What is enough? Paradise? Contentment?

[4TimeAway]

Those of you living simply in paradise, it seems a great tradeoff to the excesses that most people occupy their lives collecting, maintaining and servicing.

Was there advice that drove you forward to where you arrived, or does it just seem like a journey you are on?

Contentment to me the peace we carry in our soul. The simple delight of a well cooked meal alone, with friends and/or with family. A dog that loves us. Maybe even more so a good book.

 

[goaliedave]

Did you mean paradise or delusion? Most people delude themselves into thinking they live in paradise, so they do.

 

[CO skier]

Most people know they do not live in paradise (but a few dream and manage to visit it on vacation) due to "conditional restraints." Namely, desire/need to live near parents/children (someone else is making the life decisions), jobs/income, ... there is an endless list of possible restraints.

Everyone has a different idea of "paradise" so I am not sure about the question, because the individual answers would likely be completely irrelevant for anyone else. (That also explains why people's pictures from their vacations can be so tedious and boring.)

 

[4TimeAway]

Did you mean paradise or delusion? Most people delude themselves into thinking they live in paradise, so they do.

I was thinking some people move to Mexico, Hawaii, even Florida for their dream lives.

I agree there are tradeoffs and the idea of home is a stong one.

 

[dioxide45]

Did you mean paradise or delusion? Most people delude themselves into thinking they live in paradise, so they do.

If someone thinks they live in paradise then to them it is paradise. Don’t judge.

 

[ScoopKona]

I was thinking some people move to Mexico, Hawaii, even Florida for their dream lives.

I agree there are tradeoffs and the idea of home is a stong one.

I moved from the city I like least -- Las Vegas. I never liked it there. I didn't want to go there in the first place. And although it has its moments (concerts and great restaurants), I couldn't wait to leave. In fact, when I leave that city I always adjust my rear-view so I don't have to see it on my way out.

Some people love it there. Great. If that's there idea of "paradise," that's fine. But it's my idea of hell.

I'm typing this from paradise and watching a football game. Way too early for football. But that's the worst thing I can think to say about this place.

 

[VacationForever]

As far as lifestyle is concerned, we feel that we are in paradise.
- Retired with no financial worries
- Live in a lovely home in a resort community where every day is like being on vacation in a beautiful resort
- Belong to an exclusive country club with a beautiful and difficult Nicklaus signature golf course, and 2 sports and social clubs
- Vacation as much as we want with our timeshare ownership, and other forms of travel as desired
- Great health
- Limited worries for my only child

Life is good.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

IMO...having enough money so you have options to work, live, relax, travel where and when you want. I enjoy my job but there are tough days I ponder retiring. It's a good mindset. If it gets intolerable, I know I can can quit anytime. It's a great feeling because others must work to pay their bills. Enjoyment must exceed hassle.

Same with travel. Although I enjoy travel sometimes it can be too much.- the crowds, the planes, the delays, the bad tourists, predictable tourist traps - then I long to be home and relax.

 

[slip]

Those of you living simply in paradise, it seems a great tradeoff to the excesses that most people occupy their lives collecting, maintaining and servicing.

Was there advice that drove you forward to where you arrived, or does it just seem like a journey you are on?

Contentment to me the peace we carry on our soul. The simple delight of a well cooked meal alone, with friends and/or with family. A dog that loves us. Maybe even more so a good book.

I had only made two large moves in my life. At 17, I moved from Chicago to Wisconsin. I never really liked Chicago but my childhood was good with good memories. I was ready for that move. After 39 years in Wisconsin, I had really had enough of winter and we were lucky to be in the position to make the move.

After our second trip to Hawaii, we decided that we were going to return at least once a year after that. Then after our second trip to Kauai, we decided to either snowbird or try to live there in retirement.
My mother was older and I told her we wouldn't move while she was alive but we continued to try to make a move happen in the future.

The year after my mother passed, we found a condo we both loved and the timing was great as we were in a good position to buy.

Little did we know, 9 months later a position at my work came open in Hawaii and I got it. This was totally unexpected but we had been working towards a move for years now so we decided to make the move.

My wife retired with the move and I worked for a few years until I retired last year because of my wife's health issues. It's been a couple years since her brain surgery and she is doing much better and life is good.

Everyone has a different story and different definitions of paradise. I know many people that never want to even visit Hawaii and they wouldn't consider it paradise.

As far as the simple life, I guess we have always lived the simple life. We just do what we enjoy and our lifestyle hasn't really changed at all. We just do it in a different place.

While we don't see any changes in the foreseeable future, things do change. So if you make a change and it doesn't work out, it's not a failure. It's something you tried and then made another change.

Aloha from our little slice of paradise on Molokai.

 

[Rolltydr]

We also moved to our version of paradise in St. Augustine, FL a couple years ago. We also live in a resort community with a Palmer/Nicklaus designed golf course. And, we don’t even play golf. It’s a beautiful area. Our back yard is a lake. We’re 20 minutes from the beach and the oldest city in the US. Two hours from WDW. Spring, fall and winter are fabulous. Summers are tolerable. Medical facilities are numerous and high quality. That will be important as we get older.

So, I’ve been pretty content since I retired in 2013. I wasn’t in paradise until we moved here in 2021.

 

[billymach4]

I moved from the city I like least -- Las Vegas. I never liked it there. I didn't want to go there in the first place. And although it has its moments (concerts and great restaurants), I couldn't wait to leave. In fact, when I leave that city I always adjust my rear-view so I don't have to see it on my way out.

Some people love it there. Great. If that's there idea of "paradise," that's fine. But it's my idea of hell.

I'm typing this from paradise and watching a football game. Way too early for football. But that's the worst thing I can think to say about this place.

@ScoopKona. Where did you live prior to LV? I had spent 55 years living in NYC and hated the last 25. Now I am 70 miles far enough away. So close yet so far.

From some of your other posts it sounds like you are from the Bay Area?

 

[ScoopKona]

From some of your other posts it sounds like you are from the Bay Area?

No, Key West.

If I were to list off everything I don't like about Las Vegas, the people who are already perpetually-indignant would just become even more indignant. "How dare you say that!?!?!??"

I vacation in the Bay Area. And we flew there every other month (on Spirit, for anywhere between $9 and $149) for long weekends. Just to get out of Las Vegas. On the off months, we flew to Los Angeles. If you put a gun to my head and demanded, "Move to a city," it would SF hands-down. There's no other city I consider more livable -- at least the way we live. There are cities in Europe and Asia I enjoy. If not for the weather, I could live in Glasgow. The problem with the nice Southern Europe cities is that they're great to visit -- but try living there and getting something done.

 

[DaveNV]

@4TimeAway You're newer here, so you likely haven't read some of the retirement tales some of us have shared on Tug. A lot of us have made changes over the years, from living where we worked, to living where we wanted to.

For me, it all came to a head during the Covid lockdown. We were living in extreme northwest Washington State, where people don't tan - they rust. My husband and I suddenly found ourselves retired, but trapped in our home up there. We had just gone 150 days in a row without seeing sunshine, due to the doom and gloom of Pacific Northwest weather. We were miserable, and wanted out. It didn't take a lot of pushing to motivate us to sell out and move to the sun in the Desert Southwest. You can read all about it in these very long threads:

The moving adventures of DaveNV (super long, with pictures)

Good Morning, Tuggers! It seems forever since I've had any time to share my life-changing adventures with everyone, but it seems right to take a few minutes now and update things. 1. First things first: We are now located in Mesquite, Nevada. The move from Washington can only be described...

tugbbs.com

DaveNV: Making a Home in the Desert

The intention of this thread is to document our ongoing experiences with adjusting to life in the desert southwest. I've found life really is a journey, and my journey keeps me on my toes! For those who may not know who I am: I'm Dave, a Tugger of around fifteen or so years. I retired earlier...

tugbbs.com

I'd rather live in Hawaii, if I could afford it. But it's easy to vacation there from here. When we put pencil to paper, living in southern Nevada, (not in Las Vegas, thank you, for the same reasons @ScoopKona doesn't like it there), was a better fit for us. We're happy, and completely enjoying retired life in the sun.

Dave

 

[zentraveler]

If you put a gun to my head and demanded, "Move to a city," it would SF hands-down. There's no other city I consider more livable -- at least the way we live.

When I read this thread earlier my first thought is that San Francisco is paradise for me after 35+ years. Living right in the middle of the city is a blessing, and for all that it seems like a nutty place to many even before covid (and plenty of bad news and bad press since covid) for some of us it is just the right place.

That seems like the real definition of 'paradise' - a place to live that suits you, whether it suits anyone else or not.

 

[ScoopKona]

When I read this thread earlier my first thought is that San Francisco is paradise for me after 35+ years. Living right in the middle of the city is a blessing, and for all that it seems like a nutty place to many even before covid (and plenty of bad news and bad press since covid) for some of us it is just the right place.

That seems like the real definition of 'paradise' - a place to live that suits you, whether it suits anyone else or not.

If you guys have a crab season this year, we'll have to get together and crack one*. I'm really glad they've started selling them right off the boat at the wharf. Now I have a reason to go to the wharf.

My SF days are so predictable, you can set your watch by them -- OAK -> BART -> Embarcadero -> walk to Molinari's (Luciano Special) -> Liguria Bakery (garlic-rosemary) -> bus to Market -> Oceanside bus to Haight -> Toronado for Pliny the Elder and a classic movie (Godfather 2 last time I was there) -> Walk to Japantown (need some exercise at this point) -> watch my wife run amok at Daiso. I used to buy knives at the hardware store there. But now I have more knives than they do so I refrain.

We've been doing this for coming up on 20 years. Sometimes we hit Mikkeller in the 'loin. And that's about as bad as SF supposedly gets. (I've seen worse in Las Vegas. But that isn't a popular media whipping post -- although it SHOULD be.) Sometimes we take the bus to Treasure Island for wine tasting (why more residents don't do this confounds me -- it's RIGHT there.) Sometimes we grab a crab, if we can. And there's a VPN pizzeria near Liguria Bakery which is as good as gets without airfare to Italy.

If we lived there, we'd do this basically all the time. Although, to be fair, I would almost certainly choose to live in Vallejo -- where I'm told I'm the only person who wants to live there by choice. And then take the ferry in. (And be closer to Sonoma, which is the California town which checks off all my boxes.)

*Barring a shellfish allergy, natch.

 

[Talent312]

I feel that I live in paradise also, but strangely,
I feel compelled to leave for vacations elsewhere.

.

 

[zentraveler]

If you guys have a crab season this year, we'll have to get together and crack one*. I'm really glad they've started selling them right off the boat at the wharf. Now I have a reason to go to the wharf.

My SF days are so predictable, you can set your watch by them -- OAK -> BART -> Embarcadero -> walk to Molinari's (Luciano Special) -> Liguria Bakery (garlic-rosemary) -> bus to Market -> Oceanside bus to Haight -> Toronado for Pliny the Elder and a classic movie (Godfather 2 last time I was there) -> Walk to Japantown (need some exercise at this point) -> watch my wife run amok at Daiso. I used to buy knives at the hardware store there. But now I have more knives than they do so I refrain.

We've been doing this for coming up on 20 years. Sometimes we hit Mikkeller in the 'loin. And that's about as bad as SF supposedly gets. (I've seen worse in Las Vegas. But that isn't a popular media whipping post -- although it SHOULD be.) Sometimes we take the bus to Treasure Island for wine tasting (why more residents don't do this confounds me -- it's RIGHT there.) Sometimes we grab a crab, if we can. And there's a VPN pizzeria near Liguria Bakery which is as good as gets without airfare to Italy.

If we lived there, we'd do this basically all the time. Although, to be fair, I would almost certainly choose to live in Vallejo -- where I'm told I'm the only person who wants to live there by choice. And then take the ferry in. (And be closer to Sonoma, which is the California town which checks off all my boxes.)

*Barring a shellfish allergy, natch.

Absolutely (and no shellfish allergies thank goodness). If we lived closer to North Beach I am sure I would go there, but I rarely do and thankfully there is good, if not great, pizza around here. Live by Dolores Park in the middle of the Mission, Valencia corrider, Noe Valley and the Castro, so North Beach is a hike from here and public transit is not great from here. And in case you haven't seen this: Fire at S.F.'s Liguria Bakery in North Beach contained (sfchronicle.com).

Japantown is great and the Kabuki theaters are the only place in the city I will go to the movies. Love the hardware store too.

 

[ScoopKona]

: Fire at S.F.'s Liguria Bakery in North Beach contained (sfchronicle.com).

OH NO!

I'm crushed! We learned about that place our first ever trip to SF, which was near Christmas. We're walking to Telegraph Hill because my wife wanted to see the parrots. There was a line of grandmothers, 50-deep in front of Liguria. My wife said, "Whatever that place is selling, we're buying some." Thankfully, another grandmother who was after us broke it down.

"You want two garlic-rosemary. If they don't have it, just garlic. If they don't have that, plain. You want to have $9.62 ready for them. If you dally, or hesitate, you go to the back of the line and they take my order."

(It wasn't $9.62 -- but it was that specific. She knew what two orders cost, with tax, off the top of her head.)

We got our two garlic-rosemary and we went back every time -- most of the time, they weren't open because they had sold out. But occasionally "On vacation until [the day after we were scheduled to leave.]"

 

[davidvel]

You want to have $9.62 ready for them. If you dally, or hesitate, you go to the back of the line and they take my order."

Sounds like your kind of place!

 

[Brett]

So "paradise" is

1. retired
2. good health
3. live in great location
4. financially well off
5. children doing Ok

I'm in paradise !

 

[joestein]

As many have alluded to; Paradise is what you want it to be and what you make of it.

I am always interested in hearing about people's plans for retirement. I think about what I want, but I realize that I don't really know what I want.

The last couple of years I have thought about buying a home in one of the Margaritaville Retirement Communities (The one nin Panama City Beach in particular) - They look like fun. I want to have a fun party atmosphere when retired. Like I am on a cruise. Or so I think.

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

I hope I'm never in paradise and completely content. I couldn't handle the boredom.

My mind is always questing, even if my body has more and more trouble following along.

(Ask me in a couple hundred years. I might have a different answer. Impossible? There have been breakthroughs, and the research is moving relatively fast. But that's a different thread.)

 

[4TimeAway]

I am always interested in hearing about people's plans for retirement. I think about what I want, but I realize that I don't really know what I want.

Perhaps this is what I’m feeling.

We’ve bought two places so far with intentions of a retirement location. Our initial plans were a mountain home (snow and mild summers) and a desert home (warm winters). Something like Colorado/Mountains/Ocean and Las Vegas/Palm Springs.

One location in CA is a nice place, 9-hole golf course (not fancy) in the mountains and the place is where we stayed for Covid. The downside is its 2 story, might turn into 3 stories (day basement) and its just too much house for “retirement” We could host family a couple times are year there, but more to heat, clean and maintain. It sounds a bit nicer than it is. The other place is for sale, we had plans to build, but it’s a little too Rural.

I think a place like NV makes sense due to no State Income Taxes and might be a new Zero Cost compared to CA. For a bit I was toying with Henderson or Summerlin, but it’s a bit too LV for me. Mesquite starts to sound like an interesting compromise.

Enter timeshares. Use a couple weeks here and there during the off-peak season in one bedroom and the costs are fairly low. It allows for travel and the opportunity to try new places. We like to RV so I think one place, a RV, and couple timeshares will be easier than managing multiple properties.

 

[DRH90277]

As many have alluded to; Paradise is what you want it to be and what you make of it.

I am always interested in hearing about people's plans for retirement. I think about what I want, but I realize that I don't really know what I want.

The last couple of years I have thought about buying a home in one of the Margaritaville Retirement Communities (The one nin Panama City Beach in particular) - They look like fun. I want to have a fun party atmosphere when retired. Like I am on a cruise. Or so I think.

Retirement community? Party atmosphere with a bunch of old folks?? This only gets worse as your neighbors age.

Well, we opted to live in a normal community where you can have a conversation about kids, local events, our smart dog, etc. without someone telling you about their numerous health problems. It seems the older generation get together and someone will mention their gout and someone else must always try to share their experience with this or a "better" illness. It is absolutely depressing - so stay young by being around younger folks . I guess you could also form a club where everyone agrees to avoid talking about politics, religion and the worst - their ongoing health problems. This may work but your neighbors will eventually forget the rules.

By the way, don't try doing the "limbo" with this crowd.

Enjoy the journey....

 

[vacationtime1]

Fire at S.F.'s Liguria Bakery in North Beach contained (sfchronicle.com).

OH NO! also.

Liguria Bakery is a classic. When I lived in North Beach two blocks from Liguria, my gf and i would make up a thermos of coffee in our apartment, take it down the hill to Liguria, buy a raisin focaccia ($0.85 in 1978) which they would cut into eighths, and enjoy our "breakfast" sitting on a bench across the street in Washington Square watching people practice tai chi in the park.