Used to live in FL, often dreamed of living there again - at least part time - after dh retires. The latest storms convinced dh that he does not want to do that. We’re looking at cooler climates now.
As for assisted living facilities, we had bad experiences with two that accepted family members who should never have been permitted to move into them. The relative who had PoA lied about their condition and abilities, and the facilities did nothing to evaluate them independently before admission. Then the staff and administration got upset about the help they needed. I fought a tough battle over this for several years and am convinced that much preventable suffering occurred. I can’t hold the ALFs totally responsible since they were lied to, but they should have done their own due diligence.
@colorado_mom, one reason I used to prefer the idea of owning vs. renting in FL is the problem of poor maintenance by absentee owners and their management companies. We’ve found horrible problems with palmetto bugs (FL’s euphemism for giant roaches) and mold in some houses that were advertised as “new” but had actually been through a hurricane or three and not properly remediated for mold after significant water intrusion. Ads often feature old photos taken when properties were new or newly remodeled/redecorated and the reality is too often far different.
I no longer am confident about positive reviews on rental sites, either. I’ve noticed 5-star ratings accompanied by complaints about inadequate HVAC, poor pool maintenance, broken appliances, bugs, etc. Price is apparently not an indicator of age or quality of maintenance, at least in our experience. In the past, our best luck has been with rentals built at least a year after the last hurricane/tropical storm hit an area.
I recall people posting about programs that help you determine (estimate) how much you need to retire. The type where you load all your information and then I believe you are walked through a process that would let you know how much you could spend per year and project how long your money would last. Turns out dh may retire earlier than anticipated and it seems that this type of program would help me know if we have “enough”. I should have noted the names of recommended programs but I didn’t and this thread is 775 pages long. If anyone’s willing to repeat the name of the program that works well for them, I’d really appreciate it.
Dh consistently tells me we have “enough” and he’s the one in finance but, now that he’s considering earlier than expected retirement, I, as the more type A personality, am motivated to use a tool that would help me quantify our position.
It has a ton of settings to let you really tweak your info, lets you input SS and other pensions, can account for anticipated lump sum amounts from inheritances or whatever, lets you choose different spending models.
Rather than telling you thumbs up or thumbs down about whether your money will last, it runs your situation against financial history for each year dating back to 1871 as if you were starting in that year, and tells you the % of time your money lasts or runs out. Or it lets you set your own market assumptions, or uses random market performance. You can tweak you asset mix, etc.
Vanguard has one online. I’ll look for it. You plug in your retirement savings, your estimated spending, your investment mix,etc and it gives you a probability of your savings lasting throughout your designated time frame.
Another vote for ESPlanner. We have used it for about 2 years, in which time DH retired, we moved, and are starting to build a house. In other words, we used it to decide “whether we had enough” and are now using it to stick to a budget for the house and the annual spending.
I like firecalc because it’s free, I understand it and you can tweak scenarios. That plus some Monte Carlo projections are what the hourly paid financial planner and my “free” Schwab planner used.
I am highly anticipating retirement in about 10 years. Then every once in a while I am home for 3 or 4 days with nothing to do and am bored. Nothing to do. I am going to really have to plan ahead.
@TempeMom, I too start thinking about if retirement is really a good idea when I spend multiple,e days at home without much going on. I may retire in as early as 3 years, pending launch of children and my mom’s health status. I am definitely happy to feel like I will have the option soon.
I think the problem with having a few days off is you know it’s only a few days, so you can’t really start anything or take up a new hobby or set any kind of schedule, so you wind up sitting around for a few days.
Pretty much everyone I know who is around my age that has retired, “complains” that they are busier now then when they were working. I could retire tomorrow and find more than enough projects and things to do to fill up my time.
Yep… but it usually busy by choice (except sometimes with volunteer gig obligations). DH and I like the idea of retiring and only having to get up early if there is something WE want to do , not an early meeting at work.