopping place, I wouldn't want to live there as there is too much traffic nowadays but that's just me.
Bend has better MTB riding and also has good road riding.

[dave thompson]

Originally Posted by Louis

Many thanks to all who've shared their thoughts and ideas.

I do have a question for the folks in the PNW who are on the west side of Cascades, and therefore get all the rain in the winter (but thankfully, no snow).

One of the trade-offs between W and E of the mountains, is of course warmer, wetter winters on the W side vs colder, drier winters on the E side. Is the rain and long periods with no sun something you've gotten used to, or is it still a noticeable annoyance that at times really bothers you?

The comparison here, would be, say, Eugene/Corvallis OR vs Pullman WA.

Louis, we really need to have a conversation about Spokane.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by dave thompson

Louis, we really need to have a conversation about Spokane.

Hey Dave. It's on the list...

[Tandem Rider]

Originally Posted by gasman

Eugene and Corvallis are both really nice college towns. Corvallis is about 1/2 the size and a little sleepier. Great road riding in both places. I don't know that much about MTB riding as I only go a couple times/yr. I grew up in the SF Bay area and while the weather can't be beat the traffic there now is horrendous. My adjustment to the PNW was sort of non-issue. The rain is usually light and we rarely get downpours. The summers are great, much better than the heat and humidity of the midwest. east or south.
The east side of Cascades is pretty different from the west. Much drier and colder in the winter. I really only know Bend-which is overrun with tourists during the winter. It is a pretty hopping place, I wouldn't want to live there as there is too much traffic nowadays but that's just me.
Bend has better MTB riding and also has good road riding.

Gasman pretty much nails it. I can get from one extreme end of Bend to the other in about 25 minutes in peak traffic, if that puts a "measurement" on the traffic density. Summer is the busiest time of the year, Winter is busy but less so. The "shoulders" are delightful. East side of the Cascades is High Desert, snow and winter is much less of a "downer" here because there is so much to do in the winter that's fun. Most snow here is dry and fluffy, not the midwestern heavy wet stuff. Typical winter day feels a little warmer than St Louis (I lived in Carbondale for years), I think this is true pretty much up and down the Eastern side of the mountain range, not just in Bend. Lots of retired folks live here for the recreation and the Regional Medical Center is here. Cycling wise, good road riding, great gravel riding, and world class mountain biking.

[texbike]

Originally Posted by dave thompson

Louis, we really need to have a conversation about Spokane.

I'd love to hear a sales pitch on Spokane. It's been on my list of places to visit, but I haven't made it there yet...

Texbike

[benb]

I'm amazed this thread seems to have near 0 concern for kids & family.

Perhaps just a generational thing?

You read this thread and it's like no one had any kids or doesn't care to see them more than 1-2x a year.

I'm more like 20-25 years out. A ton depends on where my parents are they'd be in their 90s then. Everything would depend on how much help they needed. My son will be nearing marriage/grandchildren age around that point.

I can't see my wife & I moving to some far away vacationland and ignoring our son + potential grand children just over how good the cycling or other leisure activities were.

Not really trying to call anyone out here.. most of my parents friends are retired, and a very large amount of them have done the "move 2-3000 miles from the children for leisure" stuff. It'll be interesting to see what happens when all of a sudden they need their kids to take care of them. Maybe it's a baby boomer thing. It doesn't seem like it was a thing with the greatest generation.

I can bike just about anywhere. I know my wife wants to be near water, but we're not that far from the water in MA. Being near the water could easily mean being near a pond or lake for her, so that doesn't ruin cycling in any way as long as we came to an agreement about not moving to some place like Florida that I would hate for cycling. That's really not an issue anyway again though, cause we have no family in the Southern or Western US so there would be very little chance we'd move that far. With climate change MA is going to turn into CA style weather according to some models, winter has been getting easier and easier here, not really a concern there.

[gdw]

Originally Posted by benb

I'm amazed this thread seems to have near 0 concern for kids & family.

Perhaps just a generational thing?

You read this thread and it's like no one had any kids or doesn't care to see them more than 1-2x a year.

I'm more like 20-25 years out. A ton depends on where my parents are they'd be in their 90s then. Everything would depend on how much help they needed. My son will be nearing marriage/grandchildren age around that point.

I can't see my wife & I moving to some far away vacationland and ignoring our son + potential grand children just over how good the cycling or other leisure activities were.

Not really trying to call anyone out here.. most of my parents friends are retired, and a very large amount of them have done the "move 2-3000 miles from the children for leisure" stuff. It'll be interesting to see what happens when all of a sudden they need their kids to take care of them. Maybe it's a baby boomer thing. It doesn't seem like it was a thing with the greatest generation.

An awful lot of the greatest generation migrated from NY and New England to warmer states like Florida and Arizona.

[benb]

Could be personal/family bias.

No one in the greatest generation in my family (either side) did that, the boomers are doing it, even though they in general have been far less financially successful.