Notes From Elm Grove
by June Schroeder, CFP Board Emeritus®
September brings us
the “end of summer”, the beginning of regular football season, National Read a Book Day on September 6, and an old rule about not wearing white after Labor Day. We celebrate the American workforce on the federal holiday, Labor Day by not working!
To Move or Not To Move: That was the Question!
Many of you will remember the “big move” of my household in 2019. I wrote about it several times and thought I’d revisit the topic after getting more than a few inquiries about moving options from clients the past few months.
Six years ago, Mike and I got a phone call telling us that one of the retirement community homes we liked was now available. I told them, “We said we’d be ready in 5 years!” They said, “You have a week to make the decision.”
Planning is in our blood, (especially mine being a nurse and a financial planner) so we had researched various retirement communities. A year before this call we placed our names on the waiting list for a home at Cedar Community in West Bend (a location only 3 miles from where we had lived for 27 years.) We liked the area, the environment, all the amenities, plus the mission and philosophy of this Continuing Care Community.
Goodness! Now we had to decide sooner-in our early 70’s-than we had planned. We thought we’d have a few years to declutter and reorganize, so our heads were spinning. We weighed the pros and cons, inevitable health changes and agreed that home maintenance wasn’t getting any easier. We made the choice to MOVE BEFORE WE HAD TOO.
We hired a Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES) and a Senior Move Manager (SMM) The SMM helped declutter, organize, pack, and move with experienced staff and equipment. (Liberty staff helped too!) We were moved in 5 months! And we don’t have a rental storage locker full of stuff like some of our neighbors who don’t remember what is in that locker!
No Regrets - only Thankfulness. We don’t miss our old house but have many great memories of those years. We’re making new memories and friends here. A sign that I made in a paint class reads “Bloom Where You Are Planted” and we are!
At your next review meeting, no matter what your age, discuss the possibility of your next move so you can plan ahead.
How Much Is A Million Dollars? A Billion? A Trillion? in a picture:
The size of the federal budget and deficit are difficult to fathom. Hope this helps!
One Million: $1,000,000
One Billion: $1,000,000,000
One Trillion: $1,000,000,000,000
