Anyone transition from big pay/big house/big expense to a low cost, simple, yet fulfilling retirement life?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the thick of the rat race at the moment: high stress / high paying job, expensive house, expensive kids, etc.

One day the kids will hopefully successfully fly from the nest and around that time, I'll be thinking about retirement.

The kid-related expenses would go away, as would, maybe the need for the big house?

I'm looking for tales of downsizing and simplifying the lifestyle in retirement. What has it looked like for you?

I have one kid in college and one in high school so this is becoming a reality. Also the reality is we have such a low interest rate in our home that it does not make sense to move. Also our college kid has expressed multiple times that he wants to find a job in nova and the most economical way for him to start his adult career is living back at home until he gets his feet under him. It’s just so crazy expensive for young people to get ahead that giving them the gift of a free roof over their heads until they are ready to fully handle the sky high housing prices is something we want to do for them.

Personally our house is the perfect size for a family of 4 (2400 sq feet) that if i were in your shoes i’d be downsizing locally with enough space so my kids still have a home as long as needed. But i can’t imagine living in a bigger house than I'm in now. We are in Ashburn and see so many people with these humongous homes it just seems so pointless. Do they like heating and cooling and paying taxes these gigantic caverns? in many cases over 1000sq feet go unused. seems dumb even when your kids are little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before we retired we sold our single family home in the city and bought 2 condos, one at the beach and one in the city. Makes it very easy to close the door and walk away. HOA takes care of everything, packages, gardens, pool, security, maintenance.

Our life is so streamlined now, we don't really need a car as we can walk everywhere. One of our kids returned after college and we have plenty of room. We may just lend them $ to purchase something, we made plenty of money sending our house and downsizing.

if you don’t need a car how do you get between your two homes?

[Anonymous]

Due to housing prices and mortgage rates, transitioning to a lower cost home is nearly impossible for us. We could downsize to a smaller home but it would cost about the same as the larger home we would be selling.

I still think about it because the larger home and yard require more maintenance and upkeep than I seem to have the interest in doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My neighbors in Hyattsville sold their home on Capitol Hill. They thought capitol hill got too fancy and they wanted a more chill environment. They renovated the home down to the studs so their home is still nicer than the average Hyattsville home but it’s small, and more manageable. Because they stayed nearby, they still have their existing relationships. Their kids are nearby and are often over. One kid lived with them for a while right after college. Another kid they helped buy a home in Hyattsville. They have family dinners every week. Their life seems lovely - chill and lowkey - and they’re really great neighbors.

Love this. If DH and I decide to stay local after kids go to college, I’d happily end up in Hyattsville.

Signed, another Hill parent with too much $$ wrapped up in our house

We live in Hyattsville with our kids and it’s great. Our house is like 1/3 of what we “could” afford and life is good.

[Anonymous]

I plan to have enough assets in retirement to maintain my current lifestyle plus pay for extra healthcare and potential grandchildren costs (private education). We currently spend $130k a year and have a paid off home. We may move, but it wouldn't help with expenses so we probably won't bother until we can't navigate the stairs safely anymore.

On the other hand, DC is very crowded and I'm becoming tired of not being able to go anywhere or see friends because it adds 2 hours roundtrip to wherever I want to go...but it's not to save money.

[Anonymous]

spending with todays interest rates really doesn’t work if you are older and heading into retirement.

if you are like us your interest rate is extremely low with very little balance due to being a homeowner for years.

Only way this makes sense for us is to sell our house and buy in cash. The high rates drive prices up so high that i’d end up getting a smaller house that costs me MORE in mortgage. we refinanced our balance of 159k for around 2% and my entire PITI is 2k. Will easily be paid off in the next couple of years, not that that matters since taxes are higher than mortgage payment.

hopefully you are young and didn’t rope yourself into the trap of a big house/big payment as you are trying to wind your financial obligations down in anticipation of retirement.

[Anonymous]

We’d ideally like to keep our medium sized house here and buy a second place in a vacation area. However, prices are so high for well located properties where we like that even a small place is almost the same as our house here, and we’d rather not drain our retirement account to buy it. So it looks like we need to decide whether we’re staying here or moving full time to another area. I’d always thought we’d end up in Florida but we are not impressed with it of late so it’s off the table as an affordable option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before we retired we sold our single family home in the city and bought 2 condos, one at the beach and one in the city. Makes it very easy to close the door and walk away. HOA takes care of everything, packages, gardens, pool, security, maintenance.

Our life is so streamlined now, we don't really need a car as we can walk everywhere. One of our kids returned after college and we have plenty of room. We may just lend them $ to purchase something, we made plenty of money sending our house and downsizing.

Condos are not a good investment. Waste of money.

[Anonymous]

We are in the process of this. It’s actually quite difficult if you want to downsize homes in the DMV right now, because of the combination of recent home appreciation and increase in interest rates. We are looking to downsize home wise, but it’s looking like we are going to be paying more per month for a smaller, simpler home than the one we have now — because of the increase in interest rates.

We might not sell the house we have, might keep it as a rental property. I don’t know. It’s really hard to figure out whether or not that decision makes financial sense. We can buy another house without selling it, but it’ll be tight. Not sure what we’re gonna do.

Otherwise, I will say this: it’s an adjustment. Having to think more about money is tough. Not because budgeting is tough, but just because old habits die hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Due to housing prices and mortgage rates, transitioning to a lower cost home is nearly impossible for us. We could downsize to a smaller home but it would cost about the same as the larger home we would be selling.

I still think about it because the larger home and yard require more maintenance and upkeep than I seem to have the interest in doing.

I’m in the same boat. Once the kids are in college in 3 years, I won’t need (nor do I want) a 4 bedroom, large house, but with a 2.6% interest rate, I’ll be paying the same interest if I moved. I remind myself that I’d save on taxes, insurance, maintenance and utilities so it might be worth it. Another thought I’ve had is to lease my house and rent something smaller.

[Anonymous]

We plan to sell our current too big home and buy whatever we can afford with the cash proceeds—no more mortgages in retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Before we retired we sold our single family home in the city and bought 2 condos, one at the beach and one in the city. Makes it very easy to close the door and walk away. HOA takes care of everything, packages, gardens, pool, security, maintenance.

Our life is so streamlined now, we don't really need a car as we can walk everywhere. One of our kids returned after college and we have plenty of room. We may just lend them $ to purchase something, we made plenty of money sending our house and downsizing.

Condos are not a good investment. Waste of money.

Thanks funny, our condo more than tripled in value and has been a profitable rental for us. Your advice is not good, not an investment in a condo.

[Anonymous]

I don't ever want to downsize in size. Our house is 2300 sqft which is perfect. My parents' house is about that size and it allows for comfort during visits. We will likely downsize in terms of cost by moving to a different area, but it's very important for me to have 3+ bedrooms and a yard.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s a lot easier to do it gradually over time than to do it cold turkey all at once. We are in the camp who did not upgrade the house and cars as the income rose. The kids activities are expensive (but will end eventually) and we do like nice vacations. But we are pretty frugal on the day to day.

If you’ve been living high on the hog for 30+ years, I can’t imagine stopping will be easy.

[Anonymous]

We bought our house in 1997 and refinanced at 3.5% in 2003. It’s cheaper for us to stay where we are than to move just about anywhere appealing, even for less space. We’ll stay put until we can’t manage the stairs anymore.