My husband and I are coming to the point in our lives that we are facing a decision on retirement living. My husband is going to be 65 years old next year. He is waiting to retire until his 65th birthday to get as much as possible from SSI. I know, what a joke.
I live in Upstate New York and a lot of the seniors here live here in the winter and then move to Florida or somewhere south in the winter. They even have a term for this type of lifestyle “Snowbirds”. We are thinking of doing the same thing. We have family that we can visit in the southern states to help with the decision on where to go in the winter.
Some are preparing to sell their homes and some are going to rent their home out for a few years until they decide something final just to keep that security blanket. It is unfortunate for us our retirement funds will not be enough to keep that security blanket, and we will have to sell our home.
We have a seasonal campsite now in Upstate New York that we love so this will accommodate us for six summer months. We have lived most of the summer their for quite a few years now. Since the gas crunch that made travel hard for everyone, it has become a desired lifestyle. We just have to decide what we are going to do for the six winter months.
In order to be more prepared I have been checking as many ads on the internet that I can for a winter location. Then we will be taking a trip south to get more hands on information to help make our decision. I think this will take some time and will not be a fast decision. That is one good thing about being able to camp our way through this. We will be able to check things out without really having to buy into any thing right away or make a hasty decision.
The whole thing sounds rather enticing and full of adventure. Taking care of the home we have has become a bit of a concern for us as we get older anyway. My husband has a rough time with the property upkeep that needs constant oversight and the house is a split level house that gets rougher rougher on me with my disability, so it seems like a good plan while we can.
We have friends who travel to Texas for the winter months, family who travel to Florida, North Carolina and Virgina. The possibilities are endless. The one thing that we both do agree on is the beauty of New York, especially Upstate New York. So, we will not be giving that part of the plan up anytime soon. It won’t be a big change of lifestyle for us as we are used to the seasonal camping in a great spot right on the Black River now. Do you Snowbird? Leave me a comment on how you feel about it.