You Still Have Time
A podcast for older adults, dedicated to meaningful topics and motivating those who believe that getting older is a chance to keep growing.
You Still Have Time
Moving With Caution
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This podcast episode provides an overview of considerations for people, particularly those over 60, who are thinking about relocating, either within the U.S. or abroad. It highlights the complexity of relocation, emphasizing financial, logistical, emotional, and healthcare factors, and encourages listeners to conduct thorough research and planning before making such a decision
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SPEAKER_01Hello and welcome to You Still Have Time. For those of you who are visiting for the first time, we're a podcast that's focused on the interests of people of a certain age. Most of the information we share is probably most useful to people who are 60 and above. But if you're younger than that, stick around because you might find something that's helpful to you too. We're your host. I'm Hope.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Harold.
SPEAKER_01And if you're a returning listener, thank you for coming back. We appreciate your support. And as I said, if you're here for the first time, hang in there and take a listen.
SPEAKER_00Hopefully you'll hear something that will be of value to you.
SPEAKER_01Before we get into our topic for today, which is relocating, just want to make a disclaimer that we've made many times before. We are not experts on any of the topics we talk about. We are just like all of you. These are topics that we think are of interest, and so we do some research, and then we share the information that we find. So we're not the experts, but we will tell you what the sources are for our information, and we'll put those in our show notes, which
SPEAKER_00can be found where, Harold? we've used to compile the information for this podcast.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so let's get started. Relocating. This is something that Harold and I have begun to have discussions about. I've had both my hips replaced and a knee replaced. So every time I go downstairs in our house and remember that what I need is upstairs and then I come upstairs and whatever I need is downstairs, it It makes you think, how long am I going to be able to do it? I already don't want to do it because there's up and down. Even before this podcast started, Harold had to run downstairs to get something and then run back up.
SPEAKER_00Well, not run. No,
SPEAKER_01neither of us is running
SPEAKER_00downstairs. We're walking downstairs and walking back upstairs. Carefully,
SPEAKER_01holding on to the banister.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01But chances are, if you're in our age group, which most of you are, we assume, you You know people who have relocated someplace else after retirement or you're thinking about it or they're thinking about it. So we just decided, hey, maybe this would be a topic of interest to you. And as we said, we're learning too. So this is information that hopefully we'll be able to use if we make the decision to relocate.
SPEAKER_00So one of the first things that we've encountered, there are some major reasons or I guess yeah I guess you could say major reason that people relocate some relocate because of weather in our case hope likes the hot likes the cold weather I like the hot weather I don't like snow I'm starting to get depressed already because I think today's the last day of summer and I know what comes I know fall is great I know I know I know I know I know I know people say oh they like to change the seasons that's fine but I don't need to be there I could watch it on TV or so but so some people move that's just a long way of saying some people move because of weather some people need them to move because they may have certain conditions where hot dry weather is more amenable to their situation some people move to be closer to family
SPEAKER_01especially as we get older we want to be
SPEAKER_00away from family depending on your situation
SPEAKER_01no I want to be I want to be close to family so they can help us when we need help.
SPEAKER_00That's right, right, right.
SPEAKER_01Fingers
SPEAKER_00crossed. So, I mean, but one of the major, not all, but I think we saw numbers as 60% of people who relocate are relocating because of cost. They're moving from more expensive parts of the country to lesser expensive parts of the country. And all we're going to do today is try to provide you some things that we we've encountered or some things that we've learned in our research that you probably, if you've already made a decision to relocate or you're thinking about relocating, you may have already looked into these issues. But we're just going to bring them up for those newbies like us because some of these are brand new to me. I hadn't even considered it.
SPEAKER_01Right. So as Harold said, the majority of people who relocate, older people who relocate, are relocating because they want to reduce their expenses. Because of course, if you're retired, now you're living on a quote unquote fixed income. You're not bringing in the same amount of money that you were bringing in when you were working and you're not going to get a raise. So you want to reduce your costs as much as possible. But there are buts. If you own a home, one of the big issues that we discovered was many times people overestimate the value of the home they're living in and underestimate the cost of whatever wherever they're going you know wherever they're relocating to so usually people are moving from high cost areas you know big cities in the northeast on the coast all of that and they're moving to less expensive areas and the first thought is well wow my home in you know New Jersey is worth a lot of money and I can move to Florida or Georgia or Alabama and I can buy my house outright or, you know, it's going to be so much less expensive. That's for those people who are lucky enough to have that resource here. You know, that house at home here.
SPEAKER_00One of the things I just want to interject here is that we've been, I guess, considering this move. I mean, we don't move very quickly So we've been thinking about this for a very long time. Differences aren't as wide as they were, say, 10 years ago or even five years ago. So what we're suggesting to you is make certain that the costs are that much different. And not only the cost of the residence, there are other costs involved in wherever you're planning to go, things that you may not have considered.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and in our research, so you're a homeowner here in the Northeast or in California wherever, and you're thinking about moving to a lower cost area. You sell your home, and maybe you've been living in that home for 25, 30 years, so what you bought it at and what you sell it at, there's a big difference there, so you're going to recoup a lot of money. Just remember, if you decide to move someplace and not buy something, you may have a big tax bill to consider. Now, I think it's something like $250,000 for a single person and $500,000 for a couple. But you just have to take all of these things into consideration. And that's for homeowners. Not everybody's a homeowner. Some people are renters. And renters too. You live in a big city like New York City and you're going to move to, I don't know, Albuquerque. Yes, I'm sure rents are much lower in Albuquerque, but in New York City, You have subways and buses and you can, you know, a bodega on every corner. You, you know, you can get around and be sort of self-sufficient. Can you do that in Albuquerque without a car? I mean, I don't know, but these are the kinds of things that you need to consider when you're talking about doing that kind of
SPEAKER_00move. Yeah. So now you're going to relocate to someplace else and you're going to have to cash out. It sounds like it's an easy issue, but I just think you need to consider it because now you're going to have to cash out the value.
SPEAKER_01You're
SPEAKER_00going to have to get the value. getting a mortgage. If you're not planning on buying it outright and you need a mortgage, even though you might have a significant amount of wealth, whether it be an IRA or some sort of an account. 401K. 401K. The banks are looking for an income. And yes, you can use your Social Security, but that might not be sufficient.
SPEAKER_01Right. And they have, we read that for 401Ks, for example, or different types of investment accounts, they have a formula that they use. So all of that income, while you say, wow, I've got all this money in my 401k, but the bank says that's not income. That's money that you're probably drawing down on every month. So they have a formula that they use to calculate how much of that they will actually consider income. And sometimes they have to calculate that that money is going to last for or the length of whatever the mortgage period is. So it's just stuff that certainly Harold and I never thought about
SPEAKER_00it. Things to consider.
SPEAKER_01Things to consider. Now, some of you may be talking about moving to 55 plus communities and whether it's in the same general vicinity of where you live now or you're relocating to a different area of the country, you still have to be vigilant about how you evaluate these communities. You need to look at their fees. You need to look at their reserves. You need to know how often do they increase their maintenance prices. All of those things you have to consider because it might look really pretty on the brochure and you go and you take a little tour of it and it's like, wow, this is really cool. You have a golf course or you have you know a gym and you have the community room and all of that but those places are costly to begin with but if they're not well managed they can be even costlier
SPEAKER_00right right you don't know about assessments and HOA fees have to continue to keep pace with the economy so as you know taxes in your area go up so do the HOA fees insurance also
SPEAKER_01and if you're just considering renting somewhere Again, remember that, you know, rental costs are not fixed. They do increase. So just make sure that you're taking all of those things into consideration before you make that leap. And Harold, you had read somewhere about people visiting.
SPEAKER_00Right, right, right. debating, not really debating, it makes it sound like we've been arguing, but it's considering renting versus owning. What are the specifics? I mean, is it beneficial at this stage of our lives? Maybe we don't want to buy another property. Maybe renting makes sense. Again, it just gives you another option. I already forgot what you said. What did you say?
SPEAKER_01No, I was talking about visiting a location.
SPEAKER_00Right, right. That's critical.
SPEAKER_01A lot.
SPEAKER_00Visit a lot. You really do need to visit wherever you're thinking about it, whether it's in another neighborhood in your town, whether it's another town in your county, or whether it's another state. Go there during different times of year, different times of day, so you really get a chance to see what it's like. Some way I read, you should even maybe consider renting an Airbnb and staying there for a period of time so you really get a sense of what it's like to be there.
SPEAKER_01And that's really important. It's if you're moving to some place that you don't have like a strong community there, we're gonna talk about that in a minute about the value of community. But if you're moving from a high cost area and you move to another state say, and you think you're gonna love it and you get down there and boy, it was great when you were visiting during the winter and it was warm and comfortable, but then the summer came and you're like me and you don't like the heat and it's blazing down there, and you say, I can't take this, and you want to move back, sometimes you might not be able to move back because the cost is so high from where you left that it makes it very difficult to change your mind. So make sure that you're really sure, as sure as you can possibly be, that you're going to like where you're moving.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a good idea that if you, chances are you know people in that area where you're planning on moving. talk to them ask them what it's like I mean that's not the end all and be all but clearly they could tell you they could give you some tips as to what it's really like to live there
SPEAKER_01and don't forget that there is an emotional component to all of this as well you've been living perhaps in the same community for 25 30 35 years and now you're talking about uprooting yourselves and and and moving someplace else to establish new relationships. I mean, it's easy if you're moving for family reasons. So you already have a basis for community. But now you're talking about selling your home, all of the stuff that's familiar to you, the shopping areas, your church, other organizations that you might belong to, your friends, all of that may go away. And it's a big leap and I could I would think that it's kind of stressful too
SPEAKER_00yeah I don't think you need to you should underestimate it because I mean some people might be able to make those changes very easily but we were just talking hope went to the dentist
SPEAKER_01yes
SPEAKER_00Jesus went matter of fact she does afternoon just before we started taping and you you get an attachment to you well when you go to the doctors as often as we do you get a sort of an attachment to to your doctors and yeah I mean maybe you don't care maybe it's just you know a doctor is a doctor is a doctor but if that's not the case just always saying we're giving you ideas things to think about right what that are part and parcel of this relocation
SPEAKER_01and i know that everybody doesn't have this experience but i say that people retired so retire so they can they're able to keep their doctor's appointments because as you grow older you find that there's another kind of doctor you have to go to and the eye doctor, the dentist, the cardiologist, the
SPEAKER_00foot doctor, the
SPEAKER_01orthopedist. There's so many different doctors and you want to be able to trust those professionals. Certainly, that leads into another consideration that you have to make.
SPEAKER_00Before you even leave that, think about, I'm sure those of you who are listening probably know someone who has relocated to another part of the country and come back home Right,
SPEAKER_01to go to the
SPEAKER_00doctor. To go to the doctor.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and, you know, so that, because it's hard to establish those new relationships, especially if you've been seeing, you know, a certain physician for a number of years and you've established trust, you trust them. Just think about those things because, you know, you may move to another part of the country where you don't have access to as many medical choices.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01Right? If you live in a big city for example, you may have major hospital systems there, but if you move to a quieter area, which has its own benefits, surely, but you might be a half an hour from a hospital.
SPEAKER_00Easily. We know people who had to go more than a half an hour for a specialist because not every town might have the specialist that you
SPEAKER_01need. Yeah, so those are all the kinds of things to consider. What else do we want to talk about Harold. Harold and I Harold and I, yes, we've been talking about what our next move will be because if we're fortunate enough to live another 10, 15, 20 years.
SPEAKER_00I hope we're going to live more than 10 years. Well, me too. Because I start spending the money down now.
SPEAKER_01Kids are going to be very upset.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well. Then I'll listen to it.
SPEAKER_01We're being silly today uh but you know if we're you know hopefully we'll live another 20 years maybe 30 i don't know and people are living longer and longer and longer and longer but i if if 30 years from now if i'm still around i doubt that i'm going to be you know going up and down these stairs and unless harold is in such great shape that he's going to carry
SPEAKER_00me you get a chairlift
SPEAKER_01yes well that's that's not
SPEAKER_00right
SPEAKER_01that That's an option. If we want to stay where we are, we can get the chairlift and bring us up and down. But, you know, we're just saying, think about all of these things.
SPEAKER_00Now, we have focused on folks moving or relocating within the U.S. But, of course, I'm sure many of you, well, I shouldn't say many, but I'm sure some of you have considered moving to other countries, which I'm going to say this, during this time, that might sound like a good idea.
SPEAKER_01But
SPEAKER_00I don't want to go there.
SPEAKER_01We're not going there. And we're not moving to another country either.
SPEAKER_00A
SPEAKER_01long visit would be nice to certain countries, but not a permanent move. But everybody's talking about, I guess the hot country right now is Portugal. It used to be Mexico, Costa Rica, all of these places. And some of these countries are actually offering incentives to attract people there. A lot of times it's not the senior population that they're looking to attract, but there are some who are, you know.
SPEAKER_00Right, right. So what we found is that, yeah, there are incentives, but usually you're right. They're looking for younger populations where they'll actually provide a stipend. But they also have a lot of programs that are particularly geared to older citizens, older expats. And check out the country that you planning and see what kind of plan, what kind of incentive. Well, they're not really giving incentives, but I think that they've lessened. They make it easier. Right. They've made it easier to get citizenship. Usually they have some requirements. They have a tenure requirement. Usually you have to stay a certain amount of time. They have an income requirement. You have to show proof of income. They usually do a background check. They
SPEAKER_01don't want you to be a criminal. They don't want you to be a drain
SPEAKER_00economically. Correct. But again, you need to do your homework because you want to know what are the tax implications. Am I going to need to pay taxes both in the U.S. and in this country where I'm going to? What about my Medicare? Can I get my Medicare? Can I get my Social Security? These are all these issues that you need to be to investigate. By the way, in Social Security, every place in the world except for two countries will allow you to collect your Social Security while there. And I bet you can't guess what those two countries are. Eh, North Korea and Cuba. But anyway, so if you're not going to those two countries, you don't have to worry about your social security.
SPEAKER_01Right. And especially if you're moving to another country where you don't speak the language, you really want to be mindful of how you're going to... Harold mentioned that you should, I guess, look for, try to locate expat communities in those countries and get to know folks there and find out what it's really like living there and how people handle their healthcare needs. Are they traveling back to the United States for certain things? Is the healthcare in that country? I know I've seen stories about people traveling to Turkey for certain operations and other procedures because it's so much cheaper. Maybe that might be the case in the country that you're considering.
SPEAKER_00Right, right. Yeah, that's something that I did find that in a number of the countries that we looked at that are very, you know, the top 10 most sought after countries to visit, most of them do require some sort of a medical plan, but the medical costs are so much different. They are significantly lower. Is it the same quality of medical care? I don't know. But these are all things just to consider.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So certainly there are a lot of benefits to relocating. Of course, if you're relocating to be close to the family, that's a benefit in and of itself. If you're relocating maybe from a big city to a smaller, quieter environment, that might be for you. It might be a safer environment. Of course, if you're moving from, you know, owning your own home and all the responsibilities of home ownership and you're moving someplace where you don't have that requirement and that whether that's in another state or in another town within your same state or another country we're just talking about the things that you should think about because a lot of these things we didn't even consider we were just thinking quite frankly about the money part for the most part oh it's going to be cheaper and we're going to be able to do this that and the third as our son-in-law loves to say but it's not always the case. It's not always as easy as it seems.
SPEAKER_00So I think we've sort of exhausted. Well, no, we haven't exhausted all of the issues. We've just this is just the tip of the iceberg. But we hope that it has given you some measure of the complexity of what these moves take. We all know people or many of us know people who have made the move to a new location. And a year or two years later, they're Yeah. Go slowly. Go slowly.
SPEAKER_01Do your homework. I mean, as Harold said, this is just the tip of the iceberg pretty much. I mean, you can Google this information. AARP is a great source. Ask friends and relatives, people that you know, where you're thinking about moving, just to get as clear a picture as possible. Because once you've made that commitment, it's hard to turn it around and reverse it.
SPEAKER_00We plan to put some of the links to the resource that we found during our investigation and the notes where you see this podcast. If you have questions or you'd like to find out more, we have an email address that's also in the show notes. That's info...
SPEAKER_01No, it's info at... No, it's... We don't even know what our own website is, our own email is. It's info... You still have time.
SPEAKER_00Podcast. Podcast. At gmail.com.
SPEAKER_01Is it info? Or is it just,
SPEAKER_00we'll check it
SPEAKER_01out
SPEAKER_00and let you know. We'll check it out and let you know. We never use it. We never send ourselves anything. We don't send ourselves anything. Oh,
SPEAKER_01it's just you still have time podcast at gmail.com.
SPEAKER_00That's what it is. You still have time podcast at gmail.com. Now, we went through all that trouble. You better send us a note. We also have a way for you to text us there in the show notes. And we'll have a link to our Facebook page. We have a link to SpeakPipe, which is a method to leave an up to 90-second voicemail message. Really, we want you to reach out to us because we want to create a community so that we can serve you, so that we can answer questions that you might have. Right,
SPEAKER_01and maybe you thought of stuff that we haven't thought of to talk about. We want to show ideas from you. because you know it's just Harold in my brains and they're old
SPEAKER_00so hopefully we have sparked your interest if you hadn't thought about relocating maybe now you will and if you've been thinking about it like us for I don't know how long maybe you'll start to do that move that next level of research so with that I think we're done okay so what do we always say Hope? You still have time. Thanks for joining us. Look forward to your next episode.
SPEAKER_01See you soon.
UNKNOWNBye-bye.
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