[April Bradford]

Your Say Sunday: What is your current living situation/plan for retirement?​

Welcome to Sunday, members!

I hope the weekend is treating you well so far.

Today, I thought we'd look at your current living situation, if you are already retired, or your plan for retirement. This will ultimately help us write content that's best suited to your needs!

So, what is your current living situation/plan for retirement?

Do you plan to stay in your long-time family home, relocate to a retirement village or over 55's community? Maybe you want to travel around Australia in a caravan?

We would love to hear from you!

 

[Thecheesequeen]

We need to downsize soon, as the house was great for a family of six, but now my husband and I rattle around in it by ourselves. Plus our steep half acre garden is now too much for my husband. The thought of packing up and moving is daunting after so many years in this house, but it has to be done while we still have the energy.

 

[Suzanne rose]

We have been thinking of downsizing as 7 bedroom house is a little big for us.
We are waiting to see if the government will offer better incentives for seniors to downsize .
I would love to move to the country but what we are thinking is downsizing and staying in Sydney as home prices are more likely to rise which gives a bigger inheritance to our kids. Also we will be closer to our family my kids help alot if needed and we babysit when needed, or hubby does most of the babysitting now

We would travel more but just around Australia .

 

[Ricci]

We need to downsize soon, as the house was great for a family of six, but now my husband and I rattle around in it by ourselves. Plus our steep half acre garden is now too much for my husband. The thought of packing up and moving is daunting after so many years in this house, but it has to be done while we still have the energy.

I downsized about 4.5 years ago now and it's one of the best things I've done. One tip that I found invaluable, if you have a really good friend rope them in to help. They are not emotionally invested in your stuff and will help you to become much more ruthless when choosing what to keep and what to get rid of. My friend and I had many laughs clearing out my stuff and she only had to raise her eyebrows at something and I realised it had to go. In return she scored a couple of things for her place and I shouted her a really good dinner out.

 

[Both]

I am on my own and have been lucky enough to have a government house , after looking after my mother for at least 3 years was able to stay put. I live in a lovely neighbourhood and all look out for one another. I feel so glad to have a roof over my head in these trying times, and have to a burden on my son, although my family there are beautiful, and look out for me.

 

[Catherines]

Hubby & I own our home (4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms), don’t get govt pension and manage well. Garden is small though it tends to get out of our reach to do the weeding sometimes but that can be taken care of by employing someone occasionally. Not downsizing to retirement village etc (too many monetary traps there on entry & on death), we’re close to bus, train & 3 supermarkets. Good area and good neighbours here. Slowly trying to get rid of stuff though so our kids don’t just throw everything in a ‘skip’ later on. What we leave will be theirs; with house prices hitting the roof a good outcome (income!!!) for our kids when we’re gone! They are going to need every dollar then, just looking at how everything is rising now.

 

[Kazshap]

We moved into an over 55 Lifestyle Village 3 years ago for financial reasons and to be closer to our kids and grandchildre. Getting rid of our stuff was hard but necessary to fit into the new house. it took awhile to adjust but 3 years later I love it. I have made so many new friends and do things that I probably wouldn’t have thought of living where we were, who’d have thought I’d love croquet lol and the community here is wonderful.

 

[mylittletibbies]

I moved to the country 18 months ago and love it.
Lucky to own my own home. It's a 1/4 acre block with quite a large garden.I am 76 now and carer to both my husband and daughter. I am still healthy, apart from arthritis, but guess I really need to think more about the future as I have to realise that this situation cannot gone on forever, that sooner or later I will not be able to cope.
Problem is my head thinks I'm still 20.

 

[Mars]

My Husband and myself downsized 4 years ago. Our House was too big just for the 2 of us and also the garden. We joined a Probus Club when we retired and that was great. We now have a great social life and a lot of new Friends. After 50 plus years in the family home there was lots and lots of stuff to get rid of even after having a Garage Sale, I then sent a lot of stuff to Helping Hands.

 

[ChrisTasmania]

Your Say Sunday: What is your current living situation/plan for retirement?​

Welcome to Sunday, members!

I hope the weekend is treating you well so far.

Today, I thought we'd look at your current living situation, if you are already retired, or your plan for retirement. This will ultimately help us write content that's best suited to your needs!

So, what is your current living situation/plan for retirement?

Do you plan to stay in your long-time family home, relocate to a retirement village or over 55's community? Maybe you want to travel around Australia in a caravan?

We would love to hear from you!

My husband and I live in a very basic 3 bedroom house in Tasmania. On the plus side, we bought before the boom, the rates are reasonable, it's in a quiet area, has NBN, is near the regional hospital and ambulance. On the down side, it needs a lot of renovations that now my husband can't do and trying to get tradesmen is an arduous and expensive task. We both are unhappy with our current living situation, but without the aid of Powerball we'll be stuck here until we die. There is nothing interesting where we live and the roads are narrow, windy and filled with logging trucks and tourists who dawdle with their caravans and campervans. We prefer to travel to interesting places overseas and have one trip planned. We will never go into aged care as I had a short experience working in an aged care facility in NSW and that made the decision for me. Despite the best efforts of the management of the aged care facility to change the toxic culture, the senior workers bullied both residents and junior staff. We receive the Old Age Pension and are grateful for that.

 

[donandviv77]

While we own our own apartment, having down sized 13 years ago, we sympathise with the seniors in our community who, through problems not of their making, are having to live in rented accomodation or, in our opinion, even worse been dumped in a retirement village by their children who then fail to visit their elderly parents but enjoy the benifits of having their parents assets. One major bug bear we object to is the practice of the government allowing the children of elderly parents being allowed to remain in public hopusing allocated to their parents who have passed on. If the government had evicted these non deserving children from public housing the government might just be able to make a big dent in the housing of needy families. How many flash cars, boats and caravans does one see parked in the driveways of public housing?

 

[Marj53]

I downsized from a 4 bedroom family home to a 2 bedroom unit 3 years ago. The house needed a lot of work and there was only me. I had to get rid of a lot of things. Most i gave to Vinnies. Happy where i am now although it is a bit further out from where i was. Not really enough things for seniors to do here though.

 

[Leonard Hall]

Your Say Sunday: What is your current living situation/plan for retirement?​

Welcome to Sunday, members!

I hope the weekend is treating you well so far.

Today, I thought we'd look at your current living situation, if you are already retired, or your plan for retirement. This will ultimately help us write content that's best suited to your needs!

So, what is your current living situation/plan for retirement?

Do you plan to stay in your long-time family home, relocate to a retirement village or over 55's community? Maybe you want to travel around Australia in a caravan?

We would love to hear from you!

We are both 85 now and we did down size and move to a Parklands Retirement Village in Ellenbrook WA about 12 years ago but after 8 years we decided to move south and have a sea change. We found that departing from the village cost us an arm and a leg and we were lucky we had enough savings to buy a normal house where have lived for nearly 4 years. We joined several groups for seniors and aslo the local POOPS group which has been publicised here recently. Our current worry now is what do we do with our belongings before we die or should we just leave that for others to worry about. If you move to a village it is best to just die there and let others worry about what happens when you go.

 

[Greatgwr]

My wife and I own our house and live in a small country town not far from Adelaide. I have just retired and my wife is to ill to work and I am her carer we will never!!! go into aged care we have seen the abysmal systemic abuse there so its the pine box out of this place we are almost self-sufficient Power, water, sewerage and electric car fortnightly utility costs including the car rarely exceed $50.00 so downsizing is not an option my and my wife's hobbies require room in my shed and the house and these keep us sharp and connected.

 

[Mina vriesekolk]

We did live on 2 acres of land for 25 yrs and moved to a lifestyle village , with houses quite close together , but our land was just over 500m2 . That was a wake up call , but we wanted to travel a lot and so we did that , the lawn and plants were looked after .
But when you are at home , people get bored and if they see you , they want to talk and some you don’t get rid off. Don’t leave your garage open , because they just walk in . Then there were a few people and watch you all the time , just in case you may do something wrong , according to the handbook , they make a picture and send it off to the office . We sold that house after 5 yrs and build our house on a 3/4 acre block , we live now nearly a year in the house and we love the house, the area , lovely neighbours . We are working hard to get the land to turn in to a nice garden. We have still plenty of time for recreation, exercise, music, craft and socialising with friends .We are self funded retirees, no government handouts and doing quite well. After downsizing, we went upsizing and we are very happy to be able to do so.
Lifestyle village , may be right for some , but weekly payments went up and up and services went down . Too many rules !

 

[SGH]

I doubt that we will ever downsize, too much trouble and hard work for us not as fit as we once were unfortunately. My husband says let the kids sort it out, I say yeah right, into the bin with everything as we know non of them like our tastes. But we will never part with our dog and someone is bound to complain about her hair, her howling and her size. Most of the retirement places say you can only have a little dog and she does not fit the bill.

 

[Lizzie-Anne]

Your Say Sunday: What is your current living situation/plan for retirement?​

Welcome to Sunday, members!

I hope the weekend is treating you well so far.

Today, I thought we'd look at your current living situation, if you are already retired, or your plan for retirement. This will ultimately help us write content that's best suited to your needs!

So, what is your current living situation/plan for retirement?

Do you plan to stay in your long-time family home, relocate to a retirement village or over 55's community? Maybe you want to travel around Australia in a caravan?

We would love to hear from you!

I'm currently living in a Housing Commission flat. It's very small, but it's very cheap! And as much as I dislike the fact that it's so small and dated, I must admit I feel lucky to have a roof over my head in the current Housing crisis! I live solely on the Government pension, on my own, so I scrape by each week, but I would hate to be in my situation and have to find a rental! Just behind me there is a block of flats of a similar age and they are being rented out at $685 per week! They have 2 b'rooms and are a little larger, but not hundreds of dollars larger!
So if you see some poor homeless person on the street, don't turn your head in disdain Remember what my Grandma used to say " There but by the Grace of God, go I"

 

[MariaG]

Your Say Sunday: What is your current living situation/plan for retirement?​

Welcome to Sunday, members!

I hope the weekend is treating you well so far.

Today, I thought we'd look at your current living situation, if you are already retired, or your plan for retirement. This will ultimately help us write content that's best suited to your needs!

So, what is your current living situation/plan for retirement?

Do you plan to stay in your long-time family home, relocate to a retirement village or over 55's community? Maybe you want to travel around Australia in a caravan?

We would love to hear from you!

We decided to downsize and move closer to essential services around 10 years ago.
Definitely was a good decision. We are now 5 minutes from a major hospital and in easy reach of our GP's. Shopping centres are 2 blocks away. We have no back yard, just a deck with lots of pot plants and a washing line. The little square out the front is artificial turf, so, we happily said goodbye to yard maintenance. Public transport was good until the government decided to sell out. Now that it's privatised, it seems that if you don't live in Sydney, you don't need to get easy access to a bus. Only one draw back is a pretty good score card.
We sold our home, got rid of everything we knew that could not come with us, then, lived in one room at a relative's home while we achieved out goal. When you decide to do this, you need to be very conscious of the space you are leaving, vs the space you will have. There is no room for sentimental clutter, so, being ruthless can be an asset.
We bought an old rickety house on a small level block. Pulled it down and designed our drop off the perch home exactly the way we need it to be.
It's one level, easy for walking aids to traverse, no stairs to manage, wide showers that can be wheeled into (like the hospitals), no bath tubs, no laundry. I designed a walk in pantry off the galley kitchen that doubled as a spot for the front load washer. That's all I need.
We are very happy here and will most likely stay until we are carried out on a stretcher.
Hubby is high care, however, home aged care helps a lot. He's on level 3, waiting for level 4. When that happens we will be able to maintain any medical necessities without worries.
We are confident that our decisions were sound. We designed our home to suit our needs, not to entertain people that might visit. They adjust quite easily to our environment.
Life is good when you don't have to worry about the upkeep of a McMansion.

 

[MariaG]

I'm currently living in a Housing Commission flat. It's very small, but it's very cheap! And as much as I dislike the fact that it's so small and dated, I must admit I feel lucky to have a roof over my head in the current Housing crisis! I live solely on the Government pension, on my own, so I scrape by each week, but I would hate to be in my situation and have to find a rental! Just behind me there is a block of flats of a similar age and they are being rented out at $685 per week! They have 2 b'rooms and are a little larger, but not hundreds of dollars larger!
So if you see some poor homeless person on the street, don't turn your head in disdain Remember what my Grandma used to say " There but by the Grace of God, go I"

Good on you Lizzie-Anne.
My late sister and her family lived in a commission home for many years before Sis and her hubby passed away. They were a little more fortunate because my brother in law was a disabled veteran and on a gold card. She was house proud and keep a clean environment, however, upkeep on the side of the commission was pretty much non-existent. Things did fall apart without repair, but little DIY attempts kept them travelling along. They made do and always faced each day with a smile.

Like you Lizzie, my sis was always grateful to have a roof over their heads and also saw others who struggled on a daily basis. It can be a daunting thing for so many people to face each new day.

 

[Marjan]

Your Say Sunday: What is your current living situation/plan for retirement?​

Welcome to Sunday, members!

I hope the weekend is treating you well so far.

Today, I thought we'd look at your current living situation, if you are already retired, or your plan for retirement. This will ultimately help us write content that's best suited to your needs!

So, what is your current living situation/plan for retirement?

Do you plan to stay in your long-time family home, relocate to a retirement village or over 55's community? Maybe you want to travel around Australia in a caravan?

We would love to hear from you!

I am retired and living in a rental unit. I recently moved as my rent increased 100% a week. I am a widow and have been an excellent tenant, but I'm afraid that doesn't account for anything.