I hope you are all staying warm and having a good holiday! Looking forward to more retirement dreaming with you in 2018.
Hope you are warm and ready for the holidays, too, @colorado_mom! Happy upcoming new year to all!
I think we need a temporary break from all this tax and ss shortfall talk. Now, the burning question - how are the renovations at @notrichenoughās new digs going? 
The architect is working on the final layout, weāve started talking with a kitchen designer.
The big excitement right now is that the basement wall, which we knew was on bad shape, turned out to be so rotted out that our contractor was afraid the house was going to collapse. You could crumble the wood with your hand. He took time off from another job to immediately put up some temporary bracing to hold everything up. If I can figure out how on my phone Iāll post some pictures.
Dang structural supports! The prior owner of our House2 removed two large posts in the basement because they wanted the bathroom to look a certain way. We brought in a local expert to fix the mess - what a mess!
It will be exciting to see the progress, NRE.
Only partially related to current conversation;Would you use a listing agent to represent you to buy the house?
Iād say it is related as many of us will be looking/are looking to move in or in the anticipation of retirement. 
A listing agent as a dual agent? Why not. We went that route twice. Those houses were new construction homes, and we watched them being built from the foundations up. We found the homes ourselves. There was no rhyme or reason to go somewhere and look for another agent to represent us as those guys were nice and we knew the houses inside out. However, I would have never used the listing agent of our House2 as a dual agent. She was a piece of work, a snappy snake, and very dishonest. So, my advice? If the agent does not look slimy and you are comfortable with them and the house, have a independent inspection lined up, the market is slow, why not?
@igloo no.
Itās called dual agency. And many agents will no longer do this or are not allowed to do this.
Itās an inherent conflict of interest, and the agent cannot satisfy two masters.
For example: you tell the agent you are willing to pay up to $400k but will offer $375k and see how it goes.
What does that agent then tell the seller, if they are representing both parties?
ShawWife is recovering nicely from knee replacement number two, but it has put off our house looking for a while. She told me she thinks we might consider a pied-a-terre in the Boston area and a bigger place in Sausalito. Weāll see. I want to wait until the real estate market shakes out after the changes in tax law and probably harder, to figure out where the kids end up.
ShawSon just close his seed round for company number two --a little above $3 MM from Bay Area VCs. He and his partner could live in SF, Silicon Valley or LA. ShawSon doesnāt like cities and his GF works in the Valley. Partnerās GF (fiancee?) doesnāt want to live in the Valley and is in SF but doesnāt yet have a job (I think?). One of their major customer sets is in LA (the other in the Bay Area). But, I donāt see him coming back east anytime soon.
ShawD OTOH is moving to Boston for the next year. Then she and BF are contemplating six months or so of service and then moving west (SF, Seattle, Boulder). If they end up on the West Coast, that will probably make our choices easier. However, ShawD loves the little town in which we grew up and says she wants to raise her kids here. ShawSon has said the same thing, but will stay wherever it is best for his work, I would guess. It is a good place to raise kids, but ShawWife and I are glad that we could give them childhoods happy enough that theyād like to give their kids the same experience.
Hereās a more sobering look about retirement in the modern era: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-us-without-pensions-20171222-story.html.
@shawbrige - That article is a a good reminder that DH and I are doing OK. (We donāt have the annuity pensions we once envisioned. We lament the need to work a few extra years and maybe not travel as much as weād likeā¦but we wonāt worry about food / housing.)
For those that are thinking about relocation after retirement ā¦
http://www3.forbes.com/lifestyle/the-25-best-places-to-retire-in-2014/25/
Not too many places on that list that look enticing to meā¦ except Boise ID and this:
Wenatchee is awesome. Plus, WA has unlimited gift deduction for estate tax purposes. I can give it all to the kids - as long as I manage to gift it before I kick the bucket. 
@shawbridge that article was rather sad.
Hās company (contract electronics mfring) changed several times and we got āpayoutsā from pensions - which includes a $100/mo annuity payment. As the saying goes ābetter that a poke in the eye with a sharp stickā. The prior company had 401k and pension plan - the company that bought it out continued the 401k and matching. We have always taken advantage of full matching.
At my current job, after 12 months with over 1000 hours in a calendar year I am eligible for 401k with 3% matching. Many sadly are not signing upā¦but I am educating my co-workers one on one.
We converted some funds to Roth IRAs and paid the additional taxes - that is the last to be used in our nest egg.
Totally sucked that you needed 30 years for pension and no protection with plant closingā¦
" I am eligible for 401k with 3% matching. Many sadly are not signing upā¦but I am educating my co-workers one on one." - HOORAY. Itās great that you are educating co-workers. People get busy and often decide not to do 401K based on lack of research / contemplation.
I read the article as it ran in the local paper. Many of my co-workers are under that scheme as they came from that company. Typical Harry S - anything he could do to save a buck and harm workers in the process. Anything that was an asset was bad and expensive assets were worse.
I fall under āheritageā and will get my defined benefit pension (which stopped accruing a year ago), the defined contribution, and 401k. Also fortunate to get retiree medical, which will help make retirement this year possible. The same co-workers on the McDD plan donāt get retiree medical, so even though they are eligible to retire, they have to factor in insurance $$ and many wait til closer to Medicare age to go out.
Regarding dual agency, a savvy buyer can use it to their advantage. Real estate agents are human, and the prospect of a double commission often induces agents to treat their preferred offers very specially.
On the last four properties Iāve purchased I asked the listing agent to write my offer. On two of the four I believe the agent breached their duties to the sellers, to my benefit. On the other two I believe they acted ethically, but I got unexpectedly good deals.
That Forbes list of ābest places to retireā linked in #12150 reads like a bad joke. Apart from Savannah which has a certain charm (but also some negatives), thereās not a single place on that list that appeals to me, almost to the point of being a āplaces to avoidā list. Seriously, Fargo? Temperatures there are supposed to dip to -25 the next couple of nights.
Austin would be a possibility. Tucson is beautiful but I could only be there in the winter (rejected already by ShawWife). Seriously, Morgantown, WV or Abilene, TX? Even Las Cruces NM, which I would probably like. My uncle and aunt retired to Charlestown SC, which is charming but Iād run out of people to talk to pretty quickly, I suspect.
I do worry as our leaders go about dismantling support for the poor, Medicaid, Medicare, and SS about the kind of society we will live in. Feels like one of those dystopian universes in the stories my kids like. I wonder if weāll end up taking my wife up on moving to Canada (and I hate the cold).
Shawbridge, Vancouver BC is not that cold! It is just slightly cooler than Seattle. And possibly cooler, too.
Iāve been to Boise, and it is not a bad place. Wenatchee is awesome for outdoorsy folks who do not crave nightlife and big city lights. The rest of the listā¦ what a depressing bunch.