choosing a 55 and over Community might seem like a dream but it can quickly turn into a financial and Social Nightmare if you're not careful now these communities have a lot of advantage to them they offer a sense of belonging and convenience but they do come with hidden risks that many people Overlook so we want to make sure you're aware of those really making an uninformed decision can cost you not only money but maybe even your happiness and your well-being in your golden years well thanks for being here and if you're new here I'm Mark and this is my wife Jody we don't focus on the financial aspects of retirement but rather your lifestyle Health relationships and much more so please hit the Subscribe button and the notification button that way you get notified when our new videos come out my parents lived in a 55 plus Community they they actually talked about going in there much earlier but my mom was a smoker and they didn't allow smokers so that never happened unfortun Ely I think it would have been good for them but they ended up going in there anyway unfortunately my mom got dementia and she went into the memory unit there uh she stopped smoking that day she doesn't remember smoking that was interesting process and then my dad got an apartment in the same building where he could go visit her which from a convenience sake that was really good for both of them so as she was kind of convalescing with her dementia your dad was able to stop in and see her bring up old memory check in on her you know it had some good and some bad to it it did but the I guess the point here today is we're not saying it's not an option for you but what we want to talk about is the risks that that are there and you know my parents there were some parts of it they didn't like and I'll reference that as we go through these risks but it's it's not for everybody right so we want you to be going into this decision Eyes Wide Open absolutely the absolutely and it is a personal choice so we kind of leave it with all the information you can to make your choice you know but one of the first big risks and we did see this with your parents was you know some upfront costs that can be substantial you know you buy in a community a 55 plus community and you may buy a house and the values may not always appreciate and you might find yourself locked in you know and not able to sell if you wanted to get out you could either buy a house or a condo sometimes you can just um rent but a lot of times you actually have to sell your home and buy into this place and then when you pass your kids can sell it and take the proceeds but the other thing is are the maintenance fees you know there's a lot of hidden fees that can go up without any control on your part so common space fees repair fees you know down in Florida the Hurricanes that come through you need a new roof that they might not have a big enough fund to pay for things like that well and you might not even need the new roof the roof might be needed somewhere else in community but it's a it's kind of a Community Fund so it's the monthly fees the maintenance the association fees you got to be really aware of that and if you do Buy in these communities um sometimes there's some strict resale conditions that's true right so you know it's it's something to consider the Financial Risk so check that box as you're going through this thing the other thing is the social side of living in a 55 plus Community now I I would say one of the benefits is you're with a lot of people in the same stage of Life Sharing The Common desire to be retired and live a happy life but the downside that we see is that you know you might be in a limited or homogeneous Social Circle that might limit your growth as a person you if you're if you're in this community with exactly the same kind of people as you no one really old no one really young for us that would be a problem well you know that limited interaction with younger Generations may lose your inspiration to grow or open your mind to new things that are happening you know in your community or in your world you know so I do think the multi-generational living has a lot of benefits I know you pointed out benefits in this homogeneous living but you know some people get into these 55 communities and they start to feel isolated we had a friend that moved in she didn't really play golf she wasn't a tennis player the pool was always crowded she could never get a reservation at the club she didn't like any of the social activities that were there so she didn't go she didn't investigate that really enough she left and came back and moved back into her house that she had rented cuz she tried it for a year to see if she'd like it and she didn't right so she felt that social calendars were a bit overwhelming yeah and then they didn't fit her you know desires so that's something to take a look at for sure the other thing is the Health right yeah you know not all of the communities offer comprehensive medical facilities you know and that's important um you know some of them aren't even located near you know large hospitals and or doctors yeah and so as you get older you know 55 and older and you know you're 66 and older I mean are you throwing me one of these no but you start to think about where is the facility I would go to if something were to happen to my health yeah we always talk about um at some point trying to be somewhere near our children it's just too hard we have six well and they're all over the place but I you know it's really important for us to have multi-generational um people around us um it's important for us to be near doctors that can help us as we age so even Specialists you know in certain areas so you want to make sure that you investigate that so that you don't become complacent with your regular Health checkups because you're it's just not anywhere near your it's inconvenience so you don't go I mean that's the worst thing that can happen because as you age you're going to see your doctors more and there's things that you need to deal with so the other thing about the 55 plus Community is the whole concept of community/ relationships you know there could be restrictions how often your family can come and visit really yeah oh I didn't know that there could be they can't well they can't walk in at 3:00 in the morning they you know there's there's guidelines around your own home I guess they could I don't know but a lot of these there's there's a you know there's a common hallway and you have to get in and there's security so you can't it's not like being back in your own house so there could be restrictions which could strain the relationship with your kids or your brothers or sisters or whatever it might be yeah I guess I didn't think too much about limiting I know um my mom had a friend that moved to a 55 plus community and that had Golf and Tennis and there wasn't pickle ball at the time but you know different activities and there were only certain number of days in the month they could have their grandchildren in other words in other words you couldn't have a bunch of you know you couldn't have our six kids when they were little running around every weekend you know you also couldn't have those family members members living with you for an extended amount of time which I thought was interesting so now that you say that yeah yeah well the the other thing is because you're in close proximity to your neighbors and we have really good friends that live in a 55 plus community in Vero Beach Florida 96 and 91 it's a beautiful facility but they can hear everything through the walls right they they constantly have people people um making noise next door in the hall that bothers them a little they're not used to that so you have to you have to be okay with that right doesn't mean you shouldn't go in there right but you have to be okay with that so this idea of relationships I suppose the plus side is you're close to a lot of people and and U perhaps you get to meet people easier but you know let's do something to investigate again right each one of can be challenging for sure and you lose a lot of privacy yeah so yeah the fifth big bucket is the community in general right um you know you have limited autonomy typically on your property decisions I want to bright blue door and bright bright blue doors are not allowed right or I know my mom's friend wanted to you know flowers out front but everything had to be uniform and she wasn't allowed to do that in the town home living so the so the community again is like either gated or it's located somewhere with hundreds of homes and hundreds and hundreds of people and it could be that's located far from a larger City could be where you might have the theater or the Art Center or things like that right that's that could be a problem it could be a problem you know you might not have all the desired amenities so that that's something to really research you know in the community is there potential for group think lack of diverse opinions what are the amenities how far are you from cultural experiences and what are you allowed to do that makes your property look distinctive you probably want to interview some people that live there now to find out what think about it you probably can go online and find group chats and all of that but yeah you just want to be again aware of that the other thing is diversity or lack of diversity so again we've talked a lot about us not wanting to live with just the same exact kind of people as us so when you're in a 55 plus Community you don't have different age groups or cultures around to stay relevant to what's happening in the world and there's potential for stereotyping of agism well which isn't a good thing there is potential for your mind to become a stereotyping kind of lens and there's also potential for people to figure out where you live live and then they say oh you're in that old people's area and that's not really fair either so um you know I would just say that each of these six things that we talked about you know are all worth investigating before you make the move you know before you decide to invest or sell your home or jump into a community and I think interviewing people there was a great idea Mark y you want to definitely talk to people listen your retirement is meant to be a time of Joy relaxation and growth so want to make sure where you live aligns with that Vision that you put together for yourself by being informed and proactive now we hope you like this video if you did this next one prioritizing your mental health and wellness is really good it's three things you need to focus on to create a mental health vision and habits and routines to get you there so watch this one next
How to Decide if a 55 Plus Community in Retirement is Right for your Lifestyle
