Sir5R Journeys and Detours

Oddly enough the recent battle with cancer has resulted in more planning for the future, rather than less… we have spoken with people who are focused on ‘taking it one day at a time’. For us, it has become about finding a through line to retirement and what I can only refer to as ‘contentment’.

Gail is completely reevaluating her career strategy. In an ideal world, she will retire in 6 years. Also, in that ideal world, she will suddenly rediscover job satisfaction. Will she be able to do both? I don’t know for sure, but I do know that she needs the job satisfaction thing worked out really soon…

My window for retirement is still floating… kinda depends on Gail’s plans… although to maximize my earning potential, I probably should go for another 12 years. Of course, a complete meltdown in the economy (either the global one, or my own) will keep me working longer… as long as the work is meaningful, I can’t see why not.

One thing that I do know is that Gail is quite insistent that we do not retire in Edmonton… she’s just about had all she can take of the winters here. So that means a move… and there has to be significant water involved, so that means either to the West Coast, or to Spain…

Yes, Spain. The seed of this particular idea was planted by her younger sister, and seems to be sprouting at an alarming rate. I really don’t know how good or bad an idea it is yet. I’ve started doing some of the research. It is certainly a good deal less expensive to live in Spain than it is in the UK. I just can’t see us retiring to the UK…

On balance, location is not that important to me… quality of life is the most important thing. If we can stretch our pension monies more by being in Spain, well then maybe Spain it should be.

Now my ideal scenario for retirement is based on an idea that was first described to me by Scott… a good friend living in the Greater Vancouver area. His basic idea is to encourage a core group of friends to take up residence in one small area, establishing a ‘neighbourhood’ of sorts. As we get older, then, our friends would be close, and easily visited. As we lose our faculties, sharing the necessary driving and chores among households would be easier, with no one having to travel great distances to see or help out some one else in the ‘neighbourhood’. Obviously its the way we used to live before urban sprawl made the cities so tough for the elderly to survive well in. It is the distances that cut them off from that very important social interaction that helps to keep us all youthful.

So, to expand on that idea, why not pull our resources together and buy a four storey apartment building and condo-ize it. If we, as a group (and the group is yet to be determined) bought a building with 12 or 16 apartments, then renovated to six or eight units, did the paperwork properly, we could establish our own little community in one location. It could be an apartment building, or a renovated warehouse, or even just acquiring enough units in a newer ‘sunset’ village. Writing the correct condo bylaws would protect us over time… from our families, ourselves, and each other. The only real disadvantage to this sort of condo/co-op is the constant proximity. Establishing parameters, and barriers, to ensure that we didn’t all get sick of each other, living in each other’s back pockets that way, would be essential to its success. And really, we only have to worry about one generation… us… ’cause the next people to move into the building wouldn’t necessarily be friends, to begin with. And the condo bylaws would be structured in such a way as to dictate a selection process for who can buy in after we start to drop out…

Can this idea be ported to a Spanish environment? Yes, it could… but it strikes me that the number of our friends that would want to make that move may be fairly low… How ’bout Costa Rica? Or Mexico? Nah… Gail is so set on Spain…