Retirement living plans ?

Hello

I have been thinking about this as well. It's never too early to start preparing.

I bought a house near a busy road where restaurants and supermarkets are. Retirement plan is to convert the house into a (Gloria Jeans??) cafe and sell bits and pieces on the side too.  The bits and pieces would be mementos I bought during travel or ethnic souvenirs, ethnic clothings, arts, curios etc. This is so I can travel and buy things for business. And obviously these will be tax deductible.

Be interested to know your plans as well.

Thanks,
Catts

I plan to spend every last cent and then get the pension at age 67.

We are currently downsizing our home with a view to building a new smaller property in the neighbourhood.

New place will be designed so that it could become a B n B in the future and at the same time cater for the kids and their families visiting from time to time. New place is immediately adjacent to my folks so they will be able to remain in their home for a longer period of time.

Have got the boat and camper trailer already parked in the garage and currently using them for pre-retirement practice.

We have super resources which are soon accessible, a property and share portfolio working away.

Started in a new business 18 months ago and are now ramping that up. 

At this stage working towards doing small scale developments on a personal level in 'retirement' to provide ongoing cashflow and/or capital.

PS me 53 this year and wife 51.

Things are coming together quite nicely at the moment.

Hi, one relative who retired on independent resources bought a 3BR house in a stylish retirement village. The first 2 years were good & then management costs kept increasing, shares kept dropping.

Their wealth dwindled and they decided to sell out. The buyers were scarce. In the end, they took a big loss and got out. Bought a 2 BR new house in a hills area and were happy to take the pension.

In the 80s, they were wealthy, their children went to private school & etc but in the 21st century, they've become pensioners.

Still good, their new house has increased in value significantly, but unfortunately, a long way below what they once were.

KY

Hi Dub,

Not only are there the financial consideration there are also the emotional considerations.

A 'lot' of our lives revolve around work including hours per day and our social circles. To a large extent the daily patter of our lives is semi-organised for us by virtue we work 8 hours per day. Take away the 8 hours per day and a gaping hole is left behind.

People often say I'll go 'fishing', 'play golf'  etc but the reality is that there are only so many games of golf one can play or fish one can catch before the novelty of never having to work again wears off. That is why so many people include some volunteering and/or part-time work in their lives – for the social contact.

A lot has to change when work is finished. That is not to say it is something to be worried about but it is certainly something to plan for. Starting early is always to an individuals advantage.

I have seen first hand the effect poor planning has on individuals lifestyle – I am currently working very closely with my parents trying to work some strategies to extend their life (and quality thereof) at home. Seems my old man didn't change his spending habits when he finished work and now has to make some serious adjustments to make. 

Hey friends, i was going through this thread, it so good to see people thinking of retiring and still so ambitiously pondering upon what work to do after they retire:) the opeing of gloria jeans cafe is an interesting idea. would be definitely a success from the point of view that its so popular amongst the youngsters. but i just wonder that starting a new business of your own after retirement, considering your health and age factors, im talking generally for anyone who is considering starting their own business, not just the cafe:) would it be feasible? can you  put in that much time and effort? because being a sole business owner is afterall a huge responsibility:) why not some safe investments that can pay off when you retire so you can finally relax?

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Great thread guys. Interesting reading everyone’s plans & stories on retirement. For me, I reckon it’s all about enjoying & living your life to the full as much as possible now too, while working smarter (thinking IPs!) instead of harder.

I saw first hand dad working his butt off for many years – saving & saving for his intended retirement at 60 where he & mum planned to travel & enjoy all the things they’d been saving for….. only for dad to reach 57 & the big C arrived out of the blue. Never smoked, wasn’t a big drinker but still, it doesn’t discriminate does it. He was pretty sick for a couple of years & passed away just 6 months short of retirement!

So our plan/life is all about balance – planning for retirement one day yet not forgetting to live & enjoy life each day while we’re hopefully heading there!

Right now the growth assets have been well and truly purchased and that phase is behind me, like most it would have been good to buy earlier but no regrets on that part. I will probably do a development on one of my properties and am in no rush to do this which might mean I do it in semi retirement. My plan now is to keep maximising my income and savings, super is okay and I have an equity position in the company that I am working for that has a long term tenure pay out condition. Having changed jobs quite frequently and rewardingly in recent years, I hope that this job will now be my swan song with respect to the day job bit and take me up to 55 in 7 years time.

After that, I do intend to have a life change and get off the career fast track and probably step back at least from that role, maybe continue some presence as an independent director and cherry pick a few part time consultancy assignments and whatever else seems interesting at that time. My houses which have been set up as massively negative geared should be pretty close to cash flow neutral by then and should start providing some cash flow thereafter. Me and Mrs Bardon had a rough plan to head down to northern NSW for the life change, but I can now see this wont happen at 55 as we have just returned to our home in Brisbane and have decided to do the dream home reno on it. Given the kids will be 18-20 when I am 55 I can see that they will still be well and truly at home and probably needing financial assistance with education or life support of sorts. That will tend to keep us in the city a while longer, not that that is a problem as we are both city slickers anyhow, and we enjoy the network and the amenities it has to offer.

Longer term reverse mortgages are definitely an option as I would prefer to hang on the assets and leave them for the kids after. I guess they will just have to hope that I don’t hang on too long blowing their equity on whatever takes my fancy as the older I get the more I enjoy spending money on enjoyable things. I certainly wont be sacrificing things in my later life just so the kids can blow it after I cark it that’s for sure.

With respect to running a business in a semi retired type role I have seen this not work out well. Some people that I know ended up buying a job, and then the commitment to run the business was 24/7 and not really what they imagined. The main point is yes set up a business if that is what you want but be careful about buying one. You may simply be buying a job and we all know that you can get them for free.

Hi, retirement IS hard work!
I used to flippantly say I want to retire at 40. I actually stopped working at 42. Young & attractive still, enjoyed mucking around & found my money ran out very fast. That was when I started buying property.

Managed to finally 'retire' at 52. Not so young & attractive but still …

I bought a property & redeveloped it, built 4 houses, bought 2 more dilapidated no one in his right mind would buy houses. Sold one, redeveloped the other.

Took 3 years, a lot of swear words & not so subtle threats.

I really enjoyed this phase of my 'retirement' even though there were moments of stress.

When the developments were finished, I was left with nothing to do so I bought a cafe. BIG MISTAKE. So Gloria Jean, take note & do your due diligence. I was happy to give up $50K. I could make it back much faster if I didn't continue with the cafe.

Then someone recommended a tutoring job. It was 2 hours a day x 4 and standard pay. It was a very very rewarding experience.

Now I play mahjong with my 87 year old parents, so that they have some activity to occupy their time.

I made some cotton tops and my cousin said that they look like designer clothes, she filched 2 of them, then bought a stack of materials for me. I'm happy to make more of them because the sense of satisfaction at designing & completing them is immense.

Will probably visit India or Russia this year or next.

Incidentally, my siblings are so relieved that someone's looking after my parents they pay me!

KY