Judie and I are on our final stretch before retirement and are attempting to work out if we need to sell the home or downsize and release capital and rent out the new property. We have enough in super to get a decent rig suitable for long term living but are are looking for advice on these:-
Do people keep a home base?
If no home base does it give anxiety?
Is it possible to live on the road on a pension?
Is it worthwhile keeping a tenant in a home base - does it complicate a pension?
Judie is handy with craft hobbies but I get bored easy so want to look for part time work on the way. Is this a reasonable expectation?
We are kind of pooping ourselves at getting off the property ladder if I can be blunt.
I appreciate this is personal information but we are trying to do this right so we can have 30 years of exploration AND a backup plan...
Cheers and thanks in advance
Steve
Roving-Dutchy said
04:20 PM Mar 23, 2013
If you are looking at claiming a Centrelink pension make an appointment to consult a Centrelink Financial Planner you will get excellent advice and they have no barrow to push, they strive to show you how Centrelink can best help you. Centrelink also hold seminars in regions all over Australia to help retirees or near retirees to make plans for their future, they are interesting and you can find out when there will be one in your area by contacting your Centrelink office. Cheers David
Grams said
04:38 PM Mar 23, 2013
Hi Steve,
We are waiting for two years until we head out into the playground. As we have little super (as Les has retired twice already), we are selling our home, we have 50% equity in the house, so we have enough money to pay off the mortgage debt and the caravan loan debt and still have money to invest. We are making our caravan our home, until we can't do it anymore, then we will either rent a unit in the town where our daughter is or live in the caravan on her property.
I know some people like to have a base to go back too, but our home was too big and the gardens and upkeep are too much. So either way we were always going to sell it. We particularly don't want to get tied down again with mortgage, rates, water, electricity, etc etc etc bills...we seem to spend more and more money on everything else besides us. We have no intention of doing that anymore. When we travel we will own everything, and pay as we go. We love this kind of freedom, and we can relax knowing we don't have anything else to maintain or pay for.
BruDi said
04:44 PM Mar 23, 2013
Steve,
I'd second David's reply about booking into Centrelink and seeing one of their financial planners. It helped us see we would get no pension, but would get some money as a self funded retirees from the government, about $600 per year I think.
Di
Landfall said
04:49 PM Mar 23, 2013
Roving-Dutchy wrote:
If you are looking at claiming a Centrelink pension make an appointment to consult a Centrelink Financial Planner you will get excellent advice and they have no barrow to push, they strive to show you how Centrelink can best help you. Centrelink also hold seminars in regions all over Australia to help retirees or near retirees to make plans for their future, they are interesting and you can find out when there will be one in your area by contacting your Centrelink office. Cheers David
Excellent advice.
Everyone is different, I have retired three times previously and again early this year. This time I am serious and have had enough practice at getting it right. (for us)
Initially, we sold our large home and all its associated maintenance problems. We moved into a smaller home, which could hold our possessions, locked it up and "took off" for six years.
Came back and found that my hobbies where becoming a business, and so the story goes on.
Finally for us, we moved into a small two bedroom home with very limited upkeep. We travel a lot, when away the neighbours kindly look after the place, collect the mail and forward it on to us as we require. This way, should anything go wrong, health, accident, mechanical, etc. we have abase to come bacck to. We don't have to concern ourselves with "getting the tennants out" or "have they looked after the place?"
A big thing to remember, is that should you rent your property, it becomes an investment property and will be subject to "capital gains tax" on selling.
Good luck with your ventures for the future.
Ken
Cloak said
05:15 PM Mar 23, 2013
Many thanks for the quick replies, this helps a lot you guys are very generous. Until we found this Forum we felt alone in this. I'll go see Centrelink that's a great suggestion guys. I had no idea about them as I've never had any dealings with them. Like a sponge I'll keep absorbing as much info as I can as we are both fed up with working and being tied down in a lifestyle rut. Although we live in paradise (Warneet) the place is too large and impossible to maintain while working which we have to do with a mortgage. We want to liquidate everything and bug out while we're relatively young (very late 50's) but are unsure about a lot of the finer points.
Again many thanks.
Cloak said
05:17 PM Mar 23, 2013
Grams wrote:
Hi Steve,
We are waiting for two years until we head out into the playground. As we have little super (as Les has retired twice already), we are selling our home, we have 50% equity in the house, so we have enough money to pay off the mortgage debt and the caravan loan debt and still have money to invest. We are making our caravan our home, until we can't do it anymore, then we will either rent a unit in the town where our daughter is or live in the caravan on her property.
I know some people like to have a base to go back too, but our home was too big and the gardens and upkeep are too much. So either way we were always going to sell it. We particularly don't want to get tied down again with mortgage, rates, water, electricity, etc etc etc bills...we seem to spend more and more money on everything else besides us. We have no intention of doing that anymore. When we travel we will own everything, and pay as we go. We love this kind of freedom, and we can relax knowing we don't have anything else to maintain or pay for.
This seems ideal to me no ties no stress I think we're heading down this same road.
Cheers Grams
Gerty Dancer said
05:59 PM Mar 23, 2013
There was a comprehensive thread on this subject only a few weeks back... I've tried the search button and havent found it ... help?
Landfall said
07:16 PM Mar 23, 2013
Gerty Dancer wrote:
There was a comprehensive thread on this subject only a few weeks back... I've tried the search button and havent found it ... help?
There is also a thread on another forum (CF I think) that is entitled, "How much is enough?"
it basically says that a sum of $1 million in super is required for an income to maintain any degree of living standard and a back up for getting back into a residence.
If you do your sums correctly, it is very close to the truth.
Ken
herbie said
07:30 PM Mar 23, 2013
Can i ask what forum is cf ???
Gerty Dancer said
07:34 PM Mar 23, 2013
Caravaners forum, herbie... note only one n in caravaners.
herbie said
07:35 PM Mar 23, 2013
Gerty Dancer wrote:
Caravaners forum, herbie... note only one n in caravaners.
Thank you for that.just scratching my head wondering that was all.
We are now looking at taking it slow for the next year or so and leave the house empty. If we love the life (more so if my wife does).
We are looking at buiding a shed on my sons property and then renting out the house for say 5 years then making a final desision.
There is a large cost in selling and buying (aprox 30-35k in our case)
You can rent your primary residance out for upto 6 years without any risk of capital gains tax.
This will give us time to decide what we want to do in the long term.
I am in my late 50's and am lucky enought not to have to sell etc.
Cheers
Mike
Cloak said
09:21 PM Mar 23, 2013
Thanks Mike that's a very good link.
Just about every doubt we have is covered in there. In a way it's kind of reassuring to see others have been there done that. We just need to work through them but one thing is sure we will be out on the road sooner rather than later.
Cheers everyone.
Steve
herbie said
09:37 PM Mar 23, 2013
Hi Steve, just take your time, do not rush into it....we are on the road full time ,as we are still working ,but we also are very lucky to be able to only work for part of each year.So it gives us the best of both worlds,i guess and to be honest i do not know if i would like this life full time if we both were not working. We sold the house as it was just a pain in the b.. for us to keep maintaining.And there was no way i was going to rent it out.A few years back we brought a bit of land down around the coast, and put a shed on it, Just as a feel safe thingo , if our situation changed due to health or what ever.It takes a lot of money to set one up to be on the road ,so don't jump in head first or should that be feet first...When i say if i was not working i may not like this style of life on the road full time the reason is every thing is becoming so restricted what and where one is allowed to go /do /camp/ fuel/..and if they ever closed free camps well that would be the end of travelling full time for me. As we have to most times stay in c/ parks while we work,so they are the last place i want to park up in when on the move.But in saying all this the up side is the down to earth wonderful people you cross paths with on the journey.
we did the same as Landfall, downsized to a 2 bedroom house in a lovely spot near the sea,kept all the things that mattered to us and gave away the rest, now have a safe place to leave everthing and a very kind neighbour to keep an eye on things and collect the mail, no worries. will be out on the road again after easter, can,t wait. hope we meet some nomads ,will try to get to april meet up if in the area. cheers greyghosts
Hi folks,
Judie and I are on our final stretch before retirement and are attempting to work out if we need to sell the home or downsize and release capital and rent out the new property. We have enough in super to get a decent rig suitable for long term living but are are looking for advice on these:-
Do people keep a home base?
If no home base does it give anxiety?
Is it possible to live on the road on a pension?
Is it worthwhile keeping a tenant in a home base - does it complicate a pension?
Judie is handy with craft hobbies but I get bored easy so want to look for part time work on the way. Is this a reasonable expectation?
We are kind of pooping ourselves at getting off the property ladder if I can be blunt.
I appreciate this is personal information but we are trying to do this right so we can have 30 years of exploration AND a backup plan...
Cheers and thanks in advance
Steve
Centrelink also hold seminars in regions all over Australia to help retirees or near retirees to make plans for their future, they are interesting and you can find out when there will be one in your area by contacting your Centrelink office.
Cheers
David
We are waiting for two years until we head out into the playground. As we have little super (as Les has retired twice already), we are selling our home, we have 50% equity in the house, so we have enough money to pay off the mortgage debt and the caravan loan debt and still have money to invest. We are making our caravan our home, until we can't do it anymore, then we will either rent a unit in the town where our daughter is or live in the caravan on her property.
I know some people like to have a base to go back too, but our home was too big and the gardens and upkeep are too much. So either way we were always going to sell it. We particularly don't want to get tied down again with mortgage, rates, water, electricity, etc etc etc bills...we seem to spend more and more money on everything else besides us. We have no intention of doing that anymore. When we travel we will own everything, and pay as we go. We love this kind of freedom, and we can relax knowing we don't have anything else to maintain or pay for.
I'd second David's reply about booking into Centrelink and seeing one of their financial planners. It helped us see we would get no pension, but would get some money as a self funded retirees from the government, about $600 per year I think.
Di
Excellent advice.
Everyone is different, I have retired three times previously and again early this year. This time I am serious and have had enough practice at getting it right. (for us)
Initially, we sold our large home and all its associated maintenance problems. We moved into a smaller home, which could hold our possessions, locked it up and "took off" for six years.
Came back and found that my hobbies where becoming a business, and so the story goes on.
Finally for us, we moved into a small two bedroom home with very limited upkeep. We travel a lot, when away the neighbours kindly look after the place, collect the mail and forward it on to us as we require. This way, should anything go wrong, health, accident, mechanical, etc. we have abase to come bacck to. We don't have to concern ourselves with "getting the tennants out" or "have they looked after the place?"
A big thing to remember, is that should you rent your property, it becomes an investment property and will be subject to "capital gains tax" on selling.
Good luck with your ventures for the future.
Ken
Until we found this Forum we felt alone in this. I'll go see Centrelink that's a great suggestion guys. I had no idea about them as I've never had any dealings with them.
Like a sponge I'll keep absorbing as much info as I can as we are both fed up with working and being tied down in a lifestyle rut.
Although we live in paradise (Warneet) the place is too large and impossible to maintain while working which we have to do with a mortgage.
We want to liquidate everything and bug out while we're relatively young (very late 50's) but are unsure about a lot of the finer points.
Again many thanks.
This seems ideal to me no ties no stress I think we're heading down this same road.
Cheers Grams
There is also a thread on another forum (CF I think) that is entitled, "How much is enough?"
it basically says that a sum of $1 million in super is required for an income to maintain any degree of living standard and a back up for getting back into a residence.
If you do your sums correctly, it is very close to the truth.
Ken
Can i ask what forum is cf ???
Thank you for that.just scratching my head wondering that was all.
Hi Steve
We are in a similar situation you can see some of my ramblings here http://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t50985955/getting-organised-to-be-a-full-timer/
We are now looking at taking it slow for the next year or so and leave the house empty. If we love the life (more so if my wife does).
We are looking at buiding a shed on my sons property and then renting out the house for say 5 years then making a final desision.
There is a large cost in selling and buying (aprox 30-35k in our case)
You can rent your primary residance out for upto 6 years without any risk of capital gains tax.
This will give us time to decide what we want to do in the long term.
I am in my late 50's and am lucky enought not to have to sell etc.
Cheers
Mike
Just about every doubt we have is covered in there. In a way it's kind of reassuring to see others have been there done that.
We just need to work through them but one thing is sure we will be out on the road sooner rather than later.
Cheers everyone.
Steve
Hi Steve, just take your time, do not rush into it....we are on the road full time ,as we are still working ,but we also are very lucky to be able to only work for part of each year.So it gives us the best of both worlds,i guess and to be honest i do not know if i would like this life full time if we both were not working. We sold the house as it was just a pain in the b.. for us to keep maintaining.And there was no way i was going to rent it out.A few years back we brought a bit of land down around the coast, and put a shed on it, Just as a feel safe thingo , if our situation changed due to health or what ever.It takes a lot of money to set one up to be on the road ,so don't jump in head first or should that be feet first...When i say if i was not working i may not like this style of life on the road full time the reason is every thing is becoming so restricted what and where one is allowed to go /do /camp/ fuel/..and if they ever closed free camps well that would be the end of travelling full time for me. As we have to most times stay in c/ parks while we work,so they are the last place i want to park up in when on the move.But in saying all this the up side is the down to earth wonderful people you cross paths with on the journey.
Regards Herbie.
http://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t52948580/pros-and-cons-for-keeping-your-residence-or-selling-up-while/
I found it at last... hope this helps.
we did the same as Landfall, downsized to a 2 bedroom house in a lovely spot near the sea,kept all the things that mattered to us and gave away the rest, now have a safe place to leave everthing and a very kind neighbour to keep an eye on things and collect the mail, no worries. will be out on the road again after easter, can,t wait. hope we meet some nomads ,will try to get to april meet up if in the area. cheers greyghosts