Downsizing Your Home For Retirement

If you have always had misgivings about the McMansion life, retirement is the ideal time to break free from it.  Depending on your work situation, you might even be able to ditch your McMansion while you are still in the workforce, as long as your children have grown up and moved out of the house.  Housing costs make up a big portion of everyone’s budget, and reducing housing costs, no matter your age, can improve your financial stability.  Therefore, your plans for retirement may include selling your empty nest and moving to a smaller, less expensive house, which might be just down the street from where you live now, or it might be in another county, far from your current workplace.  Of course, there is no foolproof plan for long-term financial stability, and downsizing your empty nest might not be as easy or as lucrative as you think it will be.  For advice about managing housing costs in retirement, contact an Orlando estate planning lawyer.

Seniors Are in a Stronger Position Than Most in the Real Estate Market, but It’s Still Rough Out There

Anyone who buys a house with the intention of getting rich is in for a disappointment.  Homeownership is often a marker of financial stability and generational wealth, but homeownership requires so much work that it hardly counts as a source of passive income.  If you are planning to sell your house and buy a less expensive one, you will almost certainly spend more than you expect on the selling process and more than you expect on the buying process.  Even if the sticker price on your new house is considerably less than the sale amount of your old one, you will be lucky if you break even.  The only way to sell a house and put six figures in the bank is if you sell your house and move in rent free with relatives, or perhaps move to a well-maintained house that you have just inherited.

If Not Downsizing, Then What?

If your house feels too big and too expensive, consider adding more people.  Multigenerational households are making a comeback; besides being prohibitively expensive, the white picket fence lifestyle is too isolating.  Unless your children are well established in their careers in another city, it makes more sense for them to move in with you than it does for you to continue sending them money to pay rent.

If cash is what you and your children need the most, another option is to keep your McMansion and take out a reverse mortgage on it.  You do not have to pay a reverse mortgage during your lifetime; it only becomes due when your estate goes to probate.

Contact Gierach and Gierach About Reducing Your Housing Expenses in Retirement

An estate planning lawyer can help you sell your house and buy a less expensive one or otherwise reduce your housing expenses when you retire.  Contact Gierach and Gierach, P.A. in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

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