West Sussex is the best place to retire to. Discuss

[Beebo]

My friends dad retired to one of the smaller Herbredies islands from Kent at 65.
He is now 75 and would like to come home as he misses his grand kids and life is getting harder up there but can't afford to move back.
He just didn't think it through at the time.
The island he lives on is only accessible by ferry to the main island then either another ferry to the mainland or a flight to Inverness.
The island is so
Inhospitable that it doesn't have a single tree due to the wind.

 

[slowmotion]

At the moment, we're going to stick where most of our friends are, London. I'm tempted by Cornwall because I've been going there several times a year since I was a kid, but I really don't know what it would be like to live there full-time. If we could, we would rent a place and see how we liked it for a year. I suspect we might both miss the buzz of city living, but we certainly won't know until we try it. London's got excellent healthcare, but it seems a bit defeatist to use that as a major reason for living here....

"Get busy living, or get busy dying.."? Anyway, I'm acutely aware that, in the scheme of things, time is running out.

 

[subaqua]

At the moment, we're going to stick where most of our friends are, London. I'm tempted by Cornwall because I've been going there several times a year since I was a kid, but I really don't know what it would be like to live there full-time. If we could, we would rent a place and see how we liked it for a year. I suspect we might both miss the buzz of city living, but we certainly won't know until we try it. London's got excellent healthcare, but it seems a bit defeatist to use that as a major reason for living here....

"Get busy living, or get busy dying.."? Anyway, I'm acutely aware that, in the scheme of things, time is running out.

This is the one dilemma for me. Will I miss the city buzz. In 5 years time I will have lived in the city longer than I lived in the country.

Cornwall is great anytime of year, but permanently ? Not sure . I have seen the house I want though . Could sell here , pay mortgage off and still have enough to invest sensibly to live from....

 

[srw]

Centre of a small market town here, rail access to a National Park, and an AOB, and an international airport. Only long-term fly in our stay put ointment is the distance, in time, from the nearest A&E.

An ambulance service, a minor injuries unit and some sort of generalist outpatients unit are probably more useful for most things. If your case is urgent enough to require A&E then you'll get an ambulance and a paramedic (subject, of course to the NHS still existing).

 

[Paulus]

Don't get fooled by these escape to the country type programmes on the telly box. They always show the property in lovely sunny summer conditions not in winter when the roads /lanes are impassable and the wind is howling around the valley .
Obviously as you get older you need the local services close at hand , not miles away from home.

 

[srw]

Don't get fooled by these escape to the country type programmes on the telly box. They always show the property in lovely sunny summer conditions not in winter when the roads /lanes are impassable and the wind is howling around the valley .
Obviously as you get older you need the local services close at hand , not miles away from home.

Quite. If you have no access to a car and all the bus services have been shut, will you still be able to get to the shops? It might have been a dream home aged 60, but that could well be different when you're 80, and by that stage you won't want to move.

 

[Cycleops]

Another popular place for retirees is Frinton, on the Essex coast. Cyclists were banned under byLaws a hundred years ago In an effort to discourage the riffraff.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jun/08/lets-move-frinton-on-sea-essex
I always remember in the sixties posters to promote Harwich as a jumping off point for Europe, the slogan 'Harwich for the Continent' was always appended by 'And Frinton for the incontient'

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Quite. If you have no access to a car and all the bus services have been shut, will you still be able to get to the shops? It might have been a dream home aged 60, but that could well be different when you're 80, and by that stage you won't want to move.

Is that not what home delivery is for?

 

[srw]

Is that not what home delivery is for?

Good luck getting prescriptions delivered, or ulcers dressed by mail order, or home-visiting dentistry.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Good luck getting prescriptions delivered, or ulcers dressed by mail order, or home-visiting dentistry.

Hmmmm....

Quite. If you have no access to a car and all the bus services have been shut, will you still be able to get to the shops? It might have been a dream home aged 60, but that could well be different when you're 80, and by that stage you won't want to move.

They do prescription delivery for the aged hereabouts and I know two pensioners locally and one in rural Wales whose ulcers are dressed at home. Agree the tooth doctor is a challenge for the non-urban.

 

[slowmotion]

The bus services in the area of Cornwall I'm interested in are pretty limited. However, if I couldn't drive I could still get to Truro or Falmouth in the boat. You can moor next to the Tesco in Truro as long as it isn't low tide, and M&S is only a few yards further away.

 

[srw]

Hmmmm....

They do prescription delivery for the aged hereabouts and I know two pensioners locally and one in rural Wales whose ulcers are dressed at home. Agree the tooth doctor is a challenge for the non-urban.

"Shops" as metaphor not intended to be literal....

I think it's dangerous to assume that public services currently provided at home will always be available that way. One day austerity will (if not voted out) catch up with core Tory demographics.

 

[rikki]

The bus services in the area of Cornwall I'm interested in are pretty limited. However, if I couldn't drive I could still get to Truro or Falmouth in the boat. You can moor next to the Tesco in Truro as long as it isn't low tide, and M&S is only a few yards further away.

Is this boat rowed, sailed or motored to the shops?

 

[slowmotion]

Is this boat rowed, sailed or motored to the shops?

It could be all three, but motoring would be easiest/fastest.

 

[petek]

TinymyNewt asked a fair question earlier.. quote.. "
Why do people often decide to move away from their life and all their friends when they retire? Alan Bennett wrote a play about it, and how it is often a terrible mistake. I think it was called Sunset on the Bay."

IMO it is easier for 'anywheres' to retire to a new place than it is for the 'somewheres'.
Anywheres being those of us who have moved away from home and possibly travelled around in work.
Usually graduates.
Somewheres are the more rooted people who have never strayed far from their birthplace.
Generally non graduates.
Those aren't statussignallers it's just that graduates tend to shift more during their working lives.
For 'bang for your buck' seaside retirement the Lincolnshire Coast takes some beating.
We're now known as the 'Affordable North Norfolk'.