Finding Home Over 50: Achieving Your Housing Needs and Life List Dreams in Retirement

By Michael W Trickey

You and about 70 million other persons aged 50 to 70 in the U.S. are in the early stages of planning for and entering into retirement.  It is a journey of sorts, during which you will be identifying your retirement housing needs and options, figuring out where you would like to live, and determining the associated costs. Your family, friend

• Language: English
• Publisher: Finding Home Books, LLC
• Release date: Jul 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9781732216518

Book preview

FINDING

HOME

OVER 50

MICHAEL W. TRICKEY

FINDING

HOME

OVER 50

Achieving Your Housing Needs

and Life List Dreams in Retirement

Finding Home Books, LLC

FINDING HOME OVER 50

Achieving Your Housing Needs and Life List Dreams in Retirement

Copyright ©2018 by Michael W. Trickey

All rights reserved.

Cover Illustration: Copyright © 2018 by Amanda M. Trickey

Published by: Finding Home Books, LLC.

Lake Zurich, IL 60047

www.findinghomebooks.com

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-7322165-0-1

ISBN: 978-1-7322165-1-8 (e-book)

Printed in the United States of America

The information in this book is distributed on an as is basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor Finding Home Books, LLC shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it.

Acknowledgments

FINDING HOME OVER 50

Achieving Your Housing Needs and Life List Dreams in Retirement

The process of researching, compiling, writing, editing, and publishing Finding Home Over 50 was challenging and rewarding. I want to thank my family and friends for providing support and encouragement throughout the process. To my wife Diane, thank you for your input and advice, especially in the areas of elder care for aging parents.

I would like to give special thanks to Amanda Trickey, who, as with my first Finding Home book, spent countless hours reading and editing my early drafts. She told me when things did not make sense, carefully reviewed my tables, charts, and graphs, and helped me to use words and expressions more understandable to those who have not spent their careers in the real estate and mortgage lending industry. Amanda also contributed her substantial talent to creating the artwork for the cover of the book.

Chris O’Reilly and David Schiff joined in the editing efforts as well, lending their skills to later drafts. They helped me to improve my words and grammar, and to make sure that the book reads well. Any remaining transgressions are my own.

Beth Lottig provided guidance and insights as I worked through the many steps of taking the book from working draft to finished product. Simon Presland was a source of information and encouragement.

My thanks, also, to Janice Ramocinski, who once again provided industry expertise and guidance to assist me in completion of the book. She gave special attention to Chapter 10 on reverse mortgages.

Dedication

To my parents, Ray and Johnavieve, and my wife, Diane.

Table of Contents

Introduction

PART 1 – Assessing Your Situation, Capabilities, and Life List Goals, and Preparing For Change

Chapter 1: Changes in Life, Changes in Living Needs

1-1 Introducing Our Average Over-50 Couple

1-2 Common Issues We Are Facing

1-3 Housing Related Questions We Are All Asking Ourselves

1-4 Quick Checklists to See Where You Stand and Where You Are Going

1-4-1 Assessing Your Situation – Preliminary Questions to Start You Thinking

1-5 Your Road to Housing Changes – Why Should You Start the Journey Now?

1-6 You Are Ready – So Who Will Be Involved in Your Housing Choice and Living Arrangement Activities?

1-6-1 Potential Members of Your Team

1-7 Bibliography for Chapter 1

Chapter 2: Beginning to Formulate Your Finding Home Over 50 Plan

2-1 Looking at Your Expected Remaining Life and Resources with Which to Live

2-1-1 How Much Longer Do You Expect to Live?

2-1-2 How Much Money Are You Going to Have Available?

2-1-3 How Much Money Will You Need for Everyday Living and Contingencies?

2-2 What You Intend to Accomplish Before It Is Too Late

2-2-1 Establish Your Life List

2-2-2 Suggestions for Creating Your Life List

2-2-3 Self-Reflection Questions to Stimulate Ideas for Your Life List

2-2-4 Some Sources of Ideas for Your Life List

2-2-5 Suggestions for Achieving Items on Your Life List

2-2-6 Life List Example – A Sample Cutout from John’s Life List

2-3 Align Your Life List and Housing Needs Choices

2-4 Bibliography for Chapter 2

Chapter 3: Securing Your Financial Foundation

3-1 Your Financial Foundation – A New Point of View, A New Focus

3-2 Backdrop for the Discussion

3-3 Your Balance Sheet

3-3-1 Some Comments About Line Items on Your Balance Sheet

3-4 How Much Do You Need for Everyday Living?

3-4-1 Estimate How Much Money You are Going to Need

3-5 What Income Sources Do You, and Will You, Have?

3-6 What Expenses Will You Have?

3-6-1 Determining Where You Are Spending Your Money

3-6-2 Retirement Reduction of Expenses

3-6-3 Expenses You Will Incur

3-7 Summarizing It All

3-8 Other Strategic Actions You Can Take to Achieve Post-Retirement Benefits

3-8-1 Maximize 401(k) or Other Employer-Sponsored Retirment Plan Contributions

3-8-2 Maximize Your Health Savings Account (HSA) Contributions

3-8-3 Buy Long-Term Care Insurance Now

3-8-4 Keep Funding Your Existing Whole Life Insurance

3-8-5 Make Sure You Are Properly Insured Against Relevant Risks

3-8-6 Avoid One-Time or Recurring Large Cash Outflows for the Benefit of Others

3-8-7 Keep a Diversified Portfolio

3-8-8 Avoid Making Withdrawals in a Down Market

3-8-9 Look for Investments with Dividends and Interest

3-8-10 Buy an Annuity – If the Costs Are Not Excessive

3-8-11 Take Advantage of Senior Discounts

3-8-12 Get Rid of Your Stuff Now While You Can Still Do So in an Orderly Fashion

3-8-13 Make Charitable Contributions Now While You Are Still Earning Income Against Which You Can Get a Tax Deduction

3-8-14 Consider a Reverse Mortgage

3-9 Bibliography for Chapter 3

Appendix 3.1: Create Your Retirement Plan

A 3.1-1 Modeling John and Karen’s Retirement Scenarios

Appendix 3.2: Government Retirement Plans and Medicare

A 3.2-1 Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS)

A 3.2-2 Social Security

A 3.2-2-1 How Social Security Works

A 3.2-2-2... The First Question – What is Your Expected Monthly Full Retirement Benefits Amount (PIA)?

A 3.2-2-3 The Big Question – When Should You Start Drawing Benefits?

A 3.2-2-4 Some Other Factors to Consider

A 3.2-2-5 Taxation of Social Security Benefits

A 3.2-3 Medicare

A 3.2-3-1 The Four Parts of the Medicare Program

A 3.2-3-2 Medicare Has Enrollment Deadlines – Do not be Late, or it will Cost You

A 3.2-3-3 Medigap Plans

Chapter 4: Decluttering Your Life

4-1 So Much to Purge, So Little Time

4-2 Purging Possessions

4-2-1 Get Rid of These Items

4-2-2 Hold On to These Items

4-3 How and Where to Get Rid of Items

4-3-1 Create Digital Images

4-3-2 Sell It

4-3-3 Gift It

4-3-4 Donate It

4-3-5 Recycle or Repurpose It

4-3-6 Trash It

4-4 How to Deal with Uncertainty about What to Purge

4-4-1 Do Not Add to the Clutter Problem

4-4-2 Set a Timeline

4-5 Bibliography for Chapter 4

Chapter 5: Functional Assessment: Weighing and Addressing Your Needs and Those of Your Older Loved Ones

5-1 Introduction

5-2 Activities of Daily Living (ADL)

5-2-1 First Set of ADL Assessment Tables – For John’s Father, Eli

5-2-2 Second Set of ADL Assessment Tables – For Karen’s Father, Ben

5-2-3 Comparative ADL Assessment Grand Totals – Eli versus Ben

5-3 You Have Assessed the Activities of Daily Living; Now What?

5-4 When an Assisted Living Facility Becomes the Choice

5-5 Bibliography for Chapter 5

PART 2 – Housing Choices, and Finding the Right Home for You

Chapter 6: Housing Alternatives: Independent Living Options For Aging in Place

6-1 Introduction

6-2 Temporary Living Before You Settle In

6-2-1 Rent Out Your Current Home and Sample Other Locations

6-2-2 Try Different Types of Structures

6-3 Aging in Place

6-3-1 Home Health-Care Providers and Home Care Providers

6-3-2 Selecting In-Home Care Providers

6-4 Independently Living on Your Own

6-5 Multigenerational Living

6-5-1 Multigenerational Households

6-5-2 Accessory Dwelling Units

6-6 Manufactured Homes on Private Land and in MH Communities

6-6-1 Manufactured Homes

6-6-2 Restrictions on Placement of Manufactured Homes

6-6-3 Avoiding Potential Pitfalls

6-6-4 How to Search for a MH Community

6-7 Cohousing Communities

6-8 Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs)

6-9 Villages – Neighborhood Networks of Like-Minded People Sharing Specialized Services

6-10 Active Adult Communities

6-10-1 Pros and Cons of Active Adult Communities

6-10-2 Examples of Active Adult Communities

6-10-3 Questionnaire to Complete for Each Active Adult Community That You are Considering

6-11 Bibliography for Chapter 6

Appendix 6.1: Selecting a Home Care Provider and/or a Home Health-Care Provider

Chapter 7: Housing Alternatives: Semi-Independent Living, Assisted Living, and Nursing Care Options

7-1 Introduction

7-2 Semi-Independent Living

7-2-1 Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs)

7-2-2 Congregate Care Facilities

7-3 Assisted Living Options

7-3-1 Assisted Living Facilities

7-3-2 Care Homes

7-3-3 Memory Care Facilities

7-3-4 Respite Care

7-4 Skilled Nursing Facilities

7-5 The Eden Alternative and THE GREEN HOUSE™ Project

7-5-1 The Eden Alternative

7-5-2 THE GREEN HOUSE™ Project

7-6 Bibliography for Chapter 7

Appendix 7.1: Evaluating Senior Living Communities

A7.1-1 Initial Checklist to Help You Evaluate Communities

A7.1-2 Tour Checklists to Help You Evaluate Communities

A7.1-3 Follow-up Checklists to Help You Evaluate Communities

Appendix 7.2: Adult Day Care Facility Evaluation Checklist

Chapter 8: Should I Stay or Should I Go? – Choosing Your Home Location

8-1 Decisions, Decisions

8-1-1 Reasons You May Want to Move to a New Location

8-1-2 Reasons You May Want to Stay Where You Are

8-1-3 A Few More Thoughts about Location Choices

8-2 Location Choice Hierarchy

8-3 Deciding Where to Buy – Case Study

8-3-1 Setting Out Your Priorities

8-3-2 Finding the Right State and Area of the State

8-3-3 State Maps and Comparative Tables

8-3-4 Finding the Right Counties and Cities

8-3-5 Learning More about Each City Area and Drilling Down to Neighborhoods

8-3-6 Defining Your Home Needs and Wants Inventory (NWI)

8-3-7 Pausing Before the Next Step; Summarizing Your LCH Parameters on a Single Page

8-4 Case Study Carve-out: Reviewing Community and Neighborhood Maps for St. George, Utah

8-5 Online Search for Community Information

8-6 Online Home Search Sites – Initial Filters and Searches

8-7 Perform Your Own Personalized Analysis

8-8 Bibliography for Chapter 8

Chapter 9: Preparing Your Current or New Home for Aging in Place

9-1 Modifying Your Home for Functionality and Accessibility

9-1-1 In-Home Mobility and Access

9-1-1-1 Flooring

9-1-1-2 Access and Maneuverability

9-1-1-3 Steps and Staircases

9-1-1-4 Easy Opening Doors and Drawers,

and Adjustable Shelves

9-1-2 Lighting and Light Switches

9-1-2-1 Proper Lighting

9-1-2-2 Light Switches

9-1-3 Sinks and Countertops

9-1-3-1 Sinks

9-1-3-2 Countertops

9-1-4 Encompassing the Outdoors

9-1-4-1 Windows

9-1-4-2 Covered Entrances, Wraparound Decks, and Planters

9-1-5 General Safety

9-1-5-1 Bathroom and Bedroom Phones

9-1-5-2 Hearing Aids

9-1-5-3 Miscellaneous General Safety Items

9-1-6 Floor Plan

9-1-7 Kitchen

9-1-7-1 Refrigerator

9-1-7-2 Appliances

9-1-7-3 Cooktops

9-1-7-4 Wall Oven

9-1-7-5 Microwave Oven

9-1-7-6 Dishwasher

9-1-8 Bathrooms

9-1-8-1 Toilets

9-1-8-2 Grab Bars

9-1-8-3 Bathtubs and Showers

9-1-8-4 Medicine Cabinets and Mirrors

9-1-8-5 Miscellaneous Bathroom Items

9-1-9 Laundry Room

9-1-9-1 Laundry Room Location

9-1-9-2 Laundry Room Layout

9-1-9-3 Laundry Room Appliances

9-1-9-4 Cabinets, Counters, Shelves, Hooks, and Hanging Bars

9-1-9-5 Miscellaneous Laundry Room Items

9-1-10 Bedrooms

9-1-10-1 Location

9-1-10-2 Bedroom Remodeling

9-1-10-3 Closets and Clutter

9-1-11 Home Exterior

9-1-11-1 Entrances

9-1-11-2 Exterior Maintenance

9-1-12 Garage, Carport, and Parking

9-1-12-1 Space to Move

9-1-12-2 Floors and Entries

9-1-12-3 Adjustable Storage Systems

9-1-13 Common Areas

9-2 Bibliography for Chapter 9

PART 3 – Reverse Mortgages, and Organizing Your Estate Documents

Chapter 10: Mortgage Loans in Reverse

10-1 Introduction

10-2 How Reverse Mortgages Work

10-3 Reverse Mortgage Loan Options

10-3-1 Categories

10-3-2 Disbursement Options

10-3-3 Amount You Can Borrow

10-3-4 Costs Involved

10-4 Reverse Mortgage Loan Program Requirements

10-5 Assessing Whether a Reverse Mortgage Is Right for You

10-6 Shopping for a Reverse Mortgage

10-7 Your Right to Cancel

10-7-1 Report Possible Fraud

10-8 Bibliography for Chapter 10

Chapter 11: Organizing Your Estate Documents

11-1 Your Estate Information Packet

11-2 Estate Planning

11-3 You Have Done the Work, Now Enjoy the Rewards!

11-4 Bibliography for Chapter 11

GLOSSARY

INDEX

FINDING

HOME

OVER 50

Introduction

Two key aspects of leading a more secure and satisfying retirement involve achieving your housing needs and life list dreams. The ideal situation occurs when you can allocate your time and resources to simultaneously achieve both elements. Finding Home Over 50 provides knowledge, insights, and tools to help you do just that. It will lead you through the steps necessary to optimize your retirement experience.

You will start by assessing your current family, financial, and health circumstances, and then projecting how you expect things to change over your retirement horizon. Within this exercise, you will consider how long you reasonably expect to be active and alive, and the order and priority of goals that you would most like to accomplish.

Next you will do a deeper dive into your financial condition, examining your assets, debts, earnings, and cashflow sources and amounts. You will evaluate your current and projected financial profile based on expectations of future employment and the point at which you will start drawing from retirement plans, Social Security, or other programs. You will plan and execute steps to improve your financial profile prior to and in retirement.

To help simplify your life and trim expenses, you will take steps to rid yourself of seldom used, unneeded, and outdated possessions, by selling, gifting, or otherwise disposing of them. This includes removing items from storage and eliminating related costs.

You will identify your anticipated housing needs and potential living options, and determine which alternatives best meet your needs. Your requirements will likely change as you age, and with them, your preferred living choices. Currently, you may be able to independently age in place in your present or a new home, either of which might be located in a city or suburban neighborhood, rural area, naturally occurring retirement community (NORC), cohousing community, Village, or active adult community. You may prefer to live with family members in multigenerational housing. Later you may need in-home care or health care, or foresee moving into a facility providing 24/7 health care and assistance with your activities of daily living. You will weigh the cost of each living option against your resources, and determine which ones are both affordable and leave you with sufficient resources to pursue your life list goals.

You may need to consider and plan for a timeframe both preceding and within your retirement during which you will have loved ones for whom you will be providing care and/or shelter. These could include aged parents, adult (or younger) children, and others. You may be assisting or sheltering them within your own home or at another location. Part of the Finding Home Over 50 process involves assessing and managing the needs of older loved ones, as well those of younger persons dependent on you.

While you are reading this book, remember that you are going to be part of a sizable group of people who will be retiring within the same timeframe as you. Persons aged 50 to 70 comprise about 25 percent of the current population in the U.S., and an even larger percentage of the population that directly owns or rents their homes.¹ As the following table and chart show, this group spans two distinct Baby Boomer sub-groups, and the oldest slice of so-called Gen-X adults.

The following chart further breaks down the population by age bands and gender.

The table and chart are telling you two main things, with a common theme:

1. As a part of this group, you are among a huge number of people who are approaching retirement age all at once, and who will be scaling back, selling businesses, and changing living arrangements amidst great competition.

The message: You need to start preparing for your upcoming housing choices soon; you will have fewer options as the masses continue to rush in.

2. Second, the number of people represented by each bar in the chart drops off pretty fast on the right.

The message: Like it or not, you are at least halfway through your life and time is marching on. You must start preparing soon if you want to accomplish some of your life list goals. You have to know what you can afford to do, and your upcoming housing choices are central to your decisions.

Metaphorically speaking, some in the group are going to begin the retirement journey traveling in first class, some in coach class, and some in steerage. Some will be flying in private planes, and some will be riding the bus. While everyone reading this book will have somewhat different circumstances, as a group, some general statements can be made.

1. The over-50 crowd controls about 70 percent of the net income of American households, and on average has the highest amount of discretionary income of any generation in history.

2. Although this group did not grow up with technology, members have worked to become tech-savvy, though not to the degree of younger generations.

3. Members are young at heart and do not consider themselves old. Most view 70, or even 80, as the new old.

4. Many over-50-year-olds are concerned that due to increasing life spans, they may at some point run out of money:

a. They have been told, and it is contributing to their unease, that the large numbers of folks approaching retirement are going to put too much of a strain on Social Security and Medicare, and benefits may have to be severely cut or curtailed.

b. The high, unknowable, and increasing costs of health care are a big worry, further contributing to the unease some have about running out of money.

c. Resources of some may be further depleted by assisting adult children and elderly parents or loved ones.

5. Many in the group are long-term homeowners who have treated the equity in their homes as a form of piggy-bank. Some continued borrowing more and more against their homes as prices increased through 2006, then found themselves with little or no equity (or even negative equity) when home prices dropped. As a whole, this generation owes more against their homes when this close to retirement than any previous generation.

6. In recent years, most have been unable to earn a decent interest rate on their savings, either forcing them into riskier investments or to come to grips with the reality that less money than anticipated will be safely available in retirement.

In this book, we will consider each of these factors and address the identified concerns. Regardless of your means, and which of these factors pertain to you, we are going to plot an appropriate course to maximize the quality of your journey.

About The Author, This Book, and The Companion Website

As you are entrusting me with providing you with information and offering guidance, it is only right that I first give you some background information.

I am over 50, approaching retirement, and facing the same choices and challenges as you. This is a very personal subject to me. I have spent considerable time and effort studying, experiencing, and working through solutions to these challenges. I have conducted extensive research on the topics covered herein, and have provided footnotes and bibliography references throughout the book, both to document sources, and to provide you with avenues for further study if you like.

I am a CPA and financial planning expert who specializes in real estate-related topics. I actively participate in both the residential and commercial real estate markets, as either a consultant to others, or for my own account. Over the last thirty-seven years, I have been involved in dozens of real estate transactions where I purchased or sold condominiums, single-family homes, duplexes, multi-unit flats, apartment buildings, and commercial buildings. I bring this experience to bear in the discussions involving your housing options.²

This is the second Finding Home book I have written. The first is titled Finding Home: Everything You Need to Know — And Do — For Home Buying Success. It provides information to assist (primarily) first-time home buyers.

I wrote this subsequent Finding Home book to provide assistance to people approaching retirement. Through my own experiences and those of friends and acquaintances, I knew you could spend considerable time 1) sitting in front of your computer, 2) visiting different types of housing venues, communities, and facilities, 3) interviewing practitioners and experts, and 4) otherwise researching the topics presented herein. I invested many months doing so in preparation for writing this book. I reasoned that you may prefer to have a primary resource that sets it all out for you in an organized, consolidated, and easy-to-read fashion, and that is what I am presenting to you.

Because the world and your retirement options will continually change, I created and maintain a companion website for the book that is available at fho50.com. There you will find downloadable versions of most of the questionnaires, lists, tables, forms, and other documents presented throughout this book. You will also find up-to-date articles, a page filled with links to helpful websites, an expansive detailed glossary, and other relevant and helpful content that can be used in tandem with this book.

To help you to translate the concepts presented in this book into real life, I introduce and then we follow throughout the book, a middle-aged couple, John and Karen, as they navigate challenges common to the over-50 generation. I suspect you will identify with various aspects of the couple’s choices, challenges, goals, and timeframes.

The kitchen table discussions they have with each other and their loved ones will provide guidance and examples. You will see the resources they access, and how they use the tools and complete the questionnaires, tables, and forms available on fho50.com. This process will help you to develop ideas, choices, and solutions of your own.

The chapters that follow are organized in a logical progression, but are designed to stand on their own. They are organized and grouped into three parts:

Part 1 – Assessing Your Situation, Capabilities, and Life List Goals, and Preparing For Change

Part 2 – Housing Choices, and Finding the Right Home for You

Part 3 – Reverse Mortgages, and Organizing your Estate Documents

This book will show you what you need to know and do to successfully achieve your housing needs and life list dreams in retirement.

Enjoy the journey, and each destination along the way!

Michael Trickey

---

¹http://www.censusscope.org/us/chart_age.html

²I earned my MBA in financial management from the University of Chicago, and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from The Ohio State University. I manage a consulting firm that I founded in 1998 called The Berkshire Group LP, with operations based in a Chicago suburb. Berkshire Group provides advisory, data, and predictive modeling services to clients throughout the United States, and in Puerto Rico, Canada, Central America, and parts of Europe and Asia.

PART 1

Assessing Your Situation, Capabilities, and Life List Goals, and Preparing For Change

Chapter 1 - Changes in Life, Changes in Living Needs

Chapter 2 - Beginning to Formulate Your Finding Home Over 50 Plan

Chapter 3 - Securing Your Financial Foundation

Chapter 4 - Decluttering Your Life

Chapter 5 - Functional Assessment – Weighing and Addressing Your Needs & Those of Your Older Loved One

Chapter 1

Changes in Life, Changes in Living Needs

Things do not change; we change.

- Henry David Thoreau

An old saying is that time marches on. As the days progress, the phases of your life unfold, each presenting its own blend of opportunities and challenges. As you move into the over-50 phase of your life, you will reach another of many inflection points in your life’s journey.

If you have children, they are likely now young adults who are, or soon will be, living more independently. If your parents are still alive, they may be starting to rely on you more. If you are employed, you may be enjoying your peak earnings years and building savings. You may also be anticipating the end of tuition bills, paying off your mortgage loan, seeing your kids marry, and/or having grandchildren. And given that you are reading this book, you are likely contemplating retirement.¹

As you continue to age and move into retirement, you will experience significant changes in your income sources and amounts, daily activities and routines, housing needs and living circumstances, and inevitably, physical abilities and state of health. Your interactions with, and proximity to, your family members, circle of friends, network of providers, and others of significance in your life will also change.

This book focuses on how to prepare for and manage these changes within the context of their impact upon both your housing needs, and your ability to achieve your life list dreams in the coming years. It is a personalized how-to book of sorts. Herein we will strive to assess your current situation, set and/or refine your life list goals, figure out your evolving housing needs and wants, plan and coordinate your actions to simultaneously achieve your housing needs and life list goals, and start taking meaningful steps.

This chapter helps you to begin assessing your current situation from the standpoint of your state of mind, family circumstances, finances, health, and other factors. It will be easier for you to get to where you want to go, if you have a better idea of your starting point. Later, we will take a deeper dive into your current situation, and discuss ways to enhance your housing and life list goal-attainment outcomes.

1-1 Introducing Our Average Over-50 Couple

I introduce below, and in a few sections throughout the book we will follow, a fictional couple experiencing common over-50 situations. The couple has earnings, assets, and debt typical of the average over-50 couple in the U.S.A. Their conversations and actions will provide information and ideas that should prove helpful. When the couple appears, the sections will start and end with dividers that look like this: <><><><><>. To provide a backdrop, here is a brief introduction to the couple.

<><><><><>

John, age 57, and Karen, 56, sit at the kitchen table of their Madison, Wisconsin, home.

John is a mechanical engineer who has worked for 33 years for the city of Madison and makes $86,466 per year. The city has a minimum retirement age of 55, and a normal retirement age of 65 for full benefits, which includes a defined contribution retirement plan and medical benefits.

Karen works as a surgical nurse at a Madison area hospital, earning $78,070 per year. The hospital has a 401(k) plan for employees, but provides no other retirement benefits. The hospital has no minimum or normal retirement age, and the trend has been for nurses to work past age 65.

John’s father, Eli, is an 83-year-old widower living alone in his Madison home. His wife, Nora, passed away three years ago. Both of Karen’s parents, Ben and Ann, are 85 and reside in an assisted living community about 55 minutes away from Madison in Beloit, Wisconsin. Karen’s 52-year old-sister, Linda, also lives in Beloit with her husband, Bob.

John and Karen have two adult children, Sarah and Matt. Sarah lives in Milwaukee with her husband, Marcus, and child, Sophia, while Matt is single and lives and works in Detroit.

Diagram 1-1: John and Karen’s Family Tree

Our couple is discussing living and lifestyle choices they will be addressing over the coming years. Part of their decision-making involves consideration of their parents and other family members.

They have been busy the last few years focusing on the education and marriage of their adult children, enjoying their grandchild, contemplating the final years working at their long-term jobs, adding as much as they can to their retirement savings, and dealing with the increasing needs of their aging parents. They are now ready to shift their focus to possible changes in their own housing needs and living arrangements, which will be tied to the other aforementioned factors.

<><><><><>

Throughout the book, you will find questionnaires, checklists, and tables that you can download from the companion website (fho50.com) and complete. The forms presented within the book are filled in using information taken from our fictional couple, which I have done to provide ideas and guidance as you are completing your own forms. The couple’s numbers will reflect national averages. Your numbers may be higher or lower, depending on your circumstances.

1-2 Common Issues We Are Facing

In List 1-1 you will find factors likely impacting you and others who are over 50. Some issues have more meaning to you than others. This list provides a framework for much of the discussion in the rest of this book. Directly or indirectly, each of these issues is going to influence your housing situation and choices over the coming years. Example items and impacts are filled in for John and Karen.

List 1-1 Common Issues Impacting People Over 50