Forget Retirement: Try “Downscaling”

With so many people asking “Gee, what should we do to really retire?” I thought it would be worthwhile to explore a whole different concept.

I call it “downscaling.”

After we get through the charts and such, we will dig in to the Golden Years and see whazzup…

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13 thoughts on “Forget Retirement: Try “Downscaling””

  1. Summer Bull or Bear Contest?
    OPEN 6/6/18 Close 6/22/18 $10,000 grew to
    3X ETF BULL – 215.84 shares – SPXL $46.33 $46.25 $9,983
    3X ETF BEAR – 392.16 shares – SPXS $25.50 $25.48 $9,992

    Even steven. The DOW, S&P, NASDAQ were all extremely weak in the last 5 minutes before the Friday close. Not a good sign for the Monday market opening (unless you are short). Could be the beginning of the summer slaughter.

    A couple of weeks ago, I got the new book by Bill Clinton & Patterson at the library. The President was shown as a caring, moral man of high integrity misunderstood by Congress, but loved & respected by all who truly knew him. Surely written by Slick Willy. Enough to make you puke. I stopped reading the book & promptly returned it to the library. Save your money if you planned on buying it.

    • There is still time to enter since it is even-steven.

      So far:
      ECS – Bear

      You can enter by repling to this post. Most people are afraid to commit in case they are wrong. Must be an ego thing.

    • I am trading SPXL. The 3x ETFs work better for me when I am able to trade same day, but my brokerage firm send me nasty grams about free riding and threatens me when I do so. Trying to solve this. Have though of having multiple opposing positions at 2 firms, which can be adjusted to create long, short or neutral net positions. That would allow me to trade on positions that have previously settled.

      Thoughts?

      • eTrade is fairly straight forward – when you go to “balances” it tells you how many day trades you have left (3 is the limit and then Ure a pattern day trader.

        I don’t think of it as free riding unless there’s something other than a short-turnar0und day trade? If they have a problem with 1-2 day trades a week, I’d go shopping./.

  2. Thanks for a wonderful piece on the `downscaling` idea. It addresses most/all of the things of that discussion in our house. Good food for thought…and action.

  3. This is the best article or your I have read. The real take away point here is that hard work, hard physical work, always pays. What we did here on Fidalgo Island is purchase a unique duplex that needed lots of upgrading esp. for the Mrs. The rent from the other unit pays the small mortgage and the taxes which when we retire will help afford us the lifestyle we want. Keeping the place up will provide plenty of the hard work required and the recreation opportunities here are quite wonderful.

  4. Dear Mr. Ure,

    An American political aristocrat has released a book. While only half as long as his autobiography, President Bill Clinton’s new fictional tome “The President is Missing” shall enter upon my reading list in spite of – spoiler alert – an alleged instance of Bud beer product placement, and a hero president trying to avoid impeachment. One notes the co-author, James Patterson, has chosen to write even after earning some hundreds of millions of dollars previously.

  5. We are in the “planning” phase of the downsize. Still riding out the jobs as well as we can, but since Maw-in-law is no longer in the picture (moved in with wife’s crazy sister) we can look at our downsize earlier than expected. We look forward to pursuing all the desired pleasures/tasks/dream chores of life we’ve been saying, “Will do that someday” and finally getting some real time to pursue them.

    The last thing we want to do is “stop.” I’ve been told time and again the number one killer of older folks is retirement and non-action. We have Way too many things we want to accomplish to sit around much. But, I truly look forward to those quiet mornings and sunsets with nature singing all around us. That part of non-action is totally alright with me.

    Funny how life goes full circle. I believe we waste so much time chasing brass rings that others tell us are worthy so we can finally do those things that if we had slowed down a bit before, we would have had them all along. Time, experience and wisdom I suppose. Wish I had listened to my gut decades before.

    • If, as part of your well-researched downsizing, you need to offload that 911….you got my email!

  6. Retirement LOL. Planned a wee bit before the fact. Bought some acreage (considerably less than you) and put in a high quality Palm Harbor home. Thought if our finances ever returned to “normal” we might build a nice solid home. They didn’t and we didn’t. Still here eighteen years later. Dropped down to one account in my business took my Social “Security.” Did some volunteer work in an organization that was into teaching self sufficient living. That’s nice but the organization turned out not to be what I thought it was. Got bored. Got another account. Working 20-30 hours a week now, looking or another local volunteer opportunity. May start my own when I pay off the property. Retirement is for doing what you want to do, not what you have to do. They key is doing. BTW, you said mobile homes don’t appreciate. Our place with the property is worth almost double what we put into it. Well was true until the last 9 months. New impact insulated windows, new roof new appliances, newly paved very long and wide driveway cut into that. Did it because we decided to spend the rest of lives here. Might as well do the upgrades before inflation puts them out of our price range.

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