I literally can stay a month at this place paying what I paid for a week here, so I think scratch the idea of buying anything here long term. The only nice thing about another place is you don’t have to pack. But we just have a hand carrying luggage anyway.
I also don’t want to be gone too long, 6 months is too long for me, maybe 1-2 months at most, I do miss my home and garden, and I’m not even a homebody.
Having great neighbors is terrific.
A hired property manager can do things unprofessional/illegal. A hired handy man may be great for a while, even a number of years and then resort to crime.
I always want the security of having close neighbors. I think less likely something horrible happening - or the start of something which could become horrible has been averted due to some neighbor intervention.
During our home construction, appliances were delivered by not installed. Home was completely locked up. It was a rainy day, and some day laborers from another job site threaded through to our home. Next door neighbor’s back porch faces our side door - and she went out and said ‘what are you trying to do there?’ - they were trying to pry open a casement window. They went around the house, and the other neighbor was just going out of her front door with her dogs to walk her dogs. They fled. At the time we were in the county, and I asked the sheriff’s office to occasionally drive by, especially on work days that are rainy.
This week, an older couple in an established neighborhood had their handy man and another man do a late afternoon daytime invasion - cut up the wife (she was in ICU but they expect a full recovery) and they took the man – I think they panicked. Neighbors reported the vehicle that sped away with the man and the police captured the men with the victim unharmed in a short time. I found out about it on Next Door – that evening it happened. Media story about the arrest came 2 days later. The criminals were from a nearby town, and the handy man did have an arrest before, while the other had a long rap sheet.
We are a community outside a bigger city. the bigger city has more issues. Our police force is responsive.
Just have to be very cautious.
That is just terrible!
My goodness, this is why I don’t hire anybody to do anything.
My vacation place is in an area where half the residences are seasonal. I have been going there for nearly thirty years and have never heard of a caretaker assaulting a client. Most caretakers where we are make a good living as do many of those involved in the building trades. They are honest and hard working. I’m sure there are a few bad apples. I like to have a more positive view of people and don’t assume everyone who works for me will eventually rip me off or assault me.
Wow, @SOSConcern.
@DrGoogle123, we hire lots of people. To my knowledge, we haven’t had theft ever. We screened the current general contractor for our current renovation very carefully, but have no control of the trades. We have or have had a housekeeper, cleaners, a pool maintenance guy, a nanny, a studio assistant for my wife. The cleaner has a key to the house (as did the housekeeper and nanny). My EA has the keys to our house for when we are away and is detailed knowledge of our finances. She pays our bills (though only I can sign checks). But, we screen people including the EA, very carefully. Systems are in place to prevent bad things happening, but the most important thing is finding good people and treating them well.
At times, we have had repair people try to overcharge us. Because ShawD is very social and very generous, she is often responsible for getting folks who work well for us other clients. Someone who overcharges once will lose our business and probably will probably lose business as a result.
We don’t have a caretaker at a house we co-own, but if we did buy a house in a warm climate for winter, we would probably assemble a team there to help us both when we are there and when we are gone.
duplicate
Got a bit more of the story, as someone posted the police incident report on Next Door. It had been called in as a burglary (probably by a neighbor, but maybe by the injured lady) - and on arrival police learned a professional acquaintance had harassed and assaulted the lady - and she was transported to the hospital with expectation of having a full recovery. Police Officers quickly identified and located the offenders.
I suspect they kept the lady overnight in ICU due to age/medical issues beyond where she was cut. Other sources said the two offenders had knives.
I know that our city’s police came out with a number of police cars once they located the offenders.
It certainly has a number of residents ‘shook up’ over this. The one guy had been a handy man for them for several years.
Like many others on this thread, we’ve used a number of people over the years. We are always cautious at first and would never leave anyone unknown to us in our house ( or give anyone keys even long term cleaners). We’ve had no incidences other than people trying to charge us more than the going rate. We are also fair and get the scope up front. Most of our service people we’ve had for many years. The one area we’ve had an issue with has been landscaping. Has been overly expensive and difficult over the last 4 years. Prior to that, we had someone for ten years.
We usually have service people for about 10 years at which point they move on or sell their businesses.
If I get a bad gut feeling about someone, we won’t use them. Works for me.
Let’s get off the topic of caregivers please.
“How much do you think you need to retire” - obviously with aging, other costs - and hired help comes into place. Many on this thread are also on the thread “Parents Caring for Parents Support Thread”. Personal caretakers/health/safety sometimes ‘overlaps’ or needs similar screening with other hired help.
Just like there are financial risks current and future, there are other risks that affect our health/life longevity. So retiring with enough financial security while also having the health to do ‘bucket list’ or things you wanted to do but couldn’t do because of work commitments/family schedule.
I just celebrated a year not working, while DH has been retired since 11/2020. DH left his job 10 months prior to planned due to difficult boss (a non-engineer who didn’t know how to manage at that level) while I hung in and carried the health insurance up to turning 65 which was after he turned 65, which saved us a substantial amount from COBRA.
Made the transitions with all the health insurance, transitioned with cash flow from annuities, ‘watching the markets’ and portion of portfolio in a slump, grocery shopping more carefully. ‘Shopped out of my closet’ - including passing two new/unworn pair of shoes to DD (she was thrilled). Made it a point to get all our medical stuff in order at the first of the year - and had a lot of various MD and other appointments/tests/procedures. Regular gym/swim (plan day to get that in).
The Medicare out of pocket for drug expenses law that kicks in 2025 will be a help to many on limiting total drug costs/year per person. Wish it went into place sooner!! Right now will have to review current drug list for DH to change his drug plan due to being on a drug that is not generic yet and has a high out of pocket cost by us (Pharmacy ‘approved’ cost per month, one pill a day, is $550 a month) - and his current plan has had it become costly due to that plan not covering costs as well as other plans – since he was put on the medication after January - we had no way to analyze a plan review for current year drug plan. I will check on my drug plan too just to see if I want to change mine - my drugs haven’t changed.
For us, everything has taken time and somewhat comfortable gradual adjusting. With what we all are involved with in community, how some can switch from working to busy traveling and/or adding second home or going to 24/7 RV. I know some plan - and have things going for a while, getting out of local community participation gradually while picking up their 2nd home or vacation home. I know there sometimes is a level of motivation - and one just focuses on the ‘tasks at hand’ to meet a particular goal.
Some with working from home can do another location pretty well - neither DH or I had that option (DH with production plant or work travel to other manufacturing sites, me in service industry/nursing). DD2 can work from home some - so when she saved on airline expenses, she worked from our home so she could attend a wedding while also squeezing in time with us and DD1/family.
Agree that expenditures change in retirement and paying for help is a large part of it. We’re not yet retired but are planning it post College for our kids. We are cutting expenses. Some of them are things we’ve always paid to have someone do, like landscaping which has reached a crazy number.
We’re looking at a second home. But I think we’ll actually come down to just traveling a lot and maybe renting by the month. The details of owning (for us would be in Europe) are overwhelming. But we’ve still not decided. Depends a lot on our kids. Our kids love travel but I think both will do college and graduate school at a minimum so that might also impact where we buy, if we buy a second place. We live in MA, and it’s very cold in the Winter but beautiful in the Summer, Fall and Spring by the ocean.
We’re stating to think about all those things. We’ve paid for health insurance for many years when both of us were self employed. The cost was staggering. I need to get a better handle on the markets as well. I thought the downturn was going to be a blip. It isn’t. Might look at buying something to rent to cushion inflation. Our house has gone up a ton in value in just 4 years but we don’t plan to sell it. We already downsized once and plan to stay here for the next 30+ years. Might have to put in an elevator at some point.
Good points above. I’ll mention one thing that makes us rest easier during retirement in a volatile market. Our Financial Advisor set up a monthly “paycheck” from our investment accounts ==> checking account.
This is important to us since our pensions are much lower than originally hoped for, and we rely a lot on earnings from investments and 401k/IRA. Certainly an individual could set up similar setup own. The idea is to have a long term strategy to still get “paid” even when the market is down.
Our FA set up auto deposits from our investment accounts to coincide with SS payments. So, we get “paid” every two weeks same as when we were working.
Love the idea of a “paycheck” That would certainly keep me from overspending. Otherwise, what’s to stop someone from dipping into the 401K every time they “need” money.
We get a monthly paycheck through our financial planner, who also withholds & remits the state & federal taxes. We found out quickly that we didn’t need as much money as we thought we might, so we requested a smaller paycheck. If we have a large purchase in the future, we’ll let the planner know as far in advance as possible so that he can determine the best way/time to withdraw that amount. We have a good savings cushion in the bank, so we have not needed to do that.
Better watch out–residential elevators need maintenance and those maintenance people are likely to be serial killers.
Lol. Good one. We’ve never had any issues with anyone. But I’m thinking if it ever comes to it, those moving stairs where you sit down and it takes you up. My Dad’s 86 and can still get up the stairs no problem.
One of my kids friends has an elevator and it was never working. Plus imagine getting stuck in it. Yikes.
Stairs may be good for your health and longevity.
Dan Buettner: What Are The Secrets of Centenarians? : NPR includes this quote about the high density of centenarians in the highlands of Sardinia: “The Sardinians live in vertical houses up and down the stairs. Every trip to the store or to church or to the friend’s house occasions a walk.”
My 95 year old MIL keeps asking us when we’re going to move into a place with just one floor. Neither H nor I have any issues with stairs, and we are only 62 & 64. We keep assuring her that if we reach the point where we can’t climb stairs, we’ll deal with it then.