The simple life?

I retired from my profession in 2022. I didn't read this whole thread, but I think that I have its directive though.

I still work a bit. I still keep my hobbies going. I still maintain my Jeeps and trucks and tractor and farm equipment. As well as the house.

I find that we as older folks tend to revert to babies again. Now, I can sleep 10 hours sometimes. In my 20s thru 40s I survived on 4 to 5 hours sleep.

I believe that if I ever stop doing. Doing something. Hobbies or vehicle or home maintenance, then the grave will take me. And I love doing things still. Someday I won't. I am not afraid of it. I am afraid of what I have left undone.

My 3 kids all have BA degrees and are successful in life. More than I ever was. My education preaching worked.

I taught them to be honest, love God, and be moral and do the right thing. One kid did it. The other 2, not so much. So its back to just me and the wife. No crying over spilt milk. Try, and do your best. The rest is chance. 1 out of 3 is pretty good odds.

The saddest part, is that none of my kids are Jeepers.... LOL
 
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As I creep towards retirement I've started examining which direction I'm going with every other aspect of life. I've always been a bit of a minimalist but even so I've still managed to compile a lot of things over the course of life, most are remnants of the hands-on phase of being a husband and a father, things left behind in the family house I've occupied mostly or completely solo for nearly 10 years. I recently sold my office building and downsized to a nice tight rental 1/4 the gross size and I've never been happier office-wise, it has prompted me to look at my living arrangements with the same eye. I've known for years I'm living fairly inefficiently holding onto the family home, but for a bunch of those years I justified it as a landing pad for my kids that flew the coup in the event something went south for them, when those possibilities dwindled in likelihood I simply became lazy, avoiding the giant pain in the ass it will be to find a new spot, get rid of things I really no longer need, packing, moving & so on, having just done that with my office I'm not too keen on repeating it so soon. However, it really needs to be done because I know that what waits on the other side is the same feeling I have every time I step foot into my little office, just contentedness knowing every square inch is useful with no vampire drain on the finances. It's similar to vehicles, I could drive a quad-cab F250 but I choose to drive a tiny Subaru, the minimum amount of vehicle I need has always served my purposes.

I travel light, I've hopped on a plane with nothing more than a Jansport bookbag for a week away on vacation, I'd like to do the same with life in general, dump all the unnecessary crap & seize total minimalism. This leads me to the renting vs. buying conundrum; having been a homeowner for over 30 years it's always been the way, it's always made more sense particularly when raising a family, not so sure anymore. It gives you flexibility in many ways renters don't enjoy, yet it also binds you in other ways renters avoid.

I took the first bite out of the elephant by getting in touch with my old realtor that found this house for me a long time ago, I was a bit surprised he was still in business age-wise, but he's alive & well. We'll meet soon to discuss all of these things.

Anyone here travel this minimalist home ownership to renter road that cares to weigh in would be appreciated. I'll say this, I'm not committed to renting, it's a relatively new idea to me that has only come up since the office situation opened my eyes, I'd also downsize to an appropriately sized purchase too, the primary goal here is downsizing. Sorry for the ramble, just looking for any input from anyone that's traveled this road.

A long time ago, I travelled the country, on my motorcycle, as a minimalist. Slept in free camp areas and It was doable. And that was in my 30's. But I had family to find a safe place to rest.

Well into my 60's now, and although it sounds like fun when young: In age you really should have a home. Not a rental. But own a home.

In my experience and observation the RV and motorcycle full-timers that sell everything: Usually fail. And they fail badly. The escape becomes the pit and they try to fix the fail by mind altering methods. The end is being homeless.

The want for being free is fine. The need of being solvent is primary. To heck with the hippy. He dies alone, very hungry, and broke.

Try travelling on the road for a few months and see how it works. But don't sell the 'farm'.
 
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I’m reminded of that Tiny Homes reality show. They never show the owners 6-12 months down the road. They tout the freedom and cheap living. Reality is that they pay big bucks for a depreciating asset that they have to put somewhere at a cost. I don’t know insure it. They have to move 3 things to get to one. Even though I love her, I could not fathom being is such a tight space with my wife 24/7.
I’ve owned several rental units for 30+ yrs. The reality is that my renters payed my mortgages, pay my taxes, pay for insurance, pay for maintenance and repairs and leave me with a valuable asset at the end. The only benefits they have are that they can pick up and leave when they want and move to a new location and the landlord has to coordinate maintenance and repairs.
As for the RV lifestyle it’s not that inexpensive. Camping spots, fuel, insurance and repairs add up.
Being an old man now my healthcare is of concern. I like my Dr and don’t want to try to find another one while living the vagabond life in RV. At some point you’ll have to settle down and sell that $300K+ RV for pennies on the dollar.
 
So far my realtor has presented +/- 100 listings, starting to get a flavor for what's available in the area. It's not encouraging, the market seems super tight, not a lot to pick from and most have some glaring defect, and the prices and taxes are ridiculous, and in the HOA listings those fees equally so, still the houses are getting snapped up quickly. I feel like Austin Powers post-thaw, I can't believe how much the market has changed in a few decades, my head is stuck in the 90s when there was a shit-ton of houses on the market all the time, prices weren't laughable & 'bidding-war' wasn't a term anyone used. Developing a new appreciation for the crib I'm in.

On the retirement plan end things are moving along, the young buck was officially sworn & the live fire apprenticeship has commenced. I'm not the best teacher, I don't have a ton of patience, my ex-wife was a teacher as was my now ex-long-term girlfriend, the personality traits that have for that job are traits I don't have. Nonetheless I'm looking forward to the process, we have a lot of runway so there's not a lot of urgency. We'll see how it goes.
 
I feel like Austin Powers post-thaw, I can't believe how much the market has changed in a few decades, my head is stuck in the 90s when there was a shit-ton of houses on the market all the time, prices weren't laughable & 'bidding-war' wasn't a term anyone used.

I remember when I first proposed to my wife that we should move to Idaho. I'd get on sites like Zillow, punch in my price range and other requirements, and there'd be a dozen pages of homes available that fit the criteria. Punching in those same requirements, but with an adjusted price range that I would still be comfortable with, now will net me maybe four or five pages. During the "plandemic", there were times where there was less than a full page of listings available. :(
 
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If it is any consolation, some rumor mills predict a 2008 style real estate market crash in the next couple years. If you're a betting man...

Agreed. Problem with that is that the house he's selling will also take a hit on "value" and potential for a sale. At least, that's the way I understand it. It seems that unless he's in an area that doesn't suffer the effects of a real estate crash quite as much as others (the area I'm in is one such place, due to the types of jobs available in the area, though that could also change this time around due to political influences). If someone knows my evaluation of the market to be flawed, please feel free to correct me. I'm no expert, by any stretch of the imagination.
 
I remember when I first proposed to my wife that we should move to Idaho. I'd get on sites like Zillow, punch in my price range and other requirements, and there'd be a dozen pages of homes available that fit the criteria. Punching in those some requirements, but with an adjusted price range that I would still be comfortable with, now will net me maybe four or five pages. During the "plandemic", there were times where there was less than a full page of listings available. :(

Yep. years ago we planned to move to ID from CA. But once my retirement time came 3 years ago, the homes with decent property size in ID went from $200K to $850K or more... in a few years.
 
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If it is any consolation, some rumor mills predict a 2008 style real estate market crash in the next couple years. If you're a betting man...

yea, I've been hearing that for the better part of a year. It seems the grounds are fertile for it to happen again, time will tell.

Agreed. Problem with that is that the house he's selling will also take a hit on "value" and potential for a sale. At least, that's the way I understand it. It seems that unless he's in an area that doesn't suffer the effects of a real estate crash quite as much as others (the area I'm in is one such place, due to the types of jobs available in the area, though that could also change this time around due to political influences). If someone knows my evaluation of the market to be flawed, please feel free to correct me. I'm no expert, by any stretch of the imagination.

exactly, a rising tide lifts all ships but a falling tide drops them all... at least if I'm staying in area anyway, a market crash may mean a million & one cheaper houses on the market people can't get rid of, but mine will be included in that sloppy mess, so any move would still be financially lateral. We don't get the crazy run ups in prices in PA like other areas of the country, but the dips aren't as bad either when shit goes sideways
 
If one is a betting man... Maybe sell the house while you still have a market, then buy 'IF' the bottom falls out and you'll have pick of the litter and can 'go up'. If the real estate market doesn't crash, you may lose a bit and be lateral or a bit less than that.

Sell when the tide is high and buy when the tide is low. Live in an RV for a couple years, But capital gains may get you if you can't shelter the equity somehow temporarily. I don't know if buying an RV or mobile home qualifies as a capital gains shelter. Pardon the pun. Real estate tax folks with far greater knowledge than I is needed. IDK, but in a perfect world...

Of course if the interest rates don't come down. Or even go up, It's a HUGE factor. Bought my first home for 130K at 8% interest (1980s).. Bought my current farm for 3X more at <3% interest. The monthly payment (PITI), is less for my farm than my 1st house!
 
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If one is a betting man... Maybe sell the house while you still have a market, then buy 'IF' the bottom falls out and you'll have pick of the litter and can 'go up'. If the real estate market doesn't crash, you may lose a bit and be lateral or a bit less than that.

Sell when the tide is high and buy when the tide is low. Live in an RV for a couple years, But capital gains may get you if you can't shelter the equity somehow temporarily. I don't know if buying an RV or mobile home qualifies as a capital gains shelter. Pardon the pun. Real estate tax folks with far greater knowledge than I is needed. IDK, but in a perfect world...

Of course if the interest rates don't come down. Or even go up, It's a HUGE factor. Bought my first home for 130K at 8% interest (1980s).. Bought my current farm for 3X more at <3% interest. The monthly payment (PITI), is less for my farm than my 1st house!

I'd wager your first idea is the right move now, on paper anyway; this however is where my lazy gene kicks in thinking about prepping/selling the house, getting rid of most of my crap, finding a reasonable spot to hunker down until the bottom falls out then doing it all again in reverse to convert the nice price reduction into a hunk of savings. From a dollars & cents standpoint it would likely be a homerun like selling at the peak would've been back in 07-08 then buying back in in 09-10.

But I'm starting to lean towards just staying put until early 28 & doing the move once when I'm actually retired, then I can just pick my spot, move in & be done with the whole operation
 
Been watching this thread, but haven't had a minute to respond till tonight.
Actually sitting in a federal service retirement class with my wonderful wife this week.
There's a lot to address and we're finding out that we're sitting pretty financially. We've both recovered from asspensive divorces and we've never shared finances.
So, I can retire while she continues to work, but i don't want to unless she can tag along.
We're downsizing rapidly since she's taking an overseas posting for her (possibly) last hitch.
The economics of storing furniture and assorted crap doesn't add up-$10,000 worth of crap in storage for 5 years means you paid $15K to keep $10K worth of stuff.

Luckily, when the ex burned or trashed nearly everything I cared about, blew our savings and kid's college funds and destroyed the family home, my need to keep anything physical to be happy disappeared out of necessity.
I started over with the clothes on my back and my kids.
Most freeing thing that ever happened to me. Now, I keep it very light and this move will free us of all the crap that keeps us anchored to any one spot.
You (W.W.) sound active and like you won't have trouble staying busy and finding purpose. I can tell you, travel will open your eyes and heart. There is so much to see that you'll never even get to a a tiny fraction of the world.
We're doing this move, then backpacking Europe, coming back (maybe) and cycling across the US. There's a sailboat in there somewhere, probably a couple more cruises, possibly an RV, who knows?
We definitely won't be bored!

You do you brother, but I pray you cast off any fear or hesitation and write an exciting ending for yourself.
 
The best thing you can do is not waste money - now or after you retire. I certainly wasted my share of it, but not nearly as much as many do.

My AMEX bill looks like a pasta strainer. Thank goodness I still have some pasta after the bills are paid.


here’s a message here for the younger guys

My father preached this. He said life is backwards. You spend the first third of your life broke and with nothing. You spend the next third working your azz of to get something. By the time you get to the last third you are too old and tired to enjoy it.

That preaching made me go into a profession where earning potential was unlimited. Retired 11 years later at the ripe old age of 33. With assets firmly in place I practiced my casting and putting until I got bored. Found out that if I paid the cleaning lady a little more she would do my laundry. Pay her a little more and she would hit the grocery store. Pay her a bit more and she would cook the food she brought to my house. Then I found myself cranky and bored so I decided to go back to work. Been through a few things and currently own 4 businesses but only work from 640am to 220pm...the hours my son is at school. Always self employed; only worked for someone else twice in my life and both of those were under the age of 18.

I am one of those people that can't sit still. I think I will always work (health permitting) because I do not do well sitting idle. I need a purpose to be fulfilled.
 
This isn't exactly on point for this thread but tangentially related. Part of my game-plan at this stage in life is a greater emphasis on health, it will continue being a large focus in the coming years. I've never not exercised but about a year ago I stepped up the game a bit, hired a personal trainer last summer to design a strength training program for me following my grasp of the evils of sarcopenia. I've been following that for almost a year now & I've seen pretty steady gains and results, feeling very much better physically.

I've done some studying on nutrition as well, which is the other important half of this whole operation. I've come to realize the importance of protein, something I've always struggled with getting enough down. To that end I've been slowly altering the balance towards higher protein intake by adding more lean meats, chicken & fish. I've also added protein shakes following workouts which are 3x/week. Not much of a fan of just randomly drinking a protein shake however, so the other 4 days I just get it in the form of whole foods, better anyway as far as I can tell.

Until I stumbled onto this contraption, the Ninja Creami. Apparently these things have been around for years yet somehow they didn't cross my radar until a few weeks ago on YouTube. I just happened to be visiting my daughter two weeks ago & asked her if she had heard of these, she laughed & pulled one out of her cabinet, pulled a ready to go pint out of her freezer & made it. Blown away.

There is an entire world of protein 'ice-cream' recipes out there. Who knew you could make a pint of something that tastes just like ice cream but rather than being a 1200 calorie tub of fat & sugar is instead a 300 calorie tub of 60 grams of protein & no fat that tastes nearly the same.

So far I've made vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, peanut butter, & currently I've got a batch of coffee ice cream in the freezer to try tomorrow.

This thing will be helping me boost the intake of protein for sure

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My first shot a strawberry, after the batch was done I mixed in a pile of fresh strawberries, it was excellent


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This isn't exactly on point for this thread but tangentially related. Part of my game-plan at this stage in life is a greater emphasis on health, it will continue being a large focus in the coming years. I've never not exercised but about a year ago I stepped up the game a bit, hired a personal trainer last summer to design a strength training program for me following my grasp of the evils of sarcopenia. I've been following that for almost a year now & I've seen pretty steady gains and results, feeling very much better physically.

I've done some studying on nutrition as well, which is the other important half of this whole operation. I've come to realize the importance of protein, something I've always struggled with getting enough down. To that end I've been slowly altering the balance towards higher protein intake by adding more lean meats, chicken & fish. I've also added protein shakes following workouts which are 3x/week. Not much of a fan of just randomly drinking a protein shake however, so the other 4 days I just get it in the form of whole foods, better anyway as far as I can tell.

Until I stumbled onto this contraption, the Ninja Creami. Apparently these things have been around for years yet somehow they didn't cross my radar until a few weeks ago on YouTube. I just happened to be visiting my daughter two weeks ago & asked her if she had heard of these, she laughed & pulled one out of her cabinet, pulled a ready to go pint out of her freezer & made it. Blown away.

There is an entire world of protein 'ice-cream' recipes out there. Who knew you could make a pint of something that tastes just like ice cream but rather than being a 1200 calorie tub of fat & sugar is instead a 300 calorie tub of 60 grams of protein & no fat that tastes nearly the same.

So far I've made vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, peanut butter, & currently I've got a batch of coffee ice cream in the freezer to try tomorrow.

This thing will be helping me boost the intake of protein for sure

View attachment 616202

My first shot a strawberry, after the batch was done I mixed in a pile of fresh strawberries, it was excellent


View attachment 616203

also good for frozen margaritas and Piña coladas...lol My daughter has this and is always making high protein mixes.
 
This isn't exactly on point for this thread but tangentially related. Part of my game-plan at this stage in life is a greater emphasis on health, it will continue being a large focus in the coming years. I've never not exercised but about a year ago I stepped up the game a bit, hired a personal trainer last summer to design a strength training program for me following my grasp of the evils of sarcopenia. I've been following that for almost a year now & I've seen pretty steady gains and results, feeling very much better physically.

I've done some studying on nutrition as well, which is the other important half of this whole operation. I've come to realize the importance of protein, something I've always struggled with getting enough down. To that end I've been slowly altering the balance towards higher protein intake by adding more lean meats, chicken & fish. I've also added protein shakes following workouts which are 3x/week. Not much of a fan of just randomly drinking a protein shake however, so the other 4 days I just get it in the form of whole foods, better anyway as far as I can tell.

Until I stumbled onto this contraption, the Ninja Creami. Apparently these things have been around for years yet somehow they didn't cross my radar until a few weeks ago on YouTube. I just happened to be visiting my daughter two weeks ago & asked her if she had heard of these, she laughed & pulled one out of her cabinet, pulled a ready to go pint out of her freezer & made it. Blown away.

There is an entire world of protein 'ice-cream' recipes out there. Who knew you could make a pint of something that tastes just like ice cream but rather than being a 1200 calorie tub of fat & sugar is instead a 300 calorie tub of 60 grams of protein & no fat that tastes nearly the same.

So far I've made vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, peanut butter, & currently I've got a batch of coffee ice cream in the freezer to try tomorrow.

This thing will be helping me boost the intake of protein for sure

View attachment 616202

My first shot a strawberry, after the batch was done I mixed in a pile of fresh strawberries, it was excellent


View attachment 616203

I'll have to mention that to my wife and make sure we don't have one haha. I had cancer/chemo 14 years ago and now can't eat many things because they will upset my stomach. Ice cream is one of them. So curious if I'd be able to eat this.
 
I'll have to mention that to my wife and make sure we don't have one haha. I had cancer/chemo 14 years ago and now can't eat many things because they will upset my stomach. Ice cream is one of them. So curious if I'd be able to eat this.

There so many recipes out there for the creami you can just use ingredients you know you can tolerate. No worries about other crap that comes from store bought.
 
also good for frozen margaritas and Piña coladas...lol My daughter has this and is always making high protein mixes.

yea, I really don't understand how it all works, but this thing can take frozen anything and turn it into a reasonable facsimile of ice cream.
I'll have to mention that to my wife and make sure we don't have one haha. I had cancer/chemo 14 years ago and now can't eat many things because they will upset my stomach. Ice cream is one of them. So curious if I'd be able to eat this.

That's the whole idea behind this thing, it can turn anything into 'ice-cream' or sorbet. I'll give you an example, you can mix protein powder (either whey OR vegan) with water and that's it. It'll be similar to ice-milk, but can be done with zero dairy if you can't tolerate that. You can mix things like berries & walnuts (for the oil element), I haven't tried that but have seen it on video.

The vanilla version I made the other day was as follows:

16oz Fairlife fat free milk = 160 calories & 26 grams of protein
2 scoops of vanilla whey protein powder = 180 calories & 38 grams of protein

Total 340 calories & 64 grams of protein.

You can substitute almond or oat milk and vegan pea protein powder for the above for zero dairy.

The first three I made were nothing more than these protein shakes, 190 calories, 30 grams of protein & 0 fat, they came out amazing:

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