Ha ha....that made me LOL, Cliff.....SmileWavy

Like your CIC (that never serve) would tweet... "Sad"

Some of you guys are scaring me talking about your parents in their mid 70s. That's where I am at this point. I also think talking about the end is easier when you're not up against it, and you never actually know how you will handle things until you get there. I looked into long term care insurance long ago. Seemed like a calculated rip off to me then with limited pay out for a term of something like two years. I guess people in third world countries might have it better in old age where it's a cultural thing for families to care for their old people. For us here, it seems like a continuation of the struggle for money.

The mountains of AZ are our plan. Can get a nice acre or half acre lot for not too much. Some snow in the winter but nothing crazy, mild summer, and it's pretty damned cheap otherwise!



Also... no emissions testing!

If that is your plan, I would think about starting to shop around for it ASAP. An area can be targeted for development, making it more expensive later on. Of course prices & availability almost never improve over time. If you acquire something and decide against it, you can probably sell it at the increased value to help buying something else that works out better at the time.

My mother in the UK was good at looking ahead. She rented out her townhouse and moved into a group home even though she was capable of looking after a home.
After a several years of that she moved into a blind home even though she was not totally blind. However she did break a hip when she was at the group home so the blind home became her final resting place.

She said she never wanted to live with her kids. Now I am 70 I tell my wife you are better off living in our house as long as possible and paying somebody if you have to cut grass etc. We both like our big yard and it keeps us active.

Like my fil used to say living in an apartment is like living in a birdcage! I agree with him.

save a spot for me kid..

hell, you're younger than me..i'll sell you my spot when i'm crapping in my pants..

My wife and I will be cutting our expenses dramatically in retirement. I retired in January, at 56 (Hated what I did for 20 years. A good nights sleep, peace of mind, and my health is well worth sacrifices to retire early). My wife will retire in three years at 59.5, when her long-term incentive package vests. We have no pensions, just savings, home equity, my S.E.P. and 401K's, and my wife's 401K and deferred comp plan, so budgeting will be mandatory if it's going to last. We'll get big raises when we collect SS and go on Medicare.

We will sell this house (with the choking $5K mortgage payment and $24K prop taxes) and use the equity to pay cash for something MUCH smaller/cheaper in the Moss Creek Golf community in Hilton Head Island, SC. The only debt we have now is the house, no credit card balances, car payments, etc. We will live a much simpler life. Local fishing, golf, volunteer work, and books will replace expensive dinners and Formula 1 travel (I'm sick of pretentious Southern Californians anyway). No more racing, likely sell the Turbo, watches, some guns, and most of our travel will be low-budge or to spend time with our daughter and grandkids here in SoCal.

My wife and I did well, but always kept a good balance between income, spending, and saving. I think we'll be just fine scaling way back. The biggest problem I have right now is the first thing my wife says when she comes home from work..."What did you do today?" I started being honest..."Golfed, went surf fishing, surfed". The look on her face had me changing that. Now I say, "I'm exhausted. Trimmed the avocados, fixed a irrigation leak, etc" I started doing all the cooking and shopping. Hopefully, she can hang on to 59.5 without divorcing me :eek:

Retirement is the best job, ever! :)

Are you talking about the previous one or the current one that was not allowed to serve due to a medical issue?

My mother is in her mid 70's and seemed quite healthy until she recently had back Now she is at home and is struggling to live by herself. I try to help as much as possible, but I work and have other responsibilities and she will not move into my home (although I have a very large home and plenty of room). She wastes a lot of money paying people to do things for her including delivery of prepared food like pizza, home cleaning, mowing, etc. I am hoping that she gets back to normal, but she seems to be suffering from a bit of dementia as well. I think she is ok financially as long as she lives at home and her house is paid off...but I am pretty concerned. She refuses to ever leave her home and says she will die there...but, I really think she should be under care now.

As far as cutting back in retirement, my wife and I have lived pretty frugally and actually have just started enjoying a bit higher quality of life in recent years and really don't want to give it up. Instead of downsizing, I would like to make home improvements like maybe adding a pool or a vacation home to spend half the year at...or possibly buy a new car or even a motorhome when I retire and we will have more time to enjoy them. I have no intent of saving a lot of money to pass on to my children as all were given every opportunity to create a great life on their own (and some have). Obviously, it is hard to plan perfectly (so we will spend relatively conservatively)...so I expect they will get a good inheritance anyways. I just don't want to ever be a burden on them.

if you don't count my money pit 914, we spend less.

Retirement
 

if you don't mind a little bit of noise, retiring here in the philippines is fun as long as you avoid the south. a lot of GI's decided to stay retire here. most of them live close to the water. all they do is play golf, cards, surf and play around. boring huh? 24/7 help is around $150/month. $$$ go a long way here!

I can't imagine spending MORE money in retirement. We will do some camping/traveling in our paid off truck, and 30' camper. I would like to get a small 14-16' fishing boat for the local inland lakes for the "free" fish, and start a big garden/orchard with a homebuilt greenhouse, and have healthier/better/cheaper food almost year round while canning/freezing food for later. We already have plenty of chickens for eggs and meat, and don't spend lavishly on anything. We already use things until they lose thier usefulness, recycle, and live a fairly frugal life.

Our big savings will be on vehicle costs/maintenance/insurance, (right now, we have 5 licensed/insured vehicles), and not buying work lunches/clothing, and other work related expenses. I also want to experiment with homebuilt solar/wind generator to lower our electric bill.

My family grew (and hunted and fished) all our own food when I was young so I always used to think that way...but, as I get closer to retirement, I no longer enjoy growing/gathering food and am able to do a lot of that stuff a lot less. I would be much happier only growing a few things for fun or to get quality produce that is not available for local purchase (Like good tomatoes). Since none of my kids stayed near home...there is no free labor or help whatsoever. Worse yet, where I live, I would have to watch it all the time (many, many deer, groundhogs, crows, turkeys, etc. are everywhere) and I want to travel. It is much, much easier just to make a little more money and just buy stuff.

Home construction/insulation goes a long way toward lowering energy bills. I moved from a 2000 sq ft home to a newer, better built 6000 Sq ft home and mine actually went down.

Hotel California

bednjoys02. My wife is Philippino, and she says no way would she move there. If it were just me, I'd seriously consider it for a change of scenery.

I lived in Northern AZ for many years, I loved it. Only problem is decent healthcare can be a long ways away which is something to think about in later years. You can say that about a lot of places, though.

One of my former colleagues is Philippino and he was planning on moving to the Philippines a few years after retirement. He and his wife (she's a Philippina) were only sticking around for a while to help babysit their very young granddaughter. I think they have some family living in the Philippines, so that's another reason (in addition to cost savings) why they wanted to move.

Do you SPEND more is a different question for me than for most.
We spend a lot less, but more of it is out of our pockets/savings that when we were actively running our business. Portions of annual vacations to Europe and Mexico were paid for by the business because we combined them with work. Dinners out were director's meetings, every domestic vacation was tacked on to the end of a business trip, etc. It was our money, but it came cheap because of the tax savings. Plus, all we had do to replenish the well was work a little harder. When we agreed to sell the biz the pump was shut off. We spend less now, but it is more dear to us because it comes out of savings that we don't have a ready way to replenish.
We spent so much of our lives traveling that being home is what retirement looks like for us. We have chickens now, a new rescue dog, a greenhouse, a 1/4 acre of garden, etc. Maybe after a few years of this we will want to travel like other retired people, but right now Mrs WD and I agree if we never get on another airplane it will be fine with us.
edit:
I read this reply to Mrs WD and she said, "We would rather fly united at home." True dat.