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Renovation expenses. I call my present (and final) house The Money Pit for good reason.
It's not that I haven't been down that road before: This is the 5th house I've owned, of which I/we either extensively renovated four of them and built the fifth from the ground up. But with this house it was a Perfect Storm of a dishonest seller (they knew exactly what problems to conceal and how to conceal them), an incompetent home inspector (I'd used him several times before with no issues but this time he dropped the ball bigtime), two unethical contractors (despite glowing reviews), and plain ordinary bad luck (an underground stream changed course and began to damage the foundation, which cost $70K to address and remediate.) As a result I have had to spend more than twice what the house will ever be actually worth, making it impossible for me to ever afford to move again if I want to stay in this part of the country (which I do; that boat sailed long ago, LOL)
And I still have to replace the driveway..........
(ETA: Our state has a "toothless" seller disclosure law; it exists but sellers can avoid filling out the form by giving the buyer a $500 credit at closing so of course that's what every seller does. And every home inspection contract has small print saying that there's no guarantee that every issue will be discovered, and that the report should not be used as the basis on which to purchase or not purchase a home. Don't believe me? Go read the fine print on yours, LOL)
Seven months and a recent move.....dental, after having a work plan where I literally paid nothing...except 50% for endodontist work and crowns...and I really do not know how to evaluate dental plans. Paying $106 a month Cobra...and we had to upgrade to a premium plan because there were no providers here in the entire state that would take our basic plan. Most basic plans are more expensive than that.
Estimated utilities bang-on....water bill and combined power and gas (PG&E) ARE THE SAME as they were in Utah. We will be buying a backup generator tho.
Food is more expensive, but restaurant choices are waaay better. Gas is more expensive but we bought a Chevy Bolt.
Most of the increases were foreseen. Dental was a surprise. Also will have to buy medical for 9 months until my spouse gets to Medicare.
Dental touristry is huge at the Mexican border. My sister has been going to Mexico for the last 10 years to get her work done an 1/5 the cost of here in the states.
There is a town just south of CA / AZ that specializes in Dentistry for us Gringos.
For Americans looking to mix in a little dental work with their vacations, there is no better place than Vicente Guerrero, a small Mexican border town better known by its nickname: Los Algodones, or Molar City.
Mexico is a top destination for "medical tourists" from the US who go south of the border for significantly cheaper dental work, eyeglasses, plastic surgery, and prescription drugs.
In Los Algodones, some 350 dentists work within a few blocks of the city center.
Real food-It didn't take the budget by surprise due to us raising some of our own
Dental- Ran up around 10k in dental bills . My employer provides dental for us both at $10 a mo but we had to wait until it rolled over again....until Jan 1st to complete all the work. We were out of pocket around 3K . This is when we decided to eat almost all whole, organic food. We now get compliments on how healthy our gums are at the yearly cleanings.
Gas- but we bought a hybrid and will be buying a 100% electric vehicle in about 7 years. As Seniors, we do not want any mechanical issues which need repair.
- home repairs. Past two years: 10K for a perimeter drain repair; 1.5K for furnace repair(in dead of winter no less) 1.5K for roof repairs, only to be told to expect full replacement at 20K within 2-3 years; 1K new washer; 10K new mini-split to fix heating and cooling problems on the upper level; $700 for 2 garage door openers and one set of springs. Turns out services in our rural area are more expensive than in Wash DC!
- Dental. 3 crowns so far for spouse
You’re in the Monadnock area if I recall, right? I had a home near there that was a total money drain. That climate, and the general age of the housing stock is a killer. People there had a hard time believing that the cost of living there, particularly hiring “skilled” labor, was higher than here in the Bay Area, but it’s true. The only thing I found cheaper was gas. Very expensive place to retire.
In our area, I hear dental and an ambulance costs are the main surprises.
95% of the time, there is no ambulance at an adjacent town (and the other direction is too dangerous)
Thus they send the medi helicopter which costs only $8 a year for membership with unlimited flights.
You’re in the Monadnock area if I recall, right? I had a home near there that was a total money drain. That climate, and the general age of the housing stock is a killer. People there had a hard time believing that the cost of living there, particularly hiring “skilled” labor, was higher than here in the Bay Area, but it’s true. The only thing I found cheaper was gas. Very expensive place to retire.
Spot on. But it's still much cheaper than DC, where we retired from, and the surroundings are gorgeous. We actually like winter here (except for the past one which was too much sleet and ice), and housing is quite affordable for the northeast, but services are expensive and terrible. For our mini-split, of three contractors we contacted, one well respected one visited but never sent a quote, one quoted what we didn't ask for, and one quoted and did what we wanted. We've had others that we've contacted for other things, and often never hear back. At least package delivery and USPS works well...
But yes, there's a lot of "antique" housing stock around here. Charming, and financially dangerous.
I had an implant last year and because I more or less assumed they're expensive (any TV ad that says "we'll even discuss financing while you're here" is a big clue, LOL) I was unhappy about the $5000 total cost but not really surprised. What does surprise me is how people manage to afford multiple implants. My DIL's uncle who is in his late 60s mentioned recently that he's had five implants "so far" -- and not for cosmetic reasons. Ouch.
I also had a 5th one placed late last year. I had a lot of cavities as a kid and over the years, additional fillings have left some teeth weakened and eventually something decays or breaks. I vastly prefer implants to crowns or bridges. Fortunately, my general health is excellent so I have very few out-of-pocket medical expenses. I AM grateful I have that option.
Spot on. But it's still much cheaper than DC, where we retired from, and the surroundings are gorgeous. We actually like winter here (except for the past one which was too much sleet and ice), and housing is quite affordable for the northeast, but services are expensive and terrible. For our mini-split, of three contractors we contacted, one well respected one visited but never sent a quote, one quoted what we didn't ask for, and one quoted and did what we wanted. We've had others that we've contacted for other things, and often never hear back. At least package delivery and USPS works well...
But yes, there's a lot of "antique" housing stock around here. Charming, and financially dangerous.
Cheaper if you don’t own outright, I guess. I paid 12k property taxes on a 350k house. Yikes.
I grew up there, so it’s home, but I’ll never go back. Glad you like it. It is a nice spot.
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