Posted: 2/15/2026 10:56:37 AM EDT
|
We're in the Rockford, IL region. Most of our family & friends are in the area. As I approach retirement, we are trying to determine where we're going to end up. Options right now are basically to stay put and invest in our current property, or move. One significant benefit to retiring in IL is that they don't currently tax retirement income (401k, pension, IRA), though the Dems in Springfield regularly move to change our flat income tax to a progressive tax that would start hitting retirees. While I can't say that we've spent a ton of time up in Wisconsin, we have frequented the Madison & Milwaukee areas, and Wisconsin just seems nicer in so many ways (at least relative to IL). There just seems to be more investment (businesses, infrastructure) in Wisconsin that we don't see as much in IL. The energy is different. I don't recall ever having a bad experience in Wisconsin. We'd probably be looking for something along the I90 corridor between the IL border to up past Madison. Housing seems to be a bit more expensive, but property taxes slightly lower than IL. That said, I don't live there and haven't been following politics, taxes, gun laws, or anything that is relevant to living there, so I'm asking for your input to the pros and cons of living in Wisconsin as a retiree. Thanks, Aaron |
|
Taxes arent as high as IL. Sales tax in WI is 5.5% (5% for state and .5% is what most counties added on). Gun laws. No FOID cards. Cash and carry, no waits if you pass the bg check. OC is legal (except in the 1000' of a school unless you have a CCW). We can own pretty much everything short of a nuclear weapon. NFAis OK here. Machine guns still require a permission slip from the CLEO of the area. Other than that, have fun. Hell you dont even need to case a long gun in your vehicle as long as its unloaded. WI is a preemption state also. Ranges. Here in Janesville we have the Rock County Rifle Pistol Club. No NRA membership required. Indoor range is open 24/7 and you are your own RSO. Not the fanciest, but its a place to shoot pistols (44mag and under) and pcc's and 22's. The outdoor range (pistol/100yd ranges) is north of Milton but requires RSO's unless you took teh Solo Shooter Officer class. No .50bmg Beloit . Beloit Rifle Club. Just north of Beloit. NRA membership required. Indoor and outdoor pistol ranges, rifle ranges up to 500yds (have to qualify for over 100yds is what I understand). Pricey though (compared to RCRPC). The 100yd range is very nice though. Theres also the Stoughton Conservation Club se of Stoughton thats I heard is nice but I never shot there. 2 DNR ran public ranges about 1.25 hrs from Janesville. Yellowstone and Columbia. No RSO's and shoot what you brought. Just south of Fort Atkinson theres a gunshop with indoor range. Mission Specific Worldwide. Theres probably others that I dont know of. Gun Shops in the area. CTR Firearms (attached to CTR Automotive repair) in Janesville. Mid-Cty Guns between Janesville and Beloit on US51 High Noon Armory in Milton (formerly Thunder Shooting Sports) Concealed Carry Room in Clinton Ox Firearms in Milton (unsure if they have a storefront. They do make their own rifles) On Target Firearms in Brodhead Dam Road Guns just outside Delevan. Very small place but been around forever. Got my 1stAR from them. Elkhorn Gun and Barrel north of Elkhorn. Very nice place. Janesville, Beloit, Madison have wheel taxes. Dane County has one also so move into Madison and you pay 2 separate wheel taxes on your cars/trucks. |
Rob
|
No surprised that gun laws are better overall. What about guns in bars, or drinking while carrying? Not a big drinker, but I will occasionally have a beer with a meal. IL allows carry as long as establishment gets less than 50% of sales from alcohol and DUI limits apply when carrying. I’m already a member of Beloit Rifle Club. 😎 |
|
We lived in Evanston, IL for almost 30 years. It got more libtarded every day, and then our property taxes jumped from $16,000 to $20,000 with a scheduled increase to $24,000 in two years. This was likely to help fund reparations payments. Evanston was the first city in the U.S. to pay reparations to its black citizens. I never owned slaves. We looked around northeast IL but the taxes were still pretty high. We retired and sold our 1912 VIctorian and paid the $40,000 Evanston exit tax. We moved just across the border to Pleasant Prairie, WI. Our new property is almost twice as big as our old place and is only 20 years old. From the proceeds of our Evanston property, we paid cash for our new home and had $150,000 left over. Property taxes are $8,000 a year. We love it here. Very quiet and pleasant. Very prairie. And everything here is cheaper. The Bristol CCKC 50/100/200 yard shooting range, where I've been a member for over 15 years, is seven minutes from our house. It was an hour from our house in IL. So glad to be out of Evanston, so glad to be out of Cook County, so glad to be out of Illinois. |
Obedience is not patriotism. Patriotism is love of your country, not of your government.
I'm an ex FIB also. What does FIB stand for? Fucking Illinois Bastard. Then there's FISHTAB... Fucking Illinois Shithead Towing A Boat.  Go north...unless you are a Democrat. If you're one of "them", stay where you're at, we don't want you here.  About the property values and taxes... I moved up north to Vilas County back in 1991. When I left ILL, I had a 4 bedroom brick cape cod home, single car detached garage, on a half acre lot. In a s.w. burb of Shitcago. My property taxes were $1,350 when I sold that house in 1991. I bought a 4 bedroom, 2 story, frame home w/ attached 2 car garage (10 years old) on a 2 acre lot, within a rural township 5 miles from a national forest.... for cash, using the equity I built in my ILL home. We even had $40K leftover! My property taxes the first year here were $1,340... $10 less than my house in ILL, that's why I remember the amounts so well, they were virtually identical. I had a bigger, newer, nicer home, on 4 times the lot size, equal property taxes, and I haven't paid rent or a mortgage payment in 35 years. Within 2 years, to soften the capital gains hit, I had a 36x36 pole barn built to store all my crap, and did some other improvements. About 2 years ago, I read a story online about rising property taxes in ILL, so I looked up my old house. HOLY FUCK!! Taxes in 2024 were now $6,800!! In 2024, my prop taxes here were now about $1,500! Not even $200 more than when I bought it 30+ years ago (I just paid my latest property taxes last month, they went up $100... now at $1,610). That's why I don't care much if WI taxes my pension & social security. It's worth it when I compare property values & taxes. As has already been said, there is NO comparing ILL gun laws with WI gun laws. After I unpacked all my guns, I took my FOID card out behind my house, nailed it to a tree stump, and shot it full of .45 caliber holes.  My dad died in '96, my mom died in '97. My mom's funeral was the last time I crossed that state line into Hellinois. oh yeah... You can carry in an establishment that sells alcohol for consumption on the premises if you yourself are not drinking alcohol. https://www.wisdoj.gov/Law%20Enforcement%20Services/ccw_faq_1_2018.pdf |
Joined:
Aug 2023
Posts:
313
EE: 0% (0)
WI, USA
|
I'm an Illinois expatriate as well. Moved from DuPage Co. in Illinois to Juneau Co. in Wisconsin back in 1993. Have enjoyed a simpler, less stressful life for the past thirty three years. Retired IBEW member so WI taxes my pension income but my Social Security isn't taxed. Last years taxes on my 2000 sq foot home on 6.5 acres was around $2400.00. Gary |
|
Originally Posted By jack_pine_savage: I'm an Illinois expatriate as well. Moved from DuPage Co. in Illinois to Juneau Co. in Wisconsin back in 1993. Have enjoyed a simpler, less stressful life for the past thirty three years. Retired IBEW member so WI taxes my pension income but my Social Security isn't taxed. Last years taxes on my 2000 sq foot home on 6.5 acres was around $2400.00. Gary My pension is from the roofers union local 11, which covers parts of N ILL, S WI, & NW IN. As I earned it between 1967 & 1986, when the hourly contributions were much lower, it's not a big number. So the taxes I pay on it are nill... My roots are in Juneau County. Grandfather was born & raised near Mauston. His father was once mayor, his brother was police chief, many moons ago. A distant cousin was mayor in the 1990s, another was, what he called, "chief turd herder" (head of streets & sanitation). I spent a lot of time there when I was young.
|
|
Don't settle in Dane County. There are some great places in the Madison-Milwaukee-Janesville triangle (outside Dane County) where you can get decent land remote enough and the land value will slowly head upwards. Directly East of Cambridge area is what I am talking about. The only thing I would say about the area aside from outdoorsy stuff, is check what your medical needs might be. It's a bit of a haul to a decent hospital from some areas. If you want to stay near the Interstate, then Janesville area is still WI but also not far from where you are now. |
Mercy on the criminal is cruelty to the innocent.
|
Stay south by Madison. MN idiots are overflowing the central and upper parts of WI. Building houses and paying 2-3 times what houses and land are worth. Filling out schools and driving taxes through the roof. If you love IL I'd stay. We will be just like IL soon. Your gun is concealed. Having a drink now and then isn't an issue. Just don't get caught. |
|
Originally Posted By Rob940: Taxes arent as high as IL. Sales tax in WI is 5.5% (5% for state and .5% is what most counties added on). Gun laws. No FOID cards. Cash and carry, no waits if you pass the bg check. OC is legal (except in the 1000' of a school unless you have a CCW). We can own pretty much everything short of a nuclear weapon. NFAis OK here. Machine guns still require a permission slip from the CLEO of the area. Other than that, have fun. Hell you dont even need to case a long gun in your vehicle as long as its unloaded. WI is a preemption state also. Ranges. Here in Janesville we have the Rock County Rifle Pistol Club. No NRA membership required. Indoor range is open 24/7 and you are your own RSO. Not the fanciest, but its a place to shoot pistols (44mag and under) and pcc's and 22's. The outdoor range (pistol/100yd ranges) is north of Milton but requires RSO's unless you took teh Solo Shooter Officer class. No .50bmg Beloit . Beloit Rifle Club. Just north of Beloit. NRA membership required. Indoor and outdoor pistol ranges, rifle ranges up to 500yds (have to qualify for over 100yds is what I understand). Pricey though (compared to RCRPC). The 100yd range is very nice though. Theres also the Stoughton Conservation Club se of Stoughton thats I heard is nice but I never shot there. 2 DNR ran public ranges about 1.25 hrs from Janesville. Yellowstone and Columbia. No RSO's and shoot what you brought. Just south of Fort Atkinson theres a gunshop with indoor range. Mission Specific Worldwide. Theres probably others that I dont know of. Gun Shops in the area. CTR Firearms (attached to CTR Automotive repair) in Janesville. Mid-Cty Guns between Janesville and Beloit on US51 High Noon Armory in Milton (formerly Thunder Shooting Sports) Concealed Carry Room in Clinton Ox Firearms in Milton (unsure if they have a storefront. They do make their own rifles) On Target Firearms in Brodhead Dam Road Guns just outside Delevan. Very small place but been around forever. Got my 1stAR from them. Elkhorn Gun and Barrel north of Elkhorn. Very nice place. Janesville, Beloit, Madison have wheel taxes. Dane County has one also so move into Madison and you pay 2 separate wheel taxes on your cars/trucks. Minor corrections to the excellent info above: 1. Machine guns require a permission slip from ANY Chief of Police or ANY County Sheriff. It MUST be one of those two officials as per statute, but the statute also says “any.” Most won’t give letters outside of their area, but a rare few will. If this is important to the OP, he should concentrate on living somewhere that letters are given. 2. Explosive weapons are a huge PITA. It’s an even rarer concern than MG ownership, but I know far western WI people who keep a FEL and a powder magazine just across the line in Iowa. 3. Sales tax is 5.00%. Anything beyond that is state or local. Yes, it’s pretty common to see 5.5%. Milwaukee County is 5.9% and the City of Milwaukee (both are NOT recommended) is 7.9%. I’ll add that certain calibers are wasted here. Until Pritzker’s AWB, there were more places to touch off a BMG and larger in IL than here. We just have too many thick forests for that. If you’re into BMG and long range shooting, you’ll likely be disappointed in WI. But it’s still better in WI vs IL for firearms ownership. It’s just frustrating that a lot of my stuff stays in the safe unless I’m west of the Mississippi. ETA: You may have a sidearm in a bar but you cannot be drinking; think 0.0 BAC. |
“Don't post anything here or send anything you aren't willing to defend in court.”
-Notcalifornialegal
-Notcalifornialegal
|
Settle near but not in a mid sized city with good medical facilities and shopping. A 15 - 20 minute drive for shopping and medical appointments gets much better taxes. and the mid sized cities don't have as many problems to deal with. We started looking way out in the country for retirement but mom & dads situation made us realize we would eventually need to be closer to medical facilities. |
Bad things happen in isolated instances in an armed populace, horrific things happen to a disarmed populace. 20th Century Democide https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM
|
Stay out of Dane County. Seriously. It's a shithole and my wife and I hate it more and more every day. At a certain point you get tired of trannies and communists everywhere. You can't even go to the gas station without the fucking freaks walking around. Go north. |