Would like pre-retirement advice

[Memere]

Hello...I'm so glad I found this site. I will be retiring at 66 1/2 in 6 years. My husband will take early (62) retirement this coming January. After we are both retired we will move to North Carolina to be near the kids. Our current home is paid off. My drive to work is becoming a problem. We live in a very busy area of Florida and the 26-mile drive to my work is taking me longer and longer to get there and get home. Drive time can be 1 hour to 2 1/2 hours or more. I'm not sure I'll be able to do that drive in a few years as I get older and the area grows even more. It gets very stressful and it's exhausting. My children want me to sell our home now, buy a home in NC, rent it to someone, use that money for us to rent a home near my work. Sounds great however I'm worried about the increase in income. Moving now is not an option. My job is a fantastic job and I won't leave it. I would appreciate any and all suggestions! Thank you!

 

[flintnational]

Welcome to the forum. While it might be a good idea to sell your current home and rent closer to work, I would not buy a home in another state until I was ready to move. Long distance rentals can be a headache. Park the money in a CD. Or, with 6 years until retirement you could put some of the money in a balanced fund until you move closer to the kids.

 

[joeea]

My children want me to sell our home now, buy a home in NC, rent it to someone, use that money for us to rent a home near my work.

It makes sense to rent somewhere nearer your work to cut down your commute.

But purchasing a home in NC now doesn't make much sense to me.

Sell your home. Invest the proceeds. Rent to cut down your commute.

In 6 years when you approach retirement, start looking at homes where you want to live. A lot can change in 6 years - relatives move, your personal and physical needs change. There's no need to commit to a home now that may not be suitable when you need it.

 

[Dtail]

It makes sense to rent somewhere nearer your work to cut down your commute.

But purchasing a home in NC now doesn't make much sense to me.

Sell your home. Invest the proceeds. Rent to cut down your commute.

In 6 years when you approach retirement, start looking at homes where you want to live. A lot can change in 6 years - relatives move, your personal and physical needs change. There's no need to commit to a home now that may not be suitable when you need it.

+1

 

[pb4uski]

It makes sense to rent somewhere nearer your work to cut down your commute.

But purchasing a home in NC now doesn't make much sense to me.

Sell your home. Invest the proceeds. Rent to cut down your commute.

In 6 years when you approach retirement, start looking at homes where you want to live. A lot can change in 6 years - relatives move, your personal and physical needs change. There's no need to commit to a home now that may not be suitable when you need it.

+1 who knows where your kids will be in 6 years.... stuff happens. Sell your home and then either buy or rent a condo/townhouse closer to your work... then reassess in 6 years if/when you retire.

 

[Red Badger]

Either buy in NC ASAP or hope for a recession. Houses are going for asking price (+). I'm in the LKN area, but this holds true for most of NC except maybe the eastern rural lowlands.

Anyway, best wishes with your first world problems. They're the best kind.

 

[Memere]

Lake Norman? Looking at Statesville. I'm confident my kids won't leave NC and we are so tired of Florida. The heat, the traffic, the snowbirds, hurricanes...dealing with this since 1989. Homes are going up in NC fast! Thank you for your response.

 

[Aerides]

If moving now isn't an option for personal reasons, have you considered asking for a day or two each week to work from home?

I had a 40 mile commute, which was fortunately mostly highway, but still an hour each way. By going WAH at least one day a week, it helped a lot. Even better when it was twice a week.

Can you flex your hours a bit so that you're missing the bulk of rush hour one way or the other? Or say you left the office at 3 each day and took later calls from home. I'm sure you've considered this, but perhaps a highway/toll route that adds a few miles could shave off a lot of minutes (for me I went the full length of the sawgrass + turnpike at one end, $4 a day on tolls, but the alternative was 20 mins more driving).

Do you love your car? If you're definitely staying for 6 more years, make that commute as comfortable as possible. Try audiobooks, podcasts, satellite radio, etc.
Once DH retires, his "job" might be to pack you a nice lunch and a latte for the road each morning.

Just some "quality of life" ideas to somewhat ease the burden in the meantime.

 

[DrRoy]

You could rent out your current home and then get a rental closer to work.

 

[joeea]

Either buy in NC ASAP or hope for a recession. Houses are going for asking price (+). I'm in the LKN area, but this holds true for most of NC except maybe the eastern rural lowlands.

That's today. And today is irrelevant.

In six years nobody knows what the real estate market will be.

 

[Alan]

+1 who knows where your kids will be in 6 years.... stuff happens. Sell your home and then either buy or rent a condo/townhouse closer to your work... then reassess in 6 years if/when you retire.

That is pretty well exactly what we did 6 years before retiring. It was pretty nice to have a 5 minute commute, no house maintenance etc. For us it turned out to be a nice glide path into ER.

 

[imoldernu]

Whatever... Keep it simple.

 

[chris2008]

I'd probably rent a small apartment close to work to use during the week if you love the house / neighborhood for the weekend.

From Feb. DH could join you for some days/week there or stay at the house.
When you retire you can better take a decision on your forever home than now.
Good luck!

 

[gauss]

My children want me to sell our home now, buy a home in NC, rent it to someone, use that money for us to rent a home near my work. Sounds great however I'm worried about the increase in income. Moving now is not an option. My job is a fantastic job and I won't leave it. I would appreciate any and all suggestions! Thank you!

Why not rent near work now, not buy a home in NC and either sell/rent or idle the current home in FL?

Seems like this would solve many of your issues.

If your "Moving now is not an option" means not leaving your current home, then this would not work. (It could also mean not moving to NC now). If this is the case, are there any type of vanpools or other non-traditional transportation options to get you to/from work?

-gauss

 

[mystang52]

Shut this thread down, now. Advice already given has been great.

 

[CaliKid]

I'd sell now and rent near work for sure. Will make the next 6 years much more bearable. It's the top of the market in most places. Put that money in the bank! It's expensive to own a house even if it's paid off. Your timing should be good in 6 years as the prices should be down. Obviously, wild guess but I am looking at history with that guess. Prices tend to go up and down and right now they are most definitely up it seems.

 

[Aerides]

Shut this thread down, now. Advice already given has been great.

Since when has that stopped us? lol

 

[brett]

Now is the time to downsize.

Then sell your home. Rent closer to your place of employment.

Invest the proceeds-why buy now?

Spend your time carefully considering what type of home you want to buy and where. Start shopping for home in your target retirement area 9 months out from your target move date. Take your time.

We rented for four years. It was a good decision for us. It was supposed to be short term but that six month lease ended up being 48 months.

It paid off in spades financially. We found that our 'want' changed over time. Even if you do not find the right home in your target retirement area you can always rent. It will give you the advantage of being more familiar with the area and it will be easier to 'shop'.

 

[Koolau]

We bought in our proposed retirement area 20+ years before retirement and almost 25 years before we moved there. It worked out for us, but there were plenty of opportunities for it to go VERY badly for us. We definitely didn't come out financially on the deal. Still, I'd say we were lucky. We didn't take a big loss or have really bad experiences with renters.

AND then we only lived there 2 years before moving to another house in the retirement location. But that was always a possibility and was in the "plan."

Not saying NOT to do it. Just saying that 6 years is a long time, rentals can be tricky, kids CAN and DO move - even when they say they will not. Only you can answer your question for you since YMMV.

 

[Badger]

If the profit of a home sale exceeds the tax exemption it may be a good idea to consider renting an apartment closer to work and renting the home until you are ready to move to NC and buy another house.


Of course if the housing market experiences a hit like in 2006-08 this idea may not be as good an idea but few can accurately predict the future.



Cheers!

 

[cathy63]

I also think keeping the current home for a while and renting an apartment near work is a good plan. If you do this for more than 3 years, then sell, you will fail the "primary residence for last 2 of 5 years" test that allows you to exclude up to $500K of the capital gains from your taxes, so you need to plan carefully and make the final decision to sell before you reach the 5 year mark. At that time, you'd be close enough to retirement that it might make more sense to buy near your kids and use that last year or so to do whatever remodeling might be needed or wanted before making the final move.