Originally Posted by
MissyH
Where do you prefer to live in retirement, if the only choices are:
Hawaii(Kaui)
Florida(FLL)
Spain(somewhere between Marbella and Girbraltar)
Tahiti(Papara)
Finland(on the coast, across the ocean from Stockholm)
I've traveled to those places frequently and have friends and family in all of
those places. It doesn't make sense to move to places where you don't know
anybody, right?
If you'd asked me this question back in the 1970s, I might've said Tahiti or Hawaii. Since then however, both places have become horribly overdeveloped with economies that place a premium on milking the visitors for as much as they possibly can. Florida? Maybe back in the 1950s or 60s. These days it's like our own little Third World country - one of the most consistently intellectually frustrating places I've ever been. I've been to both Spain and Finland but not the places you mention. Regardless, of those two, I'd take Finland any day.
Thankfully, I already live in paradise (Alaska's Interior) with no plans to retire anywhere else. Indeed, I'd rather pay a million dollars to live out my days here in Alaska than get paid a million to move to anywhere else.