Family and friends, healthcare providers? There's a lot to consider. Image: Chuck Wagner/Shutterstock.com
You may have decided to relocate in retirement, which might mean moving a long distance away or just picking a different home near where you are. As you’ll soon discover, such moves are more complicated than just selling one piece of real estate and buying (or renting) another.
First of all, you need to choose your new home with care:
* Healthcare Facilities: Investigate the availability and quality of healthcare services. Access to reputable hospitals, doctors, and specialists is crucial for maintaining health during retirement years. You may want to maintain access to your current providers – including your dentist! – rather than start over.
* Climate: Do you want 2 seasons, 4, or just one (warm). In parts of Texas or Florida the two seasons are hot and too hot. Maybe a milder climate is for you – mid Atlantic or somewhere in the Southwest.
* Family and Friends: Do you want to be closer or further away, or about the same? Family and friends can provide emotional support and social interaction, which are important for overall well-being. Of course, unfortunately the opposite can be true in some cases – but it’s something to factor in.
* Local Taxes: Understand the tax implications of moving to a new state or country, including property taxes, income tax, and any other applicable regulations that could affect your finances. Certain states are way more tax friendly than others and that could play a role in how far your distributions go. (See also, the Best States for Federal Employees to Retire.)
* Location. Do you want to move across town or across the country? Consider the effort to undo a move, in particular if you lose your spouse or one of you suffers a set back.
* Dwelling type. You may be ready to move from a large house with a sizable lawn to a smaller house that needs less care. Or you may prefer an apartment, which requires even less upkeep.
* Ownership. You can buy or rent your new home or apartment. Buying may make sense if you itemize tax deductions and plan to take out a mortgage. If that’s not the case, renting gives you more flexibility. Many properties are available as rentals with an option to buy, if you decide you like it once you’re living there.
* Environment. You need to decide if your ideal retirement home is in a bustling city, a lower-key suburb, or a quiet small town. Do you prefer warm winters or snowy ski trails? A home on the water? A planned retirement community may have advantages, too, such as organized activities and care facilities. Or do you prefer living among a mix of ages?
* Favored pursuits. There should be activities you hope to engage in during retirement, and your new home should be able to provide you with easy access.
* Transportation. In most places you’ll still need your own transportation after you retire, so check into parking, local traffic, quality of roads, and so on. If you’re unable or unwilling to do much driving, a retirement home near transit lines is one alternative; another is to find a complex that provides local shuttle service to shops, movies, professional offices, and other popular destinations.
Whatever your choices, don’t act hastily. Do a great deal of preliminary research by vacationing in a likely area, talking to the residents, and reading the local papers. Last, couples should make truly joint decisions. If one is unhappy about the choice of a retirement home it’s a virtual certainty that the other will be miserable as well, a short time after moving.
Remember to Pack Your Benefits
To report a change in address after retirement, go to www.servicesonline.opm.gov, email retire@opm.gov, write to Office of Personnel Management, Retirement Operations Center, P.O. Box 45, Boyers, PA 16017-0045, or call (888) 767-6738. You will need your retirement claim number (CSA number) and personal identification number. Use the same points of contact to arrange to have your annuity sent to a different financial institution, if you are changing accounts because of the move.
To change your address under the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, contact your carrier directly and follow its procedures. If you are enrolled in a plan that serves a limited geographic area, such as a health maintenance organization, you will remain covered for emergency care. But unless your HMO has a “reciprocity” agreement with a plan in your new area that allows you to get routine care, you must travel back to the HMO’s coverage area for such care, or change plans. Moving out of your plan’s coverage area entitles you to change plans; information on doing that is at www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/healthcare/reference-materials/reference/enrollment/#qle.
Moving out of a regional plan’s service area also qualifies for changing plans under the Federal Dental and Vision Insurance Program. To change your address and/or plan, contact www.benefeds.com, phone (877) 888-3337.
Since the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program has just one national carrier, moving does not affect enrollment. Notify the carrier of your new address at www.ltcfeds.com or by calling (800) 582-3337 or writing to Long Term Care Partners, P.O. Box 797, Greenland, NH 03840-9803.
Similarly, since the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance program has just one national carrier, moving does not affect FEGLI enrollment. Notify the carrier of your new address at OFEGLI, P.O. Box 6080, Scranton, PA 18505-608, phone (800) 633-4542.
To let the TSP know a new address, file form TSP-9, available at www.tsp.gov/forms, which you can print out, or fill out online if you have a personal account with that site.
If you have state income tax withheld and you move to a different state, you must contact the state you move away from to stop the tax withholding. If the state into which you move participates in the OPM tax withholding plan, contact its tax office to arrange for new withholding. OPM cannot make any change without notice from your state tax office.
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