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Well, if the property is good rental property, then surely your wife could simply hold it and rent it out - as an investment. The insurance would seem to be a good idea (if the premiums are reasonable) but the best strategy may be to invest in property that will bring a return on investment -- should you die and your wife wants to either sell it (and make a nice profit) or rent it out.
With that in mind, I would advise that you carefully consider where you purchase in re: to both re-sale and for potential rental.
That region has always been a good location for folks wanting to escape the Atlanta area. The cabin you shared the photos of is adorable!
I just love the area and there's lots to do around Blue Ridge.
You got white water rafting, some fantastic restaurants and don't forget the train to Copperopolis, TN.
I'm not even 40, but I'm already thinking about downsizing. When the kids are grown, I want a single story home or one with a master on the first floor.
My inlaws are almost 70, both still work, they are still in their 2500 square foot home with crazy NJ taxes, they still have a mortgage, and they won't move to a lower COL area.
We started planning for retirement early - back in our 40's. If anyone had told me back then that I'd work till age 65, I would have said they were nuts. But that's how it worked out.
We both retired in late 2012. We then had a typical upscale 3-bed, 2-bath home in a nice area, and had a small mortgage on it. We have 2 daughters, with families of their own, who lived nearby. Part of our plan was to gift our daughters with their inheritance upon our retirement. We did that by distributing assets that we no longer felt would be needed in retirement. The girls are in their late 30's and why make them wait until we pass on to inherit? They will get more then, but have the bulk already, at an age when they can make better use of it. For us, having liquid cash on hand for any emergencies was much more important than having a lot of "stuff".
We downsized our housing. I bought the land for cash, and cash-flowed the building materials that I and 2 relatives used to build an 1120 sq ft ranch. Staying in good physical shape was part of our retirement plan, and we are both at normal weight and do not take medications. Our new location has taxes of just $700 per year. We heat with wood, and are very pleased to not have to deal with heating oil prices any longer. The point of this, is that successful retirements are often the result of early planning and attention to deatils that are yet to come to fruition, but will.
Lovely parents and lucky daughters! If more parents considered this, they would find their adult children (30-40-50's) would not be so stressed and would be able to spend more quality time with each other.
My wife and I plan to downsize eventually. We currently have a 1750 sf ranch with easy accessibility, so we can stay here for a while as we age. No mortgage, or debt of any kind, and I just paid a year's property taxes, $1565. We have 93 acres with a barn, shop and wood shed, so it's a little bigger than it sounds. A logging project in 2013 put $47k in our pockets. Pensions and SS add up to over $70k a year. So far we haven't had to touch retirement savings, though we will have to start distributions from the tax sheltered accounts in a couple years.
Eventually we plan to sell out and move into assisted living. Our health will tell us when it is time. Meanwhile, the home is beautiful, the setting is gorgeous and it is well within our budget. We sweated a little to get everything paid off by retirement and build savings, but it was worth it. We plan to stay right here until advancing age makes it impractical.
I wonder how many of us are prepared for a move from our current home to one more conducive for a more advanced age. Are the finances there for many to successfully pull it off? Moving especially any distance isn't cheap. This can also Be a transplanting road block.
I'm not even 40, but I'm already thinking about downsizing. When the kids are grown, I want a single story home or one with a master on the first floor.
My inlaws are almost 70, both still work, they are still in their 2500 square foot home with crazy NJ taxes, they still have a mortgage, and they won't move to a lower COL area.
I live on the second floor and I just despise carrying things up and down the stairs.
There are rooms in our house that I haven't had reason to enter in months. I can only imagine what it will be like when the last kid flies the coop. We won't make money on our house but we haven't lost any either. It really will come down to this being too much house with too much property for just 2 people.
The only question will be as long as we're selling when we retire do we stay put or move elsewhere. We can downsize but we are also in a position to upgrade. We've eliminated a few places we thought about before for various reasons so the search continues.
I live on the second floor and I just despise carrying things up and down the stairs.
Actually you ought to be grateful for the opportunity to get even this small iota of exercise. Most Americans do not get enough, and if you did get enough you would be in decent enough shape that carrying things up and down the stairs wouldn't even register on your radar. Count it as a blessing.
Actually you ought to be grateful for the opportunity to get even this small iota of exercise. Most Americans do not get enough, and if you did get enough you would be in decent enough shape that carrying things up and down the stairs wouldn't even register on your radar. Count it as a blessing.
It's not that I can't do it - it's that I'd rather go for a walk, swim, or weight train than carry forty bottles of water up the stairs from Costco.
Why the heck do you plan on having a mortgage payment in retirement? That sounds silly.
I have read more than a few articles about persons in their 70's losing their houses to foreclosure where the bent of the article is sympathetic with the retiree, but then one has to realize "why in the world does someone over the age of 60 have a mortgage at all?" Assuming one acquires a mortgage at around 30 and remains financially responsible throughout their life then one should have a house paid off around 60.
My mom retired at 60. She still has about 12 years left on her mortgage.
She divorced when she was in her 40s, rented for a while while she figured out what she wanted to do next, and then bought a nice brand-new home that was only about 1.5x her salary (low COL area).
She is fortunate that she has the money in the bank to pay off the mortgage in full if she chooses. Right now she isn't having any issue making the payments with the retirement income she has coming in. She told me she will pay off a house as soon as she decides where she wants to live for the rest of her years - that house, a new house in that area, or a house in my area.
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Very smart to do this
