A lot of people have asked me why I chose to move to the South East Missouri Ozarks rather than the South West MO. Ozarks...... Not Knocking the SWMO fans but IMO the SEMO and Central MO Ozarks are superior in every way to the insanely popular SWMO Ozarks. Another important factor for me was the move distance. From the Old Farm to NewHome is 150 Miles from the Old Farm to SWMO would have been 350 + or - Miles. I had 22 Trips with trailers to make and 2 trips with just a truck. 7 hour round trips were bad enough as it was, add another 8 hours of driving onto those trips for 15-16 hour round trips........ Yeah....... NO. There are a lot less less Tourist here in SEMO than SWMO in the Tourist Season. The terrain is a lot more pretty and rugged, there are a lot more Rivers, Creeks and Lakes in SEMO a Huge number of Conservation areas and Mark Twain Natl Forest. A lot less population overall. SEMO did not get the everyone wants to move here and be a homesteader craze during covid that SWMO got and the land prices were not driven through the roof like they were in the Homesteader capitol of SWMO. My place at NewHome was $230,000 if it were in SWMO it would have cost $325,000 or more. I am within a 90 minute drive of 3 big lakes, 7 Rivers with the Castor River only 15 minutes away and it is rated the 3rd best Smallmouth Fishing River in MO. Crooked Creek is right next to me and my back yard is a big hill or a small mountain depending on if you walk or drive up it on the side by side. My front yard is a valley floor and I own the private road and bridge onto my property. Endless squirrels, a healthy population of deer and turkeys here and near total seclusion outside of the neighbors straight across the Valley and the ones adjacent to them and we all get along and help each other out if needed. We have actually became good friends with the ones straight across the valley. I really have nothing against SWMO and have several friends that I visit a lot more regularly now over there. A couple that bought their places well before 2020 have said they really wish they had bought Central or SEMO due to the volume of out of State people that have just ruined their neighborhoods since 2020 and have driven property prices up so much there that brought their Blue State politics and bad voting habits with them. I chose Bollinger County because it is a very low population county. It is a very poor county, it is a very low property tax county and there are no restrictions of any kind on property. I am also only a hour away from Cape, Farmington and Poplar Bluff and Sikeston. 2 hours from Memphis and STL and the County Seat Marble Hill is only 8 minutes away and is a small town with a Harps Grocery Store, a couple of Gas Stations, several gun shops, and 2 mom and pop hash shacks and solid hardware store and small businesses that have you covered for all of the basics. There really id not much difference here in SEMO from Southern IL. The general cost of living is around 8% Less, the property taxes are $460 per year here vs $14,800 for the same acres and a much nicer Cabin and the same number of outbuildings, Taxes and Fees are 60% lower average than IL. very simply I saved $22,700 per year in Property Taxes, Cost of living and Other taxes and fees and have a MUCH higher quality of life here. The only reason I remained in IL. as long as I did was I was earning a very large income between the farm, the farmers' markets I owned, and the couple of other businesses I owned. After I retired there was nothing but down sides to living in IL. I would never have been able to earn the amount of Money here in MO. that I did in IL. and I needed that Money to be able to retire at the goal of age 55 and never have to worry about money again for the rest of my life after retiring. Circumstances forced me to retire at 52 in 2020 With Mrs Krap/T5R getting one terminal illness in 2020 (Early onset Dementia) and requiring round the clock care and supervision and then the Pancreatic Cancer in 2022 and dying a year later in 2023 from the Cancer. It took a good while to get all of her stuff settled after her death. It was July 2024 that I started planning the move out of IL and selling off livestock, equipment and the businesses and I did dissolve the T5R Inc on December 31st 2023 and called myself fully retired 25 years to the day of incorporating the T5R and called myself fully retired at age 55 on that day. Financially I was able to do something many call stupid and others call wise. I only kept $250,000 of my retirement investments out and rolled everything else into a new Roth IRA last year. LOL I decided that I would just live on the $2580 Survivor Pension and the free top shelf health insurance for life from the survivor benefits from Mrs T5Rs employment from the State until I turn 60 and then file on her SSD for another $3800 per Month SS Income 2.5 years from now. I sold the old farm for a lot less than I could have gotten for it to my old neighbors that could not have afforded it at what it was worth......... $350,000 and I brought in another $185,000 from the equipment and livestock I sold off. So When it was all said and done I had $785,000 liquid cash to work with. Everything else I rolled in that new ROTH. I set a $250,000 limit on buying the NewHome, $80,000 for a new truck and a budget of $200,000 for the New Property upgrades, improvements and new buildings. I spent that pretty quickly over 2025 LOL. and just like that $530,000 was gone I DO NOT DO DEBT or CREDIT PERIOD! If I own it, I own it outright. I put $50,000 in a savings account that I just won't touch unless it is a extreme emergency. And the rest I have spent on Kayaks, Toys, and playing around. Now I just have the $2580 survivor pension to live on. $500 of it comes out for some great State of IL Retiree perks and some of that $500 goes into higher than average auto renewing CD acct. Leaving me $2080 left to live on. My Monthly bills are less than $600 per month and usually less than $500 Leaving me $1400-$1500 surplus every Month to blow or save. IF I had remained in IL I might have $100 per Month left over every Month I think I might be able to struggle through until I am 60 and can claim the SSD Survivor benefits and Monthy income. Not going to detail how but I have not paid into Social Security since 2008 (LEGALLY) so I have no social security of my own to claim. Thus I can file on Mrs T5R's and get 95% of her SSD amount that she was approved for prior to her death and the like $140,000 lump she was owed at the time of her death. She Died 2 weeks before the first SSD Check was due and and the lump was paid out. So SS withheld it until I turn 60 and can claim it. Sigh if I were disabled myself I could have claimed it right after her death. So from when I turn 60 and on between the Pension and SSD I will have like $6000 per Month Income from just survivor benefits from MRs T5R and have no plans of ever taking a disbursement from my own retirement investments now in the that Roth. I am just calling it my life insurance policy now days. And if I can't make it on $6000 per Month Income after 60 there is something really wrong LOL. When you have no debt and no credit and your only bills are Starlink, Electric, trash pick up and insurance and groceries beyond what I produce myself..... Making the Monthly bills is not hard. This was not exactly how I planned my finances but other than Dee passing away it has worked out great for me. So choosing Bollinger County in MO. Was a great choice for a retired young guy with a stable guaranteed fixed income with no debts or obligations. It would be a horrible choice for a younger person needing to work and trying to raise a family. Lorrie and myself have know each other for around 2 years and got together on my vacation to NC last June after I finished up moving everything to here from the old farm. When it was time to return to MO after my NC Vacation....... She said YOU ARE NOT GOING BACK WITHOUT ME! So we essentially moved into NewHome together and have been together here ever since, making excursions back to NC to visit her family and bring a truck and trailer load of her stuff back each trip. We are getting illegally married in June and going to do the whole POA's, Change our wills to each other, have my lawyer write up a domestic partnership contract and add each other to the titled stuff and have our property deeds changed to Survivor Deeds so the land and real estate will transfer to each other if one of us croaks and list each other as beneficiaries on out bank and investment accounts. And then GASP get Married without a license or the Governments permission. With more legal protections than if it were a Government Approved Legal Marriage. At our ages the Penalties and Losses financially for a legal government approved marriage are brutal to say the least. And lets be for real a marriage license means so much as fart gas, if it was worth paper the government printed it on there would not be a 65% Divorce rate. We have long ago made our vows and promises to each other before God and both of us take things like that very seriously. The actual ceremony in June will just make those vows and promises more formal and make our friends and family happy. We both agree in saying screw the Government and the permission slip. Marriage is a God thing and not a Government thing. And that when Homo Marriage was allowed under the Government that Government approved marriages mean NOTHING. I know the Homos don't like it when that is pointed out but Marriage is a institution solely under the domain of God and not under the authority of Man. If anyone wants to debate that a two people making vows before God to each other is not a real marriage without a license or Government Approval, I will be happy to have that debate so long as you can defend Homo Marriages as being a under God and Biblically acceptable marriage It has long been my opinion that the Government should not be involved in marriages at all to start with. And how does the last even relate to SEMO where we are our Marriage will be much more accepted than in most other areas even if not a legal marriage under the Government. SWMO is nice and there are more preppers and homesteaders per square inch than almost any place else. I went to the homesteader expo last year and Thank God I don't have most of those folks living near me! So many exspurts that don't actually know anything about anything let alone knowing their own ass from a hole in the ground. To be fair some very good and experienced folks were met there as well. I won't be wasting the time or money going to it again. SEMO has a much better quality of prepper and homesteader type overall without all of the SWMO Hype and craziness. And We have the St Fancois Mtn Range and a whole lot less exspurts and tourist But seriously DO NOT relocate SEMO it is horrible here and we are full and at max capacity! SWMO needs you and you should move there if you want to move to MO.
Thank you for the update. Lost my wife to Alzheimer's a year ago now, She was in a nursing home for the last 2 months and 1 month of that was under hospice care. We lived together for a while and then got married and were so for 45 years. I still miss her every day and only had in a nursing home when she reached the point she could not swallow and I and those I hired to care for her could no longer take care of her. That is about as bad a way to go as I know of and it is almost harder on the survivors than it on those dying. Know what you mean about SEMO. Was stationed in Colorado for a couple years in the USAF. Loved it and kind of thought about going back there to retire. Went up to an creek I knew of that had been owned by a rancher who had his house built out in the barren plain at the mouth of the canyon. Asked why he didn't build in the beautiful woods. Said his family had owned the land since the 1860's and after the second time they were burned out, they moved out to where the grass fires could be stopped. With a bar to turn rocks and carrying sand I could get $5 - 10 worth of dust a day panning. Was making $77.10 a month from the USAF so it was fun. Got $35 an ounce for it then in Denver. The father of the man who ran the ranch, I asked permission to pan and he liked that, even though it was public land, would come up with a couple beers and join me in panning and tell me stories of Colorado before 1890. Loved to hear them. Went back in early 2000's. Gate with guard on road going in. Can't stop you, public road and public land outside of their condo group but like in Cape Cod and the islands, they harass you as much as they legally can get away, All built up with mansions owned by people from Texas, California, Denver etc. Stopped and talked to the grandson of the man who had given me permission to pan. Said that between the money offered, some others selling out and building houses and then screaming about cattle on their land, and taxes, they gave up and sold out too. One good story he told was that when the outsiders first took over, they would call the cops if you were hunting, panning, or just out for a walk. A few years later they had the canyon fire, which he said was as regular as death and taxes. Of course they called out the fire department, volunteer, and they set up their fire line, it was below the condo area, Needless to say they come screaming out as their houses were going to burn. The fire chief said that his men couldn't go into the area above the houses as they were told that they would be arrested, Now signs so No Trespassing Without Permission and they do give permissions. Not have a couple hundred thousand for enough land to build a house and a good garden, I stayed here in New Hampshire. But then I couldn't afford to start here either,
