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Or, could you rent it? Again, a new set of issues, but some income, too.
We spent the last 20 years managing our rental property and in the last 2 years sold it all. While it was a great investment, I'm not particularly interested in becoming a landlord again. I'd rather leave it sit empty if we keep the house.
The big issue you need to consider are your specific plans; i.e., what is it that you want to do in retirement? I wanted to travel mainly in the western US and mainly in national or state parks. Lots of those places are remote and trying to find a rental apartment or even a motel can be difficult. I was not interested in spending weeks or months in the same location.
That's the hard part, developing specific plans. We want to travel the US. We're not all that interested in Europe. We have owned a 5th wheel camper some years back so we have somewhat of an idea what full timing would be like. We just think it would be interesting to live a little more permanently for periods of time. Then, while in an area for 6 - 12 months, use it as a base of operations to really explore the vicinity and absorb the local flavor. In our opinion, that is the short coming of taking 1 or 2 week long vacations, we never really got to get the feel of a place.
I also have this dream of living in a place like Jamaica or a South Pacific island for 3-6 months at least one time.
Bouncing around the country just isn't my cup o tea. Having a home base and traveling from there is much more my style. I need to have a local doctor, know where I can count on my stuff being - and we don't have all that much stuff.
What someone upthread said about buying an RV. If you don't like it - they might be hard to sell.... and they depreciate greatly.
Wondering where in Wisconsin you are?
I can certainly understand that. Planning our retirement would be a lot easier if we were to just say we're here and that's that. Cabin up north, snowmobiles, etc. It makes the decisions so much simpler.
But, my curse is that I have a wander lust and really want to indulge it when we have the time.
I just turned 57 and the wife 58 and retirement is 3 - 5 years away. We've planned and our finances are in order. Turns out, having options makes the decision difficult. So far, we've examined keeping the house in WI and spending summers in a warmer place; selling everything and become full time RV'ers; moving to Mexico/Central or South America; and selling everything and simply moving permanently to a warmer place.
The latest idea, the one we seem to like the most, at least for the next few months or so, is traveling and renting when we find a place that seems interesting. Traveling in the car, renting furniture, buying cheap household stuff, then when we're ready, move on. We figure we can spend at least a couple of winter months in places like Jamaica, just to be able to do it. The rest of the time we'll just explore the States. We can do this until we tire of the travel, find a place we like so much we don't want to move on, or just get too old to continue and move back to WI full time.
Couple of things.....as others have said in the past, living somewhere vs. vacationing somewhere are two vastly different propositions, especially when you are talking about places like Jamaica, Mexico, etc. While vacationing in these spots for a weekend or week long getaway as a vacation from "regular" life can be great, from what I've heard and read elsewhere the shine of such experiences starts to wear off quickly and you start to see the disadvantages real soon.
Other concerns would be crime, legal rights (remember....you won't enjoy the constitutional rights you have here and may be judged in a kangaroo court or biased against as a foreigner in a possibly corrupt system) and, most importantly, healthcare. Have you thought about what you'd do or what level of care you or your wife would get if emergency surgery or one of you suffered a heart attack? I knew a couple who had moved to one of the islands but because of substandard doctors/facilities had to continually return to the US to get acceptable medical treatment for a worsening medical condition (flying back and forth at least once or twice a month).....it became to expensive/problematic so they had to move back to the US and rent since they had sold off their home and most possessions to move to "paradise" without considering every angle - they had used a substantial amount to live abroad & travel back and forth for the medical issues and had little remaining when they came back.
Couple of things.....as others have said in the past, living somewhere vs. vacationing somewhere are two vastly different propositions, especially when you are talking about places like Jamaica, Mexico, etc. While vacationing in these spots for a weekend or week long getaway as a vacation from "regular" life can be great, from what I've heard and read elsewhere the shine of such experiences starts to wear off quickly and you start to see the disadvantages real soon.
Other concerns would be crime, legal rights (remember....you won't enjoy the constitutional rights you have here and may be judged in a kangaroo court or biased against as a foreigner in a possibly corrupt system) and, most importantly, healthcare. Have you thought about what you'd do or what level of care you or your wife would get if emergency surgery or one of you suffered a heart attack? I knew a couple who had moved to one of the islands but because of substandard doctors/facilities had to continually return to the US to get acceptable medical treatment for a worsening medical condition (flying back and forth at least once or twice a month).....it became to expensive/problematic so they had to move back to the US and rent since they had sold off their home and most possessions to move to "paradise" without considering every angle - they had used a substantial amount to live abroad & travel back and forth for the medical issues and had little remaining when they came back.
You are so right to point out the potential consequences! As I said earlier, it sounds great to think you can just throw caution to the wind, but it really is foolhardy. Sometimes reality is just not a fun place to live!
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Reality
