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Old 06-27-10, 04:48 PM   #21
longlegsinlapaz
 
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

Quote:
Originally Posted by soulpatch
Wow, I go away for awhile and check back in and look at all the "leg work"!
I have lived in much worse.....
My wife would be confirmed in her suspicions about me if I were to tell her that was our dream castle......
If it has a view of something wet, like the ocean, it looks like a nice, flat piece of land......I could wrap my head around it!

Uh oh!! For your wife's sake, I better lie & tell you that the view of the ocean would be awesome....'errrrrrrr, I mean terrible from the...'uhhhhhhh....rooftop terrace! The main drawback from MY perspective is that it's literally right on/off the main hwy....I doubt if it's got a 50-60' setback from the hwy, so road noise might be a problem. And strangely enough, it's not situated facing the ocean,The ocean was to the right in the pic. I'll keep looking for something for you with a little more amenities for your wife's sake. And I did pick up on the flat land requirement!
Old 06-27-10, 06:44 PM   #22
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

Quote:
Originally Posted by longlegsinlapaz

Uh oh!! For your wife's sake, I better lie & tell you that the view of the ocean would be awesome....'errrrrrrr, I mean terrible from the...'uhhhhhhh....rooftop terrace! The main drawback from MY perspective is that it's literally right on/off the main hwy....I doubt if it's got a 50-60' setback from the hwy, so road noise might be a problem. And strangely enough, it's not situated facing the ocean,The ocean was to the right in the pic. I'll keep looking for something for you with a little more amenities for your wife's sake. And I did pick up on the flat land requirement!
Well since it's ripe for a re-model one could change the interior to face the ocean and add more windows on that side
Old 06-27-10, 07:10 PM   #23
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

Quote:
Originally Posted by soulpatch
Believe it or not I am back at work....just had two days off during which we Fiesta'd our hineys off for my twins 6th birthday that was on Friday......so much fun yesterday. And to think, they almost did not let me go home due to vacancies......
With all the paycuts coming our way it is going to make more sense to retire at 50 than to stay longer to earn more service credit.......these cuts make the point of breakover in retirement salary/vs regular salary much nearer
Damn, another call!

Do what I did and buy some service credit (time)....only hurts for a little while, and the sooner you start to draw, the sooner the payback
Old 06-27-10, 08:43 PM   #24
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

Patch best of luck... a sh*t position to be in.. hang in there.. as its so much fun too..
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Old 06-28-10, 06:09 AM   #25
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Teniente
Do what I did and buy some service credit (time)....only hurts for a little while, and the sooner you start to draw, the sooner the payback

... and get rid of all your holdings in, and abandon California. Set up residency in a non tax state. That will save you nearly 10% on taxes, and hundreds of dollars on vehicle registration. That amounts to roughly 3 years of service credit.
Old 06-28-10, 08:28 AM   #26
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

I understand Teniente's suggestion about buying some service credit; in theory, but not specifics for your particular job, service time, monthly payout, timing, etc.; but the key element most people have a really hard time wrapping their head around is how much cheaper your monthly living expenses can be down here....once you get a home bought & paid for. As irrational as it may sound from your present perspective, your present situation could actually be a blessing in disguise.

I retired at 53 & negotiated for 90% of my fully vested retirement benefits to begin at age 55 rather than waiting for 100% at age 62. Those first two years, I used the cash from the sale of my home in the states to build my first casa. I originally brought my Mother down with me & the two of us lived on her $880 a mo Social Security. After 2 years, she opted to go back to Oregon, conveniently her timing coincided with my turning 55. I lived on my $1,036 USD a mo retirement benefit from 2002-2009. In November 2009, I took the expected retirement benefit cut because I'd opted for accelerated payout from age 55 when I started receiving my benefits until age 62 when I started receiving Social Security. For me it was a difference of approximately $750 a month versus $1,036 a month for that 7-year period. I opted for the $1036, knowing that it would be reduced when I turned 62 & began receiving SS. My retirement benefit was reduced more deeply than I'd anticipated; down to $354; but the bottom line after adding SS to the picture ended up in a net result of approximately a $700 a month "raise".

If you currently rent as opposed to owning your home, you could be screwed, but if you own & can get a decent price for your current residence & roll a portion of that into a new residence down here, your monthly cash outlay can drop appreciably once you make the move.

I understand that most people have a hard time believing or trusting this, but I think there are enough people who have preceded you who can confirm that I'm not blowing smoke! I also understand that you're in a different position than most retirees because of your young children, but I still contend that your monthly living expenses will be reduced appreciably down here compared to what it's currently costing you to live NOB.

Does my home look like I live at poverty level?> I live very comfortably, but I do respect the fact you have a wife & 2 young children to consider in your equation!!

IMO, the key elements would be whether or not you currently own a home that you could rollover into a Baja home & at what age you could begin drawing your retirement benefits, i.e., would you have any period of time you'd have to get by without income. Any retirement or SS your wife would bring into the equation in the future would be gravy.

I debated publicly posting this personal financial detail, but decided many people might benefit from this knowledge, so posting it won out over sending you a private message. Hopefully others will contribute information about how they made it work financially. Research, research, research!! Gather information like mad, sift what would work for your personal circumstances & toss the rest aside.

I also realize that my retirement & move occurred during a much different financial climate!

You CAN make this work & possibly sooner rather than later!!

I know that Big Wooo & Oladulce can provide more current input as well.

Do we need to start a college fund for your kids?
Old 06-28-10, 10:19 AM   #27
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

Purchase of service credit depends on several factors.........annual wage; your age, how long you have worked for agency..........in my case, I purchased 4 years. It cost me about $7,000 per year, and I rolled my deferred comp investment plan to buy the 4 years (no tax liability)......deferred comp was going into the dumper, investment wise. Buying the 4 years got me about a 7 3/4% interset rate return, I get to leave early and start collecting..........the sooner you do it, the sooner your return pays off
Old 06-28-10, 10:56 AM   #28
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

I can retire at 50 years of age which will be August 30, 2012! My salary should will be right around 5kUS/month with COLA's built in. My wife will get a small retirement when she is 55 or 60. We will evaluate which will be best for us. I am a big fan of take less sooner.....later might not ever get here. There may be some real estate down the line due to family trusts but we look at that stuff as if it doesn't exist so if they do come down the pike it is just a big, fat cushion to fall on.
I will utilize Woo's suggestion and I may end up on a comp claim for my back which will further reduce my tax liability. We'll see.
I like the prospect of renting, especially after seeing what bajabass is paying. It will give me freedom to refine our living situation, up to and including some time in Mazatlan....I really want to give the mainland a fair shake. I know it is a completely different animal than baja, which we love passionately, but hell, I've got some adventuring to do and costs are different there, too, as well as access to many things.
The problem with my house is that it is infested with black mold, the insurance company wants me to sue the seller, a trust, for fraud, it is worth SIGNIFICANTLY less than when I bought it and I am now renting a house since the one with my name on it needs to be bulldozed. I am letting the lawyers handle it because I can't afford any of this,which means I will end up with nothing, which is fine. I no longer care about it because the illnesses the mold caused my kids have significantly abated and seem to be on their way out. Thank god.
I do believe the economy will not get better here for a period of time longer than I want to be a FF. Hopefully I am wrong but this first paycut, after giving up benefit concessions over the last few years, is only going to be the first of a series of them. The state's projected budget for next year is already worse than this years so local districts are going to have even more money pirated by the state. At our current projections we don't see the budget getting back to 2007/08 levels until the 2016/17 fiscal year. That means another 2 years of dipping, easy, before an upward trend.....no bueno.
And LL, this is an opportunity! This whole journey of losing damn near everything I owned is just an opportunity to see and embrace a new paradigm that I may have only lightly considered if these things hadn't occurred. After all, it was only a house, it ain't a arm, leg or life, plenty of which the loss of I have witnessed and I don't need more reminders of how tenuous and fleeting life is.
So in a nutshell, we are excited, a bit scared, and impatient for the time to arrive to live a completely different life than what the "American Dream" has driven this country to.
Old 06-28-10, 03:44 PM   #29
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

Soulpatch.......my advice to you, and something I did, is to meet with a qualified and experienced financial planner.......before you make any decisions
Old 06-28-10, 06:16 PM   #30
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

One thing I have to agree with is that whatever you do, it is better to do it sooner than later. I have seen too many folks including a couple very close to me who pushed retirement off to save a little more and ended up not living long enough to enjoy hardly any of it.

Some very good advice in this thread that started out with a tongue in cheek photo...
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Old 06-28-10, 06:58 PM   #31
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

Quote:
Originally Posted by BajaGringo
One thing I have to agree with is that whatever you do, it is better to do it sooner than later.
Absolutely. As my younger brother wrote on my 62nd birthday card, "Congrats ... you made it to social security, and it's still there!"

I retired at 60 with what I thought were barely adequate funds for living in Mexico. As if on cue, the economy tanked within a couple of months. That was pretty scary, because if it had happened a year earlier, I'd have been afraid to go through with leaving work. As it was, I ended up withdrawing money just before the crash that would have gone down the tubes and using it to pay off debts and finish remodeling my house. I still lost a hunk, but at least I ended up debt-free with a place to live.
Old 06-28-10, 07:13 PM   #32
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

Legs made some very good points as well, especially about the cost of living once you have your own place paid for. It really is hard to believe until you have settled in and look at how much cash you have left over from your first monthly budgets you put together.

I was worried at first that I must have forgotten to buy / pay for something when I realized how little we had spent. And that was before Cristina taught me how to really economize.

Just do it whenever you can soulpatch and I promise you that it will be one decision that you will never regret. Don't listen to all that crap that is being pushed on the web from wall street brokers and investment bankers.

They will be trying to convince you of all the financial advantages of staying on the job until age 75...
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Old 06-28-10, 10:03 PM   #33
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

Ditto's on it all..
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Old 06-29-10, 09:28 AM   #34
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

One thing you need to consider is vehicles. Or, shall I say, monthly vehicle expenses. I will pay off the wife's new Element, but the almost new $40k truck is adios! A five or six year old 4x4, paid for, will replace it. A car or truck payment is a large chunk every month, but so is maintaining and repairing an older vehicle, more so in Baja, or on the mainland. Very sorry to hear about your house Soulpatch. Some friends of mine lost their dream home to black mold also. I would advise you the same as others, get out while the getting is good! As the economy worsens, the cost of living increases every day in the U.S. I don't think the stress of trying to keep your head above water here is worth it. Retire early and live longer!!!
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Old 06-29-10, 09:56 AM   #35
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

If one is following the financial crap throughout the world right now, and take a minute to stop and think, you will realize that things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better.. Research and do what is best for you, my advise, get out while you still can....
Old 06-29-10, 10:19 AM   #36
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

Quote:
Originally Posted by noproblemo
If one is following the financial crap throughout the world right now, and take a minute to stop and think, you will realize that things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better.. Research and do what is best for you, my advise, get out while you still can....
Amen to that!
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Old 06-29-10, 11:09 AM   #37
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

Quote:
Originally Posted by bajabass
A car or truck payment is a large chunk every month, but so is maintaining and repairing an older vehicle, more so in Baja, or on the mainland.
I have found the opposite to be true down here. The mechanics in Mexico are generally quite reasonable. They don't follow the replace everything mentality of north of the border and actually "fix" things. I have had everything from engines and transmissions to alternators and power steering pumps rebuilt down here. The key is to ask around, locate a good mechanic and it does help a lot if you speak Spanish.

I love to tell the story of a Range Rover I owned a few years back. It broke down on me in Baja and although still under warranty the dealer (in north San Diego County) said it was my responsibility to get it into the USA. I was getting an error code that shut down my vehicle completely and a basic diagnosis with the help of a dealer mechanic over the phone showed it was most likely a bad sensor. I asked him how I could override the sensor so I could drive it back and he assured me that it was impossible. Not wanting to pay the expensive towing bill I asked to speak to the service manager who listened quite patiently but in the end assured me that there was no way possible I could beat the fail safe system of the vehicle and it would have to be towed.

A local mechanic down here studied the problem for about 20 minutes and then assured me he could get it running. I went to eat a few tacos and when I got back I found him running two parallel wiring harnesses with a couple of relays he had neatly inserted into the vehicle's electrical system. He handed me the keys and it started. I was able to drive it up to the dealer with no problems whatsoever.

Once I arrived at the dealer the service manager recognized me waiting in the service lane and came up to ask me what happened? He couldn't believe that I was able to drive the vehicle. Once he looked under the hood to see what my mechanic had done he called a bunch of his technicians over to see it, he was so impressed.

I used to always drive new vehicles as I hated dealing with older vehicles breaking down / needing repair and the cost of it. After living down here for a few years I will never go back to buying a new vehicle again.

Older vehicles are fun with a good (and reasonable) mechanic...
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Old 06-29-10, 03:53 PM   #38
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

No car payments here.
As far as retiring early: I have to wait until I am 50.....HUGE penalties for not doing so.
I won't be living rich but we don't do that here, either......Compared to what we spend daily when we are in BOLA we should be spending less/day in a major metropolitan area just due to ease of access to pretty much all things.
We live like kings, to us, in BOLA on half of what I will make in retirement.
I just have to wait, file my proper injury reports and take those tax incentives that I can.
It's all going to work out.
Renting, for us, is going to be key. My wife wants to explore some Belize areas and other Caribbean climes. That's a hell of a dilemma for me. NOT!
Old 06-29-10, 07:44 PM   #39
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

I'm soooooo sorry to hear about your having to abandon your home because of mold! Hopefully you will get some financial relief through legal channels. I'm allergic to mold too & can only imagine how miserable it must have been for your little ones when they would have been too young to tell you any details of their symptoms!

Good!! That means you have 26 months to research the hell out of several places!!

I totally agree with not counting your chickens before they hatch....i.e., don't count $$ or other assets until they're actually yours! Anything else is pie in the sky.

Only you & Mrs. Soulpatch know they type of lifestyle you want to live & the various types of amenities that you want near you. That said....do you really want to live in a tourist destination? IMO, cost of living in any tourist destination (Belize, Mazatlan, etc.) is going to be geared for tourist trade rather than locals. Not to mention that those tourists are going to be on vacation & raising hell & to a great degree, otherwise acting totally different than they would at home. They're on vacation....whadda they care?!

Have each of you created a "must-have" list? In addition to local amenities, cost-of-living, various things that meet your must-haves, you should also research historical weather....do you want to live somewhere that gets hard hit by every seasonal hurricane? Flooding? Humidity? Do you want to be on-grid? Off-grid? Is the locally available food going to be things your family readily eats? How close & how highly rated is the local medical/dental community? Will one or both of your kids need braces? How close is an international airport for you to get to the states or folks from the states to visit you....remember, YOU'RE most likely going to have to pick them up & haul them back to the airport! How prevalent are flies, mosquitoes....dengue carrying or otherwise, scorpions, other venomous creepy crawlies? Are window screens readily available? Will you be relocating your furniture or buying locally....can you live with what's available locally? That's enough for starters!

You have a terrific opportunity in your not all that distant future. Research, research, research!

Old 06-29-10, 07:58 PM   #40
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Default Re: Soulpatch, I found the perfect starter home....

Quote:
Originally Posted by longlegsinlapaz

Research, research, research!
Now there you go taking all the fun out of the adventure...

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