Retiring, WHICH State?

[fsstnotch]

I like the Laughlin NV area. My grandparents have retired there and love it.

I love the people in the Texas/Oklahoma areas, the problem I see with Texas is while they have no income tax.. they DO get you elsewhere! Like property tax. The guy sitting next to me is from Plano. He pays 3x the property taxes that I pay on my house in Oklahoma City and they're close to the same size and amount of property and value.

[cobra de capell]

Originally Posted by fsstnotch

I like the Laughlin NV area. My grandparents have retired there and love it.

I love the people in the Texas/Oklahoma areas, the problem I see with Texas is while they have no income tax.. they DO get you elsewhere! Like property tax. The guy sitting next to me is from Plano. He pays 3x the property taxes that I pay on my house in Oklahoma City and they're close to the same size and amount of property and value.

Just don't go outside in the summer in Laughlin.

Basically, the best places to retire are the places where rich people live now or where they have vacation homes. All other options related to how much money one has or doesn't have in retirement. CA is great, but expensive.

Excaliber - when you do decide, post your new address.

[427sharpe]

Yes, old Mexico is 'do-able' nowadays. There are some huge American expatriate communities. A furriner can own land, just not waterfront. It's actually better financially to rent or lease. Plenty of brokers in the border areas to get you thru the process. Just think, if you go there when you hear people talk about all the darn immigrants and 'press 2 for english'...they'll be talking about you!

[Joe Wicked]

Originally Posted by fsstnotch

I like the Laughlin NV area. My grandparents have retired there and love it.

I love the people in the Texas/Oklahoma areas, the problem I see with Texas is while they have no income tax.. they DO get you elsewhere! Like property tax. The guy sitting next to me is from Plano. He pays 3x the property taxes that I pay on my house in Oklahoma City and they're close to the same size and amount of property and value.

The property tax is higher, but with no state tax, it is really a lot lower. When I lived in California, I was paying about 2-3k/year in state tax while making under 40K/year. Here in the Dallas area (I work in Plano) I am paying no state tax but my property tax was $2300 last year and we made over 80K. That to me is paying a lot less. Some areas do have higher tax rates, but it is not as bad as it would seem, you have to look at what your state tax liability is and add that to your current property tax. Most people tend to find that it is not as bad as they thought and sometimes, like my case, cheaper.

I live in the lowest tax area of Collin County Plano is one of the mid range cities, but it has some of the highest property values. It also is among the best rated schools in the area. For City tax, I believe it is .4%, where I am .2%. Overall I am 2.2% and Plano is 2.4%. Frisco (highest tax rate in the county) is 2.6%. I live just outside of what is considered part of the Metroplex (11 miles east of Plano) so my property value is a lot lower than in Plano, but it is quiet, so I like it.

[Ron61]

Joe,

When I was working back in the early 80s my state taxes ran around $5 to $7K a year. My property taxes were over $3700 until prop 13 saved me there. But not many people are still under that as so many have moved and bought bigger homes.
When they sent a woman out from Social Security to check on me after I lived and was out of the hospital, she told me that I had paid more in taxes for the four months that I managed to work that year than her yearly salary was. So I can only cringe at what some of the people that are making real money here are paying. However I can't complain about my property taxes now as they had to roll them back then and I don't pay much at all considering what the others around me pay.

Ron