That’s what ds1 thinks would be better for us … reverse snowbirds. They’d either finish out the basement or buy us a condo that they’d AirBnb when we or her parents weren’t there in the summers.
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I’m only 52 (for 2 more weeks 
)! But, I’m only working part-time now and took my 4 full time years out way back before 2000 and no way am I paying to put those back in now. I think for Illinois they charge 7% interest, so definitely not worth it. Especially with my decent SS numbers. I also didn’t earn any pension credit after covid last year so that was kind of sucky. I need the 5 years of credit by the time I’m 60. Since I have worked so part-time like 2-3 days a week max over the last 10 or so years, with the exception of a back surgery that kept me out a full year, I am not quite at 3 years of credit through last year. This year though I can probably add .75 or so, which means I will be around 3.5 years so that’s the issue. How long to get the 1.5 more years credit. My estimates are now about 3 years, so once I qualify for a pension does that mean I can no longer withdraw my earnings paid in, or can I withdraw them anytime and take a lump sum even after 60?
Madison has a gorgeous lake that it’s on and it’s a lot smaller than Austin and much colder!!
As far as the campuses, Austin is flat and more contained, whereas Madison is more hilly and not as contained of a campus as you can literally drive right through it. Not what you would normally think for a Midwestern city with the hills either. It’s a prettier campus for sure.
As for “cities”, Austin unfortunately has become a big spot for the homeless population, probably because it’s warmer and some other reasons, but coming from Chicago, it’s not as bad as some people there seem to think it is…they also have no idea how bad it is unless they’ve been to SF. Austin traffic is also pretty bad and Madison has virtually none. Austin is becoming a big tech hub and outrageously expensive to live. We bought this crappy little condo for my daughter and in 2 years it has increased in value by more than 50% due to housing prices going up there. Our ROI as far as renting it out has been huge so we’re not even selling it right now, although we’re seriously thinking about it because places are going like hotcakes and we’d hate to miss out on a boom.
I should’ve been more specific … People said it was like Austin 20 years ago.
Ahh, now that, I definitely believe! Austin had NO traffic back then and it was a nothing drive to/from the airport. Until Covid, traffic to/from the airport lately had been horrendous. With Covid it was like the good old days - zero. Now, I’m sure it’s getting back to normal as that’s what’s going on here. 
As the classic advice goes: “Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft”
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@shawbridge congrats to shawson and your future DIL.
DD2 celebrated her 2nd ‘anniversary’ as BF/GF with her BF - they thankfully are taking things slow as they are working in 2 cities and still working on careers. Fortunately he has landed an internship in exactly what he wants to do (equipment in sports management for a professional team that does have an opening in equipment – so that is promising) and DD has a job phone interview today that hopefully will lead into an in person interview. She is 5 hours from BF now, but new job will be 2 hours from BF. She also would be in a city with more professional opportunities for him.
Right now on our horizon is grandchild #3 (late Aug/early Sept) and my retirement, late Sept.
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I find it fascinating that, for many here, politics plays heavily into your decisions as to where you want to live/retire. I guess they did in ours as well, because we were pursuing tax advantages.
Ds left the state he grew up in (which is also my dh’s home state) to attend college 1,800 miles from home in California. He is still there and working, though now in SoCal. He seems to love it, but I can’t imagine we would ever own property there. Too $$$. I wonder how ds will ever be able to own property there. If ds ever returned to his home state, I would want to own property there as dh still has family and we still have many friends who live there. However, prices there are crazy out of control as well, but it is relative.
When we are old and feeble, I will likely want to be near (not with) ds wherever he is, however. I want to make my old age (should I reach it) as easy on him as is humanly possible.
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@Twoin18 that is a great commentary and I am sharing it! She hit the nail on the head with sunscreen too.
I NEVER thought of politics or someone’s politics as a factor in who were my friends or where I wished to live. I love all different kinds of people I really do and I thought I was very tolerant. I really did. And I feel that I still am.
But I’ve found out that I would like the people in my life to be tolerant of other’s views also. That is what I think I chafe about these days.
That and this pandemic and how others have dealt with it have changed how I feel about my neighbors.
I have decided that I will not find like minded people and that’s ok. I would however like to find people that we can agree to disagree
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It can be different for someone who is a member of a visible group (e.g. race or ethnicity, sometimes religion or LGBTQ+), and the politics in the area in question are specifically hostile to that group.
On the other hand, sometimes the perception of the politics is inaccurate, or interpersonal interactions may encounter more or less hostility than the politics may suggest.
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This is a retirement thread. Some people put a lot of energy into their views such that to hear local/regional news that is disturbing is not a calming thing to me in retirement. We are always going to have a L, R, and Center with people’s political views and how to influence local/state/national laws. How this affects me in day-to-day retirement. I can choose what news to watch, what to read. Sometimes I have to avoid what is going on when I want to go do things due to various protests or other safety issues.
Being close to grandchildren, in the future I may need to ‘suck it up’ on various things to live close to them at least part of the year.
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My very liberal aunt and uncle retired from a blue state to a house in Florida. They hated living in that community because of the intolerance and overbearing conservative politics. Then they moved an hour away to a retirement community. They love living there with a variety of people from all over and a comfortable acceptance of a variety of political and social views. I think of their experience when I consider long term plans.
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This is what I’m planning right now. I’m not quite 60, but I was widowed very young. My family has always been scattered so I’ve been looking at retirement communities where I can connect with other people my age for almost 2 decades. I’ve grown up in Canada and lived in blue states, so I’m quite liberal. I’m planning to move to a retirement community in Florida in the near future. I’m glad to hear that your aunt and uncle have had a good experience. Which community are they in now?
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I can see where it would be a challenge to find blue retirement living centers at least in certain states. I remember when my mom was in a nursing home for rehab a couple months before she passed, you could walk down the hall and not miss a word of FoxNews with it on in every room you passed by. I got good at ignoring it and my mom knew I would never talk politics with her as there was no way I was convincing her of anything and wasn’t about to spend the limited time I had with her arguing (we came to that arrangement about 10 years before she passed and in the end, she came over to my side on many issues (not based on discussing them with me though).
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I’m retired and my H is semi-retired. We are staying in the same state where we now live (a very liberal state) and are grateful that we can do so. We like to get away for a few weeks in the dead of winter and we still have plans to travel.
I have a friend who moved to The Villages in Florida. She found that her politics and her husband’s were unpopular with their neighbors and they had trouble making friends. They were ready to move when my friend found a Unitarian Church not too far from their home. They became friends with people there who shared the same political views.
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@Hoggirl We currently live in Southern California as do our two DD’s and right now there is no way they could afford to buy a place even making decent salaries.
H and I are starting to explore other places to retire if we decide to leave California. We are concerned about tax advantages, COL and QOL for places to live and are not considering politics in our decision at least right now.
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The Villages in Florida have been the subject of numerous articles and opinions about neighborhood politicization. However, it may not be the only place where that has occurred, though other places may not make headlines because they are smaller and/or have not had any headline grabbing incidents (e.g. at 1:22 of the included video).
Florida is an extremely diverse state and becoming more so by the day. Some areas are conservative and some are liberal. If politics were important to someone moving here, I feel certain they could find people who share common political philosophies. The notion among residents is that the state will trend more blue as time passes because of the continued influx of folks fleeing blue states for tax and other policy reasons. Only time will tell if that is the case.
My county is very purple.
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I have a friend who lives in a Florida retirement community. She is a long-term at the Democratic HQ in FL, where she finds others who share her political loyalties. She tries not to talk politics elsewhere and seems mostly pretty content in her community
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