Do you think you’ll relocate when you retire or when DC leave home?

[CushieButterfield]

We are debating whether to move house in the next year or two (for secondary school transition). I’d be really sad to leave where we are, we have good friends and feel part of the community. But I don’t think this is where I want to end up as I get older - not enough amenities, need to drive places. So if we can work out what we want from our location when we’re older, then we can factor that in to this next move. We are probably about 10 years off retiring so this is forward planning! But it takes me a few years before I feel at home in a new place.

So if you think about moving for post children / retirement, where would you go, what would you want around you?

I currently live in the town I grew up in, in a central location so a short walk to shops and family. Reasonable train/bus to local city.

DCs are secondary age so once the youngest is at uni, or whatever they want to do, then I'll be taking a good look at the future to make plans. I don't want to go too far from my Dad right now, but once he's gone and the DCs are moving on in their lives, I might consider moving into the local city.

But then, it does rather depend on how things pan out if I start dating again!

Definitely moving abroad when we retire. Can't decide between Cyprus or Florida, so current plan is to sell up entirely in the UK and buy a smaller place in both, so we can spend half the year in Florida and the other half in Cyprus. No way are we staying in the UK.

We live in France, kids want to study in Dublin. We love our lives here and have no intention of moving at the minute but it is rural and I see our elderly neighbors house bound. Life is two short. I need about twenty more years!

Interesting read. Have to say I have no interest in living outside of the uk, love it here so much.

Hope to have money though to do a bit of travelling. Would love to buy a camper van and do some touring,

To the coast!! I'd love to live in very rural Cornwall, close enough to drive to the beach but far away enough not to be affected by tourism.

We live in the countryside now, and it's too densely populated here for my liking..... I want to live miles from anyone else.

We have discussed this a little but didn't arrive at anything definite. We are currently rattling around in a home that is too big but DS stlll comes home from Uni in the holidays so we don't really want to move yet. We also love the village we live in and can walk to the pub, post office and railway station - plus our DD is buried in the Churchyard here. We have been here nearly 30 years so have lots of friends. We don't want to move out of the village at the moment but can't see the point in downsizing here and then moving again at a later date. Plus DH is only a couple of years off retirement and is already building his portfolio of volutary jobs he wants to do in this area!

I am undecided whether I'd like to move into the local small town, nearest large (county town) or to go somewhere completely different when we move to our last house. Partly tempted to move back to the lovely seaside town of my childhood - although I have no connections there now.

Can't see DS ever coming back here on a permanent basis as it is rural, "boring" and there's no job prospects for him.

I love where I live. It’s a mid terrace 3 bed house. My youngest is 16 so I could be on my own in the near future but I’m ok with that. My house is in a great location. Walking distance of shops, train station etc so even if I wasn’t driving I’m not isolated. It’s also a very low maintenance house so easy to keep. I currently have a sittingroom, utility room, kitchen, bathroom & playroom downstairs but I’ve decided that if I’m ancient & not able for the stairs lol then I’ll turn one room downstairs into my bedroom & all I need to do is add a shower in the bathroom which there is room to do so I’m going to try to do that in the next few years while I’m still working (only 44 so have time yet!).
I like the idea of getting a caravan in a seaside location though as a pp mentioned.

I had never thought of living abroad but then Brexit happened and DD and EU partner have decided to emigrate after her degree as he doesn’t feel welcome here. I’m not keen on the anti German sentiment I keep seeing and having gone through all that crap in the 70’s as a result of having a German Mother I can’t face it again.

This is my Home and the only country I have lived in but on occasions things change when you you don’t expect it so you adjust and go with the times. When youngest was starting secondary I’d have laughed if someone said i’d emigrate.

I’ve really not thought about relocating outside of the UK - maybe extended periods away, but I guess it depends on what happens with the DC. I’m assuming they will end up living somewhere else, so need to plan to rely on ourselves. All subject to change I’m sure!

We've lived in this town 20 years now, and plan to be in this house for another 20 until the 3DC have all left home. It's too big for a couple. But at that point I can't see us moving town. We live in a nice market town so I think our next move will be within a mile of our current house but to something a bit smaller to free up some cash.

We’re looking to retire in about 7 years (very early). The rural idyll beckons, but I know we may well waver and decide to stay within reach of hospitals, town, shops etc. We keep sending each other properties. This is nice. www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-67585958.html

Yes , we’ll move
Currently live in a massive house in the countryside , both DC have graduated , though one is on a gap year and will be needing to live with us on and off ( which is fine )
House is much too big , and we both need a car
I want to live with in a walk of the station / shops / cinema / park etc
But where ?
We have a nice circle of friends here , but none of the grown up children will come back here , and I would rather downsize, free up some cash , help the DC out a bit and live more centrally

I live in the same small Staffordshire I grew up in which is great in one way because I know a lot of local people so will never be lonely, it's very rare for me to not stop and chat to someone I know at the local supermarket which seems such a simple thing but does mean a lot to me.

We do plan however to retire to Shropshire, we have a caravan near Shrewsbury and love the area, it's a lovely county and so green.

I'd never want to leave the Midlands though, I love being central, it's easy to pop to Wales or the Lake District for a couple of days or whizz down the M5 to Cornwall.
There's tons of local places to visit for days out too and we tend to miss a lot of the severe weather that affects places closer to the coast.

Were in our forever home. No stairs so great for when my knees give up after years of running. 4 bedrooms and i hope one day to have grandchildren over to stay. My perfect country cottage.

We keep going in circles thinking about relocating to a nicer part of the country (suburbia is encroaching our previously rural aspect home), but till the older relatives have gone we're kind of tied to the area. We hate the traffic, & the new build neighbours that don't understand a road is NOT the place to let your kid cycle off on their new-for-Christmas bike when they haven't mastered the brakes, nor is it appropriate to let your dog off the lead when a) it's a road and b) the dog studiously ignores you calling as he hasn't been taught to come to you when called.

We moved out of a rural area, just over a year ago, with the boys both in secondary school. Slightly different to most as both are in special/specialist schools so none of the usual catchment issues.

One motivation was that there are more facilities for the boys, here in the city, as they grow up, and we have excellent public transport in this part of the city.

Long term, we viewed myriad 1960s semis and plumped for a chocolate box 1930s dormer bungalow. Most of the square footage is downstairs and it will hopefully see us through into old age. The elderly guy next door lives entirely downstairs and we did for the first few months, until we fixed the roof and the mess it had made!

My parents live very rural and they recently lost their 2 buses a day into the nearest city. Now in their 70s, my dad gets tired and my mum is losing her sight, so getting around is becoming more duffucukt. They just feel like the house is a burden, since they bought mid noughties and they have neither the funds nor the energy to move. My mum has a decent social circle there, too, so leaving that would be difficult for her.

I used to want to move to a favourite little seaside town when we retired, but I'm so glad we never did. Where we are is so convenient, everything on the doorstep more or less, including a lot of green space, plus the good old London Freedom Pass - and public transport here is very good.

Much as their areas are beautiful, staying with rural-dwelling friends, who have to get in the car every time they need a pint of milk, has put me off for life.

I can't see us ever leaving this house (where dcs mostly grew up) until we're either carried out on a box or carted off demented to a care home.
I'd have loved a bit more space when dcs were teens, but it's perfect for us now, not too big or unmanageable - and we still have room for them and Gdcs to stay.

No, because where we live is so convenient.
We are in a big City so have all the amenities you could wish for as well as public transport, (and most things that could be delivered), and things like hospitals nearby.
Most importantly though, we have our 'communities' here. People we know and like to spend time with, support networks, and both close friends and all the hundreds of 'people we are friendly with'.

I spend a lot of time thinking about this. Ultimately I would like to live reasonably close to DD but it could be years before she settles and I would be wary of uprooting to a new area where she would be the only person we know as that’s not fair on her (and I wouldn’t want to be a burden to her).

I think we will stay put for the meantime and decide what to do if/when DD is more settled. We fancy getting a motor home and touring around but goodness knows how/when we will afford it.

Waves back at Tonton This week marks the start of decluttering and getting rid of things before we move back in October.

I love the village the house is in, but apart from the village hall and the shop/P.O, there is nothing there. Yes, there are hourly buses, but how long they will go on for is moot (or so my Mum tells me), and as we get older, then a couple of local market towns or bigger villages with more amenities might be an idea.

The plan was for us to move to marbella in spain as we've family there and they own quite a lot of properties there that they rent out so we were planning to move in to one of them and spend lots of time there in the winter and early summer and then come back to the uk for our summer's to avoid the crowds.

Now that was at least 40 years away but we can dream. Or could until brexit

Right now, I’m still thinking about upsizing and can’t see wanting to live too far away from my kids as I get older.

I definitely don’t want to be in this particular house, in the same area I’d be fine but this house has very steep stairs!