Where to Retire

Once in a while Mr. Boomer and I talk about where we want to retire. (Watching Househunters International probably influences our thoughts). What triggered it most recently was a few hours at the beach.

We live in the U.S. city with the most perfect weather: San Diego. Many people move here for their retirement so you would think we’re set, right? Well, maybe it’s a case of the grass is always greener on the other side, but we are talking about relocating for our golden years… at least part of the time.

Why not San Diego or what’s the beach got to do with retirement?

Our afternoon at the beach a few days ago was gorgeous with temperature in the low to mid 80’s, clear skies and gentle surf. That perfect picture came to a screeching halt the moment one entered the ocean water. Brrrr! We love the beach and have enjoyed many vacations over the past 10 years on cruises or land trips to Mexico or Hawaii. We now realize, the enjoyment is diminished without the ability to actually enter the water let alone linger.

Another reason to look elsewhere is the size of our fine city. For those that haven’t yet been here, San Diego is not a compact city. The city limits range from South Bay (South San Diego) to Rancho Bernardo which is at least 30 miles apart. A major consideration is making plans is traffic. Unfortunately, although public transit is getting better, we don’t have a train system for the inland corridor where we live and bus stops are infrequent.

Due to the traffic and it’s impact on quality of life, Mr. Boomer and I sold our 4-bedroom ranch style home 23 miles from my work and bought a 3 bedroom townhome condo 3 miles from the office. Our commitment to this home is until I retire in approximately 10 years.

Location, location, location

So, with the whole world as an option, how does one decide where to retire?

1. Decide what’s important. One thing that is important is family so where my kids are at the time will influence our decision. As I mentioned earlier, the beach (with warm water) is also a want along with a medium-sized city and reasonable real estate.

2. Be flexible. One of our thoughts is that we may split our time between two homes. This is primarily driven by what’s important to us which is family in San Diego and the warm water. We can’t get both in one place. This option means we’d replace our current condo with a smaller one and then use the rest of the proceeds to buy something at the new destination.

3. Start researching. Start weeding through candidate towns way before it’s crunch time. Research online and then visit the potential communities to understand the flavor and the neighborhoods. Use a list of important community criteria; this move is about more than the house.

Do you plan to relocate with retirement?

Selling on Ebay

I’m in baby step 2 of Dave Ramsey’s 7 steps to financial peace. This means I’m retiring all debt except mortgage debt (this is baby step 6). One of his ideas to retire debt quicker is to sell unnecessary items.

Probably Dave’s idea of what is unnecessary is different from mine but I spent several weeks thinking about what I owned and didn’t even use let alone need. Last weekend I decided to bite the bullet and try my hand at selling on Ebay.

Why Ebay?

Part of my thinking those weeks was about what venue was the best for me to enter. Options were garage sale, craigslist and ebay (at least those were the options I knew).

I ruled out a garage sale for several reasons. The first was price. I didn’t think I could get the best price with the local audience as compared to a national audience. Second, a garage sale would require more organization and time than I wanted to do now. I would have to gather enough things to make it worthwhile to hold, price each item or group, display in my garage and then spend a day off holding the sale. A garage sale has the advantage of no shipping and having the sale of many items done in one day.

Craigslist would be easier, but required coordination between the buyer and myself. I didn’t want to have to haggle for each sale. There is the same disadvantage of only having a local audience most likely compared to a national audience. The advantage is that the listing is free and immediate.

Lastly I considered Ebay. I had experience on this venue buying over the years and felt comfortable with transactions on Ebay. The downside of this method is I would have to package and ship any items sold. I would pay small fees to Ebay and Paypal for their hosting of the transactions. The advantages of being able to sell to a national audience, the anonymity and the free listings with no risk if the item didn’t sell swayed me to this venue. I decided to post the 5 free monthly listings and give it a whirl.

Process and Results

It took me a couple of hours to figure out the best option for posting my items and getting all 5 listed. The challenging part for me was the shipping options, but I figured it out. I would recommend “More Listing Choices” over “Keep it Simple” when selecting the listing form. Otherwise, you’re stuck with a flat rate for shipping in certain categories.

I listed the items on a Saturday with a 5 day auction and a 3 business days turnaround for shipping. The timing was important to ensure I could fulfill sales on the weekend. I listed 4 books and a Wii game I got for Christmas and never used (sadly I had asked for it, but that’s another post).

On Thursday, I received five emails from Ebay. Two items sold (one book and the Wii game) and three had not. The email has a link that will help generate the invoice for the buyer. Luckily, I had two prompt payers and shipped the packages yesterday.

Selling on Ebay was a positive experience and I have $36 more for paying down debt. What about the items that didn’t sell? I’m trying my hand at selling the 3 books and 3 exercise DVDs on Half.com. I’ll let you know in a later post how that goes.

Do you have items you can sell? Think about what you don’t need and how to turn it into money!

Hello world!

This is my first post in my first blog.  Pretty exciting and scary at the same time!  To get started, let me tell you why I am blogging.

A little over two months ago I started Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University at my church.  My goal was to get financially smarter as I was starting to feel the pressure with this year’s birthday that ended in a zero.  I’m 50 this year and can see the number of years left until retirement dwindling.  And I haven’t been financially smart all along although it’s not as dire as I may project at times.

Although I have two lessons left, the class has taught me so much already.  Instead of spending until it’s all gone, I have a monthly budget.  Instead of using a vague savings account or a credit card for “unexpected” costs I have sinking funds.  I’ve started a debt snowball and I have hope that one day I can  live like no one else.

I’m starting a blog to keep my focus on the long term and share my musings on this boomer’s journey to retirement.