I forgot about my #1 spot.

The Republic of Malta.

Former British colony smack-ass in the middle of the Mediterranean off the southern tip of Italy. Fairly stable (apart from being a staging area during every major world war) and near a bunch of places I'd love to visit.

Yeah, I'd probably go with Malta.

Actually, doing a gap year in another country would be cool if you could do it. You sell your house, park the money somewhere, and go rent a place in the target country for a year to learn about it. If you get tired of it, you come back and if you like it you buy. Hmm (rubbing chin thoughtfully).

I think the only obstacle might be taxes. Don't you have to re-invest home sale money into another home relatively quickly to avoid capital gains taxes? I haven't sold a home in age so I don't remember the rule.

What, you don't like 55% taxes? Buddy of mine just escaped CA. Coming back to FL.

Don't get me wrong. I agree w/Rainman about how beautiful it is out west. From what I understand most of the conservatives live away from the beach and CA actually has the most conservative towns by state.

But those taxes though...

Typically, yes. No idea how that would work internationally, though. Gotta imagine there are tax shelters available for stuff like that.

For an international move, I'm betting there are realtors that specialize in that sort of thing. Just perusing 'realtor.com' and looking for island listings is probably unwise.

And ultimately that would probably be what I'd do as well. Hell, I'd recommend doing that for moving out of state. Rent 6 months, get a feel for the area, then look to buy.

Because you figure out pretty quickly where you do/do not want to be.

A friend of mine lived in Malta for a while. It seemed very nice.

This woman wows me with her internationalism. She's Dutch (but half Chinese) and married a Yemeni guy. They speak English, Dutch, Arabic, and probably other languages and they've lived in the USA, Malta, Tunisia, the Netherlands, and Canada over the past two decades. They just up and move to some very different place whenever they get the urge.

Can you open up an account for me?

I'm trying to figure out Florida. No income tax, and my model includes adjustments for property tax and sales tax. And yet Florida still shines like a low-tax beacon for retirement finances.

How do they get money to run the government? They're getting revenue from somewhere and I'm trying to figure out if I'm missing something in my model.

My wife is Austrian and I lived there back in early 90's. This will probably be our getaway spot during the good months (June - September). I already speak German so don't have to learn Spanish if I went to Panama.

Belgiums were really cool to me as an American. I liked it.

#31 through 35. See picture for scoring.

#31 – Trinidad (CO)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-34697?view=qv

#32 – Lake Havasu City (AZ)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-88072?view=qv

#33 – Savannah (GA)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-09300?view=qv

#34 – Salida (CO)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-27984?view=qv

#35 – Port Angeles (WA)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-62387?view=qv


Summary (in ascending order)

35 - Port Angeles (WA) – Hmm. I could really get into Port Angeles. The climate is pretty much perfect. There’s some humidity, but when the July high is 69 it’s not a big deal. Winters are mild with just a touch of snow to make it exciting, and it actually rains less than most of the Midwest and South (though it’s often overcast). You can go downtown and take a ferry to Victoria in Canada, which I’ve heard is beautiful, and you’re also reasonably close to Seattle. The sample house doesn’t have a lot of curb appeal, but it’s nice. I would very seriously consider Port Angeles, even though I probably gave the housing selection too high a score. You’d have to wait for the right house in a mediocre market. The market is reasonably affordable, knocking a year off of my retirement calendar.

34 - Salida (CO) – Again, the sample house doesn’t have much curb appeal, but it’s nice inside and has great views. It’s slightly more affordable than Denver, but you’re also getting a much colder winter, albeit with 1/3 less snow. The summers are a bit cooler, which would be nice. You’d lose a lot of services in a small town.

33 – Savannah (GA) – It’s a little more affordable than Denver to get a very nice house, and the winters are nice and mild. The summers would be worse, though, with slightly higher temperatures and a lot more humidity. The town leans left politically so it’s not exactly “the South”. Not sure it’s worth the cultural shift for me, but it’s an option that has a lot of positives. I liked Savannah the one time I visited.

32 – Lake Havasu City (AZ) – It’s a little more affordable than Denver, which is a positive, and if you look past the clutter the sample house is very nice. The winters are very mild and there’s low humidity. It leans right on the political front. The elephant in the room, though, is that summer temperature. That’s rough. That’s really rough. I don’t know if I could do that.

31 – Trinidad (CO) – Even though it’s further south than Denver, it’s higher in elevation, so the climate is identical – almost exactly the same seasonal temperatures, same humidity, same snow totals. You can get pretty cheap housing there, which makes it notably more affordable than Denver, so retirement moves up by 1.5 years. But you gain nothing on the weather front and you lose some services in a small town that’s a long way from a big town.

Random tidbit you may find interesting... Pyramid Peak is close to Port Angeles, which is around 3000' IIRC, and there's a World War II lookout at the peak.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyra...ervice_Lookout

Didn't spend much time in Port Angeles either time I've been up there, but it's a beautiful area. I looked at houses a while back and it's crazy how far out from Seattle you have to go before housing is somewhat reasonable.

Another random tidbit... you can visit the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City.

Of note- in SoCal, Orange and Corona may look pretty close, but they are extremely different places. In Corona, temps are 10-15 degrees hotter, politics lean much farther to the right, and it can take over an hour with normal traffic to get between the two. There’s also some pretty negative attitudes about people that live in corona (and further East) anywhere worth going to in SoCal.

No bloated school systems, no stupid government programs and freebies and other shit.

CA hides all the money they have wasted on Social Programs, especially for illegals.

Love the idea of that Port Angeles area and the home itself. May be too tucked away for me though. I've always wanted to visit that area but never do because it seems like a pain to get to. Which has its perks I guess until you want to travel elsewhere yourself.

Lake Havasu is intriguing, but I wonder outside of the obvious amazing lake, what the city itself has to offer. It seems kind of out there as well and I'm not really boat savvy at this stage in life.

My mom lived in the DR for 9 years she loved it but I am not sure it would be for me although when I visited in was a teen and she lived in the middle of Puerto Plata in the late 80s so I assume things have changed.

I would pick Turks and Caicos probably the nicest beaches and weather I have ever seen, weather seems pretty consistent not super touristy , probably touch expensive though. Something close to Europe would be nice but like anywhere you go eventually things would get stagnant so I would try and have few places to move around.

I loved Austria and Germany , my German is pretty weak but they would be great places to live.