Lucky you! You’re a 55-plus homeowner, the kids are on their own (or almost), and now you get to decide what you want in a home.
A long-overdue reno? The low-maintenance life of a renter? Chucking everything to become an RV nomad?
This is a time of life rich with new possibilities and choices, when eagerly anticipating the future — including what you need and want in a home — helps build hope and resilience, assets that are especially important as we age and particularly in fraught times such as ours.
So, what do you do?
Start by considering your options judiciously.
For example, a rough winter like the one we’ve just had can make a seaside home in Victoria alluring. But if you have family back east, how often can they and you afford to visit each other?
Selling the family home and renting gets you out from under the burden of home maintenance and you can invest the profits from the sale, but you then have a landlord setting rental rates and rules.
Buying a condo also puts an end to maintenance. But it, too, comes with rules — only small pets, for instance — and you’ll shell out for condo fees (roughly $300 to $800 per month, according to real estate experts), parking, a reserve fund and probably more. Rules and costs like these may or may not matter to you, but you need to be aware of them.
Depending on your finances, you could also sell your big family home and buy a smaller, new bungalow or townhome.
“Try before you buy,” recommends Jenna Roundell of Ottawa’s Roundell Wealth Management. “Rent something similar in space and location… to get a feel for things before you permanently commit.”
She also recommends speaking to your financial advisor before making any major financial decisions about your home.
If you’d rather stay in your home, you already know its weaknesses, but have you considered its untapped possibilities? If you’re a budding, late-stage artist, for instance, could you convert an unused bedroom into a private studio? How about installing your own mini fitness centre instead of hiking to the gyn?
If you’re considering staying put but renovating, the world’s your oyster thanks to an almost endless list of cabinetry, finishes and other options. Remember, though, that a brand-new kitchen doesn’t mean a brand-new you. A survey published in 2020 by the National Institute of Ageing and TELUS Health found almost 100 per cent of Canadians aged 65 and older planned to stay in their own homes as long as possible. But bodies and minds keep growing older. So, why not add aging-in-place features now, such as pull-down kitchen cabinets, better lighting to reduce the risk of tripping and attractive grab bars in the bathrooms? The choices today are anything but institutional looking and, as a bonus, they’ll make your life better now, not just in the years to come.
If you’re looking to renovate, websites like this one and chba.ca (Canadian Home Builders’ Association) offer guidance and resources. As well, there is provincial and federal financial assistance, including Canada’s Multigenerational Home Renovation Tax Credit, to help you stay in your home longer.
There are more options.
Could you add a coach house — a small, self-contained dwelling — in your backyard, maybe renting it out now and later in life moving in yourself and turning the big house over to a child’s or grandchild’s family?
What about adding a self-contained living suite in the basement or over the garage, renting it out for extra income now and later occupying it yourself?
The City of Ottawa encourages these alternative living arrangements to increase density and reduce urban sprawl.
Our homes are, for many of us, not only the single biggest financial investment of our lives but also the embodiment of who we are. Those two factors can make decisions about where and how we live intimidating, even paralyzing as we age and become more set in our ways. Fortunately, research suggests that our decision-making improves in some ways as we grow older, according to Alexa Ruel, a Canadian post-doctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg, Germany, whose current research focuses on how our learning and decision-making abilities change during aging.
Ruel recognizes that while cognitive decline generally accompanies aging, big decisions like those about housing “rely on the ability to carefully consider many important pieces of information… in this regard, to some degree, older adults may actually be better equipped (often financially, too!) than younger adults are to make these kinds of decisions.”
With that kind of reassurance in mind, what are you waiting for?
