[quote=FlyerInHi]I was talking to friends about retirement planning. That crazy couple is talking about moving to temecula wine country from West LA. Nothing with Temecula if you live there already…. but retiring from LA sounds crazy to me.
I think it’s better to own condos in several cities and make the rounds. You want to be near major attractions. Perhaps rent an apartment in France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Uruguay… whatever and stay sereral months each year. Airbnb and home share sites make it possible.
Plus in the next 10 years, with electric vehicles, there will be little pollution in the cities. Electric vehicles will improve liveability; and the desirability gap between urban and rural areas will widen considerably. I will wait to be proven right.[/quote]
I’ve lived in West LA (Sawtelle and Olympic) and I wouldn’t exactly consider it an “urban lifestyle”. LA is just like San Diego which is just urban sprawl and depending where you were in West La would be similar to Point Loma or UTC. Fact is that you will need to jump in a car at some point to do daily errands, and deal with traffic parking etc. Major pain especially if you’re old.
Furthermore I can’t see anything wrong about packing up and selling your place at a solid price in the city and moving to more affordable housing in the country. I don’t know their financial situation, but for most that would make far more sense than the opposite.
With the money in the bank from the sale you can use the returns to pay for months of air bnb, reinvest, or give it to your favorite charity.
Personally I don’t know why I would live in a place like West LA unless I was a young 20 something professional who had a job close by. Having a place in Manhattan or even downtown SD to get that urban lifestyle and a home in Maui to have the island lifestyle would be more preferable for me. Also it wouldn’t be when I’m 65 but when I’m 50 and the kids are out of the house and I can fully enjoy what downtown life has to offer.
My lifestyle preference is 38 with kids-suburban lifestyle, 50 no kids-urban w/ island getaway, 65 retired and old-move to island house and do whatever the hell I want, 90 and in wheelchair- retirement community and plenty of drugs to keep me occupied.
