Hi Tiny, it seems you are indeed in a good situation. To be able to have so much time with the kids at their age is enviable. For us the budget was very tight during those years but the memories were great.
I guess my one possible concern is your mom's situation. When you say "my mom whose mind/health is going bad" I'm assuming dementia. Having gone through my mom's dementia and now my dad I was fairly oblivious to how my life would be affected. There are expenses and demands on time that I didn't understand. Also, if she requires a facility for care/health reasons, is there one close by or would you have to travel far to see her? Could this affect where you want to live?
You seem very bright so maybe you've thought this through as well. Just wanted to add something to the thought process.
Thank you so much for the encouragement, and I am trying not to take it for granted our great situation. I am sorry to hear about your parents and it seems to be a path that many of us have to cross, supporting our family. Came sooner for us than we anticipated.
Money is not an issue for both sets of parents which is very fortunate, but yes, my mom’s health is not good and mind not as clear. It is one of the main drivers for us to get out there to spend as much time as we can helping, and we would prefer to be her long term care (for dad too) then put them in a “home”. Thankfully, my wife was in medicine/health, and so we are honored to do what we can to help, but I imagine it will be hard, and the next 10 years will bring some challenges that I’ve never faced. But I don’t want to waste any opportunity. That’s why I’m willing to pack up my family and I have a very minimal and alternative lifestyle to be close to them. They raised me, so I want to be there for them, and they worked hard and so they will never let us go hungry. It’s a very amiable situation, even though we would never ask of anything from them and they don’t help us financially. We will do the same for our kids, and hope they would do that for us. To be honest, once we are done helping here, it’s possible that we would do the same for my wife’s parents, and we have lots of other family, it’s kind of crazy to think about, but we want to spend the time supporting others, lots of people need help.
You should see how happy my parents are around my kids, it’s good for everyone, it’s a wonderful bond between generations, and it’s good for my kids to see us serving them and sacrificing. I would continue on living my normal city lifestyle, but this is the adventure ahead of us, and we are actually really excited.