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“Selling your home outright can cause major disturbances in your financial strategy. Always consider the alternative of leasing your home to good renters who will pay a premium for your asset. This allows you to be flexible with your retirement lifestyle. In different times of life, people need different things from their homes. Over the course of your lifetime, the amount of square footage you need can change, your budget can increase or decrease, and your preferred location might change.
Over time, as individuals become families, and their income grows, a multi-bedroom home becomes the residence of choice. Later in life, children move out, and the home is filled with memories rather than people. Downsizing your home could be a smart money-saving move. It could also be a time-saver -- the less square footage you have, the less time you're apt to spend cleaning and maintaining your living space.
Your housing costs leave no room for savings
Work with a real estate agent so you can sell your current home for the most money possible. I consider myself a minimalist but I think blanket statements like “smaller houses are better” are untrue for all people. We bought a larger home 2 years ago and couldn’t be more grateful for this extra space. First, it was in our budget as we were able to sell our previous home of 10 years for a down payment. We also have 4 children and do foster care… so we are utilizing the space for what we feel called to do.
A look at how the soaring cost of living has some people cutting back on some or all of their spending for the holidays. There’s an interview with a young man who can’t afford to get back home to celebrate Christmas with family. We just moved to a smaller house but on acreage to start a farm/homestead for our family. I agree it’s tough to find the right blend of house size vs land size.
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But if the situation is right, downsizing is a move that could especially pay off in today's housing market. And if you're at a point in life when you no longer need as much space, then it's worth considering. Even if that's not your situation, downsizing could be a smart financial move in the current real estate market.
It'll help with homeowner's insurance and renter's insurance if you ever need to make a claim. An inventory will also help for any future estate concerns. Once it's inventoried, figure out the best way to pack it up with these tips. Downsizing means less space and while that concept might resonate, you might need visual evidence of what it will look like.
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Nearly 23 percent of millennials live with their parents. In the post-recession era, high housing costs and low wage growth have stymied millions of millennials who’ve left college only to enter a meager, hyper-competitive job market. Downsizing after you retire can help you live on a fixed budget so that the money you gain from selling your home can be used to assist with your retirement income. Your kids are adults now, perhaps buying homes of their own, and it’s just you and your partner living in your home.
Instead, simply capture middle-of-the-night-sock-escapees and any other objects that have found their way onto the bed, then straighten the sheets and blankets. It always seems like a good idea until it becomes mostly forgotten and dust-encrusted. If that’s not something you want to take on the responsibility of maintaining, downsizing can help here, too.
will be the year of the downsizing boomer
These features are hard to find, due to a shortage of affordable housing that meets the needs of older residents – particularly the 43% who have mobility limitations. The most recent statistics date back to 2011 and indicate that only 3.5% of U.S. homes offer these amenities and only 0.9% feature electrical controls within reach of a wheelchair user. Delaying downsizing even a few years can result in tens of thousands of dollars lost.
If you are not ready to let go of a sizeable chunk of your possessions, perhaps it’s not the right time for you to move house just yet. This may sound like a simple proposition in theory, but if you’ve lived somewhere for decades, with all the paraphernalia of family life around you, it could be easier said than done. You may be shocked by the amount of ‘stuff’ that’s accumulated over the years. But it’s not just the sheer scale of the job and the time it takes – it’s an emotional process too. Once you’ve shortlisted your favoured locations, you need to consider the type of property that would be most appropriate for your future needs. Are you simply looking for a smaller house with a garden?
Now to be clear, downsizing won't always result in savings. If you move from a larger home in a less-expensive area to a smaller home in a pricey part of the country, you may not shave money off of your housing costs at all. But if you downsize and stay in the same area, there's a good chance your housing costs will shrink. One final argument in favor of downsizing boils down to whether or not you really need all the space you have. If you're older, and your adult children have moved out, then it may not pay to spend all that money on maintenance and the like when you don't actually need the room. Though letting go of a beloved home can be difficult, you can focus on building memories in your new home -- and one that's more affordable.
Once you’ve sorted through all the large items, you can begin decluttering one room at a time. There are various methods you can use for this, such as Mari Kondo’s KonMari method. Get rid of anything you can do without and anything that isn’t essential.
Plus, you'll generally spend less to heat and cool a smaller home, so if you've grappled with sky-high utility bills, downsizing could help you shrink them. Or, you might take out a mortgage anyway to capitalize on today's competitive rates, but end up with a lower monthly payment. Whether you still have a mortgage or not, downsizing could be your ticket to scoring a big profit if you sell. These days, the demand for homes is high due to low mortgage rates and low inventory. And so sellers are commanding a premium for their homes.
No matter what sort of property you're sitting on, there comes a point when you need to take a step back and decide if the cost of ownership is worth it. Here are a few signs that it could be the right move for you. Swanson says many of his clients leave the decision too long and end up with a big house that overwhelms them with maintenance and upkeep. Lori Lovely edited the Real Estate Home section for the Indianapolis Star and covered the annual Dream Home construction and decor for Indianapolis Monthly magazine. A review of how cash and non-cash mutual fund distributions are taxed in non-registered accounts.
My aunt & uncle bought a comfy little 3×1 in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, surrounded by farms for $17k. 40 years later, it’s inner-ring, established, & worth about 3/4 of a million. We sold our home 2 years ago when we retired and traveled in our RV for 2 years. Next week we’re closing on a 1200 sq ft, 2-bed, 2-bath home. We’ll put a Murphy bed in the second bedroom for guests, and also use the RV for guests to have their own space. We’ll still travel but I’ll be happy to have a small home base.
For someone who dedicated much of their life to music, find a local school for musical equipment and instrument donation. The impact of the loss of the items will decrease if they are going somewhere where they’ll be appreciated. Photos are keepsakes but unless you're regularly thumbing through books of them, there's not much reason to keep a physical copy of them. Save yourself some additional moving items by digitizing those photos. Do the same with any movies or CDs you've got sitting around collecting dust. For any remaining CDs or DVDs,make a wall cabinet to save on space and put those old CD bins to use as a twine dispenser.
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