State politics is a BIG issue as far as retirement goes. Weather or not you may have Medicare, medicaid, or ANY kind of breaks or help etc. largely depends on whether or not your state government is progressive democrat or reich wing nutters out to destroy anything that could remotely help retirees and those on lower income. I did live in California most of my life, however had to come to NC to help my mother for the past 18 years. She recently passed away age 95 so we are leaving this reich wing hell hole asap. I lived in Oregon for 6 months and loved it. Most areas in California that I would like to live is FAR to expensive for us. Our old house in Newport Beach that my family bought in 1975 for $25,000 last sold for $1.7 MILLION. We could not possibly find anything there even remotely in our price range, even for rent. We just went on a 27 day cross country trip, camping along the way. Went back to my old stomping grounds and saw our old house. Would move back to Southern California in a heartbeat if we won the lottery. However we have to exist on our retirement which is only about $4,200 a month, plus fortunately cost of living raises per year. So we spent 5 days in Bend Oregon on this trip to get a feel of it, for my wife to see it and to look at homes we can afford. She absolutely fell in love with Bend and why wouldn't she bend is like Shangri-La compared to Raleigh NC. We found several homes just south of Bend ON the Deschutes River with a dock, about a 1/2 acre of land usually, 2+ car garage, plus large workshop plus HUGE RV parking garage the size of a blimp hanger and all for under $200,000. I just now was actually looking on Zillow at a couple places in Florence Oregon right on the coast for the same price range and right on the water. Oregon is literally like being on a different planet compared to NC. Nice weather,(if you are east of the Cascades) very few bugs, low humidity, gorgeous country side, blue as blue can be politically so you know the state legislature isn't sitting there doing nothing but trying to come up with ways to screw you 24/7 like virtually every single red state is. Unless you are very well off with LOTS of money in the bank and a big retirement of at least $100K+ per year then you are a damn fool to live in a red state and or vote for Tpublicans. Sadly politics rules virtually everything we do, especially if you are lower income making less than $150K a year. That is just a fact we must live with and a fact you had better acknowledge and accept when looking for a place to retire. There are no Republicans left only Tpublicans and 100% of them are stark raving insane and have no more care for the bottom 98% than they do an ant on the sidewalk. I only hope my wife and I can sell our house asap before this positively insane batch of nuts that are now in 100% totalitarian control of the NC legislature drag down the state even further.

I think you're doing the right thing in moving home. The joy of being with your grandchildren while they grow up will compensate for "projects." And having lots of social/family contact is even good for your health. You can take "volunteer vacations" where you do good works while traveling - that should help him get some of his projects out of his system. Or what about a woodworking class? I'm not being facetious - my DH and I are building a house next door to my son and his family, and he wanted (and we got) a large lot so he could garden. I know he'll enjoy that as a project and it was a life dream, so I am happy to support him. However, it is the grand baby that is the real motivation, for both of us. Love and people are more important than almost anything else IMHO. FYI, I gave up the fast track on my career to move back home with my family years ago and have never regretted it. I look back now and wonder why I thought it was such a hard decision at the time... Good luck!

I guess I am really getting depressed about not being able to retire because for several years I planned to retire this Oct. 31 and now that time is less than 2 weeks away, and I am afraid I will never get to retire. I have worked for 46 years and I want out. I worked hard for 6 years to get my credit cards paid off and they finally are, but I have a whole new set of problems. I am now faced with the prospect of my land not selling if it is not engineered. I will have to do the engineering and I have an estimate for $9,500 from an engineer. The town is putting in a sewer line by that property and I will have to pay for 2 sewer taps that could run anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 a piece, my car needs $2,000 urgent repairs, my house needs repairs, the roof leakes, the plumbing needs lots of work and I just don't know what to do. I could very easily end up $15,000 in debt, and I just found out that I need another major dental procedure that could cost up to $2,000. There is just no way I can see my way to retire and that is what I want so much.

Thanks for the link. It just confirms our decision to leave New Jersey as soon as my DH retires. I just paid my quarterly real estate tax today and looked back at previous bills. My 2009 property tax is just about double what I paid only 10 years ago. Yep- we have the highest property taxes in the nation. Can't wait to move back to PA- not a bargain, but significantly better than NJ. Or maybe we'll look into our other neighbor- Delaware.