Retiring in Northern Michigan

Retiring in northern Michigan, for some of you, you were born and raised here. And you would call no other place home. And for others, maybe you just moved her last week and you’re getting ready on that retirement journey. It’s interesting, you know as somebody that was born and raised in Traverse City and my family has roots dating back all the way to the 1800s here in Traverse City. You know it’s amazing to see the transformation this northern Michigan communities have undergone over the years and the growth they’ve had. You know with Centennial Wealth being headquartered right here in Traverse City and having offices in Gaylord, Cadillac and Petoskey and serving all of northern Michigan and beyond. You know we feel blessed to be here. But why are people retiring here and why are people moving here? It’s interesting, just recently this August in 2022, http://Realtor.com voted Traverse City as the number one most affordable and best place to retire. And you know that’s not the first time Traverse City has made some list of “best of” something, right? So we’re getting some national spotlights over the years of different reasons to come visit and live and retire here. We’ve seen this tremendous boom of population in Traverse City and the surrounding areas and across most of northern Michigan, honestly. And what is that due from? Well, it was interesting, the article that http://Realtor.com had when they voted Traverse City number one, they cited near perfect weather from June through late October. And for most of you, you would probably agree with that. Sure, there’s some chilly nights along the way. There are some rain storms that come along at maybe inopportune times. But yeah, and I’d probably argue a lot of times, May is beautiful too. So you know you look at a big part of that. Winters can be tough. And you know there’s a lot of different things to do in the winter. So some people enjoy winter just as much or more than others, you know ice fishing and snowmobiling and skiing and sledding and snow shoeing and all this sort of different stuff that’s out there. And obviously many folks choose to winter away and they go somewhere else. So retiring in northern Michigan has a lot of its perks, right? And for those of you who have lived here all these years, you know all these beautiful areas. One of our clients said it so well years ago to me and this stuck with me more than anything. She said, you know Art, in my retirement years I see three phases. I see I’m going to have my go-go years, my slow-go years and my no-go years. And that really vividly stuck with me because she was insinuating that hey, potentially early on when my health is good, I’m going to want to be very active. And I’m going to do all these things. And sometimes financially that means maybe you’re going to spend a little bit more money. And then eventually she said that she would age a little bit and probably slow down. Still doing a lot of things, but maybe not able to do everything that she once did. And then eventually getting to those no-go years where maybe you know your health is wanning and you’re just enjoying life and maybe taking it easy and just not doing as much. You should have a financial plan no matter where you live that matches up with what you plan to do in retirement. If you don’t feel that you have this, we’d love to sit down and walk side by side with you to help you through that. Give us a call at the number on the screen and so we can help you plan to retire well.