In my job as a Maine real estate broker, questions about Vacationland, especially by folks thinking of retiring, relocating, moving here come up.
Maine’s sale tax if five percent. A pack of cigarettes in Maine gets taxed two dollars per package of 20. What about personal income, pensions and how the state of Maine retirement income is figured….learn more on Maine taxes.
What about Maine property taxes? All Maine real estate and personal property of ME residents is subject to local and, if authorized by the legislature, state property taxes. Local property taxes, based upon assessed valuation, are assessed, levied and collected by municipalities. Homestead and veteran’s exemption programs, administered by the state, are available to reduce property taxes for those who qualify. The Homestead Exemption program provides a measure of property tax relief for certain individuals that have owned homestead property in Maine for at least 12 months and make the property they occupy on April 1st their permanent residence.
Property owners receive an exemption of $10,000 on the assessed value of their home. A Veteran exemption of $6,000 is available to those who served during a recognized war period, are 62 years or older, are receiving 100% disability as a veteran or became 100% disabled while serving. Paraplegic veterans who received a federal grant for a specially adapted housing unit may receive a $50,000 exemption. A blind exemption of $4,000 is available to those who are legally blind.
What about the Maine inheritance tax on your estate upon your death, dying?
There is no Maine inheritance tax.
Maine has partially decoupled from the federal estate tax law. The amount exempt from the Maine estate tax is different from the amount exempt from federal estate tax. A decedent would have their estate exempt for up to $1,0000,000.
FAQ Maine weather questions about our winters, why ME real estate is so low come up often too. Also, surprise from folks moving to Maine about how cheap car insurance is due to less people, 4th best crime statistic in the country too.
Local Soap Box Derby Racing Is Big In Houlton Maine, 66 Volunteers Make The Nation’s Largest Event Happen.
In small Maine towns, you quickly learn there is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.
Everyone has roles to play. The area in Maine they hang those many hats they wear is better off, richer, fuller for local volunteers and their day in, day out efforts. The most important hats in Maine are the jobs, roles you take on with your family…like little league coaching, soap box derby racing, being a sunday school teacher. Kids learn from the entire villiage in Maine. There is a connection and everyone feels a sense of belonging, that they are needed. Because they are.
Many of the service club civic work a local Mainer does, takes on is because in smaller areas, if they did not, it might not get done. Fewer people in Maine..just over a million folks mean grab a tool, hone a skill and take on a job the area folks need you to assume, sign on to. Less people, heck eleven people per square mile in Northern Maine, Aroostook County translates to just enough to have a game thinking. Like when you live in the country in rural Maine and only so many houses in the few miles around your home, so back yard baseball contests with the local kids means hunt, stratch, beg, plead sometimes to fill a skeleton roster.
You’re all there is situation in Maine but a sense of pride that you have a needed role you volunteered to. Lots of them. Serving on local town government boards, helping to shape the future direction, development of the town in Maine you call home. I make my living “selling” Maine and have for thirty years as a Maine real estate broker. But the blogs we write here, around the internet, the videos we shoot, edit and post about the listings, the local community events are not just part of my job. I am a personal fan of Maine. You reading this blog must be too. Once you get all Maine offers, how sincere and caring, hard working the local people are, you find your real home, niche, place under the sun. I am not just a promoter of Maine. I sincerely enjoy living here, promoting it and way I can.
In Maine, our local bands, parades, state hosting of music, sporting events are home grown, not store bought. Our financial resources are limited, our creative efforts to get an event off the ground are off the charts to track. There is nothing stronger than the heart of a Maine volunteer.
Often a kid benefiting from the experience is all that is needed to get the program, event, annual tradition off the ground in a small Maine town.
Sometimes the drive is simply knowing when you were young, growing up in a small town other older members of the town put their shoulder in to this, this and this event. Pick yours and assume the position when you enter adulthood. You feel needed in small Maine towns, connected, aware of the other folks who live here. Why? because you are. What would your area where you live suffer from, lose if you were not there to do this, this and this?
This blog helps get the word out about how we roll in Maine. We work, don’t feel entitled to any free lunch.
Our hearts are strong, designed, shaped, taught to get involved on a strong local level. That’s why I live in Maine.
Ask me how you can get a taste of Maine, or to relocate, retire, get to raise a family here. It’s one of my favorite subjects, hobbies, hats I wear. Here is an video example of a couple living in the Maine woods of Masardis..to give you a taste of being in the woods of Aroostook County..full time on a the Aroostook River.
Mentors…they say you should have more than just one.
The thinking or logic being if that mentor dies, there goes the guidance. You lose your only GPS of wisdom, fountain of experience, conduit of common sense. Also, no matter how gifted or learned someone is, there are limits to the sheer volume, scope, depth of this mentor’s contribution to helping you shape your life. All of this begs the question. Do I take direction, will I listen, do I need to improve my thinking on the building blocks of human relations and how to not just survive but flourish joyfully in a world less than perfect?
If I was taught responsibility for my actions by caring parents. And if I sincerely want self improvement or realize others have puzzle pieces I need and that I carry pieces that will unlock life mysteries for them too, this is a beginning. The premise that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom brings up another question. Is God in your life? And do you fear anything, anyone? And if you further am humble, not so self absorbed that you blame others when things go wrong as a given, a certainity, you have maturity to know your role in the good, the bad, the ugly in the landscape around you.
Today, with more of a “me me me mentality” and “want it now” poor impulse control that is a big part to blame for the current economy, the mental health of this nation in priorities and “wants” versus “needs”, we have to get back to the it being about others premise that puts your happiness or sense of peace coming from others.
If a mentor is able to show you thru living example how to practice counting your blessings, being grateful, what joy looks like, feels like, that is a huge boost to life long contentment.
Knowing others out there have a much harder row to hoe gives us a whole new perspective and outlook. If a mentor is able to show us we need to dig in, work harder, pull ourselves up by the book straps with personal responsibility in life, we no longer expect others to meet our every need. We gain a self satisfaction of a job well done, over coming adversity with an active role from within. Searching, questioning, learning. It is a life long habit or should be. Not who do I blame, life’s not fair, a poor me personal habit of retreat serves no constructive purpose.
The voices inside your head.
There’s the one from your mom gently but constantly reminding you of basics you apply day to day like, everything in moderation, plan your work and work your plan, gratitude for what you do have being way way more constructive and settling than I wished I had this, could do that, had not done that. Another voice of your dad telling you to hang loose, get your sleep, stay in touch with your brothers and sisters. Getting your chores done before playing. Your teachers, professors, employers all adding another voice to the guidance stream and then your own voice of reason, experience that grows. It is like a healthy garden planted with the right variety, the correct spacing, the degree of nurturing, cultivating, watering to lead to a successful harvest and then do it all over again.
How many voices do you have in your head? Do you follow and learn from them or is there a struggle between a void
Early Voices Inside My Head From Parents Growing Up On A Maine Farm.
of missing installments, lack of players, or a personal dose of “don’t tell me what to do” that hinders maturity, growth and the ultimate passing down of life lessons to the next generation? Practice makes perfect is the addage. To play better golf, better anything you need to interact with better talent. But it all starts by turning up the volume of those information mentors, listening and applying what you hear and being able to harness, shape and create what is a unique you in your life. The variables change to make your life more of a Rubic’s Cube and interesting or challenging. You also have the past, present, future dimensions to consider to be in your right place for fullfilment, contentment, peace. Maine is a good place to enjoy less traffic, no crime, an awareness of the beautiful space around you. Neighbors who pitch in to help with a true sense of belonging, of local community pride live in Maine. Those are the voices I listen to inside my head. That’s why you might consider retiring here, relocating to Maine too.
