Retirement Flexibility: Every day is like...

Lots of retirees say, "every day is like every other day" to describe availability for, well, just about everything.

Today, Tom Bold and I reached one of those days. We left home on a trip to look at a possible relocation city to escape wintry weather. And we ran into wintry weather.

It took only a few minutes to pull out the map and re-route our travel along a warmer route. (Same destination but different driving hours, to be sure.)

What did we learn?

First, we were able to re-route without a concern because we could easily (easily!) reschedule our activites. No "must-be-back" worries (as long as I reserve 2/3 of the day to maintain my work schedule, combining on-the-road computing with in-the-hotel computing).

Second, the events of the day underscored our purpose. Escaping wintry weather.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

Three Realtors on Staging

I put on shoulder pads for the realtors. Not Bea Arthur shoulder pads, but shoulder pads nonetheless.

I also stripped the house of clutter and (most of) personal paraphernalia. I knew I could not reach the level of "staging the house" but I desperately needed to communicate that I knew the basics even though I do not.

Our three prospective realtors made these comments about staging.

Realtor #1: Well, you might try hanging a decoration on the front door.

Realtor #2: To price the house where I want it to be, you'll need to hire a stager. That's $3000 to $5000 depending on what they have to bring in.

Realtor #3: We pay the stager. She works for us.

All three said the barn door hangers could stay in the house. I'll explain that another day.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

Transition Decisions

It's one thing to talk about making this year a transition year for retirement and relocation. It's another thing to start casting the talk as decisions. Any one thing can take you to the point of making decisions. For me, it was seeing 3 realtor appointments lined up for one very busy afternoon.

The appointments in question are with realtors in our current town. Why even visit potential next towns if we aren't sure the current house can be sold? That's a new concept for us. All previous moves (into 4 houses across 30 years) were prompted by employment decisions. So, moving was a next step—not an initial step.

Our old concept also involved an important assumption: of course, our house would sell. All houses sold. We were part of the mobile society. Just as we needed to move for employment, others were doing the same. And a goodly number were coming to the place we were leaving. The longest we ever waited for a sale was 5 months. And that was the darkest house we ever had. And that's what potential buyers always said... it's just too dark. Two price drops later, it wasn't too dark.

Of course, this year is different. We make no assumptions about all houses having buyers. The Great Recession is a major reason. But there's another: our society is not so mobile anymore and that slow-down occurred long before our current economic ills. Our society is aging (thanks to us boomers) and when that happens, people just don't move around as much. So, society is less mobile and actually Tom Bold and I haven't made a cross-country move in more than 20 years.

Lucky for us, our daughter told us about HGTV. Now, of course, I knew that such a cable channel existed. (I'm not sure that Tom Bold knew but, after all, this is the man who made it to 2006 before he saw his first 10-minute Oprah segment.) I just had never tuned in to the house shows.

Let me tell you. I am now educated. I know about unsellable houses, interventions (different sort than I knew about before), getting it sold (they don't even have to explain the it because everyone knows what isn't selling), and staging. Oh, my, staging is quite the rage.

We have transformed from the mobile society to the staging society.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

Transition Questions

Transition year. Some of the leading boomers—born 1946 and not yet officially at retirement age—are transitioning to retirement by choice or lay-off. The old prediction was that when the leading boomers retired in 2011, the economy would slow and all of the U.S. would begin to feel the effects of this life stage of the big cohort. But instead of causing a change in the economy, boomers are responding to one. With the Great Recession, net worths dropped, careers ended before anticipated, and (for some) bankruptcy loomed due to mortgage foreclosure.

So, 2010 is a different transition than we imagined. The standard questions were supposed to be:
(a) What date should we set for the last day at work?
(b) How should we re-balance the 401K?
(c) When should we move to the perfect climate?

For Tom and me, those questions are replaced with:
(a) How will we bridge health insurance from now to Medicare?
(b) Does our house value allow us to make a move?
(c) Is a retirement location's cost-of-living more important than climate, now?

So? COBRA ends soon and we'll move on to private insurance or high risk pool. We don't know how house values have held up in our neighborhood but we'll talk to realtors soon. And cost-of-living must be balanced with climate... but climate remains important.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

Transition before Event. Of course.

A demographer would have spotted it... I didn't until I got right up to the edge.

For the past decade I have pegged 2011 as a turning point year. That's because it's the year that the country's first official baby boomers reach the classic retirement age and presumably make decisions that will affect the whole of society simply by nature of their numbers. I'm not in that cohort but Tom Bold is, so I have had a personal perspective on the upcoming turning point.

You've no doubt realized what I'm writing about today. The transition never starts in the event year. It starts a year before, or even more. So, of course, the first boomers are already unemployed (if not officially retired), already moving, already realigning insurance of all types, and already moving their money.

Granted, the Great Recession prompted and accelerated some of these things. But a goodly number of the decisions we are now making are the 2011 decisions. Transition begun.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.