1-2. S&P 4 Straight Weeks of Losses….A 5th Week Would Be Rare
S&P has posted 5 straight weeks of losses just once in the past decade.
What Happens After 5 Weeks of Losses?
3. Despite 4 Weeks of S&P Losses…Stock Inflows Still Positive
Global equity fund flows. “Despite the market turmoil, inflows to equities continued for a 16th straight week, actually picking up from the prior week, while inflows to bond funds slowed.”
4. IGV Software ETF -13% Correction from Highs
Stayed Above Blue Blue Trend Line going back 18 months.
5. Softbank -37% Correction in Summer Sell Off
6. Starbucks Erases Losses for the Year in One Day
7. Fear and Greed Index Did Hit “Extreme Fear”
https://www.cnn.com/markets/fear-and-greed
8. Sell Side Indicator Updated for August…Not Showing “Extreme Bullishness”
Isabelnet Blog
Sell Side Consensus Indicator
9. DJI Chinese Drone Company Accounts for 70-90% of American Drone Market
WSJ By Heather Somerville
Yet DJI accounts for around 70% to 90% of the American commercial, local government and hobbyist drone market. Real-estate agents, movie producers, firefighters, roof inspectors, utilities and law enforcement have all come to depend on the brand. The Secret Service bought more than 20 of them in 2022 just before restrictions were put in place, according to federal purchasing records.
DJI says a ban could cost the U.S. billions of dollars and impact thousands of jobs.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/congresss-plan-to-outlaw-chinese-drones-met-with-protest-c95cf1fe?mod=politics_lead_story
Statista Blog-Global market share of consumer and commercial drone manufacturers in March 2021, based on sales volume
10. 7 Factors to Choose the Best Retirement Location
PKindness Financial Planning Elliott Appel, CFP®, CLU®, RLP®
Welcome! I’m Elliott, the founder of Kindness Financial Planning, LLC, a fee-only, fiduciary advisor located in Madison, WI working virtually with widows and caregivers across the United States. When I’m not helping people live their ideal life, I’m often cooking for my wife, playing tennis, or hiking.
Once you are retired, you don’t necessarily need to live in the same place. You can consider different factors to choose the best retirement location for you — not needing to worry about your commute to work.
Where will you go?
Although there are many different factors to choose the best place to retire, below are 7 factors to help you choose the best retirement location for you.
You can decide how much weight to put into each one to create a list of possible locations.
Politics & Demographics – Use a Tool
If you are unsure of where to go, the first step may be to rent a camper and do a cross country road trip for a few months!
I’m kidding…unless you want to do that, in which case, send me photos along the way.
The NY Times has an online tool called Where Should You Live? that can help you decide where you should live based on what’s important to you.
For example, if mountains are really important to me and trees, air quality, restaurants, live music, health care, and less snow are important, I get the results below. I’ve purposely left off any political or demographic information for you to see how it affects things in the example.
You can adjust everything from schools, population, climate, politics, demographics, and more!
Once you narrow down the list, you could research, select a few favorites, and go visit during different times of the year.
Community
One of the primary factors you should use to choose your destination is the community you either have or can build.
Community is a wide-reaching word, which could include family, friends, or other social groups.
Community offers support, social interactions, and help. Without it, you can feel lonely and isolated. If you are moving to a location where you don’t know anybody, know that it can take years to build community.
It’s estimated that it takes about 50 hours to go from acquaintance to casual friend, 100 hours to become a “regular” friend, and 200 hours to become a close friend. If you spend two hours a day with someone twice a week, it would take nearly a year to become a close friend. If you spend less time, it would take even longer.
That’s important to keep in mind because it may take a few years to form close friendships if you are moving to a new area.
I’ve often talked with retirees who moved locations and decided to move back because the new area was too far from friends and family. Others get settled quickly and love it. It’s a mixed bag.
Uprooting your life to move somewhere you’ve never been can be a costly and time consuming process. Before you do, consider doing a trial run, which I’ll talk about later.
Healthcare
I hope you stay healthy until the day you die.
Unfortunately, that’s unlikely.
As you age, most people need more access to healthcare, even if they want to age in place. Not only do they go more frequently, but they also need to see other specialists. If you live in a rural location where the nearest specialists are a few hours away, that either means you are going to spend more time on the road or you may decide not to see them and accept the health consequences.
When my dad was diagnosed with Stage IV Lung Cancer, I was thankful he was only an hour away (in good traffic) from Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (now Fred Hutch Cancer Center).
Since he was only an hour away, that meant he could get a ride to his treatment every three weeks. When he broke his hip, he was close by and had access to excellent surgeons. When he didn’t manage his diabetes well, he could see a doctor who specialized in diabetes medication management.
As I’ve been told, you tend to “collect” doctors as you get older: primary care provider, surgeons, dentists, cardiologist, ophthalmologist, urologist, audiologist, rheumatologist, and more.
Those are hard to find in small or rural towns. Better medical care tends to be found in or near larger cities.
Climate
The climate cannot be stressed enough – in all four seasons, but especially summer and winter.
I’ve seen people go somewhere in the summer, love an area, but when they visit in winter, decide that a few months of snow and below freezing temperatures are not for them. This is common in the Midwest and Northeast.
The opposite can be true. You may go somewhere in winter, but despise it in the summer. For example, Arizona is lovely in the winter, but the summers are brutal.
You want to love, or at least tolerate, the place you are moving to year-round. If you can’t, then you may want to consider living in two locations. This is a common setup where people escape either the winter or summer in the primary location and go to a more desirable area for a few months.
Some people buy a second home while others rent to give them flexibility and less upfront costs.
The most important advice I can give is to go visit in different seasons to see how you like it. Could you tolerate the temperature? Can you deal with any allergies? How do you feel about the different natural disasters in that area? Are you okay shoveling snow or not going outside much if it’s above 100 degrees?
Income Inequality
Income inequality isn’t something I thought about until I was living in the Midwest and went to Los Angeles for a weekend.
As we drove around, I felt uncomfortable, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. As we were leaving, I think it had to do with the income inequality.
I grew up in the suburbs in Washington state. There was income inequality, but it wasn’t stark. A few people had nicer cars and homes, but it was the difference between a Honda and a BMW — not a Honda and a Lamborghini.
I spent all of my adult life in Seattle up until a few years ago. Seattle has a lot of income inequality, but it’s also hidden. There are Lamborghini’s, but you also have millionaires driving around in Subarus.
When we moved to the Midwest, I didn’t think about it much, but I’d guess there is less income inequality here. I rarely see BMWs. I’ve seen one or two Lamborghini’s. I see more expensive pickup trucks than anything.
As a financial planner, I see the salaries of clients I work with and the salary ranges jobs offer. It’s overwhelmingly a much narrower band in the Midwest, such as $40,000 to $200,000.
For people I work with in Seattle, the band tends to be $150,000 to $1,000,000+. These are only the folks I’ve worked with, which by nature of what I do is going to be skewed to a higher level of income. The range is much higher in Seattle when you factor in people making minimum wage.
As I drove around LA, the income inequality was uncomfortable. I’d be stopped at a traffic light and see millions of dollars worth of cars next to someone sleeping under a tarp.
While living in Seattle, I saw plenty of people who are unhoused and lots of income inequality, but it wasn’t as drastic as LA. Plus, having lived in the Midwest for a few years now, it’s not something I see regularly anymore.
It reminded me of the studies that say that much of our happiness is strongly related to our perception of our wealth relative to others.
Basically, the less you have relative to others, the less happy you may be.
If you make $500,000 (an objectively high income), that may not feel good if you are constantly surrounded by people making $1,000,000. Those two incomes buy drastically different lifestyles.
If you make $80,000 and most people around you make $70,000 to $100,000, you may feel better. That range won’t buy drastically different lifestyles.
Let’s bring this back to deciding where to live.
Obviously, family and friend relationships, access to healthcare, weather, activities, and other factors are important to consider, but it’s worth considering income inequality.
If you are frequently comparing yourself to others who have more, you may find yourself less happy. If you are someone who is interested in volunteering in order to close the gap in income inequality, perhaps you want to live in a location with high income inequality.
Personally, when I was living in Seattle, I’d get an itch to buy a nicer car every once in a while. I didn’t, but it was there.
I haven’t felt that itch once in the Midwest.
Airport Access
If you hardly travel and most of your family is within driving distance, airport access may be less important, but for people who travel a few times a year, airport access can make a huge difference.
If you have an airport with many direct flights across the country, you can usually spend half a day traveling to see family and friends. If you have a smaller airport or a regional airport, you usually need to spend at least a full day traveling.
I noticed this when I moved from Seattle to the Midwest. I used to be able to catch an early flight and enjoy the afternoon or evening in the city to which I was flying. Now, it’s usually at least two flights and a full day of travel.
In retirement, that may matter less, but it can take a toll when you are spending 10 or more hours in airports or planes when you are used to 4 to 6 hours.
Retirees have told me that moving away from a large airport has been tough. They may have been within an hour’s drive, but after moving, they are three or four hours away.
It’s harder when your family has a medical emergency or you are traveling regularly to see grandkids. That extra time can be stressful.
It’s not a dealbreaker for them, but it is an adjustment.
Taxes
Although people often think about taxes first, taxes are last because in almost every circumstance, everything else is more important.
Taxes are important, and I don’t want anybody to pay more than they are legally obligated, but I often see people contemplating uprooting their life to move somewhere for lower taxes.
If you have the ability to pay taxes and live somewhere you love, why change it?
Let’s say you can move somewhere and pay $5,000 per year less in taxes. Is it worth being away from family? Is it worth being in a harsher climate? Is it worth changing your life completely?
For most people, the answer is no.
Plus, most people only look at one or two types of taxes when they consider moving.
You shouldn’t only consider income taxes. You should be considering:
- Federal income taxes
- State and local taxes
- Property taxes
- Capital gains taxes
- Sales taxes
- Inheritance taxes
- Gift taxes
- Estate taxes
Even within income, types of income can be taxed differently from state-to-state. For example, distributions from 401(k)s and IRAs are typically not taxable in Pennsylvania.
People often quote Texas as having no income tax, but property taxes could be 1.7%, which may be more than double your current location.
Although not directly a tax, you may want to consider the cost of living. There are different calculators online that do a decent job of comparing taxes, housing, and food.
While taxes can become important, particularly in the case of state estate taxes and inheritance goals, most people focus too much on taxes and not the quality of life that they have in a location with higher taxes.
Try It Out
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is not try out a new location before selling their home and moving.
Some people move and love it, but there are people who make the move, regret it, and end up going back.
That can be a very costly and disruptive decision.
Given the growth of platforms where you can rent homes for extended periods, it can be a good investment to rent a home for a month during two different seasons in the place you want to live. You want to do it for long enough to get a feel for what it’s like to live there.
How is the traffic? How is the weather? Are the people friendly? Is it easy to get around and travel? Is there good healthcare nearby? Could you see yourself building community?
Renting a house for a couple of months might be $10,000 or less. When you consider the cost of moving, selling a home, potential capital gains on a sale, and the time it takes to do everything, that $10,000 could be a small investment in helping you decide whether living in a new location in retirement is worth it.
Final Thoughts – My Question for You
Choosing the best retirement location for you is not easy.
It may be where you are located, but it may be somewhere else.
Although taxes often feel important, don’t discount your community or the community you can build, healthcare, climate, income inequality, and airport access.
Lastly, don’t forget to try it out before you make a big move!
I’ll leave you with one question to act on.
What factors are you going to consider in your move?
Disclaimer: This article is for general information and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment, financial, legal, or tax advice. It is not a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security or investment advisory services. Please consult your own legal, financial, and other professionals to determine what may be appropriate for you. Opinions expressed are as of the date of publication, and such opinions are subject to change. Click for full disclaimer.
https://kindnessfp.com/7-factors-to-choose-the-best-retirement-location/ Found at Abnormal Returns www.abnormalreturns.com
