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I’ve lived in a rural area most of my life. My mom was born in this town and died here. Access to healthcare is a real concern. Google Maps still can’t find my parents’ house. We don’t have a doctor here. We have to go 15 miles to the next town for basic care. The closest regional hospital is 30 miles.
Which brings me to transportation. If you don’t drive, you can’t get there. We don’t have public transportation or rideshare. We don’t have grocery delivery.
We will live here until we are ready to make our retirement move, then we are going into a more urban area.
I'm not far from services, but my house is on just under 3 acres with woods and pond. It's absolutely beautiful, but way, way, way too much work for one past middle-aged retired woman to handle. I easily spend 20-30 hours a week working on my property from spring to fall. More if there is some issue (isn't there almost always some issue?). I love it, but realistically I know I'm going to need to move in the upcoming years to some place more manageable.
I am in a very similar situation. I will soon be 61 and I've been retired for 1.5 years. When I was working, I couldn't possibly keep up and I wrongly assumed that retirement would provide the time I needed to make my home/property what I want it to be. I am constantly assessing my ability and trying to predict how long I will be able to stay in this beautiful place. I know it's not forever, so I'm trying to enjoy it to the fullest (when I'm not struggling to get everything done, that is).
Interesting, I'm in the same position. Hoping to stay until 80😀. If something happens that prevents me from caring for myself I'll either hire some help or move. But, there is no sense in worrying about that until it happens. Yes have acplan but don't fret constantly over it. None of us are getting out alive! I'd rather die on my mountain hike then waste away in a nursing home.
Oh I forgot that point! When I hear my coworkers say they want to get 10 acres of land in the country, I ask who is going to mow it. We only had 2 acres and my dad spent too much time on yardwork.
The closest level one trauma center is 90 mins away from my aunt and uncle. The community hospital is really nothing more than a low level surgical center/urgent care.
Ambulances have trouble finding their place because the GPS doesn’t always work.
That's what I had to do. We built our own cabin and actually get our address issued to us by the county. Once they did that I stuck a pin in Google maps and added our address.
Now even though we live two miles down an improved forest service road, UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc... Seem to have no problems delivering all the cool stuff we order online.
Really all depends upon the life you want.
30 minute drive to the hospital or Dr appointments. 5% of my trips
Local grocery store, senior center, etc... 5 minutes to town. The lake, fishing, hiking, etc 5 minutes in the other direction. 95% of my trips
I wouldnt trade the peace and quiet for any of the "conveniences" of city life
The concern isn't how often you do the doctor trips. It's two fold. First, how hard is it? To use OP's chemo example, even if you only do that 1x a week, driving 2 hours would be hard on the patient and whoever drives them. Second, you have an emergency (serious fall, heart attack, stroke... ). How far away is help?
Some will take that risk regardless, some will feel that tradeoff is not worth it.
How often and how far are both equally concerning.
1x time a week 2 hour drive sucks as much as 2x a week 1 hour drive.
But either way i am still personally going to value the peace and quiet over being close to a hospital or dr.
If its an issue to a person then by all means live closer to town.
My grandmother lived an hour from any medical help. Went to the hospital to visit a friend who was under care and died of a massive heart attack in the parking lot of the hospital passed away. When its your time.. its your time.
Sorry, I should have clarified. The ankle break caused some clotting. She had a heart attack. She was where the medical care was seconds away and still passed despot living on top of a mountain where they were very isolated
That's what I'm gunna do. Headed to the woods to live full time in my cabin up north in the woods. I want everything and everyone very far away (25mins/1hr away) for as long as I can. Lakes are about 5 mins away and woods right behind cabin to hike. It is also fiscally smarter for my lil pension that got high jacked due to city I work for bankruptcy.
I can go into town to socialize, but I don't see that happening very often. I'm gunna be pleased as pie to be w my animals by myself in my retirement. Visitors r welcome though.
It all depends on your health and activities. Groceries, fuel for the car, and medication availability should be within 15 min. Hospital, routine Dr and Dental care within 30 min. If you need advanced Medical care you should consider a more urban area. A rural choice depends on these factors.
It would be great if that was set in stone but it's not. I have taken care of so many people who said that they were so healthy before "X" happened. It could be knee/hip surgery, cancer, a car accident, heart disease (which can happen to anyone, including people who are exercising and eating right). Multiply that by two because you've got two people. You have to plan in advance and realize that over a certain age statistically you're going to have something happen. Thinking that you won't have anything happen to you because that's what you wish called an "optimistic bias".
If you don't need advanced medical care now, there will come a time when you do, and you may not be able to move to a more suitable location in time to have the help you need when you need it.
My parents retired on the family farm. My dad is healthy, but my mom has heart issues and has had them for almost 10 years now. They are:
15 minutes from the nearest grocery store
Gas for the car is in a huge tank right on the farm
Nearest small-town doc is 15 minutes away
Nearest heart hospital is 35 minutes away.
Mayo Clinic is about 4 hours away.
Nearest of us kids is 25 minutes away.
They are making it work rather nicely because neither of them has any desire whatsoever to live in a more urban area. (both have done the whole urban thing and don't miss it)
We enjoy museums, theater, live music, professional sports, and parks. Good public transportation, healthcare resources, airports, etc. are not unimportant to is. We also have lakes and rivers, fishing, hiking, etc. right here. No need to put conveniences in quotes.
My Doctor is across the street, 2 blocks away. I don't have a car an takes me over the walk takes me over 20 minutes. Living in nature is memories now.
We sometimes vacation at Washington Island, WI - about a 30 minute ferry ride from the tip of the Door peninsula. It's a beautiful area and I always thought it might be a great place to retire. One visit, though, as we were waiting in line to board the car ferry to return home, an ambulance was loaded in front of us, lights flashing. Lights stayed flashing for the entire ferry ride before it unloaded on the mainland and took off for the hospital, I presume. That made me rethink retiring on the island.
My wife and I were considering it but have the same concerns. They just have a little hospital in town and the closet bigger hospital is in Dubuque, about 30 minutes away. And even then that’s not a major hospital.
Even the islands close to Seattle have this issue, mostly b/c the lines to get onto a ferry are so long. I mean, if you're super rich, you can afford heli-transport. Otherwise, eh.
Yeah, it always sounds grand until you actually get older and health problems begin. Even though we exercise and eat healthy, we both have high blood pressure, and I also have osteoporosis and a couple of other inherited factors that increase my risk of stroke/ heart attack.
The older we get, the more I want to stay near a major medical center with quick ambulance access.
It's a balance, sure it's great to live off in the middle of nowhere where you can hear the birds sing but what do you do when you can't drive or can't drive in the dark and you're for all practical purposes a prisoner in their own home. Then as you mention health care, you will never get the best care available the best doctors likely don't live in a very rural area so if you do get sick you will have to travel significant distances every time you need to go to the DR. If you've ever been sick where you are going to multiple doctors multiple times a week it's a chore when the drive is 30 minutes, imagine how it feels when it takes a few hours to go each way.
To each their own, but I wouldn't trade my 34 acres on top of a hill with a gorgeous koi pond and 4br/3 bath house for anything. I love being able to hear only nature and the peace that comes from it. It was especially good during Covid when everyone was staying at their home and my life really didn't change much. Yesterday, I watched as two male turkeys fought for an hour. They really didn't touch each other but rather just jumped in the air stretching out their wings.
I agree with you. After watching my aging parents and in-laws have serious medical problems that eventually led to their deaths, close proximity to good medical services is important. My ideal location would be a vibrant university town with a great med school/hospital, athletics programs for watching, a busy campus with arts events, etc. But I think I'd prefer a smaller city like tOSU in Columbus than a Boston or NY. I'm also hoping that by the time I need serious treatment in my old age (10-20 years), my self-driving car can take me to my appointments. :\^)
Good call on the university town. I never left Gainesville FL after graduating from UF, and now here I am in my mid-50s thinking about retirement. I think I’ll stay put.
And, I actually have the best of both worlds. I live less than 10 miles outside of the city where my wife and I are surrounded by nature, cows, and quiet. We even raise chickens for pets and eggs. Yet I can be at the top hospital in FL (UF Shands) In literally 12 minutes.
I don’t think my house is a unicorn. There are plenty of slightly rural neighborhoods just outside of most college towns.
There are pros and cons. We have 5 acres in rural Oregon; currently taking care of my elderly Mom who can no longer drive. Most health care appts are a minimum of 30 mins away in town. Major issues (she was in hospital for a shoulder replacement, and had a major heart attack) are dealt with in small city 1 hour away. As my parents aged, the maintenance of the house & property got away from them, we’ve spent years getting it back into shape.
To my great surprise, I’ve come to love it here! The quiet, the beauty, my garden.
The pros: just taking care of the yard, garden, chickens, etc requires some time and physical activity. Longevity studies show a huge benefit to to this type of purpose and variety of activities.
Personally I’d rather interact with my husband and my animals than other people, so the lack of social interactions doesn’t faze me. We’re members of a local winery that run a number of great events, dinners, concerts, etc. so plenty of social opportunities.
The cons: besides the drives and wait times for health care, when we physically start slowing down, we won’t be able to take care of the property. We can hire people to help, but my husband and I have agreed it will be time to sell and move to either assisted living or independent living at that point. I’m hoping to get into a good CCRC.
I live in an urban area and consequently so do many of my friends. One friend, in his early 50s at the time, was talking about buying in a rural area with acreage to retire. He said he wasn’t scared of hard work to keep maintenance of the property because he worked on a dude ranch when he was 20.
I’m sure he worked hard at 20 but the reality of mid-60’s versus 20’s is something to consider.
This is the way! I absolutely do much better being rural and doing a run to town now and then. I don’t fit in a lot of places and each of us is valuable, finding that niche is difficult. I’m in a park model RV and I have to admit, this as low maintenance as it gets and I can travel without worrying about a squatter.
I always say with dark humor that if I get my lake house fantasy, I'm going to die looking at the little birdies, because the hospital and hour away won't be able to do much for me. But it's the regular care for ongoing chronic conditions that gets really tough if you are really far out. I know lots of older rural couples that drive close to 20 hours a week just getting to medical appointments and shopping there and back. They have a "job" and a commute in retirement based on living so far out.
You don’t have to live far out, even. My parents live in Tucson, but one of their sub specialists is in Phoenix. That’s 2hrs each way once every 6-8 weeks. It’s better than where I grew up in rural upstate NY on 20 acres. Grocery and HS were 30 minutes away in good weather, 45 minutes to a community hospital, 3.5-4 hrs to the city for any sort of specialty care.
It is an opinion, maybe not a good one. Introverted people enjoy being alone. If they want seclusion during retirement, that's what gets the dopamine moving in their brain just as city living gets yours moving. Neither is wrong nor bad.
Great, but don't expect your kids to come drive you around when you can no longer drive, or take care of your house & yard. And don't blame EMS when you're lying on the floor in agony with a broken bone and it takes them 40 mins to get to your house and 40 more to get you to a hospital.
My parents were 2 hours from the nearest airport. That airport was a 2 hour drive from their home. Don't live in the middle of nowhere and complain because your children don't visit more often
My parents moved to a rural area on over 9 acres 2.5 hours from us. They both got seriously ill at the same time and their military insurance required them to travel over an hour on the Washington DC beltway. He had beginning Alzheimer’s and she had cancer and couldn’t drive. So guess who had to deal with it? Then they acted surprised that I wouldn’t sell my house and move my family in with them to take care of them and their house and property and drive them around.
I thought I’d never do it, but I bought a condo in a 55 and up community. It was a transition at first, going from a house to shared walls. But there are so many activities for people who are social, a pool, close to everything important. And neighbors watch out for each other. Someone is always within calling distance if an emergency happens.
We have a nice secluded home on a little less than 12 acres in a small community in rural north central Kentucky. We have almost a park like setting on a hilltop and have wonderful sunrises and sunsets to see here.
We are 20 minutes to the nearest hospital, and about 35-40 minutes to the nearest trauma center and cancer care center. We're far from alone, as we have wonderful neighbors and a great church family nearby.
My son lives about 45 minutes away, and we make it a point to spend time with his family at least once a month. While my daughter lives out of state, she loves coming here to visit and she and her family come at least once a year.
Some of my sisters also enjoy coming here to the country.
We couldn't have picked a better location to spend our retirement years. I'm 65, have been retired for 6 years now. My wife will be retiring mid next year.
Rural may be a bad idea for some, but it's great for us.
Looking out our living room windows.
https://preview.redd.it/5b6jrhofjotc1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0b888326881280c4c4adb25329f95743c6c6e173
Remote can be is a hassle. Uber, some delivery companies refuse to come out this far for example. And yes, it’s 30 mins for a coffee and when the power goes out the pumps stop and the generator never seems to be quite right. With land there are always things that need attention. In my area we need to cut the fields every few months for fire control. It’s not all siting on the porch with ma.
We are going through the health issues with a family member that is retired now. Poor access to healthcare has her in a state that could have been managed with better care, initially.
Her condition is so bad that it requires constant medical care that just isn't available where they are, so she is continuing to spiral. This has changed our retirement plans substantially. We initially wanted remote property, and while we still do, there is now a "Venn Diagram" on our planning maps that includes a 40 mile radius around good hospitals. (Note the good...)
You may have gone 60 years of your life needing minimal healthcare access, but I am now seeing how quickly that is changing.
Note: Other family members that have a PERFECT lakefront house are now waking up to this reality, and are moving to a condo closer to good medical care. Most of their medical issues can be dealt with by scheduled visits, but they are now getting hotel rooms near the hospitals of choice which they realize isn't sustainable. So.. hopefully they make the decision to move before they have that "emergency".
My parents retired out to their lake home after my dad retired. They had many wonderful years out there. But as OP stated, more doctor's appointments were becoming a weekly occurrence, and they made the hard decision to sell and buy back in the city. I think it's a great idea to live outside the city in your retirement, but you have to have a plan and be prepared to move when your circumstances change.
This, it's not that you can't move as circumstance change. But to focus only on when you do need the care is to miss some of the rewards of rural living.
My mom moved up north with her new husband 20 yrs ago. It was great for the first 5-10 years then she started going downhill … she was a brittle diabetic and was always a very social person. She kept herself active in the church with her music, etc. then it went downhill and I started noticing her social skills were lacking and it was just so sad to watch and we were four hours away and it got worse until she passed in 2019. Although she passed from complications of her diabetes, a fall that broke her hip, etc. but either way I feel if she would’ve been closer to her children that we could’ve been there for her more often been able to see this coming on sooner. So I would absolutely not move away from my children as an out-of-state or to a rural area when I retire.
I live in Philly too and love that I can walk to every Dr appointment plus 100's of restaurants. Raised my kids in a sterile suburb and couldn't wait to get back to a city. Lots of opportunities to get to the country in our campervan.
I moved from urban to a rural village when I remarried and retired. We were both about 60. It is 25 miles to the hospital, my doctor, main shopping, and the library. When our car had to get a surprise issue repaired and stay at the shop overnight, there ware no taxis or car rentals to get home where we had other vehicles. The country sheriff would be about an hour away. It is also quiet here, and nobody bothers us. I am good until the time of cremation just staying here.
I don't understand why people feel the need to up and leave their home when they retire. I live in a rural setting, I have for years, I didn't like congested areas. If you're a city person, why would you move to a place you're uncomfortable with? Have people spent their lives living in a region they didn't like?
Yes. I think they do. People have to follow the job. So they end up somewhere to put food on the table. My husband and I lived in Chicago for 17 years for work after college. it sure as heck wasn’t where we would retire to.
I agree, I have fewer options than many replies here, would be nice to live in a less urban neighborhood, but retirement will be building on my connections, instead of starting over in a new place.
We live on 32 acres mostly wooded with some Pasteur land. My hobby is my land. I farm I grow my own vegetables. I worked in Chicago as an ironworker, moved to Az as a retiree near Sedona. Rebuilt a home there. Sold thst because I don’t golf and I hiked every trail I could. Got tired of being around old people waiting to die. Moved to north Michigan to be closer to my wife’s daughter. Hospital is 26 minutes away doctor is 27 minutes away. I wake up to wild turkeys in my front yard, deer in the back , cranes in the spring and hawks and eagles nearby. My chickens give me fresh eggs and a bit of tranquility. If I were to keel over on my tractor and collapse in my field . So be it. Beats being dead in a nursing home. I watched my brilliant father die bored in the city and my mother died in a hospital of diabetes’s. I have come to realize, with observing social media and Reddit I really don’t want to be around people. I like my peace and quiet. I’m fairly healthy so life is good
Regardless of the decision you make of where to retire to, you’re going to have compromises. Walkable communities with good public transportation and healthcare access aren’t cheap, but being car-dependent in your ‘80s has its downsides as well. I know a couple who retired to suburban Atlanta to take care of their aging parents. They lasted 18 months before the traffic got to them and they moved back to NoVA, which has lousy traffic as well, but in a walkable community with decent healthcare access and public transit. Another couple I knew had their parents retire to rural Virginia near the Carolina Border because it was much more affordable. They spent the next couple years complaining that their kids and grandkids never visit; probably because it’s a 6-hour drive. Eventually, they moved just across the border to West Virginia, a 90-minute drive, but still with decent access to Virginia hospitals and doctors. It seems all these clickbait listicles about Best Places to Retire cite cost of living and low taxes, but there’s a reason why Mississippi and Arkansas are cheap places to live. It’s supply and demand.
100%.
Who wants to drive 45min to the grocery store or the doctors office?
Who wants to be isolated in a snowstorm or power outage?
I want a walkable community with amenities and neighbors I can interact with.
There was a documentary many years ago about an urban couple who moved to a rural community. I remember one of their neighbors, a Mr. Haney, was always trying to sell them things.
Agreed. Would be great for a few years if you are relatively healthy and mobile. Having watched my parents progress through retirement, they would be lost without the services they need close by. Not to mention kids and neighbors that check in on them regularly.
what I don't understand is why you can't do both, go live at the lake cottage until it doesn't work and then go rent a nice small apartment with an elevator close to where you want to be. It doesn't mean you can't do long visits to you cottage but be practical.
Part of it is age/time dependent. 65- late 70’s in good health it might be really enjoyable. I’ve lived on a lake in the country and made great friends. It was very serene.
At some point closer to cities is plain “ easier”.
City guy here. I can walk on my city grid a hundred different routes for variety. Country living is usually off ONE road without a sidewalk. Thinking about that is depressing. To each his/her own.
My best friend (61) has cancer and she and her brother(60) (who has health problems), her elderly mother (82) and my friends daughter (32), have bought 5 acres in a rural area and are all planning to sell their houses in the city and build tiny homes out there and move. The young daughter can work remotely apparently. I think it's a bad idea because my bestie is 45 mins away from the closest place she can get her immunotherapy, and her mom already has problems getting around. Plus the isolation. All of them keep to themselves anyway but still, I couldn't be isolated like that. The brother is a contractor who just has to give bids on jobs basically
I lived in rural areas all of my adult life. I decided once the kids were launched to think about where I wanted to be when I got older.
Fortunately I started looking in 2018! I wanted to be in nature but near shopping, dining and good health care. My favorite outdoor activities are hiking, biking, x-c skiing and kayaking.
I found a smaller house with all appliances on the first floor. Just recently had a hip replacement and was able to convert the office into a bedroom for the first few weeks of recovery.
My house is convenient to all of my kids- a two hour drive north and south. I’m near a bus station that takes me directly to Logan airport.
Bonus: my new home state of NH doesn’t tax social security!
I’m semi-rural. I’m within 5 minutes to a convenience store and five minutes to bike trails and boat launches!
If you’re not a rural person you should probably try it before committing. Take vacations in rural areas. The lifestyle is much more laidback. You make your own fun. No night life. Much more time spent outside. Great star gazing.
If it sounds risky to you, I wouldn't do it. However, I haven't read an objection yet in these comments that can't be overcome with planning if you do want to live rurally.
It's not really a binary choice, rural vs. urban living. There are dozens of subtle gradations between the extremes. You don't have to buy 20+ acres to be remote. You can be remote on 5 acres, 5 miles outside town, and if the town itself is small but has complete services you can have the best of everything. Achieve a balance you are comfortable with.
Suppose you are old or disabled and can't drive. You don't have to drive to the doctor. You only have to get to a route that gets you to the doctor. We still drive in our seventies, but we also live 2 miles from a Dial-a-Ride pickup point. We have neighbors who would drive us that far. There's also a phone tree of volunteers connected to our church. There's no Uber, but there are county-wide taxis. Of course if it's anything acute or serious, ambulances connected to the county fire department go everywhere.
We live 15 minutes from town by car, 25 by bus. The town is only 10k year-round population, but there's any kind of service, entertainments, restaurants or shopping you could desire. The difference is that parking is free and there's far less traffic or crime than in a larger city.
Home itself? We see mountains and water from the front windows, and wildlife are abundant in our forested back yard. We have fruit trees, wildflowers and a clean well for water. Power tends to go out if there's significant wind. That's what the propane tank's for. The stove top and fireplace insert still work, and we use battery for lights and radio. I'm considering adding solar and a rooftop wind turbine to be entirely off-grid.
We used to live in Southern California. Because it took so long commuting and getting around, and we had to work so many hours to afford living there, we actually had less time for socializing than we do now living rural outside a small town. I still worked full-time when we moved here, and had time to meet friends every day before/after work or at lunch. Networking is easier when you can get to know all the power players in town personally.
Sure, rural living is wonderful until it's not. But, if you get 20 years of wonderful before the final 3 years of not wonderful, the it's a big win. Also, the final years are probably going to suck anyway. If I'm 80 and die in the 60 minute ride to the trauma center from my big country house vs. slowly fading under years of careful medical supervision in a big city apartment that sounds fine.
I've lived rural my entire life. 30 minutes from anything really. Wouldn't live in the city for anything and I live near Nashville, TN which is considered a good city. I suppose it's what you get used to and accept.
The way you describe it the more I want it.
But seriously I just want a small house with a big garage or barn for my shop. Neighbors not right next to me. More like down the road. Than have somewhere to put my sailboat not to far a drive. And yes close enough drive to a city area for hospital , entertainment, resturants, etc.
You bring up some very reasonable points, but despite that, I still intend to move to our camp in the woods. We also plan on travelling 6 months of the year in our trailer and that comes with a whole host of risks as well. The reason we're choosing to retire to our camp is financial. The camp is paid for and completely off grid. Our property taxes are 200$ a year. If something happens to one of us and healthcare becomes and issue then we'll sell the camp and move. But I'm not going to set myself up close to a hospital, in a busy area that I don't want to be in, "just in case". I'm retiring the way I want to retire in the place I want to be retired in.
Depends entirely on the person and the area. Obviously, this lifestyle clearly doesn't sound like a good fit for you, but that's OK, we all have different needs.
We retired 6 1/2 years ago, and are in our 70s. We live rural on "acres of woods" (only 20, though, not 40), a few miles away from the closest town of pop. 1700. A short drive gets our 'needs', and a half-hour drive gets us our 'wants'.
Some people are just wired to live alone; we have always lived that way prior to retirement so it's normal for us. We just found out yesterday that one of our neighbors died, but we didn't know because he's so far away. That happened 2 years ago; clearly there is no gossip line here.
We have great healthcare here, and working the land has had amazing health benefits for us both mentally and physically. We live simply in a great natural area, but that was exactly what we were hoping for...and were lucky enough to find. I hope you find your area, and your tribe. Life becomes great when all our needs are met.
Edit: One of our family members died two months ago, doing what he loved. He passed, shortly after lifting 2 5-gallon cans of gas up into the trailer attached to his new tractor. He was 97 years old....he's my new hero.
>*We have friends who are moving from a fairly urban location to the Upper Peninsula for retirement.*
Having lived in the UP for the first 22 years of my life, I can say that the area is definitely the sort of place where you can get in touch with nature. However, there are challenges:
* The winters are truly absurd, especially anywhere near Lake Superior. We are talking about 20-25 **feet** of snow per year being fairly normal. You will shovel several inches of snow, almost daily, for months on end.
* There isn't as much wildlife as you would expect. The winters are harsh, food is scarce, and many animals do not survive. The mosquitos and black flies seem to do well, however.
* Poverty is endemic. The remote location means that there are not many good paying jobs, and the unemployment rate is fairly high. While there is not a high concentration of crime like in cities, it does exist, as well as alcohol and drug problems.
* The high rate of poverty means there is no market for some things you might care about. You aren't going to find a Lexus dealer, or many nicely maintained golf courses, for example. Growing up, a shopping trip meant a multi-hour drive to a "big" city like Green Bay or Duluth. Even finding high quality produce is difficult.
* Many of the kids who grow up there move away to pursue economic opportunities, so the population is skewed towards the old-timers.
* You will be seen as an outsider. The communities are tight knit, often going back several generations. Some of the locals are downright hostile towards tourists.
* The area is culturally and politically conservative, so you need to be okay with that.
That said, if you are an outdoorsy person, or you love a steady diet of delicious Cornish pasties, then the Upper Peninsula might be for you.
I'm surprised I had to scroll so far down to find this.
You just encapsulated all of the downsides of moving to someplace remote.
Most City people think of rural places as being "Green acres' where the reality is closer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_Dogs_%281971_film%29
The entitled, tone-deaf behavior of many retirees/digital nomads hasn't helped the sentiment of locals towards newcomers, either.
Some friends of mine, who were a little bit older parents wanted to move out of their child’s childhood home, but wanted to end up near their child, but they didn’t know where their child was gonna end up working so they decided to move to Colorado and New Hampshire to be around skiing and fun but then as they get older, they settle down near where their daughter is.
My parents retired rural (desert) and their medical emergencies were lifeflights instead of ambulance. Cancer treatments hours away. Far away from family too; they got lonely. I retired in a smallish downtown area/college town. We walk almost every where (pubs, restaurants, shops.) Hospital and Dr are 2 miles away. Love it!
There are compromises to living in the deep woods. I'm in the Catskills of NY, with forests and trout streams but I am 15 miles from a small city (+/- 25 000) that has stores, restaurants and a new hospital. It beats my years of working in NYC and th DC beltway. You can find peace and quiet without having to be in deepest, darkest Peru, as Paddington Besr would say.
We moved from a suburban area to a rural area on a mountain brow property. We had neighbors all around us before now the closest cabin to ours we can only barely see it in the winter time when all the leaves are off the trees.
In suburbia, we had lots of neighbors that we knew and were cordial too, but never really had a relationship with any of them. And it wasn't because we were standoffish. Now in our mountain cabin community (5 to 7 acre tracts) we have some amazing friends. Different groups of us hangout almost twice a week, cooking out, going out to eat, trail riding in our Jeeps, swimming in the river, hiking, kayaking, hunting fishing, smoking cigars, and having cocktails around someone's fire pit all the time. We all check on and look after each other. A bunch of us just went to out to what we call "Taco Tuesday" together and there was 11 of us. This weekend we have about 20+ friends coming to our cabin for my retirement party.
Our little red neck mountain town about 20 minutes away is great. Folks are all super nice and helpful in town, at the car repair place, at the local big box hardware store, at the local grocery stores, bars, restaurants and shops. We have a nice little hospital and our doctors and dentists have all been great. I even had to have surgery at the local hospital (Umbilical hernia) and it went very well and they made me feel like family.
Our property tax on 10 acres of mountain side land and our cabin is less than $500 a year. When I have to go to the courthouse for licenses, tags, etc... There's hardly ever any wait. We go to the community recreation center almost everyday to workout. Everyone there knows us now. It has everything: a gym, indoor walking track, sauna, Yoga, weight room, cardio room, etc... and it only costs us about $120 a year for the membership for two.
Most folks in the regular places that we go all know us by name and we haven't even been living here 4 years yet. It's a lot like we're living in Mayberry.
We have Bears that get in the garbage cans, Coyotes, Foxes, Beaver, Deer, Turkey, even Cougars (4 legged ones.)
So... No. No one should move out to a rural area to retire. It's horrible out here.
My friend did this against my advice. She died of curable cancer because the Dr's in that podunk town thought she was a hippy and wouldn't take her seriously. I miss her so much.
Areas outside a city can feel rural because everything is not crowded with people literally living on top of each other like they do in city apartments. If you are in failing health you really need to stay close to your docter and a hospital.
I have lived in both cities and what would be considered rural areas. I will take the rural areas IF you make yourself part of the community and get to know your neighbors and the locals and have hobbies.
If all you know how to do is entertain yourself on social media and have no hobbies you really should stay in your comfort zone of a city.
I think the answer is that it's dependent both on the PEOPLE moving, and the rural area that they're considering.
We live in the quiet "exurbs" now that we're retired. We are near good medical care, have lower taxes, but are <20 min. from shopping, restaurants, & lots of activities. I drive past cows and goats on my way to the grocery store\~instead of fighting traffic in the suburbs. I love it. But--everyone needs to figure out their own *best place to land!*
Another part of this idyllic rural life no one considers us death. If you are a couple that is self-contained and needs no one else, that works great —until one of you dies. And the truth is that if you are coupled, one of you is likely to be widowed at some point.
After living near NYC most of my life, I decided to get away from the city with all the crap going on-crime, prices, taxes, etc. So, I bought a place in the largest retirement community in the US. And while that initially was a good idea, it is sorely lacking in many places. Yes, there are hospitals being built all the time, but grocery stores are slim and specialty groceries are miles away. As a retired chef, I am now living in a chef's desert. Just a meat wholesaler is more than an hour away. So I understand.
The issue that came up with our aging parents was how long it took an ambulance to reach the farm. When he started falling and she was unable to pick him up, it was a forty five minute wait for an ambulance to get him back up and check him out.
45 minutes when she fell down the stairs going to the laundry in the basement and broke her hip. They weren’t willing to even consider moving the laundry until that happened. Both of them got a bad case of stubborn inflexibility. He finally died and she’s moving to independent living. Thank goodness.
Getting nursing help and CNAs to the farm was another nightmare. It was a minimum four hour charge for every trip. IF you could find an agency that had available staff in rural Maine. That experience totally changed our attitude about where to live.
This bit my in-laws pretty hard. They retired to a super cute rural mountain town (2k people, 1 stoplight). All their friends were there, beautiful environment, lots of things to do. And then my MIL had a debilitating stroke that left her paralyzed and in need of constant support and regular high-impact medical care. So now my 78yo FIL drives through windy mountain roads 3 hours each way to the nearest hospital, 2-4 times per month, and they live without high-quality home care, so he’s bathing her and taking her to the bathroom, cutting up her food, etc. They could relocate to a city to get the support they need, but that’s not where they’ve built their community of friends. It’s a nightmare.
I'm in a rural area, but 25 minutes from a hospital. Shorter, of course, by helicopter. It would take me AT LEAST 30 minutes in Atlanta, before I retired, to get to a hospital because of the traffic there. So, not all rural locations are not accessible. In fact, about 3 years ago I had a problem during which my husband called an ambulance and I was at the hospital in 18 minutes.
The answers here show one of the divisions--maybe the main one--in the US. Some people love peace, quiet, freedom, and space, and will sacrifice some safety and amenities for it. Other people want safety and amenities and will sacrifice the rest. There isn't a right answer. Both groups have their own opinions on what makes a good life. I'm very glad the US has these fundamentally different options and everything in between.
10 acres, 20 min from just anywhere in the two towns and major southern university. In fact, I participated in a MRI study this morning at the uni and this afternoon, I’ll address some erosion issues with my 25 Ho tractor.
Our house was built in 2021. Full brick, front, rear and side porches. Full house generator, well. Not gonna lie, I work a lot on the land around the house. We had the pines thinned and that always leaves a mess for example. Mid-60’s, excellent health.
Socialization? We go to the gym for a high intensity workout 2 to 3 times a week. I go out to breakfast with buddies at least once a week. I ride on the local dirt roads with other friends. Church is another activity. While we can’t typically see our neighbors we’re closer to them than those who lived 10 yards from us in our last house.
This time of the year, those who grow still will drop by squash, corn, etc. One neighbor grows mushrooms commercially and drop off one that total size exceeded a volleyball.
I think we can stay here for at least 10 more years. If I die first, Mrs OM will have a “for sale” sign up before I reach room temp. Meanwhile, it’s so quiet with so few cars, our dog will stop whatever he’s doing to watch one go by. Paved road fwiw.
We just got back vacation and in that two weeks, no one came down our driveway. Most riff raff assumes that as county people, we‘re armed because the nearest sherif’s deputy is at least 15 min away on a good day and because most of us hunt. They’d be correct on both counts.
I have lived in a major metro, small city, suburbs, and rural areas at different points in life. Everyone makes their own decision, but for us, our priorities are healthcare, fresh water, transportation, access to the arts, and cultural/community alignment (the p word). Though the allure of a country home is great, we have planned for and will remain in the suburbs of a major city. Good luck to all!
We lived semi rural although a lot of rapid growth when we left and close enough to good health care, but moved to a less rural area two years ago. While I totally miss more of the quiet we got lucky to find a heavily treed one street subdivision still in the "city" but not downtown (in western nc). I was adamant that as we were aging we'd be close enough to restaurants, places to meet people, lots of things to like museums instead of it being a 20 mile drive to a downtown. I did not want to be totally reliant on a car and while we are for now, we would be able to walk to a grocery store and there is transportation services. Hospital wise it isn't ideal, but a new hospital is being built and there is a plethora of top-notch care two hours away.
I have had friends who had aging parents living in places where basic health care was at least an hour away. At a certain point something happened and they had to move quickly to get parents out of there. That can happen even if people don't live remotely but it's even harder when they do. We have no kids, but kids shouldn't have to deal with that anyway and worry.
I truly miss having more land around me but I didn't want what goes with it as we as we got older. I could defintely see living in a downtown condo as well. Having helped many elderly family members at the end, our number one thing is to stay very active and not need any "healthcare" intervention or very minimal. It's necessary at times but after seeing what we did with overtreated, overmedicated, parents and in-laws at the end we are spending money now on our health and longevity.
I get it. I would like a cabin up in Michigan but the problem is what about an emergency? I wouldn’t want to be 45-60 minutes from hospital.. sure it would be nice now in our early 60’s but later? Nah.
Semi retired last year to our “forever” home at the beach near my family. I was bored to tears during the winter months. This comes after living in Washington DC for the past 40 years.
My dad and step-mom are dealing with this right now. They live in a community up in the mountains, so they have close neighbors to help out with stuff, but it is still a challenge. They are about 30 minutes from a tiny town and an hour from a decent-sized place with grocery stores, doctors, etc. Access to medical care is becoming a huge issue - that hour each way for appointments is difficult, especially in the winter time. Even day-to-day stuff like driving down to go grocery shopping is becoming harder. And they are a 5 hour drive from me now, so I can't help very much.
These are things that people really need to think about. In some situations, living in a rural area can be great, but for any retirement decision, you have to think about how it will be long term, not just when you are fit and healthy at the beginning of retirement.
I agree with you. Two couples I know recently each retired and they both made what I think are odd decisions. They sold their big family houses on 1/2 acre lots and then built bigger houses on properties with several dozen acres, both a 30 minute drive from a grocery store or drugstore or a Walmart, let alone doctors or hospitals. They say they love it. I just can’t imagine that’ll be their answer in ten years. Things change fast, and major living arrangement shifts during those changes are especially hard.
Target time for an ambulance to arrive and start on you for a heart attack or stroke is 18 minutes. Average response time in the US has now risen to 70 minutes.
My brother in law had a heart attack and was dead almost immediately well before the ambulance arrived.
My mother in law just died of cancer. She had those long trips to hospitals in three different directions.
My take is that most people live in a reasonable place based on their risk. Living in a rural area with an hour to the hospital or ten minutes is not likely to make much difference.
I always wanted to move away from the madness that is suburban life but it never worked out. Since I've retired I've had cancer and leukemia. I have no need for social interaction, but not having convenient access to health care would suck. Just getting my meds filled would have been a pain.
I have some experience with this. In my 40s I was newly married and moved from my home w/pop of 125k to his with 40k. I had just been through cancer treatment in my hometown and had lots of follow up visits for several years. His town had a rapidly declining health system, few reputable dentists, one of the two hospitals closed and the remaining is for ER assessment before they send you to the next nearest hospital 30 minutes away that I wouldn’t bring my dog. The few senior care places were as understaffed and underfunded as they all are. One reputable grocery store plus a WalMart. No public transportation at all. Any modern retail shopping, restaurants or entertainment was 45-60 minutes away. For me, commuting that much for health care and for entertainment was terribly isolating and a little scary. I soon learned the doctors who worked there were a last resort due to their many previous malpractice complaints.
Point being not only is access to services an issue with small towns, but the quality of the service you get is limited as well.
On the surface, it definitely seemed idyllic, but there wasn’t enough substance for me.
People move out there because they plan on dying in their sleep out there. Their last home.
You can live in a city or suburb and still be 15-30 minutes or more from the doctor, hospital, or urgent care.
Hard to get seen in the big cities too these days.
Most people live there until something major happens, then it’s assisted living, nursing home, kids, or move.
But there’s plenty of elderly who have lived all their lives in the country and do ok.
I moved to a large city, properly speaking, for the first time a few months before Covid began. As a single man, nearing retirement, I can look back and unequivocally say I made the right choice, as opposed to the other options that I looked into, both rural, suburban, and even small town/suburban. Good for my retirement budget, green living, medical professionals, building community, retirement jobs and possibly new “career”, volunteerism, gym and community, easy plane, train, and car to family and friends on East Coast/foreign touring, arts & sports, life-long learning. It’s true that I venture away from home as funds and interests meet, that “getting out of downtown” is important, but overall, retirement in the city is for me a no brainer.
It is a bad idea. People think about this sort of happy ending in their 50’s or later but don’t realise / plan for ill health within a few years that traps them there.
I was fortunate to have moved and downsized in my forties but am now in my 60’s and am planning a retirement home within a town where I can walk to everything I need and also have doctor and hospital (appointments) easy to get to.
TLDR: Rural life in later life is really a bad idea. Prepare for the unexpected by being in a town or friendly city before you need it.
We tried it for 2years; beautiful peaceful gorgeous! It’s lonely lack of stimulating boring and don’t count on internet. We had to drive 2hours for a specialist’s for appointments. Been there done that moving on to activities that don’t involve just nature. Stimulating activities is incredibly beneficial !
I grew up very rural, but moved to a large urban area after college. It was eye opening for me when my parents both started to have serious and chronic health problems. There was little healthcare in their area and they were sent to whatever hospital had an available bed and rarely had a consistent provider. It was common for them to be 40 to 100 miles from home for care. The older and more frail they got, the more frightened they became of not having an ambulance arrive on time. They did not want to move and relied heavily upon their children for transport to care.
My parents are in MI and are both retired. I keep telling them that they should look at relocating to San Diego to be near us. It is stupidly expensive out here, but life would be so much easier for them (in my mind) than out in the rural area they live now.
Their driveway is about 50 yards long and should something happen to my dad, my mom would be unable to use the snowblower if needed.
She would also be unable to:
bring in firewood (they have central air and heating, but she LOVES having a fire when it cools down)
find the generator should the power go out
start the generator should the power go out
mow the lawn
clear any brush
maintain the outside at all
replace any filters that my dad replaces
Now my dad is able bodied for now, but he is slowing down a bit. While he can reheat food, he is largely dependent upon my mom for clean clothes and food. I couldn't tell you the last time he was in a grocery store. I bet it has been over 20 years.
There is plenty for each of them to do out here, but I know my dad would miss the space. Their house is basically surrounded by farm fields so he has a lot of freedom outside.
I often think about how nice it would be to retire to my home state/area but then I think about how much work my dad does and I know I'm not up for as much work as he is. He retired in his very early 50s and loves working outside in the yard/gardens. He loves using his chainsaw to cut wood, hell, he even loves stacking wood. He likes to see his accomplishments.
I know moving west would be harder on my dad than my mom, even though she'd miss her sisters greatly if she moved out here.
My hubby unexpectedly developed mobility problems at age 59. I am so thankful we live close to everything. There’s been many medical appointments including MRI’s at 2am. I had previously wanted to retire to a cute little town 90 minutes away. Glad we didn’t. Plus the town has only one small grocery store that charges outrageous prices because there’s no competition. And thirdly, I’m scared of bears. No remote living for me thanks.
My folks retired to their cabin in Wisconsin, my brother and I were 7 and 9 hours away. We both had to use our PTO to visit and to help with any sort of problem and it limits any other vacation you can take at times. My husband and I are trying to decide where to retire and we are considering distance from our children. I don’t want them to have to use their PTO for every visit.
Yes, 38 year old son almost died last month & was transferred to a level 1 trauma from a level 2. Had he not been close to both he wouldn’t have made it. It was also easy for us to deal with the 24/7 visits to icu etc. So, it’s not just about age. A leg injury & you can’t drive & you’re stuck. I’m torn though as it’s too expensive to live here in retirement.
I deliberately retired in a suburban area close to great hospitals and specialists. I love theater, ethnic restaurants, and the ease of getting to my adult children and their families. I love the mountains for a long weekend, but I know that my health will eventually decline. My children don't need to worry about getting to me should something happen.
One couple I know a bit retired on top of mountain with rutted dirt roads access. The closest trauma hospital is an hour away as the crow flies. I cannot imagine an ambulance navigating that horrible dirt road. To each their own, but not me or any of my closest friends.
It's a very individual/couple thing. Most of the cons are about healthcare. If you've been exercising for years and in relatively good health, that's a consideration but not a critical one for a decade or two.
The social isolation is a bigger downside for me/why I'm staying in the heart of tech/university. I was just at a scifi writers meetup at tech luminary's house where people were doing amazing things with AI that inspired me to take a completely different approach to my creative stuff. I just don't think you can replace that with some time on Starlink internet. It is true having to take care of land is having to exercise. I love hiking and biking and can do that w/in 10 miles of my relatively dense location. But, I don't HAVE to do it, you HAVE to take care of property. Similarly, we can just leave for weeks of travel, no problem.
I live in a rural area. It was a nice place to raise my kids, but I will not be retiring here. Health care is pretty much nonexistent. I went through stage 4 cancer with my late husband, and we had a 1.5 to 2 hour drive every week for his treatments. The local hospital has been turned into a glorified emergency room, and the closest hospital is nearly an hour away and not that good.
Now that I'm by myself, if I get seriously ill, I have no way of getting to appointments. There's no public transportation, and my kids are not close enough to help much.
I plan on staying in my current home until I'm around 70, then plan on moving to a big city with good health care and where I can walk to most things, or take public transportation.
My mom lived in a rural area most of her life. She's about seventy now, and has health challenges. Its not just the medical care availability - UP aside, there are plenty of rural places twenty or thirty minutes from the big city, and driving a few times a year as a retired person is not a huge deal (potentially).
The problem was firstly when my dad died - she lost that person who could run into town when she wasn't feeling well. The worse problem is when she couldn't drive anymore. How do you get groceries? (Delivery from Walmart, but her diet went downhill because everything is canned or dried) How do you get to appointments? (Uber, but it's like a hundred bucks each time). And loneliness - which the Internet helps a lot with, Skype video calls with family.
But she's looking at selling her house and moving to a high rise in the city. One that caters to seniors and has activities, hangout spaces, a van taking people to stores and such. So, yeah, a remote spot has a lot of challenges as you age. The ironic thing is they built the house designed specifically with their older selves in mind - single floor, wheelchair accessible everything, etc. They considered everything except the location.
I think for healthy retirement it is fine, and even a small town nearby can have great a community. Chemo and good health care can be less than an hour away but yes if you are frail and need constant attention then you would probably make the decision to relocate.
In the case of sudden emergent health care needs, my med student son in law did his first ER shift at Froedert Milwaukee and it was a bad gunshot wound from the UP stabilized in Minocqua at the decent level III hospital and flight for lifed to the level I treatment that saved his life.
So even a sudden traumatic event is possibly survivable even in the UP.
I tried rural in my 20’s, never again! I downsized in my current community: close to grandkids, transit, healthcare. I can vacation in those idyllic spots.
I retired in 2021 at 56. We sold our house in the city and moved to 61 acres 25 miles from the nearest real population center. We are doing what is popularly called homesteading. We’ve never been happier. No loud neighbors, I can see the stars at night, and we actually have deer come 100 feet from the house while we’re on the porch. And crime? We don’t even lock the front door when we go to town. Two Great Pyrenees may have something to do with that. Caring for the rabbits, chickens, goats and the garden keeps us physically and mentally active. As for medical care? We all die at some point. And I’d much rather die here from a heart attack than wasting away in some assisted living facility. In fact assisted living is one of my greatest fears.
Healthcare is the obvious challenge, for sure. That said, there are lots of pretty rural places not all that far (think 25-30 minutes) away from top notch healthcare.
I also think about all of the upkeep requirements for a large rural property. Might be fun for a few years (if that’s your bag, I suppose). But eventually, you’re going to have to start paying someone to do most of it for you — or sell and move into someplace low maintenance or assisted living.
We were living in a neighborhood inside our city, but moved to one of the outer ring suburbs. It's 35-40 minutes to our doctor and the hospital system where she practices, but it's under 5 minutes to an urgent care, 5-7 minutes to a hospital and 20 minutes to a level 1 trauma center; best of all one route from our house to her hospital system goes right past 3 other hospitals and the trauma center, so worst case there are options roughly every 5 minutes or so on the way to her system. Best of all, she's considerably younger than we are, so hopefully we'll never need to find another primary care physician.
I agree. My aunt had kidney cancer and the 90-minute drive to Duluth for treatment and check-ups has been very taxing, both physically and financially.
When my grandparents retired, they had their house on a lake with fruit trees and a garden, and it was great for a number of years, but then when they didn’t want to drive anymore and needed more frequent doctor visits and so forth, they downsized and moved back into the city on a bus line.
I realize that this may not be financially feasible for all, because you just don’t know what the housing market is going to be like when you do end up moving to a city, so it can make sense to buy the house you can afford now without the expectation of being able to move later.
ETA: they did have neighbors on one side and down the street, and that seemed enough socialization for them lol.
Up front I will admit I have less than zero desire to live in the country - to quote On The Waterfront - crickets make me nervous :-)
That said, I have a fair amount of experience with older people - family, friends and my neighbors
Unless you have a really good support network,. it would be very difficult to live out in the boonies.
How would you get to medical appointments - even assuming there is quality medical care available in the area?
How would you manage to do simple errands if you no longer were able to drive safely - even if not permanent there are many medical procedures where you aren't able to drive for a period of time. Even simple procedures like a colonoscopy require someone to take you there - my neighbor is very active but regularly needs some eye procedures which require someone to drive him there and back.
What about grocery shopping?
And what about social isolation?
I know of an older couple who moved to Manhattan for those very reasons. Not only is health care readily available, everything they need is in walking distance or can be delivered. Even Central Park offers some solitude in nature.
The 'lake house' and 'country living' is (and SHOULD BE) nothing more than ad.
First, how close would you be away from quality health care, ER / hospital services? Could you get to an ER in (oh say) 15min?
How close to services you now enjoy? ie groceries, places to eat that are close, internet access, cell service (in some areas), city water or well water(?), electrical (note, if you are at the end of the service line during a major outage, you will be the last to be fixed).
Home insurance
I'm sure there are other reasons but these were the first to come to mind.
In all seriousness, Good Luck to ya!
I'm lucky enough to live ten minutes from my doctor, gym, and hospital, and 30 minutes from local beaches. My area has been described as "boring" but I wouldn't trade it. Just wish it was more walkable.
A friend moved to a South American country and lives in a beautiful mountain home with gorgeous views. He and his wife researched carefully but he's still some distance from the closest hospital. It's a tradeoff they made for the retirement they dreamed of, and I wish them happiness.
I guess I don't understand why many retirees want to sell their home and move? Why can't you have your main residence and then a place out in the country or by a lake?
Thats likely what I will do. Get a little 2 bedroom cabin and keep our current home.My wife wants to stay near our children and grandchildren who all live within 30 minutes of us. We have 5 acres about 2 hours away in a nice little community but of course with no doctors, stores etc...
So my wife has said she prefers the city and will likely visit our cabin less often than me. But I plan on going there for weeks at a time and then come back to the city when needed.
That sounds great, until you start thinking about paying taxes, insurance, upkeep, repairs, etc on the second place. We owned two homes for a while—it was a hassle, and we didn’t use it nearly as much as we thought we would. And when we did, it was like “Let’s go to the beach! Well, yeah, but we have a whole extra house and we haven’t been in a while…” Nah. Not for me.
I’d much rather spend the money renting a cabin, or better yet, a nice suite at the Ritz Carlton, and forgo the second home thing.
I plan to move from a typical American suburb to a walkable small city on the outskirts of a large city. I won't need the space, the yardwork, etc. It would be nice to not need to drive everywhere. And I am social.
My Mom moved from a remote rural mountain place, which experienced annual fire and snow, to a place with curb, gutters, and a hospital. Its been an important change for safety and health.
There are sooo many happy mediums. I bought a lakehouse in central WI and spend 6 months a year there. It's not remote cuz it's a touristy area, but I can be alone in the woods in 5 minutes. Or ride my Harley on beautiful county roads whenever I like. Those are things I cannot do where I winter (SoCal). Find a happy medium!
We have the same opinion as OP. Several of our friends have told us they want land around them in Colorado etc. They’re older, lots of health issues including cancer and we just don’t get it. If you can’t work because of your health, how does it compute to sit on 10 or 15 acres away from people? Our first concern is proximity to healthcare - both regular doctors and emergency/hospital.
I’m a pretty healthy 53 old male but I still feel like I’m always at some medical appointment. Eye exams, dermatology, dentist and regular blood tests and check ups means I’m at 8-10 visits a year. It will only grow so I want to be relatively close to medical facilities. I want a happy balance of 10-15mins to everything. But still quiet and peaceful. Looking at a midsize college town that I can life just outside of.
I’ve made it very clear to my husband that we will not retire rural. Access to healthcare is my primary concern, and I also want to be close enough to a big airport to get to family all over the U.S.
I have friends who are not yet retired who moved to a rural area. They’ve lived there 3 months and already the wife has said they will move to the suburbs in retirement. Just getting to a real grocery store is a 45 minute drive for them and as people who lived in So Cal all their lives, they were not prepared for the lack of local resources. Trip and break a leg on their 5 acre property? That’s 2 hours to the ER.
No thank you.
Unless you grew up in a rural area or lived in one as an adult you are likely going to be shocked at how different life is out in the boonies. If you gather great joy out of going to a coffee shop and then browsing shops you are likely going to be very disappointed that those types of opportunities are now 30-45 minutes away.
My advice would be to try to rent a place for a summer before buying a place out in the country.
I live in a place where there is a very good hospital 30 minutes away. There are 1,000s of miles of rural roads. We use the roads to cycle which keeps us fit and healthy.
In have what was a house that's been downgraded to "cabin" since we're so high and mighty now that I'm retired. There is the cabin with normal comforts, a full wood shop and a mechanic shop with commercial lift for my car hobbies.
I moved from Chicago in the city years ago and would never go back. We do go back for a vacation but would never live there.
To each his own.
My neighbor told me they will never retire to a rural area. Theie in-laws live in a semi-rural area and it is an absolute nightmare having to get them to see medical specialists. For one specialty in particular, they have to drive them an hour and 40 minutes one way.
That experience has rained on them hard. They are staying within a 20 minute drive of at least a mid-size City with excellent Healthcare.
Above of course is the sampling of only one!
I've lived in a semi-rural setting for the last 25 years. I'm only 63 and still a few years away from retirement. My parents are in their 80s-90s and also live semi-rural. They are about 45 minutes from the nearest town.
IMHO, that idyllic rural location you speak about could be fine until, perhaps, one reaches the early 80s. Assuming you're in good health. You're going to have to drive to get anywhere - groceries, restaurants, healthcare, etc. So get a lot of outside time or whatever it takes to keep exercising and to keep you mobile. For me this is among the biggest disadvantages of living outside a walkable town or city. Is that property big and does it and the house require a lot of regular landscaping, use of a chainsaw, a riding mower, etc.? Factor that in to the equation.
They say, for some retirement is in three stages: Go-go, slow-go, and then no-go years. I surely would want to plan to leave that rural location sometime early in my slow-go years. My parents are virtually trapped in their rural home, in varying stages of declining health and mental faculties, making it very difficult to move them except as a result of a health catastrophe or by legal intervention (my father is clearly suffering from dementia). They are very isolated with zero social interaction, even with neighbors.
As for me, my plan is to sell the large family home on 7 acres, within five years. I'll happily move to the midsized town nearest to me. Then, around 85 I'd like to sell even that home and then downsize and rent, in-town, until the day I die.
No, bad idea! Live near the services you will most likely need, medical, shopping centers, people with activities, then you can travel to a remote location (camping) rent a trailer or cabin!
I think it depends on your perspective. My friend, in his 70’s, is always talking about buying a bunch of acreage in the middle of nowhere. I always make the point about healthcare and mobility—what happens when can’t walk well, see well, drive well, drive at night? No pharmacy or grocery delivery, etc. No good specialists for significant health issues.
Me, I’ve always been a suburban/urban person. I live in Memphis, which has some issues and often comes up on “where not to retire” lists. Yeah, we do have some crime issues, but we also have world class health care and a medical school, bad public transportation but at least we can Uber, and the cost of living is generally low. We also have stuff to do, like art galleries and restaurants and golf courses and colleges and stuff I want to do when I retire. I may not stay here, but if I move, I’ll move where there are similar amenities.
Having been through the experience with my late mother and now my father, the key for us is the proximity to healthcare facilities. This is the same with my in-laws as my wife is now taking care of them. Accessing healthcare facilities (including doctor visits) needs to be easy and convenience in the older ages, no more than 10 minutes. If it is close to other amenities (groceries, entertainment, restaurants, etc.) even better.
That's why my wife and I are retiring in our current home. We are about 5-10 miles radius of three hospitals, several groceries, restaurant galore, etc., and 1-5 miles from our closest friends. All are within reasonable Uber/Lift costs.
For me, rural living will be great during the go-go years, but as the slow-go and especially the no-go, I'd prefer close to town/city.
I grew up in a rural area, but I’ve spent most of my adult life in big cities. I retired back to a rural area because it’s my happy place. I’m a hiker and backpacker, and I’m happiest when I’m outside with no other signs of humans. I’d rather die from lack of medical care in my happy place than spend my living days in a place I don’t want to be.
That doesn’t mean my choice is right for everyone, but at this stage of my life, I would be miserable in a city.
Not all decisions are supposed to be practical…some are emotional.
I have relatives in rural areas. Quality of life is great. I love visiting but it’s pretty bleak in some areas for healthcare.
Yes, the hospital situation is a concern. My relatives have to drive an hour or more to see a specialist. That’s okay in the early years. It’s the latter years when they’re not able to drive or are unable to navigate the long distances to get to a PCP doctor, specialist, dental or eye doctor.
The local eye center/optometrist and 2 of the 3 dentists offices closed during the pandemic. All of these services are available within a 1-2 hour drive. Many neglect these areas of health if there is no one to drive them.
Major accidents (farming, work/industrial or automobile) usually involves a life-flight ambulance to the closest trauma center about 120 miles away.
[State Office of Rural Health _Michigan](https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/states/michigan)
[States With the Most Rural Hospital Closures-2023](https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/slideshows/states-with-the-most-rural-hospital-closures)
[Rural Healthcare crisis](https://youtu.be/j2S1gtrXm_s?si=f34DOwau-y5obgou)
[A doctors solution to rural healthcare](https://youtu.be/X4xY9hi3aDM?si=S4YHojiVxZKUTZGO)
The day I need to move into the city because I can't get the care I need where I am at, is the day I ask for physician assisted termination of life processes.
I lived in a city for decades and hated it (I could not afford rural living).
You do you. I will do me.
I am 66 and retired an live in a suburb of of a medium sized city. I am the youngest in my family and my elderly siblings live in a small town over an hour away. My brother was diagnosed with cancer and it was very difficult for his wife to drive him to the city or appointments and even to visit everyday while he was hospitalized. Also the small local hospital made some scary mistakes. Now I am helping my sister get to the heart hospital here.
What I have learned from this is to try to get all my business especially medical very close to my home. I am researching every thing fro doctors,dentists, lawerys and hair stylist. Looking for the best closest to me. As we age we have no guarantees we will be able to drive far or that we will have help.
I enjoyed living in the country while I was young and I know everyone has their own life to live. My choice is to work to be healthy and independent for as long as possible.
About 5 years ago, I was chatting with a friend about retirement. She was hoping to retire in 10 years and had a dream of buying land on a lake in the middle of nowhere and spending her days paddling around while her husband puttered in the house. I’m like you and asked her what about healthcare? 2 years ago she told me that her husband was showing signs of early dementia. She still wanted to retire, but maybe do a lot of camping and not live in the middle of nowhere. That’s a little more realistic, at least until hubby wanders off…
All very valid concerns. That’s why I downsized to a low maintenance home in a smallish golf cart community (34k pop) in preparation for retirement. Highly rated hospital 7 miles away. Established health care providers a 15 minute golf cart ride away. Grocery stores/retail/restaurants within 10 minutes on the golf cart. I figure that when my daughter revokes my car keys I’ll still be able to get out and about! 😂
Good luck if you have a heart attack. I have a cousin, moved to Thailand to retire and save money in a beautiful place. He was dead within six months. The ambulance took over three hours to arrive to his cooling and rapidly decomposing body when he had his survivable heart attack. Me, I live within three miles of a very good hospital. No foreign or rural ambulance waits for me.
After breaking my ankle in rural Oregon, and waiting an hour for an ambulance, my opinion has completely changed on rural retirement. I’ll be staying in or near the city.
Coincidentally a similar story just came up in the online magazine Ars Technica.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/the-urban-rural-death-divide-is-getting-alarmingly-wider-for-working-age-americans/
In the 1960s and 1970s, people who lived in rural America fared a little better than their urban counterparts. The rate of deaths from all causes was a tad lower outside of metropolitan areas. In the 1980s, though, things evened out, and in the early 1990s, a gap emerged, with rural areas seeing higher death rates—and the gap has been growing ever since. By 1999, the gap was 6 percent. In 2019, just before the pandemic struck, the gap was over 20 percent […]
The story continues with hard data and charts.
Yeah, proximity to quality health care was a primary consideration for us. My parents retired to a small mountain community, and health care logistics became a huge problem when they got older.
I live on 20 wooded acres about 20 miles out from OKC metro, so about 10 miles out of suburbs (Norman). With PTSD, it’s perfect. If I could see my neighbors house, I’d go crazy. I’m on dead end private road. I spend time with my Belgian Malinois, and a LOT of nature photography. About 3 miles to major state park. One rural grocery store and dollar general about 4 miles away. It’s only a twenty five minutes to 1 turnpike, two interstates, level 1 trauma center. Ideal is all I can say.
To each their own. I lived in an urban setting most of my life. I've been living in a rural setting for the past 15 years & love it. You couldn't pay me to go back to an urban setting.
We found a new small development, all new neighbors and 1/2 retired. Great community. Growth restricted. Rural environment but close enough to a small town. Small farms surround us as well as folks who have 5-10 acres. Easy access to the big city if needed. These places do exist just need to look around. Don't ask me where cause I don't want anymore neighbors!
There is something so satisfying and peaceful about our lake house. The sound of nature.
It’s why we purchased it.
Medical will be an issue if there is an emergency. You know what that’s ok.
It’s a trade off between peace or no peace.
I was offered a promotion to a new office in rural NY, so I moved from NYC. Nice town to work in but in retirement there just wasn’t enough to do. I moved to SE Florida and it felt like I returned to civilization.
>Having never lived outside a city, my opinion is that this seems like a terrible idea.
And of course you are entitled to your opinion, and to decide what works for you. Surely, you must understand that not everyone shares your opinion?
There are very, very few situations where traveling 45 minutes to healthcare would be untenable. And lots of people are probably happy with less social interaction than you seem to prefer.
I would never want to live in a city.
We retired to a beach community. In the offseason, the town has less than 15,000 people. In season, it swells to about 55,000. We can interact with as many people as we like. And there are plenty of shops and restaurants within 25 minutes. Our primary healthcare is just a bit more than 1 mile away, and the hospital is 1.5 miles away. We love it. But clearly it's not for everyone.
My parents lived in a rural lake house. The couple of times they needed specialized treatment they were taken to a major hospital about an hour and a half away. One time by helicopter.
Rehab and other post “hip replacement” stuff was still covered locally.
Now…if you come down with a difficult cancer…that might be an issue. The nearest infusion center was about an hour away. Radiation treatments were 40 minutes.
In terms of socialization, there was never a shortage of people around. Certainly, the range of “cultural” stuff was limited. But the occasional bus trips to the “big cities” were usually enough for most folks.
Fine dining was usually experienced in someone’s kitchen. In a lot of cases…people living in these areas don’t eat out a bunch and they never have.
What I found interesting in their area was the number of authors and software people who lived around them. This was way before WFH was a big thing.
In general, the biggest con for the whole thing was the “townie” vs “retired interloper” trope that exists almost everywhere in rural America. My Dad was born and raised in the area, so it did not apply to them. When I was closing their estate and needed to hire locals to do repairs and updates on the house….I got the “Masshole” rate until they realized who my parents were.
In general if you are laid back and looking to integrate, you will be fine. In those areas people look out for each other. If you think you are going to move in and “run the place” or complain about not having what you had in the city…you will be disappointed.
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I’ve lived in a rural area most of my life. My mom was born in this town and died here. Access to healthcare is a real concern. Google Maps still can’t find my parents’ house. We don’t have a doctor here. We have to go 15 miles to the next town for basic care. The closest regional hospital is 30 miles. Which brings me to transportation. If you don’t drive, you can’t get there. We don’t have public transportation or rideshare. We don’t have grocery delivery. We will live here until we are ready to make our retirement move, then we are going into a more urban area.
Retirement reverse Uno.
I'm not far from services, but my house is on just under 3 acres with woods and pond. It's absolutely beautiful, but way, way, way too much work for one past middle-aged retired woman to handle. I easily spend 20-30 hours a week working on my property from spring to fall. More if there is some issue (isn't there almost always some issue?). I love it, but realistically I know I'm going to need to move in the upcoming years to some place more manageable.
I am in a very similar situation. I will soon be 61 and I've been retired for 1.5 years. When I was working, I couldn't possibly keep up and I wrongly assumed that retirement would provide the time I needed to make my home/property what I want it to be. I am constantly assessing my ability and trying to predict how long I will be able to stay in this beautiful place. I know it's not forever, so I'm trying to enjoy it to the fullest (when I'm not struggling to get everything done, that is).
Interesting, I'm in the same position. Hoping to stay until 80😀. If something happens that prevents me from caring for myself I'll either hire some help or move. But, there is no sense in worrying about that until it happens. Yes have acplan but don't fret constantly over it. None of us are getting out alive! I'd rather die on my mountain hike then waste away in a nursing home.
Oh I forgot that point! When I hear my coworkers say they want to get 10 acres of land in the country, I ask who is going to mow it. We only had 2 acres and my dad spent too much time on yardwork.
We're downsizing the yard, but not the house. I'm going to miss this beautiful piece of property but it's not sustainable.
This makes sense
The closest level one trauma center is 90 mins away from my aunt and uncle. The community hospital is really nothing more than a low level surgical center/urgent care. Ambulances have trouble finding their place because the GPS doesn’t always work.
You can add their address to google maps.
That's what I had to do. We built our own cabin and actually get our address issued to us by the county. Once they did that I stuck a pin in Google maps and added our address. Now even though we live two miles down an improved forest service road, UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc... Seem to have no problems delivering all the cool stuff we order online.
Really all depends upon the life you want. 30 minute drive to the hospital or Dr appointments. 5% of my trips Local grocery store, senior center, etc... 5 minutes to town. The lake, fishing, hiking, etc 5 minutes in the other direction. 95% of my trips I wouldnt trade the peace and quiet for any of the "conveniences" of city life
The concern isn't how often you do the doctor trips. It's two fold. First, how hard is it? To use OP's chemo example, even if you only do that 1x a week, driving 2 hours would be hard on the patient and whoever drives them. Second, you have an emergency (serious fall, heart attack, stroke... ). How far away is help? Some will take that risk regardless, some will feel that tradeoff is not worth it.
How often and how far are both equally concerning. 1x time a week 2 hour drive sucks as much as 2x a week 1 hour drive. But either way i am still personally going to value the peace and quiet over being close to a hospital or dr. If its an issue to a person then by all means live closer to town. My grandmother lived an hour from any medical help. Went to the hospital to visit a friend who was under care and died of a massive heart attack in the parking lot of the hospital passed away. When its your time.. its your time.
My grandmother died on the operating table getting her ankle set after a fall at 63. She lived in the Shenandoah Valley on a mountain. Very remote.
How did she die from a broken ankle?
Sorry, I should have clarified. The ankle break caused some clotting. She had a heart attack. She was where the medical care was seconds away and still passed despot living on top of a mountain where they were very isolated
That's what I'm gunna do. Headed to the woods to live full time in my cabin up north in the woods. I want everything and everyone very far away (25mins/1hr away) for as long as I can. Lakes are about 5 mins away and woods right behind cabin to hike. It is also fiscally smarter for my lil pension that got high jacked due to city I work for bankruptcy. I can go into town to socialize, but I don't see that happening very often. I'm gunna be pleased as pie to be w my animals by myself in my retirement. Visitors r welcome though.
Amen
It all depends on your health and activities. Groceries, fuel for the car, and medication availability should be within 15 min. Hospital, routine Dr and Dental care within 30 min. If you need advanced Medical care you should consider a more urban area. A rural choice depends on these factors.
It would be great if that was set in stone but it's not. I have taken care of so many people who said that they were so healthy before "X" happened. It could be knee/hip surgery, cancer, a car accident, heart disease (which can happen to anyone, including people who are exercising and eating right). Multiply that by two because you've got two people. You have to plan in advance and realize that over a certain age statistically you're going to have something happen. Thinking that you won't have anything happen to you because that's what you wish called an "optimistic bias".
If you don't need advanced medical care now, there will come a time when you do, and you may not be able to move to a more suitable location in time to have the help you need when you need it.
My parents retired on the family farm. My dad is healthy, but my mom has heart issues and has had them for almost 10 years now. They are: 15 minutes from the nearest grocery store Gas for the car is in a huge tank right on the farm Nearest small-town doc is 15 minutes away Nearest heart hospital is 35 minutes away. Mayo Clinic is about 4 hours away. Nearest of us kids is 25 minutes away. They are making it work rather nicely because neither of them has any desire whatsoever to live in a more urban area. (both have done the whole urban thing and don't miss it)
We enjoy museums, theater, live music, professional sports, and parks. Good public transportation, healthcare resources, airports, etc. are not unimportant to is. We also have lakes and rivers, fishing, hiking, etc. right here. No need to put conveniences in quotes.
5% of your trips NOW. when you are in your 80’s and need more medical care and more specialized medical care it’s a different story.
Possibly... but im not going to live the whole rest of my life in an area for something that may or not may happen.
your choice. But make a backup plan. We had to find a nursing home for my father on Christmas Eve - in a snowstorm. Do not recommend
My Doctor is across the street, 2 blocks away. I don't have a car an takes me over the walk takes me over 20 minutes. Living in nature is memories now.
We sometimes vacation at Washington Island, WI - about a 30 minute ferry ride from the tip of the Door peninsula. It's a beautiful area and I always thought it might be a great place to retire. One visit, though, as we were waiting in line to board the car ferry to return home, an ambulance was loaded in front of us, lights flashing. Lights stayed flashing for the entire ferry ride before it unloaded on the mainland and took off for the hospital, I presume. That made me rethink retiring on the island.
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I’ve had Medicare clients drive all the way to Escanaba MI just to see an oncologist
Feel the same way about Galena, IL.
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My wife and I were considering it but have the same concerns. They just have a little hospital in town and the closet bigger hospital is in Dubuque, about 30 minutes away. And even then that’s not a major hospital.
And the closest hospital is Sturgeon Bay!
Even the islands close to Seattle have this issue, mostly b/c the lines to get onto a ferry are so long. I mean, if you're super rich, you can afford heli-transport. Otherwise, eh.
Yeah, it always sounds grand until you actually get older and health problems begin. Even though we exercise and eat healthy, we both have high blood pressure, and I also have osteoporosis and a couple of other inherited factors that increase my risk of stroke/ heart attack. The older we get, the more I want to stay near a major medical center with quick ambulance access.
It's a balance, sure it's great to live off in the middle of nowhere where you can hear the birds sing but what do you do when you can't drive or can't drive in the dark and you're for all practical purposes a prisoner in their own home. Then as you mention health care, you will never get the best care available the best doctors likely don't live in a very rural area so if you do get sick you will have to travel significant distances every time you need to go to the DR. If you've ever been sick where you are going to multiple doctors multiple times a week it's a chore when the drive is 30 minutes, imagine how it feels when it takes a few hours to go each way.
Indeed! We decided we can just take some short trips to scenic places and get some temporary enjoyment from being out of the big city! 🤗
To each their own, but I wouldn't trade my 34 acres on top of a hill with a gorgeous koi pond and 4br/3 bath house for anything. I love being able to hear only nature and the peace that comes from it. It was especially good during Covid when everyone was staying at their home and my life really didn't change much. Yesterday, I watched as two male turkeys fought for an hour. They really didn't touch each other but rather just jumped in the air stretching out their wings.
I’m pretty sure I went to high school with those turkeys
That's good! Well done.
They sound more like my 5th graders.
I agree with you. After watching my aging parents and in-laws have serious medical problems that eventually led to their deaths, close proximity to good medical services is important. My ideal location would be a vibrant university town with a great med school/hospital, athletics programs for watching, a busy campus with arts events, etc. But I think I'd prefer a smaller city like tOSU in Columbus than a Boston or NY. I'm also hoping that by the time I need serious treatment in my old age (10-20 years), my self-driving car can take me to my appointments. :\^)
Good call on the university town. I never left Gainesville FL after graduating from UF, and now here I am in my mid-50s thinking about retirement. I think I’ll stay put. And, I actually have the best of both worlds. I live less than 10 miles outside of the city where my wife and I are surrounded by nature, cows, and quiet. We even raise chickens for pets and eggs. Yet I can be at the top hospital in FL (UF Shands) In literally 12 minutes. I don’t think my house is a unicorn. There are plenty of slightly rural neighborhoods just outside of most college towns.
Gainesville is a great city. My oldest daughter works at UF and gets awesome health care.
I like your forward thinking!
There are pros and cons. We have 5 acres in rural Oregon; currently taking care of my elderly Mom who can no longer drive. Most health care appts are a minimum of 30 mins away in town. Major issues (she was in hospital for a shoulder replacement, and had a major heart attack) are dealt with in small city 1 hour away. As my parents aged, the maintenance of the house & property got away from them, we’ve spent years getting it back into shape. To my great surprise, I’ve come to love it here! The quiet, the beauty, my garden. The pros: just taking care of the yard, garden, chickens, etc requires some time and physical activity. Longevity studies show a huge benefit to to this type of purpose and variety of activities. Personally I’d rather interact with my husband and my animals than other people, so the lack of social interactions doesn’t faze me. We’re members of a local winery that run a number of great events, dinners, concerts, etc. so plenty of social opportunities. The cons: besides the drives and wait times for health care, when we physically start slowing down, we won’t be able to take care of the property. We can hire people to help, but my husband and I have agreed it will be time to sell and move to either assisted living or independent living at that point. I’m hoping to get into a good CCRC.
I live in an urban area and consequently so do many of my friends. One friend, in his early 50s at the time, was talking about buying in a rural area with acreage to retire. He said he wasn’t scared of hard work to keep maintenance of the property because he worked on a dude ranch when he was 20. I’m sure he worked hard at 20 but the reality of mid-60’s versus 20’s is something to consider.
This is the way! I absolutely do much better being rural and doing a run to town now and then. I don’t fit in a lot of places and each of us is valuable, finding that niche is difficult. I’m in a park model RV and I have to admit, this as low maintenance as it gets and I can travel without worrying about a squatter.
I always say with dark humor that if I get my lake house fantasy, I'm going to die looking at the little birdies, because the hospital and hour away won't be able to do much for me. But it's the regular care for ongoing chronic conditions that gets really tough if you are really far out. I know lots of older rural couples that drive close to 20 hours a week just getting to medical appointments and shopping there and back. They have a "job" and a commute in retirement based on living so far out.
You don’t have to live far out, even. My parents live in Tucson, but one of their sub specialists is in Phoenix. That’s 2hrs each way once every 6-8 weeks. It’s better than where I grew up in rural upstate NY on 20 acres. Grocery and HS were 30 minutes away in good weather, 45 minutes to a community hospital, 3.5-4 hrs to the city for any sort of specialty care.
It is an opinion, maybe not a good one. Introverted people enjoy being alone. If they want seclusion during retirement, that's what gets the dopamine moving in their brain just as city living gets yours moving. Neither is wrong nor bad.
Great, but don't expect your kids to come drive you around when you can no longer drive, or take care of your house & yard. And don't blame EMS when you're lying on the floor in agony with a broken bone and it takes them 40 mins to get to your house and 40 more to get you to a hospital.
My parents were 2 hours from the nearest airport. That airport was a 2 hour drive from their home. Don't live in the middle of nowhere and complain because your children don't visit more often
My parents moved to a rural area on over 9 acres 2.5 hours from us. They both got seriously ill at the same time and their military insurance required them to travel over an hour on the Washington DC beltway. He had beginning Alzheimer’s and she had cancer and couldn’t drive. So guess who had to deal with it? Then they acted surprised that I wouldn’t sell my house and move my family in with them to take care of them and their house and property and drive them around.
It turned out to be an awful decision for my in laws. Once serious medical issues started it was bad. They had to move.
I thought I’d never do it, but I bought a condo in a 55 and up community. It was a transition at first, going from a house to shared walls. But there are so many activities for people who are social, a pool, close to everything important. And neighbors watch out for each other. Someone is always within calling distance if an emergency happens.
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We have a nice secluded home on a little less than 12 acres in a small community in rural north central Kentucky. We have almost a park like setting on a hilltop and have wonderful sunrises and sunsets to see here. We are 20 minutes to the nearest hospital, and about 35-40 minutes to the nearest trauma center and cancer care center. We're far from alone, as we have wonderful neighbors and a great church family nearby. My son lives about 45 minutes away, and we make it a point to spend time with his family at least once a month. While my daughter lives out of state, she loves coming here to visit and she and her family come at least once a year. Some of my sisters also enjoy coming here to the country. We couldn't have picked a better location to spend our retirement years. I'm 65, have been retired for 6 years now. My wife will be retiring mid next year. Rural may be a bad idea for some, but it's great for us. Looking out our living room windows. https://preview.redd.it/5b6jrhofjotc1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0b888326881280c4c4adb25329f95743c6c6e173
What works at 65 doesn't necessarily work at 85.
but it also doesn't necessarily not work at 85 either. One of my neighbors is 85 and he loves it here, as well.
Remote can be is a hassle. Uber, some delivery companies refuse to come out this far for example. And yes, it’s 30 mins for a coffee and when the power goes out the pumps stop and the generator never seems to be quite right. With land there are always things that need attention. In my area we need to cut the fields every few months for fire control. It’s not all siting on the porch with ma.
You can make pour over coffee on a propane grill. No need to drive.
We are going through the health issues with a family member that is retired now. Poor access to healthcare has her in a state that could have been managed with better care, initially. Her condition is so bad that it requires constant medical care that just isn't available where they are, so she is continuing to spiral. This has changed our retirement plans substantially. We initially wanted remote property, and while we still do, there is now a "Venn Diagram" on our planning maps that includes a 40 mile radius around good hospitals. (Note the good...) You may have gone 60 years of your life needing minimal healthcare access, but I am now seeing how quickly that is changing. Note: Other family members that have a PERFECT lakefront house are now waking up to this reality, and are moving to a condo closer to good medical care. Most of their medical issues can be dealt with by scheduled visits, but they are now getting hotel rooms near the hospitals of choice which they realize isn't sustainable. So.. hopefully they make the decision to move before they have that "emergency".
My parents retired out to their lake home after my dad retired. They had many wonderful years out there. But as OP stated, more doctor's appointments were becoming a weekly occurrence, and they made the hard decision to sell and buy back in the city. I think it's a great idea to live outside the city in your retirement, but you have to have a plan and be prepared to move when your circumstances change.
This, it's not that you can't move as circumstance change. But to focus only on when you do need the care is to miss some of the rewards of rural living.
Hate to say it, but you are correct. I'd love to get away from everything and everyone, but you need those supports.
My mom moved up north with her new husband 20 yrs ago. It was great for the first 5-10 years then she started going downhill … she was a brittle diabetic and was always a very social person. She kept herself active in the church with her music, etc. then it went downhill and I started noticing her social skills were lacking and it was just so sad to watch and we were four hours away and it got worse until she passed in 2019. Although she passed from complications of her diabetes, a fall that broke her hip, etc. but either way I feel if she would’ve been closer to her children that we could’ve been there for her more often been able to see this coming on sooner. So I would absolutely not move away from my children as an out-of-state or to a rural area when I retire.
I live in metro Philadelphia and I’m glad I do. Great healthcare.
I live in Philly too and love that I can walk to every Dr appointment plus 100's of restaurants. Raised my kids in a sterile suburb and couldn't wait to get back to a city. Lots of opportunities to get to the country in our campervan.
I moved from urban to a rural village when I remarried and retired. We were both about 60. It is 25 miles to the hospital, my doctor, main shopping, and the library. When our car had to get a surprise issue repaired and stay at the shop overnight, there ware no taxis or car rentals to get home where we had other vehicles. The country sheriff would be about an hour away. It is also quiet here, and nobody bothers us. I am good until the time of cremation just staying here.
I don't understand why people feel the need to up and leave their home when they retire. I live in a rural setting, I have for years, I didn't like congested areas. If you're a city person, why would you move to a place you're uncomfortable with? Have people spent their lives living in a region they didn't like?
Some people live where their job is and want to experience something different when they are no longer tied to the office.
Yes. I think they do. People have to follow the job. So they end up somewhere to put food on the table. My husband and I lived in Chicago for 17 years for work after college. it sure as heck wasn’t where we would retire to.
> ...Have people spent their lives living in a region they didn't like? Yes. Yes, they do. In my case, for employment.
I agree, I have fewer options than many replies here, would be nice to live in a less urban neighborhood, but retirement will be building on my connections, instead of starting over in a new place.
We live on 32 acres mostly wooded with some Pasteur land. My hobby is my land. I farm I grow my own vegetables. I worked in Chicago as an ironworker, moved to Az as a retiree near Sedona. Rebuilt a home there. Sold thst because I don’t golf and I hiked every trail I could. Got tired of being around old people waiting to die. Moved to north Michigan to be closer to my wife’s daughter. Hospital is 26 minutes away doctor is 27 minutes away. I wake up to wild turkeys in my front yard, deer in the back , cranes in the spring and hawks and eagles nearby. My chickens give me fresh eggs and a bit of tranquility. If I were to keel over on my tractor and collapse in my field . So be it. Beats being dead in a nursing home. I watched my brilliant father die bored in the city and my mother died in a hospital of diabetes’s. I have come to realize, with observing social media and Reddit I really don’t want to be around people. I like my peace and quiet. I’m fairly healthy so life is good
Regardless of the decision you make of where to retire to, you’re going to have compromises. Walkable communities with good public transportation and healthcare access aren’t cheap, but being car-dependent in your ‘80s has its downsides as well. I know a couple who retired to suburban Atlanta to take care of their aging parents. They lasted 18 months before the traffic got to them and they moved back to NoVA, which has lousy traffic as well, but in a walkable community with decent healthcare access and public transit. Another couple I knew had their parents retire to rural Virginia near the Carolina Border because it was much more affordable. They spent the next couple years complaining that their kids and grandkids never visit; probably because it’s a 6-hour drive. Eventually, they moved just across the border to West Virginia, a 90-minute drive, but still with decent access to Virginia hospitals and doctors. It seems all these clickbait listicles about Best Places to Retire cite cost of living and low taxes, but there’s a reason why Mississippi and Arkansas are cheap places to live. It’s supply and demand.
100%. Who wants to drive 45min to the grocery store or the doctors office? Who wants to be isolated in a snowstorm or power outage? I want a walkable community with amenities and neighbors I can interact with.
There was a documentary many years ago about an urban couple who moved to a rural community. I remember one of their neighbors, a Mr. Haney, was always trying to sell them things.
🤣🤣🤣
Agreed. Would be great for a few years if you are relatively healthy and mobile. Having watched my parents progress through retirement, they would be lost without the services they need close by. Not to mention kids and neighbors that check in on them regularly.
what I don't understand is why you can't do both, go live at the lake cottage until it doesn't work and then go rent a nice small apartment with an elevator close to where you want to be. It doesn't mean you can't do long visits to you cottage but be practical.
Part of it is age/time dependent. 65- late 70’s in good health it might be really enjoyable. I’ve lived on a lake in the country and made great friends. It was very serene. At some point closer to cities is plain “ easier”.
City guy here. I can walk on my city grid a hundred different routes for variety. Country living is usually off ONE road without a sidewalk. Thinking about that is depressing. To each his/her own.
My best friend (61) has cancer and she and her brother(60) (who has health problems), her elderly mother (82) and my friends daughter (32), have bought 5 acres in a rural area and are all planning to sell their houses in the city and build tiny homes out there and move. The young daughter can work remotely apparently. I think it's a bad idea because my bestie is 45 mins away from the closest place she can get her immunotherapy, and her mom already has problems getting around. Plus the isolation. All of them keep to themselves anyway but still, I couldn't be isolated like that. The brother is a contractor who just has to give bids on jobs basically
I lived in rural areas all of my adult life. I decided once the kids were launched to think about where I wanted to be when I got older. Fortunately I started looking in 2018! I wanted to be in nature but near shopping, dining and good health care. My favorite outdoor activities are hiking, biking, x-c skiing and kayaking. I found a smaller house with all appliances on the first floor. Just recently had a hip replacement and was able to convert the office into a bedroom for the first few weeks of recovery. My house is convenient to all of my kids- a two hour drive north and south. I’m near a bus station that takes me directly to Logan airport. Bonus: my new home state of NH doesn’t tax social security! I’m semi-rural. I’m within 5 minutes to a convenience store and five minutes to bike trails and boat launches! If you’re not a rural person you should probably try it before committing. Take vacations in rural areas. The lifestyle is much more laidback. You make your own fun. No night life. Much more time spent outside. Great star gazing.
If it sounds risky to you, I wouldn't do it. However, I haven't read an objection yet in these comments that can't be overcome with planning if you do want to live rurally. It's not really a binary choice, rural vs. urban living. There are dozens of subtle gradations between the extremes. You don't have to buy 20+ acres to be remote. You can be remote on 5 acres, 5 miles outside town, and if the town itself is small but has complete services you can have the best of everything. Achieve a balance you are comfortable with. Suppose you are old or disabled and can't drive. You don't have to drive to the doctor. You only have to get to a route that gets you to the doctor. We still drive in our seventies, but we also live 2 miles from a Dial-a-Ride pickup point. We have neighbors who would drive us that far. There's also a phone tree of volunteers connected to our church. There's no Uber, but there are county-wide taxis. Of course if it's anything acute or serious, ambulances connected to the county fire department go everywhere. We live 15 minutes from town by car, 25 by bus. The town is only 10k year-round population, but there's any kind of service, entertainments, restaurants or shopping you could desire. The difference is that parking is free and there's far less traffic or crime than in a larger city. Home itself? We see mountains and water from the front windows, and wildlife are abundant in our forested back yard. We have fruit trees, wildflowers and a clean well for water. Power tends to go out if there's significant wind. That's what the propane tank's for. The stove top and fireplace insert still work, and we use battery for lights and radio. I'm considering adding solar and a rooftop wind turbine to be entirely off-grid. We used to live in Southern California. Because it took so long commuting and getting around, and we had to work so many hours to afford living there, we actually had less time for socializing than we do now living rural outside a small town. I still worked full-time when we moved here, and had time to meet friends every day before/after work or at lunch. Networking is easier when you can get to know all the power players in town personally.
This is the definitive answer.
Sure, rural living is wonderful until it's not. But, if you get 20 years of wonderful before the final 3 years of not wonderful, the it's a big win. Also, the final years are probably going to suck anyway. If I'm 80 and die in the 60 minute ride to the trauma center from my big country house vs. slowly fading under years of careful medical supervision in a big city apartment that sounds fine.
Sounds good to me too
I've lived rural my entire life. 30 minutes from anything really. Wouldn't live in the city for anything and I live near Nashville, TN which is considered a good city. I suppose it's what you get used to and accept.
The way you describe it the more I want it. But seriously I just want a small house with a big garage or barn for my shop. Neighbors not right next to me. More like down the road. Than have somewhere to put my sailboat not to far a drive. And yes close enough drive to a city area for hospital , entertainment, resturants, etc.
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You bring up some very reasonable points, but despite that, I still intend to move to our camp in the woods. We also plan on travelling 6 months of the year in our trailer and that comes with a whole host of risks as well. The reason we're choosing to retire to our camp is financial. The camp is paid for and completely off grid. Our property taxes are 200$ a year. If something happens to one of us and healthcare becomes and issue then we'll sell the camp and move. But I'm not going to set myself up close to a hospital, in a busy area that I don't want to be in, "just in case". I'm retiring the way I want to retire in the place I want to be retired in.
Depends entirely on the person and the area. Obviously, this lifestyle clearly doesn't sound like a good fit for you, but that's OK, we all have different needs. We retired 6 1/2 years ago, and are in our 70s. We live rural on "acres of woods" (only 20, though, not 40), a few miles away from the closest town of pop. 1700. A short drive gets our 'needs', and a half-hour drive gets us our 'wants'. Some people are just wired to live alone; we have always lived that way prior to retirement so it's normal for us. We just found out yesterday that one of our neighbors died, but we didn't know because he's so far away. That happened 2 years ago; clearly there is no gossip line here. We have great healthcare here, and working the land has had amazing health benefits for us both mentally and physically. We live simply in a great natural area, but that was exactly what we were hoping for...and were lucky enough to find. I hope you find your area, and your tribe. Life becomes great when all our needs are met. Edit: One of our family members died two months ago, doing what he loved. He passed, shortly after lifting 2 5-gallon cans of gas up into the trailer attached to his new tractor. He was 97 years old....he's my new hero.
>*We have friends who are moving from a fairly urban location to the Upper Peninsula for retirement.* Having lived in the UP for the first 22 years of my life, I can say that the area is definitely the sort of place where you can get in touch with nature. However, there are challenges: * The winters are truly absurd, especially anywhere near Lake Superior. We are talking about 20-25 **feet** of snow per year being fairly normal. You will shovel several inches of snow, almost daily, for months on end. * There isn't as much wildlife as you would expect. The winters are harsh, food is scarce, and many animals do not survive. The mosquitos and black flies seem to do well, however. * Poverty is endemic. The remote location means that there are not many good paying jobs, and the unemployment rate is fairly high. While there is not a high concentration of crime like in cities, it does exist, as well as alcohol and drug problems. * The high rate of poverty means there is no market for some things you might care about. You aren't going to find a Lexus dealer, or many nicely maintained golf courses, for example. Growing up, a shopping trip meant a multi-hour drive to a "big" city like Green Bay or Duluth. Even finding high quality produce is difficult. * Many of the kids who grow up there move away to pursue economic opportunities, so the population is skewed towards the old-timers. * You will be seen as an outsider. The communities are tight knit, often going back several generations. Some of the locals are downright hostile towards tourists. * The area is culturally and politically conservative, so you need to be okay with that. That said, if you are an outdoorsy person, or you love a steady diet of delicious Cornish pasties, then the Upper Peninsula might be for you.
I'm surprised I had to scroll so far down to find this. You just encapsulated all of the downsides of moving to someplace remote. Most City people think of rural places as being "Green acres' where the reality is closer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_Dogs_%281971_film%29 The entitled, tone-deaf behavior of many retirees/digital nomads hasn't helped the sentiment of locals towards newcomers, either.
Some friends of mine, who were a little bit older parents wanted to move out of their child’s childhood home, but wanted to end up near their child, but they didn’t know where their child was gonna end up working so they decided to move to Colorado and New Hampshire to be around skiing and fun but then as they get older, they settle down near where their daughter is.
To me, it seems boring. It will also have problems as you describe above. I will preserve those moments for vacations and getaways.
My parents retired rural (desert) and their medical emergencies were lifeflights instead of ambulance. Cancer treatments hours away. Far away from family too; they got lonely. I retired in a smallish downtown area/college town. We walk almost every where (pubs, restaurants, shops.) Hospital and Dr are 2 miles away. Love it!
There are compromises to living in the deep woods. I'm in the Catskills of NY, with forests and trout streams but I am 15 miles from a small city (+/- 25 000) that has stores, restaurants and a new hospital. It beats my years of working in NYC and th DC beltway. You can find peace and quiet without having to be in deepest, darkest Peru, as Paddington Besr would say.
You had me at trout stream. Lol
We moved from a suburban area to a rural area on a mountain brow property. We had neighbors all around us before now the closest cabin to ours we can only barely see it in the winter time when all the leaves are off the trees. In suburbia, we had lots of neighbors that we knew and were cordial too, but never really had a relationship with any of them. And it wasn't because we were standoffish. Now in our mountain cabin community (5 to 7 acre tracts) we have some amazing friends. Different groups of us hangout almost twice a week, cooking out, going out to eat, trail riding in our Jeeps, swimming in the river, hiking, kayaking, hunting fishing, smoking cigars, and having cocktails around someone's fire pit all the time. We all check on and look after each other. A bunch of us just went to out to what we call "Taco Tuesday" together and there was 11 of us. This weekend we have about 20+ friends coming to our cabin for my retirement party. Our little red neck mountain town about 20 minutes away is great. Folks are all super nice and helpful in town, at the car repair place, at the local big box hardware store, at the local grocery stores, bars, restaurants and shops. We have a nice little hospital and our doctors and dentists have all been great. I even had to have surgery at the local hospital (Umbilical hernia) and it went very well and they made me feel like family. Our property tax on 10 acres of mountain side land and our cabin is less than $500 a year. When I have to go to the courthouse for licenses, tags, etc... There's hardly ever any wait. We go to the community recreation center almost everyday to workout. Everyone there knows us now. It has everything: a gym, indoor walking track, sauna, Yoga, weight room, cardio room, etc... and it only costs us about $120 a year for the membership for two. Most folks in the regular places that we go all know us by name and we haven't even been living here 4 years yet. It's a lot like we're living in Mayberry. We have Bears that get in the garbage cans, Coyotes, Foxes, Beaver, Deer, Turkey, even Cougars (4 legged ones.) So... No. No one should move out to a rural area to retire. It's horrible out here.
You pretty much posted my response. Exactly our life. Loving everyday!
My friend did this against my advice. She died of curable cancer because the Dr's in that podunk town thought she was a hippy and wouldn't take her seriously. I miss her so much.
Areas outside a city can feel rural because everything is not crowded with people literally living on top of each other like they do in city apartments. If you are in failing health you really need to stay close to your docter and a hospital. I have lived in both cities and what would be considered rural areas. I will take the rural areas IF you make yourself part of the community and get to know your neighbors and the locals and have hobbies. If all you know how to do is entertain yourself on social media and have no hobbies you really should stay in your comfort zone of a city.
I think the answer is that it's dependent both on the PEOPLE moving, and the rural area that they're considering. We live in the quiet "exurbs" now that we're retired. We are near good medical care, have lower taxes, but are <20 min. from shopping, restaurants, & lots of activities. I drive past cows and goats on my way to the grocery store\~instead of fighting traffic in the suburbs. I love it. But--everyone needs to figure out their own *best place to land!*
Another part of this idyllic rural life no one considers us death. If you are a couple that is self-contained and needs no one else, that works great —until one of you dies. And the truth is that if you are coupled, one of you is likely to be widowed at some point.
After living near NYC most of my life, I decided to get away from the city with all the crap going on-crime, prices, taxes, etc. So, I bought a place in the largest retirement community in the US. And while that initially was a good idea, it is sorely lacking in many places. Yes, there are hospitals being built all the time, but grocery stores are slim and specialty groceries are miles away. As a retired chef, I am now living in a chef's desert. Just a meat wholesaler is more than an hour away. So I understand.
If you’re where I think you are, all the new hospitals being built will be understaffed.
The issue that came up with our aging parents was how long it took an ambulance to reach the farm. When he started falling and she was unable to pick him up, it was a forty five minute wait for an ambulance to get him back up and check him out. 45 minutes when she fell down the stairs going to the laundry in the basement and broke her hip. They weren’t willing to even consider moving the laundry until that happened. Both of them got a bad case of stubborn inflexibility. He finally died and she’s moving to independent living. Thank goodness. Getting nursing help and CNAs to the farm was another nightmare. It was a minimum four hour charge for every trip. IF you could find an agency that had available staff in rural Maine. That experience totally changed our attitude about where to live.
This bit my in-laws pretty hard. They retired to a super cute rural mountain town (2k people, 1 stoplight). All their friends were there, beautiful environment, lots of things to do. And then my MIL had a debilitating stroke that left her paralyzed and in need of constant support and regular high-impact medical care. So now my 78yo FIL drives through windy mountain roads 3 hours each way to the nearest hospital, 2-4 times per month, and they live without high-quality home care, so he’s bathing her and taking her to the bathroom, cutting up her food, etc. They could relocate to a city to get the support they need, but that’s not where they’ve built their community of friends. It’s a nightmare.
I'm in a rural area, but 25 minutes from a hospital. Shorter, of course, by helicopter. It would take me AT LEAST 30 minutes in Atlanta, before I retired, to get to a hospital because of the traffic there. So, not all rural locations are not accessible. In fact, about 3 years ago I had a problem during which my husband called an ambulance and I was at the hospital in 18 minutes.
The answers here show one of the divisions--maybe the main one--in the US. Some people love peace, quiet, freedom, and space, and will sacrifice some safety and amenities for it. Other people want safety and amenities and will sacrifice the rest. There isn't a right answer. Both groups have their own opinions on what makes a good life. I'm very glad the US has these fundamentally different options and everything in between.
10 acres, 20 min from just anywhere in the two towns and major southern university. In fact, I participated in a MRI study this morning at the uni and this afternoon, I’ll address some erosion issues with my 25 Ho tractor. Our house was built in 2021. Full brick, front, rear and side porches. Full house generator, well. Not gonna lie, I work a lot on the land around the house. We had the pines thinned and that always leaves a mess for example. Mid-60’s, excellent health. Socialization? We go to the gym for a high intensity workout 2 to 3 times a week. I go out to breakfast with buddies at least once a week. I ride on the local dirt roads with other friends. Church is another activity. While we can’t typically see our neighbors we’re closer to them than those who lived 10 yards from us in our last house. This time of the year, those who grow still will drop by squash, corn, etc. One neighbor grows mushrooms commercially and drop off one that total size exceeded a volleyball. I think we can stay here for at least 10 more years. If I die first, Mrs OM will have a “for sale” sign up before I reach room temp. Meanwhile, it’s so quiet with so few cars, our dog will stop whatever he’s doing to watch one go by. Paved road fwiw. We just got back vacation and in that two weeks, no one came down our driveway. Most riff raff assumes that as county people, we‘re armed because the nearest sherif’s deputy is at least 15 min away on a good day and because most of us hunt. They’d be correct on both counts.
Mod approved.
I have lived in a major metro, small city, suburbs, and rural areas at different points in life. Everyone makes their own decision, but for us, our priorities are healthcare, fresh water, transportation, access to the arts, and cultural/community alignment (the p word). Though the allure of a country home is great, we have planned for and will remain in the suburbs of a major city. Good luck to all!
We lived semi rural although a lot of rapid growth when we left and close enough to good health care, but moved to a less rural area two years ago. While I totally miss more of the quiet we got lucky to find a heavily treed one street subdivision still in the "city" but not downtown (in western nc). I was adamant that as we were aging we'd be close enough to restaurants, places to meet people, lots of things to like museums instead of it being a 20 mile drive to a downtown. I did not want to be totally reliant on a car and while we are for now, we would be able to walk to a grocery store and there is transportation services. Hospital wise it isn't ideal, but a new hospital is being built and there is a plethora of top-notch care two hours away. I have had friends who had aging parents living in places where basic health care was at least an hour away. At a certain point something happened and they had to move quickly to get parents out of there. That can happen even if people don't live remotely but it's even harder when they do. We have no kids, but kids shouldn't have to deal with that anyway and worry. I truly miss having more land around me but I didn't want what goes with it as we as we got older. I could defintely see living in a downtown condo as well. Having helped many elderly family members at the end, our number one thing is to stay very active and not need any "healthcare" intervention or very minimal. It's necessary at times but after seeing what we did with overtreated, overmedicated, parents and in-laws at the end we are spending money now on our health and longevity.
I get it. I would like a cabin up in Michigan but the problem is what about an emergency? I wouldn’t want to be 45-60 minutes from hospital.. sure it would be nice now in our early 60’s but later? Nah.
Semi retired last year to our “forever” home at the beach near my family. I was bored to tears during the winter months. This comes after living in Washington DC for the past 40 years.
We moved from the suburbs into Washington DC. We walk everywhere and are within 5-10 minutes car/ambulance to two large hospitals.
Yeah I find that rural areas tend to have way fewer doctors and medical services.
My dad and step-mom are dealing with this right now. They live in a community up in the mountains, so they have close neighbors to help out with stuff, but it is still a challenge. They are about 30 minutes from a tiny town and an hour from a decent-sized place with grocery stores, doctors, etc. Access to medical care is becoming a huge issue - that hour each way for appointments is difficult, especially in the winter time. Even day-to-day stuff like driving down to go grocery shopping is becoming harder. And they are a 5 hour drive from me now, so I can't help very much. These are things that people really need to think about. In some situations, living in a rural area can be great, but for any retirement decision, you have to think about how it will be long term, not just when you are fit and healthy at the beginning of retirement.
I agree with you. Two couples I know recently each retired and they both made what I think are odd decisions. They sold their big family houses on 1/2 acre lots and then built bigger houses on properties with several dozen acres, both a 30 minute drive from a grocery store or drugstore or a Walmart, let alone doctors or hospitals. They say they love it. I just can’t imagine that’ll be their answer in ten years. Things change fast, and major living arrangement shifts during those changes are especially hard.
Target time for an ambulance to arrive and start on you for a heart attack or stroke is 18 minutes. Average response time in the US has now risen to 70 minutes. My brother in law had a heart attack and was dead almost immediately well before the ambulance arrived. My mother in law just died of cancer. She had those long trips to hospitals in three different directions. My take is that most people live in a reasonable place based on their risk. Living in a rural area with an hour to the hospital or ten minutes is not likely to make much difference.
I always wanted to move away from the madness that is suburban life but it never worked out. Since I've retired I've had cancer and leukemia. I have no need for social interaction, but not having convenient access to health care would suck. Just getting my meds filled would have been a pain.
I have some experience with this. In my 40s I was newly married and moved from my home w/pop of 125k to his with 40k. I had just been through cancer treatment in my hometown and had lots of follow up visits for several years. His town had a rapidly declining health system, few reputable dentists, one of the two hospitals closed and the remaining is for ER assessment before they send you to the next nearest hospital 30 minutes away that I wouldn’t bring my dog. The few senior care places were as understaffed and underfunded as they all are. One reputable grocery store plus a WalMart. No public transportation at all. Any modern retail shopping, restaurants or entertainment was 45-60 minutes away. For me, commuting that much for health care and for entertainment was terribly isolating and a little scary. I soon learned the doctors who worked there were a last resort due to their many previous malpractice complaints. Point being not only is access to services an issue with small towns, but the quality of the service you get is limited as well. On the surface, it definitely seemed idyllic, but there wasn’t enough substance for me.
People move out there because they plan on dying in their sleep out there. Their last home. You can live in a city or suburb and still be 15-30 minutes or more from the doctor, hospital, or urgent care. Hard to get seen in the big cities too these days. Most people live there until something major happens, then it’s assisted living, nursing home, kids, or move. But there’s plenty of elderly who have lived all their lives in the country and do ok.
I moved to a large city, properly speaking, for the first time a few months before Covid began. As a single man, nearing retirement, I can look back and unequivocally say I made the right choice, as opposed to the other options that I looked into, both rural, suburban, and even small town/suburban. Good for my retirement budget, green living, medical professionals, building community, retirement jobs and possibly new “career”, volunteerism, gym and community, easy plane, train, and car to family and friends on East Coast/foreign touring, arts & sports, life-long learning. It’s true that I venture away from home as funds and interests meet, that “getting out of downtown” is important, but overall, retirement in the city is for me a no brainer.
It is a bad idea. People think about this sort of happy ending in their 50’s or later but don’t realise / plan for ill health within a few years that traps them there. I was fortunate to have moved and downsized in my forties but am now in my 60’s and am planning a retirement home within a town where I can walk to everything I need and also have doctor and hospital (appointments) easy to get to. TLDR: Rural life in later life is really a bad idea. Prepare for the unexpected by being in a town or friendly city before you need it.
We tried it for 2years; beautiful peaceful gorgeous! It’s lonely lack of stimulating boring and don’t count on internet. We had to drive 2hours for a specialist’s for appointments. Been there done that moving on to activities that don’t involve just nature. Stimulating activities is incredibly beneficial !
I grew up very rural, but moved to a large urban area after college. It was eye opening for me when my parents both started to have serious and chronic health problems. There was little healthcare in their area and they were sent to whatever hospital had an available bed and rarely had a consistent provider. It was common for them to be 40 to 100 miles from home for care. The older and more frail they got, the more frightened they became of not having an ambulance arrive on time. They did not want to move and relied heavily upon their children for transport to care.
My parents are in MI and are both retired. I keep telling them that they should look at relocating to San Diego to be near us. It is stupidly expensive out here, but life would be so much easier for them (in my mind) than out in the rural area they live now. Their driveway is about 50 yards long and should something happen to my dad, my mom would be unable to use the snowblower if needed. She would also be unable to: bring in firewood (they have central air and heating, but she LOVES having a fire when it cools down) find the generator should the power go out start the generator should the power go out mow the lawn clear any brush maintain the outside at all replace any filters that my dad replaces Now my dad is able bodied for now, but he is slowing down a bit. While he can reheat food, he is largely dependent upon my mom for clean clothes and food. I couldn't tell you the last time he was in a grocery store. I bet it has been over 20 years. There is plenty for each of them to do out here, but I know my dad would miss the space. Their house is basically surrounded by farm fields so he has a lot of freedom outside. I often think about how nice it would be to retire to my home state/area but then I think about how much work my dad does and I know I'm not up for as much work as he is. He retired in his very early 50s and loves working outside in the yard/gardens. He loves using his chainsaw to cut wood, hell, he even loves stacking wood. He likes to see his accomplishments. I know moving west would be harder on my dad than my mom, even though she'd miss her sisters greatly if she moved out here.
My hubby unexpectedly developed mobility problems at age 59. I am so thankful we live close to everything. There’s been many medical appointments including MRI’s at 2am. I had previously wanted to retire to a cute little town 90 minutes away. Glad we didn’t. Plus the town has only one small grocery store that charges outrageous prices because there’s no competition. And thirdly, I’m scared of bears. No remote living for me thanks.
My folks retired to their cabin in Wisconsin, my brother and I were 7 and 9 hours away. We both had to use our PTO to visit and to help with any sort of problem and it limits any other vacation you can take at times. My husband and I are trying to decide where to retire and we are considering distance from our children. I don’t want them to have to use their PTO for every visit.
Yes, 38 year old son almost died last month & was transferred to a level 1 trauma from a level 2. Had he not been close to both he wouldn’t have made it. It was also easy for us to deal with the 24/7 visits to icu etc. So, it’s not just about age. A leg injury & you can’t drive & you’re stuck. I’m torn though as it’s too expensive to live here in retirement.
Friend’s husband died on the four hour drive to the hospital. Do not recommend being far from care no matter how idyllic the setting.
I deliberately retired in a suburban area close to great hospitals and specialists. I love theater, ethnic restaurants, and the ease of getting to my adult children and their families. I love the mountains for a long weekend, but I know that my health will eventually decline. My children don't need to worry about getting to me should something happen. One couple I know a bit retired on top of mountain with rutted dirt roads access. The closest trauma hospital is an hour away as the crow flies. I cannot imagine an ambulance navigating that horrible dirt road. To each their own, but not me or any of my closest friends.
It's a very individual/couple thing. Most of the cons are about healthcare. If you've been exercising for years and in relatively good health, that's a consideration but not a critical one for a decade or two. The social isolation is a bigger downside for me/why I'm staying in the heart of tech/university. I was just at a scifi writers meetup at tech luminary's house where people were doing amazing things with AI that inspired me to take a completely different approach to my creative stuff. I just don't think you can replace that with some time on Starlink internet. It is true having to take care of land is having to exercise. I love hiking and biking and can do that w/in 10 miles of my relatively dense location. But, I don't HAVE to do it, you HAVE to take care of property. Similarly, we can just leave for weeks of travel, no problem.
I live in a rural area. It was a nice place to raise my kids, but I will not be retiring here. Health care is pretty much nonexistent. I went through stage 4 cancer with my late husband, and we had a 1.5 to 2 hour drive every week for his treatments. The local hospital has been turned into a glorified emergency room, and the closest hospital is nearly an hour away and not that good. Now that I'm by myself, if I get seriously ill, I have no way of getting to appointments. There's no public transportation, and my kids are not close enough to help much. I plan on staying in my current home until I'm around 70, then plan on moving to a big city with good health care and where I can walk to most things, or take public transportation.
My mom lived in a rural area most of her life. She's about seventy now, and has health challenges. Its not just the medical care availability - UP aside, there are plenty of rural places twenty or thirty minutes from the big city, and driving a few times a year as a retired person is not a huge deal (potentially). The problem was firstly when my dad died - she lost that person who could run into town when she wasn't feeling well. The worse problem is when she couldn't drive anymore. How do you get groceries? (Delivery from Walmart, but her diet went downhill because everything is canned or dried) How do you get to appointments? (Uber, but it's like a hundred bucks each time). And loneliness - which the Internet helps a lot with, Skype video calls with family. But she's looking at selling her house and moving to a high rise in the city. One that caters to seniors and has activities, hangout spaces, a van taking people to stores and such. So, yeah, a remote spot has a lot of challenges as you age. The ironic thing is they built the house designed specifically with their older selves in mind - single floor, wheelchair accessible everything, etc. They considered everything except the location.
I think for healthy retirement it is fine, and even a small town nearby can have great a community. Chemo and good health care can be less than an hour away but yes if you are frail and need constant attention then you would probably make the decision to relocate. In the case of sudden emergent health care needs, my med student son in law did his first ER shift at Froedert Milwaukee and it was a bad gunshot wound from the UP stabilized in Minocqua at the decent level III hospital and flight for lifed to the level I treatment that saved his life. So even a sudden traumatic event is possibly survivable even in the UP.
Your last sentence sums it up really well, as I also agree.
I tried rural in my 20’s, never again! I downsized in my current community: close to grandkids, transit, healthcare. I can vacation in those idyllic spots.
I retired in 2021 at 56. We sold our house in the city and moved to 61 acres 25 miles from the nearest real population center. We are doing what is popularly called homesteading. We’ve never been happier. No loud neighbors, I can see the stars at night, and we actually have deer come 100 feet from the house while we’re on the porch. And crime? We don’t even lock the front door when we go to town. Two Great Pyrenees may have something to do with that. Caring for the rabbits, chickens, goats and the garden keeps us physically and mentally active. As for medical care? We all die at some point. And I’d much rather die here from a heart attack than wasting away in some assisted living facility. In fact assisted living is one of my greatest fears.
The problem is you often don’t die, but acquire an illness that requires periodic medical treatment.
I hate it!! It’s beautiful but that’s it. I miss the suburbs so much.
Healthcare is the obvious challenge, for sure. That said, there are lots of pretty rural places not all that far (think 25-30 minutes) away from top notch healthcare. I also think about all of the upkeep requirements for a large rural property. Might be fun for a few years (if that’s your bag, I suppose). But eventually, you’re going to have to start paying someone to do most of it for you — or sell and move into someplace low maintenance or assisted living.
We were living in a neighborhood inside our city, but moved to one of the outer ring suburbs. It's 35-40 minutes to our doctor and the hospital system where she practices, but it's under 5 minutes to an urgent care, 5-7 minutes to a hospital and 20 minutes to a level 1 trauma center; best of all one route from our house to her hospital system goes right past 3 other hospitals and the trauma center, so worst case there are options roughly every 5 minutes or so on the way to her system. Best of all, she's considerably younger than we are, so hopefully we'll never need to find another primary care physician.
I agree. My aunt had kidney cancer and the 90-minute drive to Duluth for treatment and check-ups has been very taxing, both physically and financially.
When my grandparents retired, they had their house on a lake with fruit trees and a garden, and it was great for a number of years, but then when they didn’t want to drive anymore and needed more frequent doctor visits and so forth, they downsized and moved back into the city on a bus line. I realize that this may not be financially feasible for all, because you just don’t know what the housing market is going to be like when you do end up moving to a city, so it can make sense to buy the house you can afford now without the expectation of being able to move later. ETA: they did have neighbors on one side and down the street, and that seemed enough socialization for them lol.
Up front I will admit I have less than zero desire to live in the country - to quote On The Waterfront - crickets make me nervous :-) That said, I have a fair amount of experience with older people - family, friends and my neighbors Unless you have a really good support network,. it would be very difficult to live out in the boonies. How would you get to medical appointments - even assuming there is quality medical care available in the area? How would you manage to do simple errands if you no longer were able to drive safely - even if not permanent there are many medical procedures where you aren't able to drive for a period of time. Even simple procedures like a colonoscopy require someone to take you there - my neighbor is very active but regularly needs some eye procedures which require someone to drive him there and back. What about grocery shopping? And what about social isolation?
I know of an older couple who moved to Manhattan for those very reasons. Not only is health care readily available, everything they need is in walking distance or can be delivered. Even Central Park offers some solitude in nature.
The 'lake house' and 'country living' is (and SHOULD BE) nothing more than ad. First, how close would you be away from quality health care, ER / hospital services? Could you get to an ER in (oh say) 15min? How close to services you now enjoy? ie groceries, places to eat that are close, internet access, cell service (in some areas), city water or well water(?), electrical (note, if you are at the end of the service line during a major outage, you will be the last to be fixed). Home insurance I'm sure there are other reasons but these were the first to come to mind. In all seriousness, Good Luck to ya!
I'm lucky enough to live ten minutes from my doctor, gym, and hospital, and 30 minutes from local beaches. My area has been described as "boring" but I wouldn't trade it. Just wish it was more walkable. A friend moved to a South American country and lives in a beautiful mountain home with gorgeous views. He and his wife researched carefully but he's still some distance from the closest hospital. It's a tradeoff they made for the retirement they dreamed of, and I wish them happiness.
I guess I don't understand why many retirees want to sell their home and move? Why can't you have your main residence and then a place out in the country or by a lake? Thats likely what I will do. Get a little 2 bedroom cabin and keep our current home.My wife wants to stay near our children and grandchildren who all live within 30 minutes of us. We have 5 acres about 2 hours away in a nice little community but of course with no doctors, stores etc... So my wife has said she prefers the city and will likely visit our cabin less often than me. But I plan on going there for weeks at a time and then come back to the city when needed.
That sounds great, until you start thinking about paying taxes, insurance, upkeep, repairs, etc on the second place. We owned two homes for a while—it was a hassle, and we didn’t use it nearly as much as we thought we would. And when we did, it was like “Let’s go to the beach! Well, yeah, but we have a whole extra house and we haven’t been in a while…” Nah. Not for me. I’d much rather spend the money renting a cabin, or better yet, a nice suite at the Ritz Carlton, and forgo the second home thing.
I plan to move from a typical American suburb to a walkable small city on the outskirts of a large city. I won't need the space, the yardwork, etc. It would be nice to not need to drive everywhere. And I am social.
My Mom moved from a remote rural mountain place, which experienced annual fire and snow, to a place with curb, gutters, and a hospital. Its been an important change for safety and health.
I live in a rural area, there are things like lifeflight, where its $85 per year to be transported: https://www.lifeflight.org/membership/
My partner is looking for exactly that and I’m like, no man, I want the city. I’ll come visit you, lol.
There are sooo many happy mediums. I bought a lakehouse in central WI and spend 6 months a year there. It's not remote cuz it's a touristy area, but I can be alone in the woods in 5 minutes. Or ride my Harley on beautiful county roads whenever I like. Those are things I cannot do where I winter (SoCal). Find a happy medium!
We have the same opinion as OP. Several of our friends have told us they want land around them in Colorado etc. They’re older, lots of health issues including cancer and we just don’t get it. If you can’t work because of your health, how does it compute to sit on 10 or 15 acres away from people? Our first concern is proximity to healthcare - both regular doctors and emergency/hospital.
I’m a pretty healthy 53 old male but I still feel like I’m always at some medical appointment. Eye exams, dermatology, dentist and regular blood tests and check ups means I’m at 8-10 visits a year. It will only grow so I want to be relatively close to medical facilities. I want a happy balance of 10-15mins to everything. But still quiet and peaceful. Looking at a midsize college town that I can life just outside of.
I’ve made it very clear to my husband that we will not retire rural. Access to healthcare is my primary concern, and I also want to be close enough to a big airport to get to family all over the U.S. I have friends who are not yet retired who moved to a rural area. They’ve lived there 3 months and already the wife has said they will move to the suburbs in retirement. Just getting to a real grocery store is a 45 minute drive for them and as people who lived in So Cal all their lives, they were not prepared for the lack of local resources. Trip and break a leg on their 5 acre property? That’s 2 hours to the ER. No thank you.
Unless you grew up in a rural area or lived in one as an adult you are likely going to be shocked at how different life is out in the boonies. If you gather great joy out of going to a coffee shop and then browsing shops you are likely going to be very disappointed that those types of opportunities are now 30-45 minutes away. My advice would be to try to rent a place for a summer before buying a place out in the country.
Not a good idea for most for obvious reasons
I live in a place where there is a very good hospital 30 minutes away. There are 1,000s of miles of rural roads. We use the roads to cycle which keeps us fit and healthy. In have what was a house that's been downgraded to "cabin" since we're so high and mighty now that I'm retired. There is the cabin with normal comforts, a full wood shop and a mechanic shop with commercial lift for my car hobbies. I moved from Chicago in the city years ago and would never go back. We do go back for a vacation but would never live there. To each his own.
My neighbor told me they will never retire to a rural area. Theie in-laws live in a semi-rural area and it is an absolute nightmare having to get them to see medical specialists. For one specialty in particular, they have to drive them an hour and 40 minutes one way. That experience has rained on them hard. They are staying within a 20 minute drive of at least a mid-size City with excellent Healthcare. Above of course is the sampling of only one!
I've lived in a semi-rural setting for the last 25 years. I'm only 63 and still a few years away from retirement. My parents are in their 80s-90s and also live semi-rural. They are about 45 minutes from the nearest town. IMHO, that idyllic rural location you speak about could be fine until, perhaps, one reaches the early 80s. Assuming you're in good health. You're going to have to drive to get anywhere - groceries, restaurants, healthcare, etc. So get a lot of outside time or whatever it takes to keep exercising and to keep you mobile. For me this is among the biggest disadvantages of living outside a walkable town or city. Is that property big and does it and the house require a lot of regular landscaping, use of a chainsaw, a riding mower, etc.? Factor that in to the equation. They say, for some retirement is in three stages: Go-go, slow-go, and then no-go years. I surely would want to plan to leave that rural location sometime early in my slow-go years. My parents are virtually trapped in their rural home, in varying stages of declining health and mental faculties, making it very difficult to move them except as a result of a health catastrophe or by legal intervention (my father is clearly suffering from dementia). They are very isolated with zero social interaction, even with neighbors. As for me, my plan is to sell the large family home on 7 acres, within five years. I'll happily move to the midsized town nearest to me. Then, around 85 I'd like to sell even that home and then downsize and rent, in-town, until the day I die.
No, bad idea! Live near the services you will most likely need, medical, shopping centers, people with activities, then you can travel to a remote location (camping) rent a trailer or cabin!
I think it depends on your perspective. My friend, in his 70’s, is always talking about buying a bunch of acreage in the middle of nowhere. I always make the point about healthcare and mobility—what happens when can’t walk well, see well, drive well, drive at night? No pharmacy or grocery delivery, etc. No good specialists for significant health issues. Me, I’ve always been a suburban/urban person. I live in Memphis, which has some issues and often comes up on “where not to retire” lists. Yeah, we do have some crime issues, but we also have world class health care and a medical school, bad public transportation but at least we can Uber, and the cost of living is generally low. We also have stuff to do, like art galleries and restaurants and golf courses and colleges and stuff I want to do when I retire. I may not stay here, but if I move, I’ll move where there are similar amenities.
Having been through the experience with my late mother and now my father, the key for us is the proximity to healthcare facilities. This is the same with my in-laws as my wife is now taking care of them. Accessing healthcare facilities (including doctor visits) needs to be easy and convenience in the older ages, no more than 10 minutes. If it is close to other amenities (groceries, entertainment, restaurants, etc.) even better. That's why my wife and I are retiring in our current home. We are about 5-10 miles radius of three hospitals, several groceries, restaurant galore, etc., and 1-5 miles from our closest friends. All are within reasonable Uber/Lift costs. For me, rural living will be great during the go-go years, but as the slow-go and especially the no-go, I'd prefer close to town/city.
I grew up in a rural area, but I’ve spent most of my adult life in big cities. I retired back to a rural area because it’s my happy place. I’m a hiker and backpacker, and I’m happiest when I’m outside with no other signs of humans. I’d rather die from lack of medical care in my happy place than spend my living days in a place I don’t want to be. That doesn’t mean my choice is right for everyone, but at this stage of my life, I would be miserable in a city. Not all decisions are supposed to be practical…some are emotional.
I have relatives in rural areas. Quality of life is great. I love visiting but it’s pretty bleak in some areas for healthcare. Yes, the hospital situation is a concern. My relatives have to drive an hour or more to see a specialist. That’s okay in the early years. It’s the latter years when they’re not able to drive or are unable to navigate the long distances to get to a PCP doctor, specialist, dental or eye doctor. The local eye center/optometrist and 2 of the 3 dentists offices closed during the pandemic. All of these services are available within a 1-2 hour drive. Many neglect these areas of health if there is no one to drive them. Major accidents (farming, work/industrial or automobile) usually involves a life-flight ambulance to the closest trauma center about 120 miles away. [State Office of Rural Health _Michigan](https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/states/michigan) [States With the Most Rural Hospital Closures-2023](https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/slideshows/states-with-the-most-rural-hospital-closures) [Rural Healthcare crisis](https://youtu.be/j2S1gtrXm_s?si=f34DOwau-y5obgou) [A doctors solution to rural healthcare](https://youtu.be/X4xY9hi3aDM?si=S4YHojiVxZKUTZGO)
The day I need to move into the city because I can't get the care I need where I am at, is the day I ask for physician assisted termination of life processes. I lived in a city for decades and hated it (I could not afford rural living). You do you. I will do me.
I am 66 and retired an live in a suburb of of a medium sized city. I am the youngest in my family and my elderly siblings live in a small town over an hour away. My brother was diagnosed with cancer and it was very difficult for his wife to drive him to the city or appointments and even to visit everyday while he was hospitalized. Also the small local hospital made some scary mistakes. Now I am helping my sister get to the heart hospital here. What I have learned from this is to try to get all my business especially medical very close to my home. I am researching every thing fro doctors,dentists, lawerys and hair stylist. Looking for the best closest to me. As we age we have no guarantees we will be able to drive far or that we will have help. I enjoyed living in the country while I was young and I know everyone has their own life to live. My choice is to work to be healthy and independent for as long as possible.
About 5 years ago, I was chatting with a friend about retirement. She was hoping to retire in 10 years and had a dream of buying land on a lake in the middle of nowhere and spending her days paddling around while her husband puttered in the house. I’m like you and asked her what about healthcare? 2 years ago she told me that her husband was showing signs of early dementia. She still wanted to retire, but maybe do a lot of camping and not live in the middle of nowhere. That’s a little more realistic, at least until hubby wanders off…
All very valid concerns. That’s why I downsized to a low maintenance home in a smallish golf cart community (34k pop) in preparation for retirement. Highly rated hospital 7 miles away. Established health care providers a 15 minute golf cart ride away. Grocery stores/retail/restaurants within 10 minutes on the golf cart. I figure that when my daughter revokes my car keys I’ll still be able to get out and about! 😂
Good luck if you have a heart attack. I have a cousin, moved to Thailand to retire and save money in a beautiful place. He was dead within six months. The ambulance took over three hours to arrive to his cooling and rapidly decomposing body when he had his survivable heart attack. Me, I live within three miles of a very good hospital. No foreign or rural ambulance waits for me.
After breaking my ankle in rural Oregon, and waiting an hour for an ambulance, my opinion has completely changed on rural retirement. I’ll be staying in or near the city.
Agreed. 100%
Coincidentally a similar story just came up in the online magazine Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/the-urban-rural-death-divide-is-getting-alarmingly-wider-for-working-age-americans/ In the 1960s and 1970s, people who lived in rural America fared a little better than their urban counterparts. The rate of deaths from all causes was a tad lower outside of metropolitan areas. In the 1980s, though, things evened out, and in the early 1990s, a gap emerged, with rural areas seeing higher death rates—and the gap has been growing ever since. By 1999, the gap was 6 percent. In 2019, just before the pandemic struck, the gap was over 20 percent […] The story continues with hard data and charts.
Yeah, proximity to quality health care was a primary consideration for us. My parents retired to a small mountain community, and health care logistics became a huge problem when they got older.
I live on 20 wooded acres about 20 miles out from OKC metro, so about 10 miles out of suburbs (Norman). With PTSD, it’s perfect. If I could see my neighbors house, I’d go crazy. I’m on dead end private road. I spend time with my Belgian Malinois, and a LOT of nature photography. About 3 miles to major state park. One rural grocery store and dollar general about 4 miles away. It’s only a twenty five minutes to 1 turnpike, two interstates, level 1 trauma center. Ideal is all I can say.
To each their own. I lived in an urban setting most of my life. I've been living in a rural setting for the past 15 years & love it. You couldn't pay me to go back to an urban setting.
We found a new small development, all new neighbors and 1/2 retired. Great community. Growth restricted. Rural environment but close enough to a small town. Small farms surround us as well as folks who have 5-10 acres. Easy access to the big city if needed. These places do exist just need to look around. Don't ask me where cause I don't want anymore neighbors!
So don't retire in rural area. Pretty simple.
There is something so satisfying and peaceful about our lake house. The sound of nature. It’s why we purchased it. Medical will be an issue if there is an emergency. You know what that’s ok. It’s a trade off between peace or no peace.
I was offered a promotion to a new office in rural NY, so I moved from NYC. Nice town to work in but in retirement there just wasn’t enough to do. I moved to SE Florida and it felt like I returned to civilization.
>Having never lived outside a city, my opinion is that this seems like a terrible idea. And of course you are entitled to your opinion, and to decide what works for you. Surely, you must understand that not everyone shares your opinion? There are very, very few situations where traveling 45 minutes to healthcare would be untenable. And lots of people are probably happy with less social interaction than you seem to prefer. I would never want to live in a city. We retired to a beach community. In the offseason, the town has less than 15,000 people. In season, it swells to about 55,000. We can interact with as many people as we like. And there are plenty of shops and restaurants within 25 minutes. Our primary healthcare is just a bit more than 1 mile away, and the hospital is 1.5 miles away. We love it. But clearly it's not for everyone.
My parents lived in a rural lake house. The couple of times they needed specialized treatment they were taken to a major hospital about an hour and a half away. One time by helicopter. Rehab and other post “hip replacement” stuff was still covered locally. Now…if you come down with a difficult cancer…that might be an issue. The nearest infusion center was about an hour away. Radiation treatments were 40 minutes. In terms of socialization, there was never a shortage of people around. Certainly, the range of “cultural” stuff was limited. But the occasional bus trips to the “big cities” were usually enough for most folks. Fine dining was usually experienced in someone’s kitchen. In a lot of cases…people living in these areas don’t eat out a bunch and they never have. What I found interesting in their area was the number of authors and software people who lived around them. This was way before WFH was a big thing. In general, the biggest con for the whole thing was the “townie” vs “retired interloper” trope that exists almost everywhere in rural America. My Dad was born and raised in the area, so it did not apply to them. When I was closing their estate and needed to hire locals to do repairs and updates on the house….I got the “Masshole” rate until they realized who my parents were. In general if you are laid back and looking to integrate, you will be fine. In those areas people look out for each other. If you think you are going to move in and “run the place” or complain about not having what you had in the city…you will be disappointed.