Retirement Plans and Dreams

[WarrenB]

Living in my house on the golf course. Which I already own and is paid for as of now.  Taking mini vacation w wife or buddies 

[Sandy Divot]

On ‎1‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 4:05 PM, dennyjones said:

Good luck with that!

I was wondering if Savannah was far enough up the river where the hurricanes wouldn't be as bad as the coast.

[FlyingAce]

I currently live in NM too!  My husband and I moved from Michigan 7 years ago (originally from CA) and I will NEVER EVER move back to Michigan, even if it's the only place on earth that has golf.  And I am a winter person - I ski 4 months out of the year.  I love snow and cold weather, but not the Michigan kind.  All I could remember about Michigan summer is how humid it is.  The thunderstorms, hail, rain, etc.  That's why it's so green there. Everything I kept in the basement storage had mold and my joint pain were worse when I lived in Michigan v. now in NM.  Fall is nice, but I can live without it...

DO NOT MOVE TO MICHIGAN!

Edited March 29, 2019 by FlyingAce

[boogielicious]

I wonder if @dennyjones knows about this! 

25 minutes ago, FlyingAce said:

DO NOT MOVE TO MICHIGAN!

 

[dennyjones]

1 minute ago, boogielicious said:

I wonder if @dennyjones knows about this! 

 

I can't argue against his post too much..  Almost everyone in Michigan has sinus issues and/or arthritis, the doctors will tell people to move to Arizona.   Mold in the basement is real but that is what dehumidifiers are used for.   Unless you are in northern LP or the UP, we don't get enough snow to ski or do much during the winter, even hockey on the ponds is sketchy at times.   The spring and fall here are spectacular though, that's why I'm thinking about being a snow bird.   

[FlyingAce]

My retirement has to include skiing during the winter months.

Golf was not in my life until a few years ago.  My husband and I visit Hawaii every year and we'd stay in resorts with beautiful golf courses.  We thought it'd be nice to learn the game and someday, maybe we can play while on vacation.  So, I found some cheap lessons from Groupon and started my journey.  Fast forward to now.  I am hooked and I see myself playing golf in retirement.  I play 5 days a week between April-November, and move to the mountains to ski 5 days a week between December-March.  Retirement is quite a few years away for my husband. We have no kids or family obligations.  I think I am retired, but my husband prefers that I tell people I am "willfully unemployed" until he retires too.  Anyway, we were just talking about retirement and here's our plan:  We will have a home base in the West with nice weather.  During the winter months, we'd get a rental for 4 months to ski, then return to our base for golf the rest of the year. 

We can either stay in NM or we can move back to CA.  We never sold our CA home when we left for MI/NM and rented it out all these years. It is almost paid off so we can always fall back in that home for retirement.  The weather is nice in NM but the issue is how difficult it is to travel - there are no direct flights to anywhere we want to go.  We have to layover somewhere and it cost us both time and money and we don't want to keep doing that.  We also tried out this renting-for-the-winter idea the last 3 seasons.  We found a furnished rental and I stayed there almost full time to ski. It worked out pretty well so I think we will continue to do that in the foreseeable future.  We originally wanted to buy a ski cabin, but we'd only use it for 4 months out of the year and it's a pain to deal with renters and maintain the place, so we axed that idea. And by renting, we are not limited to one ski resort.  We can move around and try different places every year.

So we thought we got it all planned out, but we recently went to Scottsdale AZ and FELL IN LOVE with it.  So, all of a sudden, we have a new option. I started looking at homes in the area and boy, are they expensive!  Not only are homes in Scottsdale expensive, but so is golf!  What I then realized is besides deciding on where to live, we have to plan for where to golf too! And include a healthy budget for it.   Now in NM, golf is relatively inexpensive.  Our golf club membership only cost $350/mth and it will go up to $600/mth once we hit 46, and that's for unlimited golf.  While looking in AZ, there are definitely no "unlimited" golf clubs that's close to what we are paying now, and pay per play is not really an option when we plan to play at least 4 times a week.  So now, we are looking into homes in golf communities that does not cost a kidney to join and there aren't that many.  We will be heading to Scottsdale next month to scout out communities/golf clubs so we can have a better idea of where we can afford to live and play golf regularly.

In the end, our plan is to figure out a location for retirement and buy a house now, so by the time we retire, the house will be paid off already. 

Edited March 29, 2019 by FlyingAce

[dennyjones]

37 minutes ago, FlyingAce said:

My retirement has to include skiing during the winter months.

Golf was not in my life until a few years ago.  My husband and I visit Hawaii every year and we'd stay in resorts with beautiful golf courses.  We thought it'd be nice to learn the game and someday, maybe we can play while on vacation.  So, I found some cheap lessons from Groupon and started my journey.  Fast forward to now.  I am hooked and I see myself playing golf in retirement.  I play 5 days a week between April-November, and move to the mountains to ski 5 days a week between December-March.  Retirement is quite a few years away for my husband. We have no kids or family obligations.  I think I am retired, but my husband prefers that I tell people I am "willfully unemployed" until he retires too.  Anyway, we were just talking about retirement and here's our plan:  We will have a home base in the West with nice weather.  During the winter months, we'd get a rental for 4 months to ski, then return to our base for golf the rest of the year. 

We can either stay in NM or we can move back to CA.  We never sold our CA home when we left for MI/NM and rented it out all these years. It is almost paid off so we can always fall back in that home for retirement.  The weather is nice in NM but the issue is how difficult it is to travel - there are no direct flights to anywhere we want to go.  We have to layover somewhere and it cost us both time and money and we don't want to keep doing that.  We also tried out this renting-for-the-winter idea the last 3 seasons.  We found a furnished rental and I stayed there almost full time to ski. It worked out pretty well so I think we will continue to do that in the foreseeable future.  We originally wanted to buy a ski cabin, but we'd only use it for 4 months out of the year and it's a pain to deal with renters and maintain the place, so we axed that idea. And by renting, we are not limited to one ski resort.  We can move around and try different places every year.

So we thought we got it all planned out, but we recently went to Scottsdale AZ and FELL IN LOVE with it.  So, all of a sudden, we have a new option. I started looking at homes in the area and boy, are they expensive!  Not only are homes in Scottsdale expensive, but so is golf!  What I then realized is besides deciding on where to live, we have to plan for where to golf too! And include a healthy budget for it.   Now in NM, golf is relatively inexpensive.  Our golf club membership only cost $350/mth and it will go up to $600/mth once we hit 46, and that's for unlimited golf.  While looking in AZ, there are definitely no "unlimited" golf clubs that's close to what we are paying now, and pay per play is not really an option when we plan to play at least 4 times a week.  So now, we are looking into homes in golf communities that does not cost a kidney to join and there aren't that many.  We will be heading to Scottsdale next month to scout out communities/golf clubs so we can have a better idea of where we can afford to live and play golf regularly.

In the end, our plan is to figure out a location for retirement and buy a house now, so by the time we retire, the house will be paid off already. 

Golf prices and the prices of home definitely come into play when deciding where to move.