My husband and I have discussed this a fair bit, also. We're in our mid-40s, and relocated to Cabot, VT just prior to the pandemic. Cabot is out in the boonies and the nearest grocery stores are either St. Johnsbury or Montpelier, both about 25 minutes away. However, our house was very affordable, and the biggest reason we moved here is because we have so many options for excellent skiing and mountain biking within an hour to ninety minutes radius. Burke is the closest, at 45 minutes, and Killington is at the further end of that range. The first year we lived up here, we had Epic passes because we'd been Peak pass holders prior to that. Stowe was our closest mountain on Epic, and we used the Indy pass quite a lot for other VT ski areas. Last year, we bought IKON passes and skied mostly Sugarbush and Killington. This year, we bought passes to Jay/Burke and Mad River Glen. We will buy passes to MRG again next year, but we're very undecided about a second pass now that the Jay/Burke combo pass has been eliminated. Maybe we'll go with the Indy pass, maybe just Jay, maybe we'll check out Bolton or Smuggs... not sure yet. But the point is, we have options.
We've also discussed retirement, if that ever happens. My dream is to sell the house, buy an RV, and travel the country. Husband seems pretty onboard with the idea as well, but we'll see. We've also discussed keeping the house AND buying an RV, leaving the RV somewhere "south," and staying there during winters - or maybe just the shoulder seasons. We feel with the pace of change these days, flexibility is key.
