I'm 54 and I'm single with no dependents. daughter is grown up and doing her own thing.
I have a handyman / renovation business and earn some decent money doing that.
I live in Vancouver Canada, I like it here for the most part, but I detest the long dark dreary wet months from November to February.
I have no savings, a bit of a pension coming from here and another from the UK, maybe 1200 a month when Im 65.
I have a big rental house that generates a good amount of money each year, enough to pay all the bills and more, if I sold the house at todays price I could net around 750k and I'd be free of all the hassles of land lording and home ownership.
I've had the house 9 years and it's often been a pain in the butt, it's also made me wealthy I think its fair to say.
An important point is that even though the house and the finance has been a pain in the butt, I think at this point in time I have things squared up with the house and its probably the best its been and the least amount of problems, due to fixing all the kinks and bills paid off and great mortgage rate. although for sure from experience if I move in and rent the basement the law of averages says there will be tenant hassles down the line.
Daughter and grandkids were living there, now they moved across country, I just spent 6 weeks fixing it up, I have it looking good, it's empty and I'm on the fence about if to sell it or keep it.
Theres a big development going in up the street and the word is that the house over the long term will likely go up... though I think we may be headed into a dip, in which case now is the time to sell or wait it out for a couple of years.
I was talking to my friend who is knowledgeable about investing, she figures I could get 6% and if I invest 700k I'd have 42 grand a year, I still like working and Id love to work less but not stop, so lets say I earned 35 k a year part time... I'd have 77 thousand a year.... I dont need that much and could easy roll 25k back into investing. Also have the pension in 11 years. Theres taxes etc that I havent worked into this, its just a rough idea.
If I keep the house, I'd have a thousand square foot 2 bed place to live and generate around 50k a year from rents and 45k a year expenses, then some tax to pay... so approx end up with a free place to live, bills all paid and mortgage paid down about 12k a year. Plus if there is a big price rise due to new development in the area, I'd get that too.
I don't how to make a tough call like that.. it's almost like until something forces your hand and you have to change, then its easier just to go along with how it is now. But! Theres an awful lot to be said for just being free for the rest of my life.
I once read a book called the Dip, if I remember it was about when to quit to and when to not, maybe Ill dig it out. Anyone have any thoughts on how to call a tough one like that? It almost reminds me of when deciding to end a relationship or quit a job you've been at for a long time and have a lot invested in... I just want to avoid regrets.
Apologies if this sounds similar to past post I did, things changed a bit so posting this one
PS, I should mention that if I sold it, I have a nice apartment that I can pay a decent rent for and its down by the beach. I think eventually I'd probably try my hand at living somewhere else for a while, maybe Ecuador or somewhere I could just kick back and take it easy