Retirement Talk
WHAT to do with the rest of your life? |
|
|
Episode 141 Downsizing
Last night at a concert I ran into an old friend of mine. He
had just sold his house. Now he has to move. “Where are you going?” I asked. “I
don’t know,” he responded. “It’s kind of scary. I'm downsizing that's what I'm
doing," he added. He described two different houses he was considering
buying but could not make up his mind as to which he should choose. One was
very small but in a good location. The other was in a poor location but was
spacious and had plenty of room him and for his guitar workshop. (He makes
classical guitars). He asked my opinion. It was an easy choice for me.
This is Retirement Talk. I’m Del Lowery.
“Location, location, location”. I am retired and that old
slogan seems truer today than at anytime in my life. I told him that I would go
for the good location and smaller house. “That's a second plus,” I said. “Houses
are just too big. They have room for way too much stuff’. If you have a smaller
house then you will be happy with less stuff. That will be easier on the
pocketbook, easier on the cleaning, easier on repairs and maintenance, and
easier on your mind”. Just think I said; “Your heating bill will be close to
nothing and your taxes will be very low. Those are both good things” I went on,
“you have fewer things with which to concern yourself. Your mind and body will
be free to explore other things”; in his particular case; to build guitars.
That is what he had said earlier: “All I want to do is build guitars”.
This past week I walked around much of my neighborhood
knocking on doors on behalf of a political candidate. We are holding a
neighborhood “meet and greet” for him here at our house and invitations needed
to be distributed. I was constantly amazed at the size of the houses and the
age of the occupants. All most all of the owners seemed to be of retirement
age. I would guess the average age to be around seventy. Probably ninety
percent of these houses are occupied by two or less people. Yet the size of the
houses probably ranged from two to five thousand square feet. Now these are
houses that demand attention; a lot of attention; so many windows to keep
cleaned and repaired; so many walls to keep scraped and painted, so much roof
to keep in repair, so much space to heat and furnish. I just can’t figure out
why it's desirable to have such a large house. On top of the above mention
disadvantages these houses cost more money than smaller ones. It would seem to
me that one would pay more to have fewer walls to scrape, fewer windows to
wash, or less space to heat. This is one
area of disagreement between my wife and me. I am always proposing we downsize.
She doesn’t see it that way.
The other factor of my opinion for my friend’s choice of
houses was location. I told him; "I would never consider buying a house where
a car was going to be need for my daily transportation needs. How valuable is
it to be able to walk to the grocery store, the post office, the drug store, the
coffee shop, etc.”. He shook his head in agreement. Plus the fact that in his
case the one with the good location is just a few blocks from the greatest locally
owned hardware store in the
Pacific Northwest
.
How valuable is that?
We do live in a place right now where a car isn’t necessary.
We can, and do, walk to the grocery store, drug store, coffee shop, etc. Our
car sits idle most days and the idea of selling it and living without one is
discussed on occasion. This is another point of disagreement in the family. It
just seems to me that one would be a lot freer without a car than with one in
most cases. I mean what if you were told that you would have to buy a car and
drive to do all of your away from home tasks, or you could choose to live where
you could walk or bicycle to satisfy most of them. Again, it seems to me that
it would be worth paying money to not have to drive. This would seem valid for
those not retired as well as the retired.
My friend is in an interesting and important decision as he
decides on how to fashion the next phase of his life. I am almost envious as he
goes about making up his mind. I’m not really envious. But I am curious to see
what happens. He smiled and thanked me for my thoughts when we parted. He
seemed to be sincere. Who knows, maybe he walked away thinking that would be he
last time he would ask someone else for their opinion.
This is Retirement Talk.
A resource from a listener: Best Free Online Degrees for Seniors guide is designed to assist seniors who aspire to enhance their intellect or consider starting a new career path. It features an overview of the top online degrees for seniors, emphasizing their numerous advantages, and a broad range of subjects to choose from.
A friend's website: Terra Firma Designs: Fine Furniture, Stained Glass and woodworking workshops.
Copyright 2010 RetirementTalk.org
|
|
