A question borne out of simple curiosity. If you had say $300,000 to last the rest of your life and could choose to live anywhere in the world, where would that be? As a couple or by yourself.
I appreciate age is a factor which is why I suggest its a retirement idea but all thoughts welcomed.
I am where I want to be - in fact, we moved to southern Maryland with the idea that we’d retire here, and that’s still the plan. It helped that we both got jobs in the area.
This county is still largely rural, so not too congested. We keep our sailboat in the adjacent county for easy access to the Chesapeake Bay. We’ve been fixing up our house to make it just as we want it. Honestly, I can’t think of any place else I’d rather live.
Here.
I have $300,000 and I don’t consider it enough to retire on. I’d like to go somewhere warm, though. Maybe Malaysia? Someone on this board was saying good things about expatriate communities in Malaysia.
Either in the home we have (rural, last place on a long, private, gravel drive) or St Martin. Ideally a 50/50 seasonal blend of the two.
With that amount of money it would have to be Tristan da Cunha. I wouldn’t be able to blow it on booze or racehorses.
Is it possible to retire to California? WE could not afford to live in a coastal town-but what about an are near Napa (like the Alexander valley)? It looks nice and rural-Healdsburg looked like a nice town.
I’d like to work as a hospitality guy at a vineyard tasting room!
Ocean City, Maryland. Plans are in place to get us there, on the ocean, by the time my hubby is 55.
I wouldn’t be able to retire to my planned location on $300,000 so I would say with that as a budget it would probably be Costa Rica.
Regardless of the cash available I’m not spending my twilight years in the cold.
[battlecry] I will retire somewhere in the tropics! [/battlecry]
Probably Lexington, Kentucky.
Are those 300K supposed to last 55 years or is it every year? Because even if I retired to my house in the Pyrenees (which is the plan), there is no way 300K will last me 55 years… if I retire to my house, you can take out one zero, adjust for yearly inflation, and I’ll still be saving.
If I had $300,000 more than I had now, I could retire, and would – to Ithaca, NY. Great combination of walkability and natural beauty. The money would go straight into buying a nice house, and then the savings I already have would suffice for my every day expenses until I could draw Social Security.
If you gave me 300K free and clear right now, I wouldn’t settle down anywhere. I’d hit the open road and travel until the money ran out.
We passed through a town in Washington on the Sound last year that looked like just where I’d like to retire to. Washington’s a no-state-income-tax state, right? That would make a big difference to folks on a fixed income. I don’t know how the colder, wetter weather would feel to old bones, but California’s an expensive state to live in.
Martha’s Vineyard. $300k is the down payment on the cottage, right?
We’d like to retire in British Columbia or Alaska or maybe Finland, and I don’t think $300K is going to do it in any of those places. I guess we’d just use the money to pay off our mortgage and buy an RV so we could travel a bit and stay on our own property here in MN.
Oregon. I like rain better than shine, it’s very culturally and politically liberal, and it’s easy to get an rx card.
Very highly yuppified there. There are plenty of coastal towns that are cheaper than Healdsburg. The Wine Country in general is very expensive to live in, unless you get out to the remoter areas (where there isn’t wine, just cattle ranches). Vineyards are dependent on sucking down ancient aquifers, plus they ruin rural communities everywhere they sprout in California. I hate them.
I’d like to move to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, because you can buy a medium sized farm there for about half of the price of a suburban house in a subdivision, here. People are nicer and the pace is slower than here in CA. Plus it rains more.
This would be my answer as well. I also think it would be great to live 6 months here, a year there, etc. E.g. I would love to spend a whole year in NYC, then be able to move on. Or maybe something like Endless Winter.
For those that would prefer to stay put, why buy a home? Wouldn’t the money last longer if you just rented?
I have 300K cash + social security payments?
I can never work again or get any more assets during my lifetime?
Cash for a cheap (<= 150K) condo in AZ; HOA <=$300/month.
For the “I’d buy an RV and travel crowd”…ummm, ok, but what are you going to do when you run out of money?
RV costs are going to be $75/day without food or PITI on the RV itself.
Here is a cite, since SDMB’ers like cites: http://twofortheroad.tripod.com/id48.html
Even if you max out on SS, you are going to be in serious negative cash flow each month.
Maybe we should move this to the “If I am so smart, why am I not rich” thread.