Choose Your Neighbors

As we cruise through life, most adults accumulate an inner circle of friends and family. We know that this is hard to believe for some of you, but on occasion, the wife’s inner circle doesn’t always coincide with her husband’s. Wait, how is that even possible?

When and if you decide to leave the tundra of New England or the overcrowded and expensive suburbs of cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, NYC, Boston, DC, etc. You can choose some of your future neighbors. How about that?

First, to properly engage in this conversation, we think we all should have a common platform of understanding on levels of friendship. We’d like to provide you with an example. Sally and Bob live in New Jersey, and Bob’s best friend Jeff & his wife, Sarah, live just down the street. For years, Sally has placated Bob and agreed to socialize on many occasions with this couple; however, Sally is not a fan of Jeff and cannot wait to move somewhere warm and sunny sans Jeff.

Therefore, let’s have a little fun and see if we can determine a rating system for friends and family members that you both can agree on (and please keep in mind that this works for single people).

BFF

For a couple to be given the prestigious BFF classification (this is Best Friend/Family Forever), both the wife and the husband must be classified as BFFs. This probably narrows the playing field considerably as most couples probably have only 1-3 BFFs in their lives. These are couples you have vacationed with before, supported during a crisis, dined with often, etc.

GF

Good Friends are people you currently see less often than BFFs, which could be due to geographic constrictions, jobs, or other restrictions. Many couples have considerable people that fall into the GF category, be it from work, the neighborhood, church, college, golf, tennis, etc.

F

Each of you has accumulated lists of friends over the years. You probably only see them occasionally, either by running into them at the store or large functions.

A

From time to time, Acquaintances could be synonymous with Annoying, for we all have a category of people that you try to avoid in life. This could be from people you work with to those you went to school with and knowledge of them but don’t hang out with often.

OK, so back to Sally and Bob, the couple from Jersey who has decided to retire to Coastal North Carolina. Sally has two BFFs, Barbara and Lisa. Barb is married to Kevin, and Lisa is single. Bob likes all three of them and has no trouble if any or all of them move to Coastal NC. On the other hand, Bob’s best buddy (BFF) is Kevin, who unfortunately annoys the ever-living doo-doo out of Sally. In essence, they are NOT welcome to move to Coastal NC, but if they must, it will NOT be in the same community as Sally and Bob – not if Sally has anything to do about it.

Sally and Bob also each have one brother, and because they are family, they both agree that they would be fine if either brother or their respective wives moved to Coastal NC. Oh, and Bob’s mother, Ruth is still alive and living in an assisted living facility; however, she is not welcome to move in with Bob and Sally. However, it is possible that Ruth could move into an assisted living facility in Wilmington to be closer to family.

So, if you are thinking of moving or you’re finding the perfect place to retire to, keep in mind that you have a lot of options with who your future neighbors will be. We at Carolina Plantations are ready to assist you in your search for your dream retirement home today!