Our Arizona retirement story
Our Arizona retirement story...we retired early, in 1994, when I was 49...we retired to living on a sailboat in the Caribbean.
After eight years of that fun lifestyle, living in our RV during the summers, hurricane season, we left our boat and returned to the states and roamed the country in our RV.
We were looking for a place, to "settle down" and buy a house... We put 43,000 miles on our RV looking for that perfect spot.
What we were looking for
No surprise here, we wanted a place that was warm... Eight years in the Caribbean, will spoil you.
We had lived in Houston for 18 years, prior to heading to the islands.
We have had our fill, of humidity and bugs... We looked long and hard at Florida anyway.
Florida has lots of retirees, and we wanted to check it out thoroughly.
Southern California and Arizona quickly moved to the top of our best state to retire in list.
When we looked harder at housing costs, Arizona retirement living offered more bang for the buck.
We enjoyed the Palm Springs area... Arizona was a much better value.
We like Del Webb...and their communities
One of our favorite things to do, when we were exploring America in our RV, was visiting the model parks of the Del Webb communities we encountered.
From Florida, South Carolina, Nevada, California and finally Arizona...we became big fans of the Del Webb, active retirement lifestyle, it was all we were looking for.
The community centers, the golf courses, and the well-equipped, and well utilized gym's...made us realize we would be Del Webb customers eventually.
We chose Sun City Grand...in Surprise,Arizona
In February, 2004 we purchased our home...and have never regretted the decision...Arizona is a great place to live.
We moved in during the construction phase of Sun City Grand...in 2004 there were 6000 homes built,,, it reached completion of 9800 homes in 2007.
We did not seem to mind, the construction phase...we enjoyed meeting new neighbors and sharing our Arizona retirement story with others.
Several years later, we are still pleased with our decision.
Our Arizona retirement story conclusion
When you retire to Arizona...you will realize that you have a lot of choices... Arizona is is much more diverse in climate and topography, than most people think.
If you have to have the four seasons, Arizona is still for you... Payson, Prescott, and Flagstaff come to mind if you don't mind seeing snow in the winter...that is why there is chocolate and vanilla.
Our Arizona retirement saga has been written, yours is waiting... Come on down you will be very glad you did
Get your manual of how to live on a sailboat in the Caribbean... Jimmy Buffett is right, changes in latitude...changes in attitude... You can do this too. Updated January 2018
This is a very popular, step by step 95 page manual, that shows anyone with a dream that they can come true.
Mission statement
99% of most
"advice" on retirement planning is provided by large financial
companies trying to sell you their investment products...they have billions to
spend on advertising.
This site is about
practical retirement lifestyles we have experienced...they have all been fun,
cheap, and safe.
Retirement is not
all about money, IRAs...we talk about the real life scenarios of retirement.
Come along and
benefit from our 24 years of being happily retired.
Subscribe to Frugal Retiring News...Full of Frugal Tips
Free since 2009