Posted on 12/01/2014 6:21:06 AM PST by Iron Munro
More than 10 years ago, Barbara Zierten and her husband retired to a small town in California's scenic "gold country," in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
"It's beautiful here," said Zierten, 73, explaining the attraction of the area east of San Francisco. They also were on a tight budget and reasoned that a small town would be cheaper.
But as time has passed, they have decided the area isn't an ideal fit. For one thing, the library is open only part time. "I'm a reader," she said. "So it's frustrating." And a bad experience with a hospital has led her to seek treatment for health concerns in San Francisco, a two- to three-hour drive away.
Perhaps most dispiriting to Zierten, a liberal who closely follows politics, is that the population's views tend to be much more conservative than her own. Particularly irksome is one resident who often puts up large signs critical of Barack Obama: "The latest said, 'President Ebola.' "
"I didn't do my research," she conceded. The couple is now contemplating relocation to Sacramento.
(Excerpt) Read more at tampabay.com ...
Those would be half my neighbors here in Southern AZ.
Points out a general difference we often see between liberals and conservatives.
Liberals, generally support big government micro-controls in every aspect of life and really are not comfortable with diversity of thought.
These two cannot even abide living in an area where there is a conservative down the road who exercises his first amendment rights.
Most conservatives I know have a live and let live respect for individual freedom.
Many live with strong viewed liberals nearby and just laugh at their idiocy and peccadilloes, but would not dream of letting the presence of a liberal drive them from their home.
I agree about the denizens of Southern Arizona - TUSD, Pima County Board of Supervisors, Tucson City Council, the Arizona Daily Star etc. etc.
However we may get a solid Congresswoman to represent us.
All American liberals heartily embrace diversity
They just can't stand us right wing knuckle-draggers who don't think like them.
Translation: I need to live where everyone follows the prescribed narratives.
Minus the crime, Greenville is a very good choice.
Always a risk.
I was thinking that after the last recount ( it is this week), I should post a meet and greet for Freepers in the Tucson area. We always seem to be at the center of the storm.
“.living in PA now but actively looking in & around the Raleigh area.”
As a native North Carolinian....no. Not even close to being a good choice.
Winston-Salem/Greensboro, Asheville, Wilmington, maybe. But never Raleigh.
She probably voted for him because of his melanin too! LOL
You need to spend some time there before you make your decision. That area of NC is very liberal. Plus the crime rate in Raleigh/Durham area is significant. Other parts of NC are more conservative and SC may have a lower cost of living.
You can take I-81 down toward the middle of the state where there is excellent healthcare and an international airport.
Speaking personally, it's getting rather tiresome to find more and more Liberal Democrats moving into this little town here in Gold Country. They move here for the looks and feel of the area, then immediately try to change everything to be just like where they moved from.
Kind of like the illegals do, now I think about it...
From the looks of it, the ratio of liberals to conservative here locally is rising, and it's getting rather worrisome. It's to the point now that I am reluctant to post any (more) anti-obola or no-gore-hillary signs because it might inflame the tolerant lefties more. Never know which one of the new neighbors might decide that they can't tolerate a non-Liberal position.
If you're on a tight budget then what the hell are you doing in California to begin with?
I’m still far off from retirment... but have started looking at places to live so that I will have extra money to travel etc. I have friends who are keeping a small apt in the US...but have moved to Cuenco, Equador and bought a beautiful home. I’m inclined to look internationally as well...the only crappy thing is the US likes to tax your income even if you’re living abroad.
Admittedly all retiree circumstances are different but the idea of moving to that perfect retirement place seems to be an important part of the post-work scenario. For me, having my kids/grandkids close, some meaningful work to do, old friends to see and good degree of financial security (meaning no debt) beats moving to that idyllic retirement place in the sun every time. There is no perfect place.
This group has a lot of very good and relevant information on many countries.
http://www.kathleenpeddicord.com/best-places-to-retire/uruguay/
That depends on your inner core re likes and dislikes.
If your sons and/or daughters have a good relationship and you love your grandkids and vice versa. You need to be close but not too close. We live an hour away, and that works out. We see other grandparents, who have moved to be in the same city as the grand kids, becoming full time baby sitting grand parents and drivers for the kids. Some are happy with that, and many are tired/worn out and basically unappreciated by the parents and often the grand kids.
Our church is our social core, and we need a good active/friendly church that is based on the bible not a liberal or some off the wall church that instead of charging you up after a service, depresses you.
Weather is very important to us. We like to do outdoor activities and do not want to live an area requiring AC from May to Nov, and heating from Nov to May. We lived in tornado areas, while growing up, and we don't want that again. So we take our every 15 to 25 year earthquake.e love the ocean, walking on ocean beaches, kayaking in bays and fishing. Yet we don't want to live in a tourist town on the beach. So our one hour drive to the beach works out great. Two decades ago, I got an excellent early retirement, and the property values in our area were excellent. Selling our home would have been easy, and we could buy in most areas we were interested in.
Our adult children lived in Oregon and loved it. I fly fished and hunted, an my wife like to go along to be in the outdoors. So, Oregon seemed like a good fit, and we thought about the Portland area suburbs, about an hour away. Fortunately, one of our sons warned us about the weather re the rain and winter from the end of October to about June. He, also, warned us about the left wing political situation. He gave us a 3 month subscription to the Oregonian Newspaper. Before the 3 months were up, we knew that the Portland area was too liberal for us.
Then, we checked out the Medford and Brookings areas. The areas were conservative and in beautiful areas. Again, after reading the local newspapers, it was evident that the Oregon left wing tax suckers took money from the good people in those counties to spend it in left wing hell holes up north. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that in 10 years or less, conservative counties/cities in S. Oregon would stretched thin re police and keeping up the infrastructure. That has happened in spades.
Southern Oregonians and Northern Californians are again seriously looking at seceding and forming the State of Jefferson to control their future and not be the tax slaves for the liberals controlling the two states. In the meantime, the weather and high income taxes in Oregon took their tool on our Oregon off spring. They now live 1 hour away and 30 minutes away..
If weather is critical, visit a potential retirement place in the middle of summer and again in the middle of winter. Doing that eliminated other options. One season might be great and the other miserable. I got to do this for free and got paid. After retirement, I did consulting and basically got to pick my one week sites of work. That eliminated Arizona, Nevada, Floriduh, the beautiful shoretown of SC, and the Peninsula of Washington.
So we decided to stay where we live, with a great climate, a church we love and our core of friends, most are from that church. We avoid contact with liberals.
I think she was the one who gave us the initial idea. We also subscribe to the paper magazine ( I know, must have the difference) International Living.
I think for us was watching the show House Hunters International a few years back that got us started.
The cons...big extremes in weather and rather isolated
Con?!? :-)
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