Finished the move

Kern Dog said
Hey there,
The Wife and I are considering a move in a few years and have looked at Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas...even the Carolinas. California has just gotten so far to the left. Taxes, fees, the Political climate, high prices for everything, the traffic...
Neither of us want to move to a state that gets snow. Screw that.
Our house and lot here in California will buy a pretty nice place in the states I mentioned.
Feel free to politely decline to answer the following questions but I am curious:
How old are you?
Were you anxious or nervous about relocating?
Do you plan to work?
please consider sending a PM if you don't want to answer on the open forum.

I can only speak to West coast of Florida and Knoxville Tn. First off I was blessed to be able to retire at 50. We moved from S.E. Wisc. to Punta Gorda Fl. for 15 years that is located between Sarasota and Ft. Myers. As time went on we noticed as the town evolved no younger people moved in just older grumpy snow birds. The problem, like many other cities in Florida is the snow birds are residents of Florida and even though they are part timers they still have the upper hand over the locals because they carried the majority of the voting base. As you know most oldsters don't like change and get more crotchety by the day. Up side is no state income tax, however, property tax, sales tax, insurance and utilities are quite high. We were there during the housing boom and were able to flip houses and made out very well. If I was going to do it over again I would rent for a while and get the lay of the land.
As far as Knoxville it is more tax friendly as are the people. The housing market is very reasonable like the property taxes. The Medium income is around 45k so cost of living is quite low. You are in the bible belt so it is not uncommon in a restaurant and see a family bless the food. Vols. are very tolerant to Yankees however it takes a while to really be considered one of them. "Bless Your Hart" is some times condescending.
Relocating is a little stressful however is far out weighed by the opportunity to experience different areas of our wonderful country and meet so many different individuals is well worth it. Two thing I live by at 68 is "If you don't grow by 40 you don't have to" and "do something every day that scares you".
Hope this answers your questions.
fl 71