Five Secret Places to Retire for a Simple Quiet Life

Retirement is something I think about fairly often these days (12 years and counting). I won’t have a ton of money, but enough to not have to work in my career field. I may end up working longer because it might be more fun to be a teacher when you can retire at any time. I live in Southern California which is nice, but super expensive.

I want to move to the mountains somewhere next to a lot of fishable waters. I love getting out in the outdoors and getting away from it all. It seems to put everything into perspective, time slows down, and the constant overload of the city takes a back seat. I want to see how things shake out with my kids, but there are many places I would like to explore. Here are some links to some of the places I would consider, check them out if you would like! They usually have a mix of affordable housing, lots of outdoor adventure opportunities, a ski mountain nearby, and a moderate small town feel.

Bend, Oregon – Welcome to Bend – Great fishing, great skiing, a couple hours from the ocean, relatively flat city making snow travel/removal easier.

City of Island Park – Welcome to Island Park – I just got back from here and it was fantastic, outside the Western border of Yellowstone National Park, great fishing and well…..Yellowstone so there is that.

South Lake Tahoe – Welcome to South Lake Tahoe – South Lake Tahoe is a unique mountain community because of its size. Good public transportation, amazing skiing, but only an hour from Reno.

Enseneda, Mexico – Welcome to Ensenada – If you are looking for a cheap house on the beach, this is it or maybe….Mazatlan? Amazing fishing in the ocean, some of the best in the world, a few hours drive from the U.S.

Bishop, California – Welcome to Bishop – I lived in Mammoth Lakes for a few years in my twenties and that is where I developed my deep appreciation of nature. Mammoth is great but very expensive and snowbound a lot of the year, Bishop is an hour away in the Owens Valley and has great fishing year round with easy access to the Eastern Sierra, including the East entrance to Yosemite.

Feedback – I tried to make something more of a resource than just a simple response to the prompt. Let me know what you think of this piece and feel free to share other places that you would consider retiring. I love a good debate!

Check out the rest of my blog if you have a moment. Let me know what you think!