It was a few years ago, so I don’t recall exactly but she said many people were taking them off. For us, while our dining room furniture is formal a lot of our other stuff is more contemporary and we just didn’t need that formal of a look. In retrospect, I wish I had just painted it all one color rather than removing it, but that said the stuff against the wall seems to fit better.
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I think op Wahts to do it for themselves.
It’s just a question of how - is there a way to draw the deferred early (I didn’t think do) or borrow against it do they need another way.
Many of us think investment terms (is it worthy) but not OP.
So do we know the best way for them to access funds ?
Another thing you can do - not advised - but if you have a taxable account, you can sell some securities.
Some states have estate tax exemptions significantly lower than the federal levels. Our state finally bumped the estate tax exemption to $3M and apparently indexed it for inflation, but the tax rates for anyone who dies with a taxable estate went up.
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If my kids inherit enough from me to have to pay taxes on part of it, so what? They will still be getting a bunch of money they did NOTHING to earn. So be it.
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I feel that way too, more so than my husband does. If the kids have to pay taxes on windfall of inheirited IRA etc, so be it.
My mother benefited from section 8 low income housing subsidies for 20 years after having cared for her parents for many years (and spending all their funds on their end years in nursing home). She did so with dignity and an appreciation for not needing financial help from the kids. Even if my husband and I don’t get every last tax benefit we can for ourselves, I’m OK with that too.
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True, but in a state like ours that doesn’t count gifts against the estate (unlimited gift exemption), it makes sense to make directed gifts while one is still alive than to leave $$ in a taxable estate.
Yes, this is me and wallpaper in the 80s. Don’t want to go through that again!
@tsbna44 we are older than 59 1/2, able to draw social security but not at full retirement age.
No penalty for drawing our money out of our IRA. We do however have to pay taxes as it was tax deferred
Thanks for the conversation. I put it here instead of home improvement because it deals with paying for it out of our retirement funds. Seemed to be applicable to this thread
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I do gift my kids( and fund 529’s for my grandkids), but that is more because my kids can use the money now while they are young.
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Here is my opinion. If you want to use the money you have in your retirement accounts to make improvements to your home that will make you happy, then just do it.
As long as you feel comfortable with your retirement income including such withdrawals…then go for it! You and your DH spent a working lifetime accumulating this money. If you want to spend some now…do it.
Honestly, when I decide to do things in my home, I don’t give two hoots about the next owner…or how much it will increase my resale value. I do it because it’s something I want to have done so I can enjoy it.
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While I don’t think estate tax will ever be an issue for us given the $3M plus exemptions, if it were, I’d much rather use the gift/charity exemptions to give my $$ to a cause or a person I care about than to let it go into some general state fund. 
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I am like you. I say I have “commitment issues.” We don’t tend to get new/do new things very often, they will be around for a lllooonnngggg time. I am not good with design stuff. So I wait longer than I’d like. Not to mention my husband has a harder time with the money aspect than I do.
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Speaking of using $$ out of retirement accounts for a project like home improvement in 2026, now might be a good time to withdraw a portion to be considered 2025 income and the rest in January 2026.
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Ahhh so no penalty.
I’m not there yet and don’t know your income but can you grab some this year at your current bracket - if not too high - without going into the next and then do again next year ? Of course you might be in a high bracket already.
that’s the hard part. We save all these years and our money grows due to no taxes. But then we cringe have to pay when we take it out.
If it’s not going to kill your retirement and gonna bring you happiness, well that’s why you saved all these years so I’d go from there. And even with taxes, if you, for example need $200k, you might have only spent $30k or $80k to achieve that $200k etc so it’s really not costing that (you can look at it that way).
If you borrowed, you can’t assure your 401k money will return a greater amount next year than the interest rate you paid.
So I’d look at funding myself but perhaps pulling out some this year and next could keep taxes down - but I don’t know your income/bracket so I might be off.
But given it will bring you joy, as long as it won’t impact your future, I’d go for it.
Good luck !!
Edit - reading messages after yours. What @thumper1 says.
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A good interior designer/decorator is worth their weight in gold if you can find one with whom you can communicate well/have a good rapport with.
For me, these types of decisions are at a price point where I don’t want to make errors. I’d much rather pay someone at an hourly rate and get good advice. Much cheaper than making expensive interior design mistakes that I’ll regret later.
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Can you do light-colored wood floors so the wood trim can stay?
We constantly upgrade our home and have done so for 30 years. But both DH and I enjoy the process as well as the results and he is very skilled at the work so does most of it himself which of course saves us tons of money.
I love looking around and seeing how much nicer everything is and know that it’s because of his skills and hard work.
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Yep - I paid a woman to help me decide what colors to paint the inside of our house. She was great, and allowed for some “fun” colors as part of the plan. If on my own, I would have gone for “grayge” throughout, and I’m so glad I didn’t.
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We have used the same interior decorator for many years now. She is very slow, but she has done generally a good job. Unfortunately I think she’s now retiring, but I’ve used her for so long, I never ever asked what anything cost. I just trusted her. The last thing I had her make with me was new bedding and pillow pillows, and I never asked the price of any of the fabrics or anything. That was a very expensive mistake!
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We are both still working. We financed a large portion of our projects out of our take home pay. Instead of investing into Mr.’s lousy 401k options with no match offered by his startup employer, we used what we would have normally invested plus some to replace the roof and install solar. Have a chunk of $ for bath renovation which is now really needed (broken floor tiles are covered by a bath mat etc. ), but my husband’s inertia is hard to overcome. 
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