Last night was our last class of tai chi, and i asked my friend, who's in the class, whether she'd like to bag the tai chi and go see the $2 movie, Harry Potter and the Phoenix. She agreed, tho we both felt a little guilty about playing hooky. Well, the teacher already got paid, so he should be ok.

I'm about halfway through reading Jonathan Pond's (PBS) book, You Can Do It. The Boomer's Guide to a Great Retirement. He goes over all the basics of investing for retirement which i mostly know already, but it's good to refresh myself on them plus learn about a few new products i wasn't aware of when i worked in financial services 6 years ago. I think the key difference is his philosophy. He disagrees with the majority of retirement soothsayers out there who keep telling us we're not saving enough and there will be dire consequences. He feels many of us will do just fine and that planners overestimate how much we'll need to live on in retirement.

Anyway, he's got some good, practical info on how to decide what age to retire, when to start collecting social security and so on, as well as a number of helpful worksheets.

So the book has me thinking a lot about retirement (my favorite subject), and that's still years away for me. However, lately, i've had a new thought. Instead of selling my house and downsizing to a condo, I'm thinking lately it might be better to sell the house and buy a small ranch on a smaller piece of land than what i have now.

This has many advantages for me. By buying a small house rather than a condo as i've intended for the past year or two, i can still pursue a few favorite hobbies with a 2nd house that i might otherwise need to curtail at a condo...gardening and birdfeeding. I also retain maximum privacy and quiet, also important. If i want to pay someone to mow and plow, fine, but at least with the house i still have the option to continue doing it myself, or not. And mowing might not seem as onerous if it's a 1/2 acre or less; right now it's 1.5 acres that i mow with a walk-behind.

With a ranch house, it'd be MUCH easier to deal with maintenance, even house painting or getting on the roof/gutters, myself. Now, with a cape, i'm forced to hire someone to do these things. Now whether i'd really be inclined to be climbing ladders and such when i'm in my 50s is debatable, but i do that sort of thing now, so who knows? Self-sufficiency is in my blood, that is fer sure.

Anyway, the house would need to be on a level lot, preferably a quiet, dead-end road. One thing that worried me about the condo, aside from what i already mentioned above, is that those monthly common charges, which presumably cover lawn upkeep and snow plowing, would a) be permanent, b) go up every year and c) would certainly be a lot higher than what i'd pay someone to mow and plow if i was hiring them myself. I mean, the more control i have over my own expenses, the better i feel. Two of the larger condo complexees in my area charge, in addition to the common charge, a 'district tax' which i guess is needed to cover the adiditonal cost of maintaining an extended land area, at complexes that are large enough to be considered little villages in themselves. It seems unduly expensive.

The thing that got me thinking about the whole condo/house equation is that i keep coming back to the dawning reality that I really would be happiest if i remained in the town i live in now. The problem has been that there are very few condos in my town, and the ones that exist aren't the kind i care for. There are nice condos elsewhere, but many have stairs, outside, inside or both, and if i go to the trouble of moving, i'd want to move to a place (like a ranch house) with no stairs, just in case my MS acts up. Plus it's safer as you get older. I worry about my mother, who's in her mid 70s, with a double flight of stairs you have to climb to get to her main living area. I discouraged her from buying her condo 10 years ago due to that fact, but she didn't care about that. Someday it may be an issue, and not one easily fixed. The house i live in now has outside stairs to the front door, a flight of stairs to the 2nd floor, and another flight to the attic. Oh, plus the basement stairs.

I keep thinking about the little ranch house a neighbor of mine not too far from me lives in. She's a single woman in her early 60s, i guess, recently retired, and i have often done cat-sitting for her, so i've had plenty of time to look at her home, which is very comfortable and cozy, but still modest in size. It's got 7 rooms, which includes 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths. Nice little yard, tho i think she has or has had some water problems in the basement. But the floor plan is very nice. I think at one time it included a 2-car garage and they converted one bay to a small family room, the 7th room. Some nice built-in cabinetry, neutral colors, a fireplace. The kind of place i'd like to live in. If it were within walking distance to town, it'd be perfect.