I found that splitting logs and delivering firewood to seniors filled the urge, although I did consider Meals on Wheels. I’m the youngster in the group of volunteers (in my late 60’s), so that should tell you something about the benefits of staying functional by moving. The seniors get firewood at a very good price, and many of them depend on firewood for heat. We only use dead trees from the town forest, which would decompose anyway on the ground, so it’s not ecologically unsound.
@IxnayBob - What a great way to help your community!
My mother (age 88) gets Meals on Wheels delivered. It’s been wonderful for her to get food and conversation. One of the deliverers is older than she is.
I have been delivering meals on wheels for about 10 years. It does get me out of the house and I feel the work is needed and valued. (They have a hard time getting enough drivers)
I also have done the calculation, because I don’t do enough driving to justify owning my own car, and certainly not a fancy car. But I figured if I drove for Uber maybe 5 or 8 times a month it would pay for the car. But you can’t really Uber with a Porsche 911 so I gave up on that idea. 
All this talk about fancy cars, delivery, and driving as a side hustle reminded me of this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wt5iHMkbhW8
So my new job (doing nursing admission assessments for rehab/skilled care facility) is hit or miss - when they have two or more admissions and I am available, I go in and do those admissions. Tuesday (my first day available) there were two admissions coming in - when one was there, I went in (I live 10 minutes from facility). Before I entered my data into the computer, the other admission was in the building. So that evening worked out well. Wednesday, only one admission, so I didn’t go in. Tonight we will see. But I am out of town this weekend and not available for Friday - which tends to be a heavy admission day. So facility uses the nursing help on the units to do the admissions. H realized I am not going to be working all the hours I did before, but he also knows the other job was getting too over the top on the job demands.
I had two almost back to back trips - one to Chicago/WI, and one to TX - Houston/Katy and near College Station. My class reunion - some classmates are retired and some are like me, in two years. The other trip I was with UA moms which have quite diverse lives and geographic locations of primary residences. So all info for my brain to process.
DD2 has a serious BF. Will see how the next year unfolds for them.
I spend time this weekend with DD1/GD/GS while SIL is Army Reserves.
Have to work more on exercise and reduced eating now that I have a new kind of work schedule. I have to wrap my head around it all. I was bike riding with my Katy TX friend, and know what I need to do with my bike (upright handles) and purchase biking shorts and a bike carrier for my Highlander. I have to organize myself with my swim place, and get my walking schedule in order. We are having some great fall weather here in N AL so I need to take advantage of it. We also have a hiking trail nearby into a public park/trail area that H and I can do together. I did a lot of walking and biking, so my calves were sore, but they are good now. Had my flu shot yesterday.
H had a business trip to Asia before I had Hepatitis shots, so I missed that travel opportunity. Will see if he has any other trips that I want to go with him. I did go to CA with him for 5 days (what I could do around my then work schedule) when he was there for two weeks. He enjoyed having our time together, esp on the weekend.
We have had discussions about whether it would make sense to pay off the mortgage or not in retirement. Here is a good article that provides various perspectives on this topic:
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/when-a-mortgage-is-part-of-your-retirement-plan/
great article, BB, as it covers the waterfront so-so-speak. From a purely academic finance standpoint, one should not pay down the mortgage, but, OTOH, there is a lot of psychic income to be debt free. It all comes down to what helps you sleep best at night.
As an aside, I find the ‘sequence of returns’ point not very relevant, as few folks in late 50’s early 60’s will have their assets in 100% equities (where the risk of a market drop is significant).
“Nobody in the middle class or below, in terms of income, is receiving any federal tax breaks from home mortgages anymore,” said Laurence Kotlikoff, a professor of economics at Boston University."
I expected better from Laurence Kotlikoff. Many single people in high tax states deduct their mortgages (minus $2k),
We are thinking about doing a 1031 exchange after we sell our next condo, into a DST. It seems like a good deal, defer the taxes till we’re in a lower tax bracket, get monthly income and hopefully appreciation without the landlord hassles. Kind of seems too good to be true, though. Anyone here do DST’s?
Sorry, @busdriver11, what’s DST? Searching online only brings up Daylight Savings Time. Did you mean REIT, perhaps? Thx for clarifying.
That may depend on what level of income is considered “middle class”. The forum “middle class” (that won’t receive any college financial aid for their kids) is probably a lot higher income than what Kotlikoff is referring to.
Delaware Statutory Trust? If you decide to go down that route, I highly recommend getting a consult with an attorney specializing in that kind of stuff.
Nothing wrong with Daylight Savings Time, @HImom ?, but as Bunsen mentioned, yes, I’m looking at Delaware Statutory Trusts. It’s with Madrona Financial, a local company that is very reputable. It just sounds like exactly what we want.
Thanks for the clarification. I’m curious to follow this. I hadn’t heard about these before your post. What little I’ve read says to plan for at least a 5-10 year investment.
I’d also second the advice to work with an attorney specializing in 1031 exchanges and DSTs. We used an attorney who specializes in 1031 exchanges when we did ours—didn’t want any problems and it went smoothly.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/06/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/
Let’s take a single person making $95K/year who somehow managed to purchase a modest 2 bedroom apartment in some not very fancy town in, say, Bergen County, NJ for $250K with a 20% down. NJ Tax will be approx. 3.5K/y and RE Tax will probably be around 6.5K/y. Please select
State - NJ
Metro Area - New York-Newark-Jersey City
Income - 95K
This person will be able to itemize on Federal tax return and write off around 8.8K of interest the first year plus donations to charity plus (possibly) medical expenses.
In NY State the RE tax may be lower but state tax will be higher so the picture will be similar. NYC is more complicated to analyze.
The non-existent child of this person (who is not on CC) would get 60K+ of finaid from Harvard:)
Definitely plan on working with a professional, @HImom. The firm we’re considering are experts in this field. You can’t do it without an intermediary anyways, but these guys seem very ethical. I was just wondering if anyone has done it. The DST sounds better than a REIT, as far as tax advantages and income.
When I searched online bogleheads.org + DST, got a few hits, including this one.
Thanks, @HImom! The agent we’re considering has addressed some of the issues on that forum. Seems as if it’s very important whom you deal with.
There are definitely pros & cons to DSTs. We probably won’t go that route unless we learn something compelling. With our property manager, we’ve been ok over the past bunch of decades.
The commission, costs and annual fees just seem quite high, preliminarily.
I’m still interested in learning more and hope folks post any experiences they care to share.
The agent we are considering addressed those high fees. Apparently there are different ways to invest in a DST. If you go through a certain type of agent who charges an annual fee (I think they charge 1.25%, if I understand it correctly), there is no huge upfront fee. I’ll let you know if we do it.