Where would you retire?

[Nathalie]

Hello all

We will be retiring in a few years and it is time to make plans. We need some advice as to where to retire. We love our salt water fishing and country life. Hopefully we will be able to have both but I doubt it (in any case the fishing would come first).
We will be in the 40s and 60s. We have a 4.6 centre console Formosa with 75 Mercury.We would like to end up somewhere where the fishing is good but has the best of both worlds fishing outside and fishing in the rivers that lead to the oceans for protection for those not so good days. Somewhere where there could be work if required as well. Any advise would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance

Nat.

[Marlin_Mike]

Hervey Bay

No contest, best of all worlds fishing wise.

Mike

[Chimo]

Hi Nat

Where are you now if I may ask?

One way to work it out is to do a matrix so for eg you list across the top of the page possible locations and down the left side you list all the attributes that you seek.

Then if you give a value eg 1 to 5 to each of the attibutes you can do some maths and get some ranking of each of the potential locations.

So if you want offshore sea fishing/ boating, inshore sea fishing/ boating, estury fishing/ boating, river fishing/ boating impoundment fishing/ boating, mountain walks, 4wd tracks, medical dental hospital service, shopping, airports (so the kids can visit) cinema, live theatre, suitable climate (not too hot / humid) (not too cold) choice of work opportunities, acceptable roads, boat ramp access, and importantly real estate growth and sales potential ( so if you choose to move you are not stuck with a depreciating property asset and in fact you can make $s on the market)

Sorry to dribble on but thats what GOM and GOW do and by the way thats another attribute to add; a location that your offspring would want to be near or even end up at too so they can look after you in your dribble stage!.

Hope these ramblings are some help, the system seems to have worked for us and has since 99/2000.

Cheers
Chimo

[johnnyb]

some where i can catch Marlin after Marlin after Marlin

[Cheech]

Hervey Bay for sure. Or Maryborough, which is on the Mary River about 30 minutes up stream from HB. There are locations on and near the river in between the 2 towns that you can live and get the country part of your equation.

[4x4frog]

Chalk up another for Hervey Bay.River Heads area in particular. I haven't seen a better part of the world ina long time and it's only 2 minutes form the barge to Fraser. There's plenty of rural properties just down the road form River heads too and it wouldn't get built out in the next 20 years like HB area proper will do.

[charleville]

This is a topic I have researched a bit ( having retired at age 57 a few months ago) and my response will probably not be what you would like to read but it is based on the experiences of a number of people who I have spoken to.

There are issues with leaving wherever you are now to retire and going to an idyllic location like Hervey Bay or anywhere else. (BTW, I lived at Hervey Bay for three years 27 years ago and it was wonderful! I also lived on the Gold Coast for a while and the traffic there made it like living in New York - hardly idyllic at all!))

The issues relate to support structures, family connections and your sense of community.

Often a couple will retire to a remote locale and find that they are disappointed because they no longer have their familiar infrastructure - eg their bridge club or bowling club friends who they have known for years and years. Loneliness can set in.

Often, everything will be fine until one of them dies or becomes infirm and without the support of family around them, it is really difficult for the remaining spouse, or healthy one as the case may be.

Similarly, grand-mums, in particular, miss seeing their grand-children and when the family is back in the big city and you are living in paradise, you will be the ones traveling to see the grand-kids, not the other way around - at least not after the first year or so. Families, especially when they enter the teens have their own society and world of weekend sporting and social events that will keep them in the big city. Likewise, their working parents are likely to be so buggered at the weekends that they just want to flop at home and not load up to take the grand-kids visiting the oldies four or five hours drive away.


The real tragedy that besets so many people when they sell up their long-time home and move to a far off place to retire is that when they do decide to leave paradise and return to the big city, often they cannot afford to do so. Real estate prices have moved and what they can afford is a modest unit or retirement home - not quite what they had in mind.

Talk to your friends who may have moved somewhere in retirement and see what their experiences have been - but only those who have been gone three years or so - after the halo effect of the new location has subsided.


Buying and selling homes and shifting costs a lot of dollars. Those dollars might be better spent on some long off-season holiday rentals in paradise but still having your home in its familiar environment to come back to.

If the old house in not quite what you think you need in retirement, you can always renovate.

[PinHead]

easy one..TOL's place..you get to be in the shed and drink on friday arvos..line the ends of the rods up and o#### holes in pegboard..what else is there to do in retirement.
Seriously..no intention of ever leaving here..11k to city..hour to either coast..best of both worlds.

[charleville]

easy one..TOL's place..you get to be in the shed and drink on friday arvos..line the ends of the rods up and o#### holes in pegboard..what else is there to do in retirement.
Seriously..no intention of ever leaving here..11k to city..hour to either coast..best of both worlds.

Agreed! When I lived in Hervey Bay, it was wonderful but awfully quiet. I know that it has grown from the 15 000 people in those days to 60 000 now but it still takes a lot of adjustment after living in the big smoke for a long time


.

[webby]

Probably to the firey depths of Hell, unless some angel repents all my sins ???

[choppa]

hervey bay is alright,,,,, but it'll be a long trek back to bribie to pick up ya boat if you leave it at my place,,,,,

save a spot for me webby,,,,, preferably close to the fan

choppa

[kingtin]

Some of you may remember that last year we went prospecting for somewhere to retire to.........I never did report on it

Originally Woodgate was my choice but the deckie said that she would like to continue part-time nursing even into her 60's, so Hervey Bay became her choice as the hospital was expanding there. We had thought about Macleay or Russel island but again, she thought about the commuting costs if she continued to work part time.

I'm not knocking the place because we all have different values,standards and expectations but anyways, we had a long-weekend up in Hervey Bay and our decision was that if we couldn't be within 2 or 3 blocks of the beach, at Urangan, Torquay or similar (handy for ramp and pier) then why change the lifestyle that we had? Although properties were reasonably priced further back from the beach, you'd be lucky if you got any change from 400k for a two bedroom fibro within 2 blocks of the beach.

Also, on the weekend we were there, there was no less than 3 major assaults on the promenade with one resulting in a death and the local police chief commented on a gang culture that was arising there...........not at all the Hervey bay that we had come to know and love.

We still haven't arrived at a decision

Good advice from Charlie there too. One has to think about family friends and infrastrucure and how one would manage if one lost their partner.

kev

[oldboot]

Well there are the obvious choices.

The gold coast...........if you have a lot of money and like that sort of thing.

The redlands........ yep we are up to our arm pits in retirees here, close to bris and a variety of price brackets........ hmm may be

Redcliff...... known as having one of the highest concentrations of anglers and wood turners in the southern hemisphere and at one time the highest concentration of TV repairmen.

Bribie.......especilay if you can offord one of those fancy new developments.

Yep... hervey bay.......

then you can look north.......there are quite a few nice little towns with good fishing access..... borroron for instance...... handy to turkey beach... not too far from a couple of impoundments....... and cheap as chips.

you could head for cairns........if you dont mind the heat...... but it isnt cheap anymore.

If you arent looking for anything fancy.......... Townsville has to be worth a look....close to the reef.....I believe that some think fishing compulsory there. You are certainly considered underprivaliged or weird if you dont own a boat....The hospitals are pretty good ( once they get some heart surgeons).... the aged care facilities arent too bad either.
There are lots of choices for fishing too.....a few of hours and you can be in cairns, down the coast or up the burdican dam.
Hell you can fish in the middle of town and catch barra if you are lucky.
There are 4 fishable impoundments right in town and you can cath fish 200metres from the main street
Even if you are poor, a bycicle a fishing rod and a cast net will feep you bussy for quite a while
Not as cheap as it once was. has to be worth a look though.

I think some serious research is required.........don't forget your fishin' gear.

cheers

[NAGG]

Airlie Beach for me ...... Not too far to Hinchinbrook for a weekend away.
Fish Peter Faust whenever I wanted to
Good barra river ( Proserpine)

Reef fishing

Nice Climate

Nagg

[youngy]

Gold Coast i am only semi retired but it has it all fishing wise and if you want a quieter home life you can live on the western side of the h'way and still have the fishing close bye. Cheers Wayne.