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.