Considering a 55+ Community?
You might have to tell your grandkids no to a sleepover
Ric Edelman: It's Monday, July 8th. And Joe Biden is still running for president. Well, I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July celebratory weekend. I know that I did.
And, I also want to say, just thank you so much for all of the responses to the question I posed to you last week. I had mentioned a couple of emails I had received one from a listener who said, “Ric, your podcasts are too long.” And another who said, “Ric, your podcasts are too short.” So I asked your opinion and I got so many responses. Thank you so much. And virtually everybody said the same thing. They basically said, Ric, if you're getting one person telling you they're too long and another person telling you they're too short, that suggests that they're about right. And everybody said, I pretty much agree. Your podcasts are about right. We are happy to go with your judgment, make them as long or as short as you feel they need to be. Don't be any longer than you need to be, but don't cut it too short arbitrarily either. So, that's what I'm going to keep on doing. I'm going to try to keep delivering to you the content you need and the length that you want. Let's go on with today's topic.
On today's show, should you live in a 55+ community? There's been an explosion in housing options for older people, assisted living facilities, CCRCs (continuing care retirement communities), and of course 55+ developments. In every survey, people 65 and older say they want to keep living in their home as they age.
There are nearly a million people, though, living in assisted living facilities right now. It's not a bad deal. You have your own house or apartment. The facility helps you out with food and taking your meds and they even help you get to doctor's offices and taking you to the mall so you can go shopping. If your health declines, they'll move you into a nursing home that's right on the property. In the meantime, they provide social events that help you stay active, and it's a lot of fun, right? CCRCs are similar. Three quarters of a million people live there, and another three million live in senior housing that's funded by the government. And then there are the flat-out 55+ communities. They look like any other neighborhood, except that you can't buy a home there if you're under age 55. Typically, houses start at about $300,000 or so. You pay another $3 or $4 grand a month in fees. People who live in these communities often say they love them: lots of activities, and they're all with people of similar ages. That means you've got a lot in common.
But is it good that there are no school children around? In some communities, grandkids aren't even allowed to sleep over. And some people say that while age does help with commonality, that only goes so far. If you're 55, do you really have anything in common with a neighbor who's 85? And just because you might be of similar age, does that mean you have similar experiences, and interests, and viewpoints?
There's no question that as you age, you'll begin to wonder if your house is still something you want. Do you need all that space? All those bedrooms? Maintaining the lawn and the rest of the place takes a lot of work, costs a lot of money, and if you and your spouse develop a health issue, is that house accommodating? Climbing stairs? Are the halls, doorways, kitchen, bathroom conducive for a wheelchair? Do you have to walk up steps even to get into the place?
Too often people think about all this only after there's a health incident. Housing decisions are in your future. The sooner you start to think about this – if you're an advisor, the sooner you start getting your clients to think about this – the better off for making a sound decision. You have to think about the price you're going to get for selling your house, the cost of the new house, the distance from the new house to your kids and doctors, the type of location you want, from the weather, to taxes, to the environment. And when I say environment, I don't just mean the physical environment, like mountains versus the beach, or warm versus cold, I mean the social environment, the political environment.
There's one biggest mistake of all that I've seen so many times. Somebody decides to sell their house and move to, say, Florida. They've never been to Florida. Florida's a huge state. Every state's pretty large. In five major chunks in Florida, on the east coast, you know, the Atlantic coast, in the south, like Miami, versus the north, like Jacksonville, the gulf coast, the panhandle, away from the ocean, you know, like Orlando. Every town's different, economically, politically, culturally, weather wise.
Before you sell your house and buy a new one somewhere else, try renting in that new location. Try renting for a month or more, not just a weekend. Really get to know it before you buy to make sure that it really is something you'll be happy with.
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Ric Edelman: On tomorrow's show, colleges are closing at a rapid pace.
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