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<p>What she said,</p>
<p>Since you are used to living well below the national average you should do quite well. </p>
<p>These are items that have increased/exceeded what my H planned/budgeted when he retired:</p>
<p>Health insurance: (we had a 36% increase last year); Technology updates; Communication costs; Entertainment; Travel, not only for your pleasure, but if you offspring decide to live on opposite coast from you; Auto/gas/tolls; House, appliance updating; Property maintenance; Taxes; Food/dining; Utilities;<br>
Wine 
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<p>Hope we outlive our money…</p>
<p>^^Well if you don’t, just make sure the wine is the last thing to run out!</p>
<p>Add HI to the list of high COLiving places. You really need to know how your areas COL compares with other locations and how your spending compares to ‘average,’ if you want to use averages as a yardstick.</p>
<p>As has been said earlier, there are the go go years (when you’re still young and active enough to pursue hobbies, entertainment, travel, etc. this can run into $$$. Then there are the slow go years, when you don’t want to do as much and can cost less. Finally, there are the no go times, where you may need some assistance and again that can cost $$$. Different areas of the country have very different costs, especially for “help.”</p>
<p>Right, Hawaii definitely sounds ultra expensive, not just for real estate but for necessities.
We are going to try and stay put, but I know people who have really downsized and are snowbirds.
I don’t think I could downsize that much, and I know H couldn’t part with his workshop.</p>
<p>I think that it would be a good idea to figure out how much it will cost if one or both of you end up in an assisted living facility or nursing home. MIL is in assisted living and even though she had long term insurance to help cover part of it, it is still a lot more expensive than what she paid when she lived in her home. </p>
<p>This is a nice thing about being self-employed and living in a high rise. I’m pretty much already living the way I plan to in retirement. I don’t intend to stop working with students until I have no choice.</p>
<p>what kind of updating do you need?
if you become disabled, you will need some remodeling, but H& I figure being able to walk to the grocery/hardware store & the library, will help to keep us more active & healthy for longer than if we had to get into our car to go anywhere.
We should update the wiring though, the knob & tube stuff is ready to go.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the kind of updating we’re needing right now are new windows and a new roof. That kind of major stuff is hard to budget for. I guess you should expect it, but when the huge expenses come down, you really don’t expect it. You think it was all going to last another ten years.</p>
<p>My H always figures we may need major repairs at any time and isn’t comfortable unless we have a substantial cash cushion. </p>
<p>depending on how built your windows were in the first place, you may not need to replace them.
<a href=“Old House Authority ~ Repair, Don't Replace Old Windows”>http://www.oldhouseauthority.com/archive/window_article.php</a></p>
<p>That would be nice to just fix them, but unfortunately, it isn’t happening. There is wood rot all around, and there are significant access issues. A number of people have said they aren’t even interested. We figured we’d spend a little more and get Milgard, with a lifetime warranty. The windows that we have now are called Weathervane, and many of these windows were installed in our area. They are crap, and the company has gone out of business. We figured with this fix, we should never have to do it again in this house.</p>
<p>We are very unhappy former customer of Milguard. After we bought the Milguard windows, then we we’re told that no, HI is excluded from warranty! They weren’t even able to get us promised replacement parts that we had to purchase ourselves. Will never buy from them again. </p>
<p>I know you hated Milgard, and I don’t blame you. But apparently they perform poorly in salt water locations, which is why they are excluded from the warranty. Here in the PNW, they are common windows, and the warranty lasts until ten years after you sell your house. Our neighbors have had them for over 25 years, and has called them only twice for repairs, and they have fixed the problem immediately.</p>
<p>Glad they perform better in your neighborhood. Would advise you to get a copy of the warranty that will come with your windows before buying. </p>
<p>Yes, I have looked at the warranty. It specifically excludes Hawaii. Your contractor really screwed you with his incompetence. They should never sell Milgard in Hawaii, since it doesn’t even come with a warranty. I’m very happy with the company that is going to install it, and hopefully we’ll like how they look. Not going to deal with this again, there are too many other issues to work on.</p>
<p>Kind of silly to exclude all of Hawaii for salt issues - we are over 3 miles from the ocean. Not much salt water up here! But I’ll certainly remember that if we are shopping for windows.</p>
<p>We also get lively fallout from the volcano which is highly corrosive and shared rather widely. That said, we have windows that are original with the house–60+ years old that still work perfectly!</p>