Best places to retire 2018

[alysonsdad]

Hopefully the retirees stay out of Kansas, nothing to see here folks, keep moving.

Hopefully no one comes to the Old South

 

[HillStreet]

I’m staying in Maine.

 

[newbury]

Bingo. We got a winner.


Atlanta was the worse for me, and i have driven in almost every state. But there are good and bad drivers everywhere, has nothing to do with where they are from.

For me Boston was always the worse. Second was Seoul. We'd come out of La Guardia and count the cars that WERE NOT DAMAGED on the fenders. in Seoul, SK it was worse but I always had a driver.

But for best places to retire northeast Mississippi fills my bill.

 

[Turbys_1700]

I saw on the list that NC was sixth. I can believe it.

 

[EddieWalker]

eople drive like idiots no matter where you live.

I'm a defensive driver and I have a list of things that I watch for in other cars that has proven useful in avoiding issues on the road.

Number one way to spot somebody that is likely to do something stupid on the road is if they are driving with their window open. I haven't figured out why, but when I see it, I expect something to happen. Maybe it's because it's a million degrees outside and their AC doesn't work, which means that it's not a priority to fix it, which means that they have a wacky way of thinking?

Number two is a Handicap sign. They just can't drive. Some are old, and that's scary, others are just out of touch with reality or unable to react to the flow of traffic. Either way, I pay extra attention to what they are doing.

Third is the old pick up truck. The beater that looks like parts of it are gonna fall off of it when it hits a bump in the road. They are not as bad as the firs two, but you still have to pay attention to them because of a tendency to wonder in the lanes, slow down for no reason and they are almost always driving ten miles an hour under the speed limit.

Next, there are certain areas or intersections that are crazier then others. One is on the way to town where people run the red all the time to make a left had turn across coming traffic that you have to be prepared for. It's just crazy how many accidents happen there, and how many times I've avoided being hit by pausing a second or two when the light turns green for me to go through that intersection.

Then there is the off ramp for the road leading to one of the hospitals. I'm sure it's shift change and they are running late. Car after car will run the stop sign to cut off on coming traffic to get to the hospital. It makes no sense, but it happens so often that it's the only explanation that I can come up with. Danger area for sure!!!

Last, the turn off to the University is just pure crazy when students are trying to get to class and not be late. The Left Lane is the fastest to get around town, but the turn to the University is to the right, so car after car will race through traffic in the Left Lane, and then cut across 3 lanes to make the right turn at the last second.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I'm a defensive driver and I have a list of things that I watch for in other cars that has proven useful in avoiding issues on the road.

Number one way to spot somebody that is likely to do something stupid on the road is if they are driving with their window open. I haven't figured out why, but when I see it, I expect something to happen. Maybe it's because it's a million degrees outside and their AC doesn't work, which means that it's not a priority to fix it, which means that they have a wacky way of thinking?

Number two is a Handicap sign. They just can't drive. Some are old, and that's scary, others are just out of touch with reality or unable to react to the flow of traffic. Either way, I pay extra attention to what they are doing.

Third is the old pick up truck. The beater that looks like parts of it are gonna fall off of it when it hits a bump in the road. They are not as bad as the firs two, but you still have to pay attention to them because of a tendency to wonder in the lanes, slow down for no reason and they are almost always driving ten miles an hour under the speed limit.

Next, there are certain areas or intersections that are crazier then others. One is on the way to town where people run the red all the time to make a left had turn across coming traffic that you have to be prepared for. It's just crazy how many accidents happen there, and how many times I've avoided being hit by pausing a second or two when the light turns green for me to go through that intersection.

Then there is the off ramp for the road leading to one of the hospitals. I'm sure it's shift change and they are running late. Car after car will run the stop sign to cut off on coming traffic to get to the hospital. It makes no sense, but it happens so often that it's the only explanation that I can come up with. Danger area for sure!!!

Last, the turn off to the University is just pure crazy when students are trying to get to class and not be late. The Left Lane is the fastest to get around town, but the turn to the University is to the right, so car after car will race through traffic in the Left Lane, and then cut across 3 lanes to make the right turn at the last second.

When I was last at the University, I learned to avoid the area where all the foreign students lived. Most of us in the U.S., especially the country boys and girls, grew up around machinery. My take is most of these folks never drove a car until they came here.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I'm a defensive driver and I have a list of things that I watch for in other cars that has proven useful in avoiding issues on the road.

Number one way to spot somebody that is likely to do something stupid on the road is if they are driving with their window open. I haven't figured out why, but when I see it, I expect something to happen. Maybe it's because it's a million degrees outside and their AC doesn't work, which means that it's not a priority to fix it, which means that they have a wacky way of thinking?

Number two is a Handicap sign. They just can't drive. Some are old, and that's scary, others are just out of touch with reality or unable to react to the flow of traffic. Either way, I pay extra attention to what they are doing.

Third is the old pick up truck. The beater that looks like parts of it are gonna fall off of it when it hits a bump in the road. They are not as bad as the firs two, but you still have to pay attention to them because of a tendency to wonder in the lanes, slow down for no reason and they are almost always driving ten miles an hour under the speed limit.

Next, there are certain areas or intersections that are crazier then others. One is on the way to town where people run the red all the time to make a left had turn across coming traffic that you have to be prepared for. It's just crazy how many accidents happen there, and how many times I've avoided being hit by pausing a second or two when the light turns green for me to go through that intersection.

Then there is the off ramp for the road leading to one of the hospitals. I'm sure it's shift change and they are running late. Car after car will run the stop sign to cut off on coming traffic to get to the hospital. It makes no sense, but it happens so often that it's the only explanation that I can come up with. Danger area for sure!!!

Last, the turn off to the University is just pure crazy when students are trying to get to class and not be late. The Left Lane is the fastest to get around town, but the turn to the University is to the right, so car after car will race through traffic in the Left Lane, and then cut across 3 lanes to make the right turn at the last second.

Had to laugh at this list, so true.

 

[dmccarty]

When I was last at the University, I learned to avoid the area where all the foreign students lived. Most of us in the U.S., especially the country boys and girls, grew up around machinery. My take is most of these folks never drove a car until they came here.

I have worked with quite a few non American's and driving with them can be "interesting."

One guy from the UK had 7 car accidents but only 5 where his fault. :shocked: He was just a VERY aggressive driver. He stopped being stoopid when he bought a new car and within a few weeks all but totaled the vehicle. Another guy from the UK was the opposite. He was SOOOOO cautious he was dangerous. He just could not make up his mind to GO! Worked with a woman from India who had driven scooters in the home country but I don't think ever had a car. LORDY, she was scary. She just was all over the place, did not use the mirrors, did not look out the windows, drove too fast, etc. Funny thing is that I never knew her to have an accident though she may have left a trail of destruction behind her. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Driving is also cultural and if you are not familiar with the driving culture that can be a problem. The worst drivers I have ever seen were in South FLA. I think this was because of the drivers from the big cities in the NE, non US drivers, and people who were old and simply should not longer be driving.

We just returned from Ireland and I drove around some of the rural parts of the NE. Single lane rounds and two lane roads that would be barely one lane in the US. :shocked: I surly ticked people off as I was getting used to the car but once I figured that out, before leaving the airport, things were good. The Irish drivers I met IN THE RURAL area were pretty laid back and cooperative. You have to be with a single lane of traffic. :laughing::laughing::laughing: I did see some crazy scat out there with some passing but that was very unusual. Nothing like I would see here at home on a daily basis. Shoot the idiots playing dodge car while trying to merge and pass in the entrance lane on the interstate this morning made what I saw in Ireland looked tame in comparison.

Since this is are retirement discussion...

We met three different Americans MEN living in Ireland in their retirement. :confused3: We went to the Irish Emigration museum, which was really good, and back in the 50s/60s, 75% of the Irish leaving Ireland where women. They did not explain why though. Retiring to Ireland has some advantages but the Irish are pretty strict on emigration TO Ireland. One of the men we met had to leave the country when the state found out his wife had died. Not TOOOOOO big of a deal since he just went to Northern Ireland to reset his visit clock and he returned home.

The Irish had easier regulation on retiring to Ireland but a few years ago they changed the regulation and screwed some people. The new regulation requires that people retiring to Ireland have their own private health care policy, which is fair enough, AND have INCOME of 50,000 Euros. So a couple would have to have 100,000 Euro INCOME. The income requirement is what changed. This regulation really screwed people who had come in under the previous retirement regulations.

If not for the income retirement, Ireland would be a nice place to retire. We have found the food to be cheaper and MUCH better quality than in the states. There are housing shortages in the big cities and housing is expensive, but in the rural area we where staying, housing was affordable. Power cost about 30% more than we are currently paying but I don't think we would use as much. No need for AC that is for sure even though we were over there during a heat wave. The locals were wilting when the temperature got into the mid 70s and it sound like they would die when it hit 84 one day. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Gas and diesel was more expensive, but in retirement, one would not be driving that much. We where driving around every day seeing the sites and we filled up the car after almost 10 days of driving including driving 5-6 hours from Dublin. We had barely went below half a tank and I think it cost about $40 to fill up which is expensive compared to the US. Flip side is we drive far more files in the US on a daily basis, so even with cheaper fuel, we spend far more money.

In Dublin we had no need for a car at all and just used the tram and city buses. Buses were running to all of the towns so I suspect a car would be a nice to have even in the village we stayed at in the rural area. It would be tough to live without a car but possible.

Later,
Dan

 

[/pine]

For sure there are lousy drivers from all states...but in states like FL that have a large number of out of state drivers visiting it does not take long to recognize a pattern of inept drivers that all have license tags from a few key northern states...you could almost always guess what tags would be on a car that was causing problems and deterring the flow of traffic...

 

[Sigarms]

I'm a defensive driver and I have a list of things that I watch for in other cars that has proven useful in avoiding issues on the road.

I spent a lot of time around DC prior to college and after college. When I first drove around DC, I was a defensive driver, and it scared the crap out of me worrying about everyone else.

2nd go round after college, I learned that you don't drive defensively, you drive offensively with your beat up oldsmobile cutlass salon from college not caring if you smashed it up or not.

Never put a dent in it and my stress level went down a bunch LOL

All that said, since being married the last 15 years with family, my wife will tell you, the last place I want to drive is NYC, DC and Atlanta and haven't been there since LOL

Me and large amounts of people just aren't a good mix for me.