My financial adviser was in town on Friday. He lives in Florida, so we'd only spoken on the phone. It was nice to put a face to the voice.
I told him that I thought it odd that it didn't seem to matter when I retire. At 62 or 67, it's still basically, the same amount of money and I'm worth more dead than alive. And I don't even have any insurance.
We started to talk about where I would retire. I said that I've realized it will most likely be in the US, no doubt the east coast. At the moment, I'm looking at eastern Tennessee. For one thing, I have relatives of a sort within about an hour's drive - distant cousins, to be sure, but cousins. The town I'm looking at currently has a huge university that sprung up out of nowhere.
The catch - and there's always a catch - is that from what I've seen on the map, a car is necessary. I don't really want to have to deal with a car. I would love to be able to walk to a little grocery store, the pub, the this, the that, the whatever. And you can't do that in the formerly tiny town I've been looking at.
The towns I've been looking at in western Ireland are very walkable. If you can't get what you want in the village, Galway is only a bus ride away.
There are some "Retire here" web sites that factor in walkability.
Irony is ever present in my life. Pleasantville, in its way, is walkable. I can walk to my library, to an outrageously expensive convenience store. I could ride my bike to the main library and to the regular grocery store, if I were feeling reckless and bold. Also, I could ride the bus to work. The bus stop is about 1 1/2 miles away, which is a nice stretch of the leg, and the bus stop for work is practically at the front door of the office. This is also the bus to NYC.
Do you live someplace walkable? Does it matter to you? Just curious.
4 comments:
I can't walk anyplace. And I'm WAY out past the bus line.
But I like being out a little bit. I like living in a semi-rural area. I don't mind driving, except in the snowy/icy winter.
Walking almost anywhere was a plus in Shanghai, that and cheap taxis. Here everywhere is a car ride away and the drivers treat cyclists like dirt. My next place has to be walkable.
I can walk to most shopping I really need (Walmart and Target, Walgreens).
and have ready access to the bus line. Not only is walking economical it's good for you too.
I just don't want to be an old bat in a car-dependent neighborhood where I wind up plowing through through the front entrance of a Publix. Just as bad, having to depend on those tiny buses from the senior centers (shudder).
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