If you were the owner of this home, would you be selling and planning your retirement?
What if you could sell this home for $3 million?
Would your answer be the same if your backyard looked like this?
These are pictures I took and questions I asked myself last week. Lady Pilgrim and I took a few days of R&R in Maui last week. (We were there 15 years ago and thought it was about time to go back.)
While we were there, we took many walks along the beautiful coastline. One of the most spectacular sites was an endless parade of whales that breached the water as we explored the beach. It felt like they were welcoming us to their home. Coolio.
When you see those big guys frolicking around in the water, it really makes you reconsider and rethink who and what you are. It also makes you consider mortgages for a second home.
Another sight that made me really stop and think was the shack in the picture above. This home is located on one of the most spectacular pieces of real estate in the world. It’s worth many millions of dollars. But look at it. Would you live there?
As I strolled down the beach, I asked myself what I’d do if I owned that lean-to. On the one hand, I’d have a view that most people just dream of seeing, let alone having, as a backyard. On the other hand, the conditions that I’d have to deal with in that hovel made me shiver. I just don’t know if I’m Pilgrim enough to take that.
So that’s my question to you. If you lived in this shed and owned that land, would you stay and just live and love your life? Or would you sell and be set for life – while having to leave your Garden of Eden?
I know it’s an extreme situation, but when it comes to planning your retirement, we all have to ask ourselves similar questions. Are we willing to leave our own paradise, downsize and take it easy? In fact, this is a question that we have to ask ourselves even before we start planning retirement. What if you could sell everything right now and take on weekend jobs? Would you do it?
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I would stay there in a heartbeat. I would change the ‘sheet’ curtains on the sliders and grow some herbs and veggies on my deck. I would fish in my front yard and just enjoy.
On the other hand, if the property taxes were 500,000 year, I would sell and probably move to Vermont or France.
The good life, even in retirement, is not about what you do and where you do it. It’s about who you do it with. I’m reminded of an old cartoon where a cabin on a mountainside is overlooking a sylvan paradise. As the sun sets over a waterfall and babbling brook, the owner sits on the porch watching TV. Even paradise gets old.
Excellent reminder. I think I’d add……the good life is about who you do it with and how you do it. Less stress, more joy. That’s the good life..
.-= Neal@WealthPilgrim´s last blog ..If You Were The Owner Would You Be Selling This Home And Planning Your Retirement? =-.
I’d stay there on the condition that my extended family live next door. Retirement is about relationships. Money is only one part of the equation.
The beach isn’t my thing but I would rather live in a hovel in a beautiful location. I could fix up a hovel but can’t do much about location. We have similar situations here in the mountains – run-down mobile homes with these gorgeous overviews. Guess the people inherited the land but not much money.
Eonie,
Sounds like you have a plan already. Great…..send me some photos of your view!!!!
.-= Neal´s last blog ..If You Were The Owner Would You Be Selling This Home And Planning Your Retirement? =-.
I’ve got back to Hawaii every year for the past 30+ years. Every time I go, I ask myself why I don’t stay there for good. I will ask myself this no more than 9 more times in my life, because in 9 years, I WILL be retired there
.-= Financial Samurai´s last blog ..Tax Refunds Are Good For Most People, Because Most People Can’t Save =-.
I owned a beautiful condo in Kona, pre-recession and it was on the list of retirement possibilities. It was rented and paid for itself, mostly. But when it came time to get out of financial trouble, it was gone. I am a big believer in living in a beautiful place. My current abode is a manufactured home that I rent on an 85 acre ranch in an incredible environment. This type of place is out there if you look hard enough. I would sell that one and retire to something similar for an affordable price.
Beautiful location, that reminds me of that story about the American businessmen talking to the Mexican fisherman on some beautiful beach and asking him why he doesn’t get a whole fleet of boats to get rich and save so he retire to go back to fishing on the beach…
An under-rated benefit of a hovel is you do a lot fewer chores about the place. Seriously! Who cares if there’s sand on the floorboards?