Are you able to live in the Florida house now? If so, I'd say start your gardening and herbal business in PA now and go to FL in the winter and start one there. You may be able to get someone to run it in FL whle you're traveling back and forth between the two states and hopefully making stops to sell on the way. Also, have you considered buying/renting a camper van? They are less expensive to buy or rent and will use less gas. Or if you have a pick up truck, you could always get one of those campers that either attach or can be towed. Then once you're old enough to draw Social Security, you can decide if/what to sell.
Would like all of your imput on this. Please
by Still Totally ADD 41 Replies latest jw friends
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3rdgen
What about leasing out your home for a year while you travel? This would be like a trial run. Furnished homes usually bring much more per month. By doing this you wouldn't be burning any bridges. I agree that your home will continue to appreciate as time goes on and if you own it free and clear the rent should give you a nice positive cash flow even after taxes and insurance. After the 1 year period you would be in a better position to know how things are working out. NEVER sell your real estate unless you absolutely have to.
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flipper
TOTALLY ADD- My gut reaction agrees with XANTHIPPES gut reaction. There is a lOT to be said for having a mortgage free log cabin to live in and million $$$ views in a beautiful location. I would NOT give that up- if I were in your same position. That being said you can do both ! Why not go on several trips a year for a few weeks traveling and visiting western areas pursuing study of your organic gardening and studies of native area plants out west and return to Pennsylvania with that knowledge intact to your home ?
Point I'm making is your decisions don't have to be THIS or THAT. Decisions in life can have many variables attached to them. I play guitar on the side for relaxation make a little money on the side - yet my MAIN business is commercial cleaning for over 30 years, and guess what ? I still live in a beautiful mountain area and our house will be paid off in about 5 or 6 years ! So decisions we make now CAN and WILL affect what tomorrow brings. I would keep an alternative safety net in place no matter WHAT decision you make so that you have at least some wiggle room with alternatives available to you in the years ahead just in case your health does NOT hold up in the case of eventual problems. But don't let that stop you from pursuing your dreams. Pursue your dreams but use your head and sense of good reasoning ability. Just my 2 cents
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Still Totally ADD
Hi Jamie how are you doing? I don't want to go to that house and live in FL. To many bad things happen there. I would sell it or rent it. I do not know yet. For the winter time we would be in the south somewhere. We lived in FL for over 40 years. That is about the last place I want to go to. I would rather explore some other state to see something new. We are just at the thinking this thing out stage right now also we would do this after we start getting our S.S. Boy has everyone given some great advice. This is what I love about this forum everyone has a diffrent viewpoints and that is what I need. I hope this finds you and your family well. Hope to someday come down to your place for a visit. Take care. Still Totally ADD
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EndofMysteries
I think you should first do this, and I DID do this, so dont' write it off as impossible, I did it for 5 months. (if seeing all of Europe is also /has been a dream, etc).........put all your things in storage. And rent out your house for either 6 months or a year. Have your car parked and only parked insurance so it's legal as well. (no bills except rental while you are away).
Then go to Europe. Stay in hostels and look up couchsurfing. There is a international youth hostels association that in many places the majority of people staying at them were older ones. But hostels are very cheap, you can cook your own food, and couch surfing network has people of all ages participating where you can find people who are happy to let you stay in guest room/couch/etc.
As for how to get around Europe, you can buy trainpass that for up to 3 months (buy it again if you wanted) but that lets you use all the trains and gets you all over Europe. (you do have to pay a reservation fee which varies depending on the train for a seat, some you can walk on and some a reservation is required). Public transportation is incredible in Europe, once you train into the city, they have subways, trams, buses, etc. You can also rent a car or if staying 6 months to a year, maybe buy one to then resell it. They also have discount airlines, easyjet,ryanair, which let you book up to 6 months advance and if you do book in advance you can get flights all across Europe and into Turkey, Egypt, Israel, etc, sometimes as low as $25 each way. (not including luggage).
Anyway how much it all will cost will depend on you. You can do it costing as much or less than staying at home. (if you pay a mortgage or rent payment). If you cook in hostels, etc, the normal 'cost of living' can be almost equal. The eastern european countries are very cheap. The ones that will drain you are Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, maybe UK. (they all have their own currency vs the Euro and tend to not get as much for your dollar). Egypt is DIRT CHEAP, but many would probably be uncomfortable right now. Turkey is really cheap too and incredible.
Anyway I'd do that first. Then if you do the USA part, I'd try to rent out the house. If you own it and no payments then get a cheap RV or finance one and have payments from house rental cover it and give you extra. Let the house keep going up in value and collecting rents. If you can't do RV anymore you can return to house or use rental payments to supplement staying in a nicer assisted living facility, etc. (Hmm, I should be a travel agent and a financial planner lol)
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EndofMysteries
I saw you mentioned the home in FL too. Why not rent them out? A property management company I think will on average charge 10%. If no payments on the houses, then vacancy rate, occassional work, and property management, you should still have a healthy cashflow and at any point in the future you can sell but if you are going to live to 90-100, that cashflow will go up w/ inflation and that extra monthly income can really benefit you vs a one time sale, spend it all, then live on government only money the rest of your life as soon as the sales are gone.
Or if it's a lot, some investment account w/ good interest where lets say the homes sold for 1 million, and you want 100,000 a year, w/ the account getting interest, etc, you'd get the 100,000 a year and extra for 10 years.
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EndofMysteries
One other option,,,,,,I just though that a log cabin w/ great views, if it's a potential tourist area, you may do better renting it as a vacation home. If you can rent it for 1 week what it would get in 1 month for the same price. If you do this, have it furnished, remove anything you really care about and put it all in storage. But the other advantage of that is if there are times you want to return to it, you can just mark it off as being rented or sold out for those times.
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Wasanelder Once
Have you lost your mind? Well, time to go looking for it!
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3rdgen
Endofmysteries, exactly
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Mum
It's pointless to have all of this anxiety. Things usually work out for people who follow their dreams. It's best to take one day at a time and enjoy every moment you can. History has taught us that scrimping and saving does not guarantee future security. There was a time in China when it took a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread. There's no guarantee it won't happen here at some time in the future. If we could predict the future, it would be much easier to make plans. But we can't. Do what you want to do for as long as you can.
Acceptance is the key to ease in life. - Dorothy Sayer