We arrived at Lake Tahoe
We moved away from the hustle and bustle of San Francisco to the tranquil town of Incline Village, Nevada, just across the California state line. This is on the shores of Lake Tahoe.
We are surrounded by big trees and an awful lot of old people. I think the average age of an Incline Village resident is well over eighty. If we moved here, we’d be referred to as the kids.
There are a couple of reasons we are here. First, I have always wanted to see Lake Tahoe. I had a friend many years ago who spent every Christmas with her mom at Lake Tahoe and that tidbit of information stayed tucked in the corner of my brain somewhere. A virtual Post-it note, if you will. This is the closest we’ve been to Tahoe, so why not go all the way?
It’s beautiful, isn’t it?
Incline Village NV, from Kings Beach CA
Walking down the main street in King’s Beach
A lot of the shops had nice floral gardens in the front
The wings outside of this art center somehow reminded me of the FedEx box in the movie ‘Cast Away’
A totem peaks at us through the pines
Fuel prices here are some of the highest I’ve ever seen – anywhere
Another item that was way down my bucket list for many years was to see the large sequoia trees in this part of California. I don’t consider myself a nature buff in any way, shape, or form. But how often does a person get to see a massive tree that could be 2,000 years old? It’s a reminder how short our time on earth really is.
When I checked with ChatGPT about where we could find these trees, it suggested California’s Calaveras Big Trees State Park. I figured a park with ‘Big Trees’ as a part of the name wouldn’t disappoint.
If only these trees could talk. I imagine there’d be some good stories.
So, here we are in peace, calm, and serenity. It is a chance to reflect. That, and Cindy has bronchitis and needs to rest for a few days. Good thing we have a comfy Airbnb.
A young sequoia tree – probably a couple of hundred years old
This is more like what I expected
The trunk of this sequoia tree is massive.
Walking the trail was majestic – just wow!
As we meet new people and catch up with friends, the most common question we’ve been asked lately is: Do we miss the boat?
Short answer: No.
One thing I do really miss is sitting in the cockpit each morning with my big mug of tea and a Times Sunday Crossword. I really enjoyed watching the world wake up wherever we might have been parked. This turned out to be a true happy place.
The big things we both miss are the people we have had to leave behind due to being forced to move on because of visa restrictions and insurance policies. A recent call from Australia compounded this. It is so good to catch up, but at the same time, a sadness hits because of the distance between us.
Our friends there all seem very interested in where we are and where we might settle. I think there might be a few side bets involved. They have a pretty good idea of what we are trying to find.
We found a taco truck just outside of the park. We were so hungry after the trail. l. Sadly, the food trucks are not the great deal they used to be.
This is where a little reflection beneath the giant sequoias comes into play. Standing among trees that have been around for 2,000 years has a way of putting things into perspective. These trees were already hundreds of years old when people were busy fighting over things that nobody remembers today. Meanwhile, we are trying to decide where to spend the next chapter of our lives.
After more than a decade of living aboard a sailboat, traveling the world, and experiencing life in different countries, we’ve developed some fairly strong opinions about what makes a place worth calling home.
We have also discovered that beautiful scenery alone isn’t enough. A place can have spectacular views, lovely weather, and wonderful restaurants, but if you don’t enjoy the people or the way of life, what’s the point?
So, as we wander around looking for somewhere to put down roots, we’ve come up with a short list of what really matters to us.
In no particular order…
A Place Where People Are Nice to Each Other
This sounds ridiculously simple, doesn’t it? Yet it seems increasingly difficult to find.
We want to live somewhere people smile at strangers, say hello when passing on the sidewalk, and occasionally hold a door open without expecting a medal. Somewhere neighbors actually know each other and might even stop for a conversation.
Having traveled through dozens of countries, we’ve learned that friendliness has very little to do with wealth, nationality, or how impressive someone’s house might be. Some of the warmest, most generous people we’ve encountered have had very little in the way of material possessions.
We don’t need everyone to agree with us. In fact, life would be terribly boring if they did. But we would like to live among people who can disagree without becoming disagreeable or vulgar.
Is that really too much to ask?
Equal Rights for Everyone
While walking through Ashland, Oregon (post soon to come), I noticed a sign in someone’s front garden promoting equal rights for everyone. I stopped and thought, these are the sort of people I’d like to have as neighbors.
100% Agree!
It’s a simple philosophy. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or where they happened to be born.
I don’t particularly care what religion someone follows, who they love, or how they choose to live their life, provided they aren’t harming anyone else. And I certainly don’t want to live somewhere people feel entitled to impose their personal beliefs on everyone around them.
Having spent so much time outside the United States, we have become accustomed to meeting people from different cultures and backgrounds. It’s one of the things we’ve enjoyed most about traveling.
Diversity doesn’t frighten us. Intolerance does.
We would prefer to live in a community that celebrates differences rather than one that spends its time looking for reasons to divide people.
Cool train at Nebraska Rail Museum
Taxes
I’ve never minded paying taxes. Roads, schools, parks, libraries, emergency services, and public infrastructure don’t magically appear because someone wishes hard enough.
I believe in paying my fair share.
What I don’t believe in is paying considerably more than necessary simply because we’ve chosen the wrong place to live.
Now that we’re retired, our income comes from Social Security and retirement investments. We worked for decades to accumulate those savings, and we’d prefer to spend as much of that money as possible enjoying our retirement rather than handing an unnecessary portion of it to a state government.
If we settle in the United States, our preference is to live in one of the nine states without a conventional personal income tax. That sounds like a reasonable selection until you start eliminating places because of weather, geography, politics, and social attitudes.
Alaska? Beautiful, but I have no desire to spend half the year dressed like an Arctic explorer.
Wyoming and South Dakota? Similar concerns.
Several of the warmer states present other issues that don’t particularly appeal to us.
And then there’s Washington, which keeps finding its way back onto our list.
Of course, no-income-tax states aren’t necessarily inexpensive. They still need to raise revenue, often through property taxes, sales taxes, and other charges. We understand that.
We’re not trying to avoid contributing to society. We’re simply trying to be sensible about where our retirement money goes.
Bears have been a problem at the condo where we stayed. They bear-proofed the dumpster. You open the gate, then have to unlatch the shoot by reaching under the cover. I wonder how long it will take the bears to figure this out.
Weather
Speaking of weather, we don’t mind having four seasons. In fact, we rather like the idea.
After years of sailing in tropical climates, there’s something appealing about watching the leaves change color in autumn, enjoying a crisp winter morning, and seeing everything come back to life in spring. What we don’t want are extreme seasons. Scorching summers where stepping outside feels like opening an oven door? No thanks. Winters with mountains of snow, frozen driveways, and weeks of temperatures below freezing? Equally unappealing.
We’ve spent enough years planning our lives around weather forecasts while sailing. It would be nice to stop worrying about what Mother Nature has planned for us. Ideally, we’d like somewhere with comfortable summers, relatively mild winters, and enough sunshine to keep life cheerful. A little rain doesn’t bother us. We lived on a boat, after all. But months of relentless gray skies might eventually test even my sunny disposition.
And yes, for those who know me, that last statement was intended to be funny.
Healthcare
This one has become increasingly important as we’ve grown older.
We have experienced healthcare systems in several countries, and those experiences have given us a very different perspective from that of many Americans. I would love to live somewhere healthcare is treated primarily as a public service rather than a business opportunity. Unfortunately, that pretty much eliminates most of the United States from my ideal list. Let me be clear. America has some extraordinarily talented doctors, excellent hospitals, and remarkable medical technology. That’s not the issue. The issue is the system surrounding them. Insurance companies, hospital corporations, billing departments, networks, deductibles, copayments, and seemingly endless administrative obstacles have turned something as basic as seeing a doctor into an unnecessarily complicated financial transaction. Buying a house is easier than dealing with the aftermath of a hospital stay.
It is difficult to have complete confidence in a healthcare system when financial incentives can influence what treatment is offered, where you receive it, and how much it costs. How is it possible to trust a doctor who is incentivized by pharma or medical device companies? In other countries, we’ve experienced excellent medical care without the constant feeling that someone was trying to sell us something. The sense was that the doctor cared and wanted us well as quickly as possible.
Contrary to what many Americans seem to believe, the United States does not automatically have the world’s greatest healthcare system simply because it spends the most money on it. It does, however, have the most expensive one.
If you’d like to have a private conversation about this subject, I’d be delighted to share some of our healthcare experiences from around the world. Some might surprise you.
At our age, proximity to good healthcare is nonnegotiable. We want access to quality hospitals, specialists, and doctors who have the time to actually practice medicine. And preferably without having to sell a kidney to pay for treatment of the other one. Nor do I wish to have my treatments dictated by insurance coverage.
Walkability
Living aboard a boat for so many years taught us something interesting: we really don’t need a car as much as most people think. We have feet, and we wish to use them. Whenever we arrived in a new town or city, we generally explored on foot or used public transportation. We walked to supermarkets, restaurants, cafés, museums, and just about anywhere else we wanted to go.
We became accustomed to having everyday necessities within walking distance. And we liked it. Now that we’re considering living on land again, the idea of having to get into a car every time we need a loaf of bread seems rather ridiculous. Ideally, we’d love to eliminate the need for a car altogether. Realistically, that might be difficult in much of the United States, but we would certainly like to minimize our dependence on one. A good neighborhood, to us, is somewhere we can walk out the front door and actually go somewhere. Not just around a subdivision looking at identical houses and manicured lawns, but to a café, a grocery store, a park, a restaurant, or a lively downtown. We enjoy walking for exercise, but we also enjoy walking with a purpose.
There’s something wonderful about being able to stroll into town for lunch, stop at a shop on the way home, and perhaps run into someone you know. It’s a lifestyle we’ve enjoyed in Europe, Australia, and many other places around the world. We’d like to keep it.
And while we’re on the subject, hills are a bonus. We like a little topography. Flat landscapes stretching endlessly into the distance don’t do much for us. Although after walking around San Francisco, perhaps we should be careful what we wish for.
To get from Tahoe to Carson City we drove over these mountains. Lots of downshifting for the steep hills
Culture
We don’t want to retire somewhere that considers a new shopping mall the cultural event of the year. We enjoy museums, art galleries, live theater, music, historic buildings, interesting architecture, and communities where people are actively involved in creative pursuits. We don’t necessarily need a major metropolitan city with a world-famous opera house. But we do want somewhere with a little intellectual and cultural life. A community theater putting on a production, an independent bookstore hosting an author, an art walk through downtown, or a local jazz performance can be just as enjoyable as a major production in a big city.
We also love places with history. Towns that have preserved their older buildings and developed a character of their own appeal to us far more than endless developments of shopping centers and chain restaurants.
And we want people around us who are interesting. People who have traveled, read books, tried unusual things, made mistakes, and accumulated stories worth telling. People who have a sense of humor and don’t take themselves too seriously.
We’re not particularly interested in spending retirement sitting around discussing cholesterol levels, the latest medical procedures, or whose grandchildren are the most talented. There will be plenty of time for that when we’re dead.
We want to continue learning, exploring, laughing, and occasionally doing something completely unexpected. After all, retirement shouldn’t mean retiring from life.
So, Where Does That Leave Us?
That’s the million-dollar question. Possibly quite literally, given the price of houses we’ve been looking at.
We’re searching for a place with friendly, open-minded people, reasonable taxes, pleasant weather, excellent healthcare, walkable neighborhoods, and enough culture to keep us entertained.
Oh, and we’d also like a comfortable house that doesn’t require a second mortgage to renovate, preferably with a garden, some character, and no homeowners association telling us what color we can paint the front door.
Surely that can’t be too difficult?
The trouble is that every place we’ve visited seems to offer some of what we want, but nowhere has delivered everything. Perhaps nowhere will. Maybe the answer is to find somewhere with enough of the things that matter, and few enough of the things that don’t. We are willing to compromise.
After more than a decade of sailing around the world, we’ve learned that happiness rarely comes from the size of your home or the amount of stuff you accumulate. It comes from the people you meet, the experiences you share, and having the freedom to enjoy your days.
Right now, we are in a unique position to seek out a place that closely matches our criteria. Our hunt means staying in a mixture of rental homes and hotels as we scope out towns and neighborhoods. We have all of our belongings set to be moved anywhere in the world. Now we just need an address. Our next stop is Oregon. If we decide to live in the USA, we have limited our choices to Oregon and Washington. Oregon is lower on the list because it has a state income tax on retirement income. We estimate it would cost us an extra US$10,000 a year to live in this state. Is it worth it? We’ll soon find out.
One last look at Lake Tahoe. Taken from near Love’s house.
To finish, I thought I’d share a photograph taken near the home of Mike Love, one of the Beach Boys. Mike built himself a rather substantial house just across the Nevada state line, where property taxes are lower, and state income tax is nonexistent. California has the scenery, but Nevada lets you keep more of the money needed to enjoy it. For years, Mike and his family enjoyed this spectacular view. He clearly found his little piece of paradise.
As it happens, his house is now for sale (listing link), so Cindy and I could simply move in and end our search for somewhere to live. There’s just one minor obstacle: the $43 million asking price. I checked the sofa cushions. We’re a little short.
Wouldn’t it be nice?
