Robert Brokamp

Yeah, when you look at the rankings of most stressful life events, both moving and retirement often make the lists.

Yesterday, I read an article about job transitions and someone put in the comments that he had recently retired.

And he wrote, quote, to my surprise, the emotional aspect of this change has knocked me off my feet.

So both retiring and moving at the same time might be a big change.

So I would say that's something to consider.

I think it's probably a good idea to do a test run by maybe renting an Airbnb in a new area for a few weeks, maybe a few months, maybe at different seasons.

So you understand sort of basically the true feel of the location, whether you'll be happy there.

You mentioned the social stuff, and I think that's always important, right?

Do you want to leave your friends?

Surprisingly, perhaps the research on whether moving closer to grandchildren is mixed.

I have found studies that found like the happiest retirees are those who live within two to three hours of grandkids.

Other studies have found that people who move closer to grandkids end up being dissatisfied because they basically thought they were going to be a bigger part of their kids' lives.

And they ended up not really happening.

You know, their kids had their own schedules, their own things going on.

The grandparents left their own social circles to move closer to kids.

It didn't quite turn out the way they thought.

So put a little thought into that and your family structure and how close you all are before you pick up and move for the grandkids.

And then the final thing I think is important to point out is that if you're downsizing or moving from a higher cost area to a lower cost area, you could significantly boost your retirement security by moving in retirement, right?

You not only could realize some home equity, boost your portfolio a little bit, the lower cost area is lower cost in many ways.

It might have lower utility costs, lower taxes, lower upkeep costs, and that could result in a retirement that either moves up the timeline, you could retire a couple of years sooner,