Retirement Location: Rhode Island to Florida

by Rick
(Tampa, Florida)

Shortly before I reached retirement age I decided, along with my wife, to relocate us to Florida to spend the rest of our days there.

We had spent nearly 30 years together living in the state of Rhode Island. We found the state to be too crowded, too fast paced and too cold.

We had kept this decision to ourselves for a couple of years in order to avoid any negative thoughts on it from our children and friends. However, within minutes of telling our neighbor who is also retired and luckily can use a computer, we were invited over to there house to look at our options.

We were both shocked and very pleased to discover that there were more retirement communities available to us than we could have ever imagined, most including a golf course for me and a pool for my wife. We were able to get telephone numbers for places that we were most interested in and within a few months narrowed down our decision to a suburban area of Tampa, Florida.

Our excitement was so great that we finally told everyone we knew and perhaps it was our high level of excitement that everyone sensed that warded off any negative feedback. The adjustments we had to make were pretty minimal.

Our house was nearly paid off, and had a much higher value than when we bought it, so it was a great way for us to add to our retirement funds. My pension from the US Navy enabled us to afford not only rent but numerous recreational activities around town.

We were pleased to find that other New Englanders had retired to the same community as us and were able to share stories.

Becoming acclimated was not a problem when it's sunny and warm year round. We have never regretted making the decision we made and even close family is happy to have an excuse to come down and spend a week or two in the sun with us.