Tag Archives: retirement

A retirement plan to move to Orchid Island Golf and Beach Club

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It is most interesting to me that my aunt and uncle are looking into retiring and heading south in the next few years and are seriously considering Orchid Island Golf and Beach Club at Vero Beach’s in Florida as their final landing spot. You see my aunt and uncle have been very vocal over the years about various friends and family relocating to gated communities all across the country. My uncle’s main grip is that he feels that residents get a false sense of security while living behind the gates and or walls that keep the properties in the community protected.

My uncle comes from the “old school” brimming over with Irish blood this one is. Most of us have all learned that it is pointless to argue with him and the older he gets the more stubborn and argumentative he becomes. Of course there are some folks that seem to enjoy just egging him on and thoroughly enjoy a good debate now and then. Myself, I tend to just kick back and be a good listener, while keeping a smile on my face, my chin up and looking him straight in the eye.

It will be so different once they really do relocate. They have lived in that same house since they were married and I can’t imagine anyone else living in there as well as not seeing them on all the family get-togethers throughout the year.  Although these get together will be a lot more on the mellow side than in the past without my Irish uncle around to stir things up.

55 plus communities in Georgia

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When I was much younger I thought it was really mean for housing developments to put restrictions on the ages of the people who lived in the community. Of course back then I was a loud kid that thought nothing of making noise all day and night, without even realizing that the noise that I was making would be disturbing to anyone else, and to be quite honest, I wasn’t intentionally being selfish about it, but I just did not have the empathy for how other people feel. I don’t know if that is normal for kids to be that way or not. I mean, I keep hearing that children are self-centered, but when I hear that I think that it is meant in a mean way, not in a “gee I didn’t realize” ignorance kind of way.

Now that I’m approaching retirement age, I can certainly understand the allure of living in one of the 55 plus communities in Georgia, where no one under the age of 55 is allowed to live there. Although I would really hesitate to purchase a house in a community like that, I would rather rent. My thought process is that if something terrible happened to one of my kids or grand kids and they needed to come live with me so I could take care of them it would be a true hardship for me to have to try to sell a house because of those age limitations. If the real estate market was depressed, the house might not sell, and then what would I do?

Port Saint Lucie Real Estate for retirement

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Ron and Mary were showing us the brochures that they brought back from their trip to the City of Port Saint Lucie last week. They are finally doing some serious planning for their retirement, now that all of their kids have moved out and gone to different corners of the country. Although they have lived here in New England their entire lives, they feel that they have had enough of the cold weather and the increasing costs of heating their home and snow removal fees. And last winter Mary had slipped on some ice and fell really hard, breaking her right hip. Realizing that living out on this remote camp road that winters here will not be getting any better for them, and that their bodies will be getting more frail, they are going to turn their house into a summer home and go to Florida for the winter. They figure that it is time that they joined the flock of migrating snow birds.

I really can’t say that I blame them one bit. When I get to be their age I won’t want to have to deal with the rugged life out here either. Of course if I were to suddenly come into some money so that I could hire a gazillion people to take care of the harder physical labor things that would be different. But I certainly can see the appeal of going south for the winter and back up here for the summer. We do have beautiful summers up here. Ron and Mary told us that they are going to go back to Florida next fall and look at buying some Port Saint Lucie real estate for their winter place. They will be looking for a gated community, and are thinking about a retirement village of condominiums that will have lawn care service done for them as part of their condominium annual fees. That sounds good to me!

To market to market

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One of my favorite classes that I took in college was a business course in marketing. We learned a lot about the different types of advertising a product (or service) and for a while I was actually thinking about pursuing a career in marketing. The problem that I had with that, however, was that I could not find any local Advertising Agency to go to work for!

One day my sister talked to me about how she was starting a venture with a girlfriend that involved creating a local directory/guide to products and services directed at young and expectant mothers. They went to a lot of businesses to sell advertisements to pay for the printing and distribution of the guide. When they were finished with it she mailed a copy to me, and I was quite impressed with the job that they had done. I never did hear whether or not that turned a profit, but she has talked to me about whether or not I would like to participate in the soliciting of advertisements for another guide in a different market.

I told her that I would be willing to help her with the next one, but I’ve been waiting several months to hear exactly what it is that she would like for me to do. At this point I am not even sure what the product/service is going to be; I have a feeling that she might want to pick a different demographic, such as senior citizens retirement and health issues. Considering the aging of America, I think that would be a good idea, don’t you agree?