Buying real estate as a retirement investment has been something on my mind lately. In May we visited our family’s cabin near Lake Tahoe. James’ grandfather bought the place back in the early sixties, enjoyed it with his wife until they passed on, and then passed it on to their children. I found this to be an inspiring way to consider making investments, enjoying retirement, and passing a piece of heaven on to your family.
James’ moms have bought a piece of property in Baja California with our Aunt and Uncle to build a place for retirement. They also bought a place in the Puget Sound that they rent out now and could eventually use if they wanted. James’ mom Carol shares a place in Hawaii with James’ brother Adam. Not bad places to hang out in my book.
On the flip side, my grandparent’s bought a place just outside of Yosemite back in the day but didn’t manage to hang on to it for whatever reason. My mom also had a piece of property in Oregon that I grew up on but sold it for another place. Now another family owns the place for their own future retirement and is nice enough to let us visit.
While there are many reasons why people don’t hang on to real estate, it makes me consider what a value it is when you do. Lately I’ve been considering that once you max out your retirement a next good step is to find a piece of property or affordable place that you might be able to hang on to for development later in life.
We all know that the world isn’t getting any bigger and there will only be more and more people. This only leads to more and more valuable real estate. Just think what a great value this combo is. You have the option of a nice place(s) for retirement, an option to sell for retirement expenses, or you can hand it down to your family.
I’m currently in Ukraine in the beautiful city of Lviv. It makes me want to buy a nice little apartment to hang on to. Perhaps it goes back to my time as an exchange student in Finland, where I dreamed of having my own little summer cottage. A girl can dream! We’ll keep you posted on any great finds we come across to buy.
Cheers,
Miel
DINKS (Dual Income No Kids) Finance is a blog discussing personal finance for couples. While by no means financial experts, we own a variety of assets including real estate and stocks. We've both been up to our eyeballs in debt and have made tons of financial mistakes. However, we've both successfully retired that debt and we both do learn from our failings. We hope that our voice in this blog can help others in achieving their goals!
