To me it’s as simple as this: If I have a diversified portfolio and I own some bonds and I own some stocks, I will have a bias to own the capital gain producing stocks in my investment account (non-retirement) and my interest earning bonds in the IRA/retirement accounts. As it turns out, I own some heavily appreciated stocks in my IRA account, and it will break my heart to pay ordinary income tax on those gains when I finally sell the stocks and withdraw those funds. Even worse (for me, emotionally) are the US Treasury bonds in my IRA account, that generate interest that is exempt from state income tax. I will pay state tax on that money when I withdraw it form my IRA… (sadface).
I’m curious - who is thinking about moving when they retire? If you’re thinking of moving, are you anticipating just one move, or multiple? We are thinking of moving. I was trying to figure out where we would like to be long term. Now I’m adjusting, and thinking maybe we should move someplace “fun” for maybe 5 years, and then move again for the “slow go” and “no go” years. First place wouldn’t be as focused on health care, for example, but access to outdoor activities, food scene, etc. longer term we would likely move closer to kids, look for great health care, and things like that.
Moving is a pretty big deal for me. Since I got married in mid 1980s, have only moved once from a 1 bedroom apartment to a 2 bedroom place in the same building and then to the house we’ve lived in for several decades when our apartment was too squishy for the 4 of us. H has no interest in moving, but we would likely be interested in a long term rental if our kids end up starting a family far from us. I’m not too keen on uprooting and moving, but who knows what the future holds?
@1214mom I’ve moved twice in the last year. No way would I consider moving twice in retirement. I can definitely see the upsides to your recommendation, though. Fairly confident my area isn’t seen as “fun”, nor as good for health care…definitely the kids and grandkids that keep me here.
We are planning to move from our 5 BR house in the exurbs on the east coast. We have complicated moves possibly in store. Both kids will be in the Bay area next year, which increases my wife’s desire to spend time in the Bay area. (I would prefer to live there but my wife prefers the east coast, all other things equal).We have spent time in Sausalito over the last few years and could decide to spend 4 or 5 months a year there. We are inheriting, with my wife’s sister, a vacation cottage in Quebec, which we are now renovating and would probably house us for 1-2 months in the summer. We might spend some time in Florida. We might swsp our exurban house for a condo in the city.
There would be tax advantages to spending time in Florida. But we would have to figure out which location would have rooms for kids and grandkids. Otherwise they likely won’t come for extended stays. Very confusing, which is why we haven’t done anything yet.
The city condo and Florida probably work great for the no-go years but we would probably have to replace the houseboat we rent in Sausalito for a condo.
My wife and I recently completed our move from the house our two children grew up in and we lived in for 22+ years. It went on the market 11 days ago; 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, Colonial. We moved out-of-state to a 2 bed, 2 1/2 bath apartment. No more lawn maintenance, no more house projects, repairs. Not paying property taxes and to the schools. Saving money. Unless something drastic occurs we don’t plan on moving again. We’re both 64. We’re close to our daughter.
I just talked to a couple that moved to our area 4 years ago. They didn’t realize how quickly their house would sell (across the country) - I think it all had to do with price point - where there are a lot of buyers looking for a house within a specific price range…Their only child, a son/DIL/grandchildren had lived here, but have moved many states away. The retirees are happy here and don’t plan to move - plus son’s career may move him several more times at his choosing…
We have another 3 years to decide. Then it is getting the house in shape for sale. But I feel like @gunnerz - being close to family is a big advantage, esp capturing time with grandchildren. But if the kids are still moving…staying put until things ‘shake out’.
SOSConcern: we know our daughter is staying put. Our son is in New England with a software company and they told him when he graduated college and started with them that he’d probably get transferred after two years so it made no sense to move there. Plus the costs are way too much for apartments and all other expenses.
I have told my daughter that once she figures out where she will live, I will move to that vicinity. But if she gets into medical school, that could be a very long time!
Old mom, our situation. D moved back for 3 years of residency. H loves where we are but I am waiting to see if she stays. I do think that S and family will stay inSeattle but if they do move to San Diego then…
I want to get our house on the market and rent for awhile. We are at 16 years here with a new build but it is feeling like either put time and money into it or move.
@bclintonk Of course, you are right if we are comparing where to put $10,000. But we are comparing what that $10,000 in IRA should be invested in. All I am saying is if you need bonds to be somewhere, it will be in IRA. It’s gets trickier if it’s Roth IRA. I still think bonds in IRA is the way to go although some argue stocks are a better option since it grows faster and your tax exempt account grows bigger faster. The bogleheads were split on this, I think.
We’ll probably move twice. Once when the kids appear to have settled down somewhere, we’ll move closer to one of them. Then, we hope, to a CCRC before we get so old we insist on having our family work their tails off keeping us “independent” in our home.
We did the retirement move a year ago. We did a major downsize to a condo we already owned in Florida. Our reasons for choosing to come here were: 1) this is my home state, and I have many friends in the area even though I had not lived here for 37 years, and 2) no state income taxes.
There are positives and negatives for sure. The positives are: 1) my husband is much happier and more relaxed, 2) we have a simpler lifestyle with so much less to take care of, and 3) we live across the street from the beach. 
The negatives are: 1) Our space here might be a little too small - 935 sq ft. We have company all the time now, and I don’t feel as though I can offer much in the way of accommodations. Definitely not like I could in our large home. We don’t have our own laundry in our unit, but it is actually fewer steps to the closest one in the building than it was in our old home from the MBR to our laundry room! But, I miss having laundry right here. Entertaining, in general, is tricky. 2) I miss our friends from the state we left, and 3) I worry about our future healthcare/insurance situation since dh retired at a young (55) age.
Ds attended college in CA (graduated in 2018) and now lives and works in L.A. Too early to know where he will permanently land, but he loves it out there. We will NEVER have a residence in CA. Far too expensive for us. Had we thought he would return to the state where he was born and raised, we likely would have kept a presence there. I have to imagine that grandchildren are at least a good ten years away for us, but who knows. We only have the one ds.
My dh did not want to maintain a lot of space that might be used 2-3 times per year for yet-to-be-born grandchildren. Ds doesn’’t even have a girlfriend. He is very focused on career right now. I am currently on the five-year plan (with one year down) on staying here. We will re-evaluate at that time to see if we want something bigger. Being at a low price point in our condo does mean it should be easy to upgrade to a larger place here in FL or to get a second place if ds lands somewhere we want a second spot. A lot will depend on where ds is at that time. Notwithstanding the retirement, we are working on continuing to build wealth, so living small now makes sense.
We are prepping the house for sale, and will split our time for a few years between an apartment west of Boston and our house on Cape Cod.
That’s if I survive cleaning out 27 years’ worth of crap, and packing up and moving. 
After that, the plan is to be on Cape Cod full-time. Down the road, when the winters become completely unbearable, maybe we’ll do the snowbird thing, but that’s far down the road .
Both kids are launched but still in the area, and I think DS is probably here permanently because his wife’s family is here as well.
This is a good reason to move, to clean out your house.
Ah yes…the relocation issue. Our kids live 2500 miles apart and neither is near us. Living near them might be nice but it’s sort of a folly to think we can live near both…and frankly, neither live anyplace we would want to relocate to.
I think our best bet is to downsize and either stay in this area…or downsize and move where there is a decent airport so we can visit and so can they.
@thumper1 - airport thought is a good one. We are definitely benefitting from that now. It’s tough living in flyover country.
@notrichenough - my free advice (which is worth what you pay for it), is to err on discarding rather than keeping. Moving and or/storing gets expensive in a hurry. We used the opportunity to buy all new furniture. We had to get rid of a lot anyway. I had far too much “stuff” - decorative, sentimental, photos, etc. I really looked with an eye of what ds might want. We got rid of china, crystal (we did keep the flatware - has anyone priced sterling flatware lately???), and tons of items we used for entertaining. Many unique items my parents had collected through their travels that I had inherited. But, they were from their travels and experiences. The only thing ds was interested in was all of our Christmas ornaments, so we kept those. I kept a few items that are special to me. He can toss them when I die.
I think people tend to fill up the space they have. We had far too much stuff simply because there was room for it.
Why would traditional versus Roth IRA matter for this purpose (deciding which investments to put in the IRA), since it just means paying income tax at the back door versus front door, but without paying taxes yearly in either case?
@Hoggirl, sounds like a sensible plan. We would have gone bigger because we entertain a lot, but other than that, close to the beach, simple, no taxes, friends etc. On the no taxes, if we were to eliminate our state income tax in the NE, we could pay the mortgage for a decent condo in FL.
@notrichenough, if your kids are local, do you expect that they will come to the Cape for holidays and summers. If so, buying enough room for that in the new place would make sense. My FIL and MIL built a house outside of Toronto with that in mind (largely for summers and winter break, but one of their kids and his family also come up on many weekends). They also bought a house in FL, which we are visiting right now. Not big, but enough room for one family to visit (with kids). Landed about 3AM last night due to snow-related travel delays in the NE and am relaxing, looking out on the lagoon a block from the beach. Did some work this AM and am just relaxing. I thought their decision to include the space was sensible. In principle, one could easily pay for kids AirBnB nearby and it would be a lot cheaper than owning extra square footage, but I don’t think that works psychologically.
My 94 yo mother has apparently decided to moved to the assisted living in Memphis near my sister. It will be good for her as she is now cooped up in an apartment in NJ and reliant on my brother to take her place (can’t get her to use uber). Not sure what is going to happen to my brother. He moved in with her – he has his own place but is a hoarder and it’s absolutely full. My cousin’s suggestion is that we move the whole place down to a cheap storage facility outside of Memphis so that he can move down. I don’t know if that will work.
@LOUKYDAD, I saw your post a ways back. Have been too busy working to comment (we added about 5 new clients who need my expertise or are connected otherwise). You have a long expected lifespan post-retirement. I’d be concerned about two things: 1) lots can happen in the world to diminish the purchasing power of money; and 2) you need to find a way to occupy yourself that gives you meaning. You also need to maintain a community and many people, but not all, need structure in our lives. Some people get all three from work. I’m biased as I have worked with public accounting firms over the years and haven’t seen too many people there who really felt their work gave them a sense of meaning. But, I can think of a few who really were excited about the contributions they made – they tend to be a middle-size firms and work with entrepreneurs both in their businesses and personal sides. But, if you are in the first group, you may really enhance your life by finding a new set of things to do that feel meaningful. Using your expertise (probably going well beyond accounting) to help others, But, your instinct to slow down but keep your hand in the game may make sense.