By Jessie Ammons
When it came time for Herb Fussman to retire, the lifetime New Yorker knew he wanted a change. He and his wife, Rita, wanted to stay on the East coast – still an accessible flight away from their remaining family in New York. And they were looking for a place to slow down and take it easy, but not so much so that their city souls got restless. They weren’t sure where that place would be.
Herb began his search by visiting friends in Florida, although “We were not really thinking about Florida,” he says. Indeed, “It just confirmed that Florida was not the place that I wanted to retire to.” From there, he traveled north to check out a few other southeastern locales.
It wasn’t until he hit the Carolinas that he began to envision a permanent relocation destination. The first city that made him stop and think was Charleston with its captivating beauty. But he kept driving north, to North Carolina, where he stayed with a former colleague in Cary. He knew he was getting close, but something still felt off, so he kept driving northwest.
“As soon as I rode into Chapel Hill, I said to myself, ‘This is the place I’m going to retire to,’” Herb recalls. “So I called my wife and said, ‘I found where we’re going to live for the next umpteen years.’”
UNC Chapel Hill Old Well
Photo courtesy of Bill Russ – visitnc.com
Herb is admittedly on-the-go (now 83, he still plays tennis most days), so he wasted no time in renting a condo in the North Carolina university town. With no family ties to the Carolinas, he and Rita were both immediately impressed with the welcoming attitude of Carolinians. Tar Heel towns and residents were diverse enough to suit Herb’s taste and fast pace.
Indeed, North and South Carolina together are ideal, well-rounded place to retire. Should you want to travel, escape to the mountains of Asheville (NC) and the hills surrounding Greenville (SC) or drive to the beaches of the Outer Banks or Hilton Head, participate in a sizeable number of brewery and winery tastings in between, and find top-notch shopping options in historic Charleston or bustling Charlotte. Even in the coolest northwestern corners of each state, average winter temperatures rarely dip below the upper 20-degree mark, and a stunning spring arrives bright and early.
Caesars Head State Park, near the NC/SC border
Photo courtesy of visitnc.com
Herb’s first decision was to buy a plot of land and build a home, often an attractive option in college towns which abound in both states. Upon settling down, retirees will find that South Carolina doesn’t tax Social Security benefits at all, and North Carolina Social Security benefits are exempt from income taxes. To that end, South Carolina’s maximum senior income tax is a reasonable seven percent, while last year North Carolina passed a tax reform bill that reduced the maximum senior income taxes by two percentage points (to 5.8 percent).
The Carolinas’ affordable cost of living extends to arts and culture as well. “We can attend lectures and go to shows and concerts,” Herb says. “The entertainment [is] great. Not quite the quality of New York; but, then again, we aren’t paying the same prices. It’s affordable and very enjoyable.”
Carolina Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker
Photo courtesy visitnc.com
Another important factor was Rita’s battle with cancer. “She wanted to be in a place where there was good medical service,” Herb remembers. Rita received excellent care at Duke University Medical Center and UNC Health Care. (North Carolina has two other medical schools, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and Brody School of Medicine in Greenville). South Carolina’s medical school is Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. All are nationally acclaimed for both research and primary care.
Retiring to an affordable place with excellent health care is important, but Herb cites the friendly and energizing diversity of both people and surroundings as his reason to stay. “I was working and commuting 12 to 14 hours a day before retirement. I said to myself, ‘What am I going to do to fill all of this free time?’”
Fosters Market in Durham
Photo courtesy of Rill Russ – visitnc.com
Once he moved to North Carolina, he joined a workout facility and plugged into a tennis club. The friends he met there turned into his bridge partners at night. Following Rita’s death, he met a wonderful woman who introduced him to the world of ballroom dancing. “I prefer an environment where there are young, middle-aged and older people,” Herb says, which is what he’s found in his adopted retirement community.
The best – and most unexpected – thing he’s done is go back to school. Duke University offers a senior-specific academic curriculum through its Ollie program while most universities allow seniors to audit classes. Now, he’s involved in so many activities, he can’t fit them all into one day.
Lantern – Chapel Hill
Photo courtesy of Rill Russ – visitnc.com
It’s all part of the Carolina way of life. North and South Carolina comprise a sizeable chunk of the “mid-South U.S.” which, according to a New York Times report on recent census data, continues to show some of the most rapid increases in populations aged 65 and older. Raleigh’s 65-and-older population, for example, increased by 60 percent in a single decade.
Facts and figures aside, Herb’s telltale sign that he’s chosen the right place is in the reaction of his family. “For 20 years, we’ve had our family come down to spend Thanksgiving with us. That’s anywhere from 22 to 26 people,” he says. “They all love North Carolina. No one has missed a year in all those years. They keep coming back.”