<p>We will most likely stay in NJ. Our D (only) has landed a teaching job so for now she will be near us. I would like to spend the month of February every year somewhere other than NJ just to limit the winter. I need to figure an affordable way to go on a months vacation. No RV or 2nd home for me. I like nice hotels.</p>
<p>Youngest (S1) graduates HS in 3 years (we may be under 1000 days!) and I joke we will put the house on the market that spring because our property taxes are crazy. Likely we will wait 1-2 years, however I do want to retire before 55. My biggest concern is health care costs/coverage and the fear of running out of money. </p>
<p>We already have a vacation house that can be used April-November, so we need to find the winter location where we fit in. Neither H, not I are from NJ, so there’s no family connection. Expect D1 will go to grad school out of state and not come back. No clue where S1 will end up, so it’s hard to plan that.</p>
<p>"… because our property taxes are crazy."</p>
<p>Crazy like $400/month? Or utterly nuts, like $500/month?<br>
[Full disclosure: my MIL pays $84/month on her home. Of course it’s a larger house on a corner lot … her neighbors pay less.]</p>
<p>^LOL, if only property taxes were that low. We pay less than anyone I know and it’s more than that. A similar house in many other towns would have property taxes of $2000 a month. That’s why so many NYers whine that $200,000 is really middle class.</p>
<p>I used to think the perfect retirement would be an apartment in Manhattan with a doorman. Actually, I still think it, but real estate went so crazy that it’s not even something to dream about. Next best might be an apartment near a train station so I could get into NYC.</p>
<p>My father had a second retirement career followed by an actual retirement in Lexington VA and loved it. He lived on the outskirts of town on a farm, rented it out the stable to someone with horses and tried his hand at growing grapes. The college town meant lots of professors to interact with. He liked the military types at VMI having been at the War College in DC for several years. Eventually though their friends started passing away, my Dad had various health issues and rattling around in a big house on a farm was a burden. They moved up north to be in the same town as my brother - my Dad never could figure out why they went where the weather was colder rather than the weather was warmer.</p>
<p>His parents had moved to Florida, but I’d never ever do that. It’s great for a visit, but I really don’t like it at all.</p>
<p>^ Well sure mathmom, $2,000 a month in property taxes on a 6 BR 5 BA 8,000 SQ.FT mansion in a gated community … I can see that. How many acres is that house on?</p>
<p>You’re being funny, right, NewHope33? I see you’re in CT, so you must have a good idea of property taxes in nj2011mom’s state. I thought you were serious for a while.</p>
<p>Property taxes in Westchester can be $30,000 a year on a relatively modest home. I don’t know how normal people can do that.</p>
<p>^^ Yes, of course. I’ve found that people outside the Northeast (and California) have a hard time comprehending how expensive NJ is. I was watching one of those house-hunting shows tonight. The couple was looking in NJ, and after seeing several properties the husband laments “We’ve got a million dollar budget, and all we’re seeing is fixer-uppers.”</p>
<p>In Bronxville (Westchester) 10 years ago one of my clients was paying $20,000 a year in taxes for a house on a lot that was 100’ x 200’. There were three bedrooms, two full baths (minimal size 5’ x 7’), one tiny powder room under the stairs. Living room, dining room (which we axed to make an eat in kitchen), porch (which we enclosed), no attic and because it was built on ledge there wasn’t even a full basement. There was a one car garage built into the hill. There are very few gated communities around here in the older suburbs.</p>
<p>My dream would be stay here in our custom built home (that we adore) most of the year, spend Jan and Feb in Naples FLA and July and August in New England. Ha,ha. We could do that maybe if we give up our travel dreams. Time will tell. So far, our children are here and I’d love to be able to help babysit grands some day.</p>
<p>We’re in our early 50’s and face lengthy college payolas for our two girls (thru grad school). So we’ll be working for quite a while, easily another 10-12 years. To be honest, I don’t see us ‘retiring’. We’re both into technology and since our pensions were long ago converted to 401k’s, we could be there for a while.</p>
<p>There are two schools of thought. Mrs. Turbo wants to keep the current Walmart sized house as an empty nest / museum / … into retirement. We’re in a nice community and all that but I don’t see us doing so. Other theories floated include an urban highrise in one of my favorite cities, especially if our younger one ends up in college there (Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, DC) and of course the perennial Florida retiree thing. </p>
<p>Since I have an old apartment in Bornyasherk, the capital of my home country (Elbonia :)) we could live there part time but medical care and, ehem, frequent demonstrations make it less than desirable. Likewise Mrs. Turbo’s large family back in her Asian country is not conducive to retiring there :). I would not mind retiring abroad overall, just not in my birth country and not in hers. </p>
<p>But the bottom line is that it’s not going to be some desolate place, retiree haven, or somewhere West.</p>
<p>It’s kind of nice that our home is pretty smallish (3 bedrooms, 2 baths), so it doesn’t feel we are “rattling around” in it. Access to good (if unfortunately not GREAT) medical care at least exists here. When our kids settle for good, may have to re-evaluate where we want to live, but for now, we’re happy here.</p>
<p>I thought of looking into purchasing a timeshare that we could use to go away a month at a time. Since I hear so many horror stories about them I neve really get serious but I still wonder if that would meet my need to go away for the month of February.</p>
<p>Tom:</p>
<p>We have owned timeshares (we now have two weeks in Hilton Head, a week in Aruba, and a week in Las Vegas) since the early 90s. It works very well for us. Now is a great time to buy a time share because the prices are low and many of them are being given away. However, time sharing can be very complicated and you need to spend some time understanding the various systems. Only buy timeshares managed by reputable companies like Marriott or Hilton. Never buy from the developer. Look at the prices on eBay.</p>
<p>If you are really interested spend some time on a website aimed at time share owners called tug2atnet.com. Substitute @ for at in the URL. Get knowledgeable before making a purchase.</p>
<p>My property taxes are close to $24,000 - yes, $2000/month for 3000+sf on 1/3 acre lot that’s probably worth $850-900k. On the train line to NYC and OK, not perfect, school system. </p>
<p>I would stay away from buying a timeshare. We had one decades ago and the maintenance fees will add up - if you find one you like, you can always rent it for less than the cost of ownership. There are also plenty of places in warmer locales that have monthly rentals. (I also highly recommend tug2atnet.com. We sold our timeshare through that site. You can also find rentals there)</p>
<p>My spouse asked “How can we afford San Francisco?” The answer (for us) was short-term rentals. This one site alone lists 3,871 possibles:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.airbnb.com/search?c=srch_sf_vac&location=San+Francisco&af=173684&gclid=CKzVjomQ6rECFYLb4AodK0oAmA[/url]”>https://www.airbnb.com/search?c=srch_sf_vac&location=San+Francisco&af=173684&gclid=CKzVjomQ6rECFYLb4AodK0oAmA</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>For us retirement plan #2 (after making sure we’d have money at retirement) was purchasing LTC insurance. My Mom’s expenses for care for her Alzheimers are about 1/2 million dollars over the last 3 1/2 years … no way she could be in her assisted living care situation without LTC. The even worse scenario would be if one of us has an accident is severely disabled (think paralyzed in a car accident at 60). We’re not big believers in insurance however we do have LTC to cover a catastrophic event … we’re doing fine financially but we do not have the funds to self-insure against a catastrophy.</p>
<p>Personally, I prefer the flexibility to come & go, as well as stay when & where we please without having the maintenance fees connected with a timeshare (that can be quite high). With PriceLine and Hotwire, you can make amazingly low and good deals with either site and get some amazing deals. Some hotels even have rooms with kitchens, suites, and serve breakfast daily and dinner with alcohol several Monday through Thursday, which is an additional savings.</p>
<p>Wow, nj2011mom! My two houses in NJ have less than half those taxes when added up! Of course, they’re worth less than half when added up, maybe more like a third. For that kind of money, you should have a better than OK school system!</p>
<p>My retirement plan is to continue working until I am kicked out. I cannot imagine anything out there that would provide more entertainment at the age when everything is getting progressively more and more boring. “Over 50” has been so long ago, I do not remember what I was up to, where did I work, seems to be another life…</p>