Retirement Dreams

MC2 5678F589 wrote

Correct in the first part, correct that it's definitely a boring & vanilla bedroom community, but the architecture of my house is garbage, too (shitty raised ranch). Location & schools are good, though, so I guess that's desirable to people.

The architecture, and boring vanilla (and by this I meant literally vanilla as in no brown people and socially boring as in completely cookie cutter ideals) part was actual in reference to the high price towns I know of in upstate NY.  A lot of them, actually the tax rates are lower, but the assessed value of everything is 150 to 200% of neighboring towns.  Like you said in your other post, this is to keep the riff-raff out.  They also have the most desirable schools with the highest taxes.  I'm not convinced they are really all that much better than some of the other districts.

nepa wrote

We have no kids.  But I honestly believe public education should be the highest priority of all communities.

Unless you want to live in a country full of ignorant people, everyone should support good schools, regardless of whether they have children in school.

mm

Milo Maltbie wrote

nepa wrote

We have no kids.  But I honestly believe public education should be the highest priority of all communities.

Unless you want to live in a country full of ignorant people, everyone should support good schools, regardless of whether they have children in school.

mm

Based on your avatar, I'm not entirely convinced the system is working.

Harvey wrote

So does this mean if I withdraw 31,000 in year one I would pay 9% of 1000 in state income tax?  How does the word "maximum" come into play?

If you have $2 million of other taxable income, you'll pay 9% of 1000.  If you have $50K of other taxable, you pay less than 4%. Pensions and Social Security are not taxable, and there is no personal property tax or high fees on car registrations. I didn't work much last year, and my NY income tax was about $100.  Property tax is high, especially downstate or waterfront properties.  OTOH if you want to live on an Upstate farm, NY is a low tax state for retirees.

You really need to look at specific situations before you decide if you can afford the taxes anywhere.

mm

 

Cunningstunts wrote

Milo Maltbie wrote

nepa wrote

We have no kids.  But I honestly believe public education should be the highest priority of all communities.

Unless you want to live in a country full of ignorant people, everyone should support good schools, regardless of whether they have children in school.

mm

Based on your avatar, I'm not entirely convinced the system is working.

Based on recent results, it's not working, but my statement is still true.  And don't dismiss George Carlin.

mm

Most of the Adirondack towns and counties are pretty low tax rates for property and school.  You really only get hammered if you have a high assessed value i.e. lots of land or waterfront property.

So if you have a modest house, and not a ton of land (no reason when you have 3 million acres of state land), then your yearly tax expenses should be modest.

MM is wicked wise!

Milo Maltbie wrote

Based on recent results, it's not working, but my statement is still true.  And don't dismiss George Carlin.

mm

I very much support the public school system.

But I'll also throw this anecdotal tidbit out.  I have a friend who is a teacher who was fired from a rural, upstate NY school district for trying to set up an after school activities club for gay and lesbian kids.

Maybe he crossed the line, but I really think he was trying to make everyone feel accepted in some way or another.  Apparently that's not something that small town USA wants.  We could also probably look at the voting records for that town and not have any surprises.

It's not necessarily the system that is at fault, but those who run said system.  I'm going to stop there because I don't want this to be political.


Edit to add:  I'll also mention that he isn't gay himself, is married and has 4 kids and along with teaching, has a small farm.

Also very informed statements with the exception of the Ausable Valley School District.   School taxes in that district are 2.5 to 3 times higher than other districts - well def that much higher than Lake Placid District.  

Cunningstunts wrote

I'm going to stop there because I don't want this to be political.

Hey bro politics are wlc in the political page.  You can join my dodgeball team.  

While we've strayed a bit from "Retirement Dreams" I'm really interested in this thread.  I appreciate the efforts to keep it apolitical.

JasonWx wrote

The hassi's and orthodox don't send their kids to public schools or buy from local merchants. they try to vote the school budget down every year..I can go on forever.

In Fishkill/Beacon we have the same thing with the Jehova’s Witnesses, and some orthodox.

A bigger problem than them voting down school budgets is that they don’t even pay the taxes.  The JW organization in our area is buying up whole condo/apartment complexes.  As they drive out existing tenants and fill those units with members of the religion they apply for and receive tax exemptions on the grounds that the properties are being used for religious purposes, which is a ruse.....it’s just housing.  When those properties come off the tax rolls it affects rates for everyone else.

JTG  we have the same problem here too. They buy a house , say it's is now a Temple and don't want to pay property tax..The community is in a up roar.

Living in New City is not bad, relatively close to NYC , the mountains and the beach.
But it's hard to justify living here and watch you town go to shit and pay enormous tax bill.

We will probably end up on Cape Cod. The house is valued at 500k with a tax bill around 4k.. That's hard to turn down..
After writing this , I realize I'm blessed to have theses problem..

MC2 5678F589 wrote

JasonWx wrote

.  
 15 is reasonable..have friends that pay close to 35k..
all this will eventually come back to destroy the area

Will it? Or will people in the communities vote for lower taxes if they don't like what the area is becoming? A lot of times, communities use high property tax rates to keep the "riff raff" (read: poor & middle class people) out. I'm assuming that the prices of houses aren't cheap down there. If property tax rates were truly a destructive force, would people pay such high prices to live in the area?

The idea that tax rates are "kept high" to keep out the riff raff is laughable.

The reason for the high taxes has to do with the high demand location close to NYC. High property tax rates are about property values, school systems and teacher salaries followed by local cop salaries. People who buy in these towns know what they are in for. The way to lower property taxes in NJ would involve a complete redesign of the entire state tax system/school system and that will never happen.

If you could lower property taxes by voting it would have happened.

JasonWx wrote

JTG  we have the same problem here too. They buy a house , say it's is now a Temple and don't want to pay property tax..The community is in a up roar.

Living in New City is not bad, relatively close to NYC , the mountains and the beach.
But it's hard to justify living here and watch you town go to shit and pay enormous tax bill.

We will probably end up on Cape Cod. The house is valued at 500k with a tax bill around 4k.. That's hard to turn down..
After writing this , I realize I'm blessed to have theses problem..

You could easily solve your problem by moving a few miles south into NJ.

JasonWx wrote

 

We will probably end up on Cape Cod.  

I loved Cape Cod

I'd say Cape Cod and OC MD are my favorite places to visit. My lady and I even tossed around the idea of moving to OC, that town is so chill and we both love the beach there.

I'd say we'd like to put an addition on my A-frame and by a condo in OC

x10003q wrote

We are in an affordable town in north NJ.  We hope the health insurance gap of early retirement is solved before we need to cover the years before 65. One idea we have is to rent for a month (summer or winter) or so in areas that have good access to outdoor activities. There are number of areas that interest us - Reno, Boise, Bend,  and even NEPA's spot - Wenachtee. Retiring in NJ means access to NYC via mass transit, top health care, and a big family and friends support system. North NJ also means decent access to east coast midweek skiing. Maybe at some point we will want to bail on the expense and weather and move south. That is always an option.

How far south?  My mother opted to move to central NC back in the 1970s long before lots of retirees moved into the region when housing was inexpensive.  The Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) has very good medical care options.  But these days there is also a lot of urban traffic and decreasing air quality.  The flip side is much better restaurant choices for those who want to eat out and enjoy different kinds of food.  My parents enjoyed the Triangle for almost 25 years after my father retired.  I attended Carolina as an in-state student because my parents were older so I was still in high school when my mother moved.  As an older parent myself, I'm happy that my daughter is applying to UNC colleges.  So my mother's choice is still working out well. :-)

From a ski nut's perspective, it's good to live near an airport with Southwest.  Our house is 15 min from RDU, which is very handy for those 6am flights that allow for afternoon skiing the day of arrival or midnight arrivals for those interested in skiing around SLC before heading to the airport.

As many of you know i had a long term plan from my early twenties to retire in my early 50's, debt free and  with a comfortable nest egg in addition to our pensions and SS.

We retired at 51 with fully payed  health benefits which today supplement medicare and at 51 we exceeded our financial goals by a considerable margin .   We both have basically NYS tax free pensions and SS  In addition to pensions and ss We take MDO' s on our 403bs holdings but also have aadditional decent size income from additional non sheltered investments . Our corpus at age 75 is still growing

AS many also know i had a parallel career founding a consulting and training institute and operated for almost 3 decades in addition to my university career . I sold it in 2000 when i was 57 . Between ages 51 when i formally retired from University life and when i sold the business, i worked just 75 days a year and never on Mondays or fridays with the consulting

So Like Milo my state tax is around 150 - 200 a yr because our pensions are tax free and the exclusions from 403 b's so the only taxable income in NYS is our OTHER investments but when factoring in the married std deduction the tax is very very low

By plan in our very early twenties ,We moved to a small city in the greater 1000 islands region  30 minutes from my job at the University and hr and a half from Placid and an hr to 2 hrs from several great cities in Canada .

 My wife also  an educator and an artist chose a 2000 sq ft classic Dutch Colonial home near my work .We are still there , the ambiance is great with the river a vibrant college environment rich with entertainment , sports and culture . We both are IMMERSED in volunteer activities and bike , ski golf , play tennis, do our gym routines 3 timea week  and have an active social life

We travelled alot for the first  5 years spent entire summers at various coastal locations and i took up both downhill skiing and golf at 50 because i always wanted to do it but never had the time .But what happens eventually tge wander lust fades and there is absolutely no stress and many smaller trips per year suffice that wanderlust . As i write this we are on a 9 day adventure right now .

So at 75 i have no complaints , survived both open heart and hip replacement and still lead an  athletically and socially active lifestyle . Modern medicine can work wonders IF you do your part and stay in reasonably decent physical and attitudinal shape

So dream big ,save like a madman but remeber this trip  is damn short and life isnt a dress rehersal, so get busy MAKING a LIFE , not just A LIVING
 

One day you’re gonna have to explain how you decide which words to capitalize

Hahahah, hey i never sweat small stuff brownie k