#6
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Where you live.
Where you're going to live.
Downsizing.
Protecting the surviving spouse.
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No one can give advice on this, but it's good to think about it anyway.
In our case, we lived in suburbia/exurbia... and compared to where we moved, the actual costs were reduced by about (today's prices) $7,000
House mortgage(extrapolated) $3000
House Taxes $2500
Entertainment, eating out... $1,000
Maintenance/services ....$500
Auto costs.... $600
Shopping/buying for house $800
That may sound like a lot, but in our case, much of the expense amounted to little more that the frills associated with living in a more upscale community, where just about everything from gas to common services like auto and house maintenance services are more expensive.
You can check out the income statistics for US communities by googling
income statistics by city.
From our original home to our current home, the average wages go from from $88K to $41K... in a distance of about 95 miles. In our case, we didn't have to sacrifice services, as is the case in some rural communities... but this is something to consider. Hospitals and specialty care becomes much more important as we age. A tough part about moving (at a later age) is the losing and replacing of social contacts. Very small communities may be somewhat closed for people who aren't naturally outgoing. We spent a fair amount of time... maybe 20 hours, riding around the new town, going into businesses, city hall, hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, govrenment offices, nursing homes, libraries, etc, etc... as well as visiting different neighborhoods, and (in our case), a community college.
If downsizing is a part of your retirement plan, and relocation is being considered, I'd suggest that you take plenty of time to make a choice.
The thought of moving farther away was at one time a consideration. A good friend made the choice to move to a South American Country in an American enclave... for the obvious reason of making the Dollar go farther. In this case it was a bad choice. He (they) could not adapt to the loss of culture and services, and returned within a year.
This is all general stuff, that you surely already knew, but frankly, I hadn't though much about. We "lucked out" in our choices... but much of that was by chance. In retrospect, I would have done more research. As it is, there are some apsects of snowbirding that can be negative, as in certain types of homeowners or condominium associations. Especially in this economy.
I'll come back to "protecting your spouse" in another post.
While I think of it, here are two of many hundreds of Senior advice sites. The first is for Senior Care... and the second, (a good source) legal advice.
Caregiving Questions | Senior Health and Legal Questions | Caring.com
http://www.uaelderlaw.org/