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Just Came Back From A 6-Week Vacation 4,000 km South

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I’d love to be able to do the “rent the house and live off the income“ thing, however unless we save up ~$250K between now and retirement (yeah, probably not happening realistically) or draw it out of our RRSP’s in one chunk (and get totally sh!tkicked on taxes) I’m not thinking it’s realistic versus just selling the house to fund the RV.
I suppose just re-mortgage in the house for the $250K and then put it on a 30 year amortization with the smallest payments possible, then rent the place. After the mortgage payment it would still leave probably $1500/month in income over and above our retirement savings drawdown. Not great, but at least the house is still an appreciating asset in the end to leave something to the kids.

Are reverse mortgages without payments still a thing? Would slowly eat into the equity of the house in the end sure, there would be some things we would have to weigh out in that regard accordingly. But some quick napkin math shows the interest on a $250K mortgage over 30 years to be around $225K or so. So after we kick off and are gone (Realistically before it would even come due) there’s still a hefty chunk of equity in there to leave for the kids when the house is sold and the chunk of flesh is paid back. Hmmm.
 
sburns said:
It's great you had a wonderful experience, and I hope it works out for you. But it sounds a bit like you are viewing this with rose coloured glass's. Not to put a damper on your vacation, but you had a insider experience. You know someone from the country, they speak the language, know the in's and out's of the area, have a support network. Things most people would not have on a typical visit. Also there must be a reason why both of you are living in the GTA rather than there, if it is so wonderful and perfect. Unless I missed something?
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I wouldn't worry too much unless the move is permanent. If the OP doesn't like it, he always has the option of moving back. It will be a good experience albeit with loss of some money maybe.
 
Pegassus said:
I refuse to live a boring, snow-shovelling retirement in Canada watching Netflix.
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Truth is, once you get past 60 you're watching Netflix and hanging on the computer a lot no matter what the weather outside is. Gets harder and harder to get off your arthritic backside.
 
I think the effort to get off your arse and how you travel hinges a lot on your circle of friends . We have been extremely fortunate that our friends do fun stuff and travel costs less when you split a villa in Italy 6 ways . My friends still ski, skate , paddle board and hike , so we get sucked along. It would be easy to watch football and order pizza though, I see how that happens


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PrivatePilot said:
Are reverse mortgages without payments still a thing? Would slowly eat into the equity of the house in the end sure, there would be some things we would have to weigh out in that regard accordingly. But some quick napkin math shows the interest on a $250K mortgage over 30 years to be around $225K or so. So after we kick off and are gone (Realistically before it would even come due) there’s still a hefty chunk of equity in there to leave for the kids when the house is sold and the chunk of flesh is paid back. Hmmm.
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I know someone who arranged for a reverse mortgage in 2017 because he had few options. House was appraised for about $450k and he was approved for a $230k draw on the equity. You don't have to take it all at once, he had a lump sum requirement to pay off his mortgage + other loans and credit card debt. Once his other debt was paid, he drew a monthly amount to supplement his insufficient pension income. Similar, in a sense, to having an approved personal line of credit. except no payments are required. There's no point in pulling funds out at once if you don't need them. They'd be in the bank making a fraction of 1% and you'd be accruing loan debt at a much higher rate. BTW, house is now worth >$800k.

Reverse mortgages have fees and they accrue interest at a relatively high interest rate, as compared to a regular mortgage. However if you are carrying credit card debt + personal loans + a car loan etc.......... or have a large mortgage loan balance it might make sense for you to investigate the benefits / costs of a reverse mortgage.
 
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reverse mortgage is still a thing , BUT remember there is no such thing as free money. Its a viable option for people that did not save enough, for whatever reason, its good for you, and good for THEM.

At some point our kids are going to have to understand there may not be a transfer of massive amounts of money like inheiritance looked like in the last two decades . GTA mom/pop kick off with a mortgage free house and everyone is up 1.2-2m right out of the gate. Average GTA retired seniors are sitting on 800- 1m minimum in investments. thats before you cash in the small stuff, Dads 1958 Gibson (25k) , moms jewelry ( 10-15k) , watches maybe , firearms? whatever , there could be an extra 50-100K

Or they sold everything 15yrs ago and went into LTC, and the pile is net zero......
 
crankcall said:
reverse mortgage is still a thing , BUT remember there is no such thing as free money. Its a viable option for people that did not save enough, for whatever reason, its good for you, and good for THEM.

At some point our kids are going to have to understand there may not be a transfer of massive amounts of money like inheiritance looked like in the last two decades . GTA mom/pop kick off with a mortgage free house and everyone is up 1.2-2m right out of the gate. Average GTA retired seniors are sitting on 800- 1m minimum in investments. thats before you cash in the small stuff, Dads 1958 Gibson (25k) , moms jewelry ( 10-15k) , watches maybe , firearms? whatever , there could be an extra 50-100K

Or they sold everything 15yrs ago and went into LTC, and the pile is net zero......
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My plan is to start distributing the kids inheritance early, and to keep a hand in where the funds go until the point where I neither can or care how they handle things.

Me and the wife have a pretty good handle on what we need to live life as we like, were going to give the kids a leg up in life well before our stuff hits probate. I plan on helping them with a DP on their first homes when they decide to enter the market. #2 is already there (did it on his own), #1 has invested well and could go it alone outside the city, and #3 is just out of U and starting to save. #1 & 3 are falling behind inflation in the housing market, that's starting to concern me as even with a DP and decent incomes, neither could comfortably carry a mortgage on their own - neither have partners. On the flip side, the funds I earmarked for them are tied up in real estate, so there's a hedge that relieves any urgency to jump in.

Personally, I think the early distribution of an estate is the best for all concerned - if it's possible. A lot of friends are starting to cheat themselves life so they can pass along a bigger bag of cash to their kids when they die, I'd rather get the enjoyment of seeing them enjoy a better life while I'm still breathing.
 
Mad Mike said:
My plan is to start distributing the kids inheritance early, and to keep a hand in where the funds go until the point where I neither can or care how they handle things.

Me and the wife have a pretty good handle on what we need to live life as we like, were going to give the kids a leg up in life well before our stuff hits probate. I plan on helping them with a DP on their first homes when they decide to enter the market. #2 is already there (did it on his own), #1 has invested well and could go it alone outside the city, and #3 is just out of U and starting to save. #1 & 3 are falling behind inflation in the housing market, that's starting to concern me as even with a DP and decent incomes, neither could comfortably carry a mortgage on their own - neither have partners. On the flip side, the funds I earmarked for them are tied up in real estate, so there's a hedge that relieves any urgency to jump in.

Personally, I think the early distribution of an estate is the best for all concerned - if it's possible. A lot of friends are starting to cheat themselves life so they can pass along a bigger bag of cash to their kids when they die, I'd rather get the enjoyment of seeing them enjoy a better life while I'm still breathing.
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Before my father passed his original intention was to sell the house, rent somewhere, sit on the cash and let us inherit most of his estate tax free. But more recently he was looking to pull some equity out of the house and help with down payments for my sister and I.

I think you’re making a good decision.
 
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Just watched season 6 episode 27 of itchyboots. Safe in Central America? Ya, ok!
 
Wingboy said:
Just watched season 6 episode 27 of itchyboots. Safe in Central America? Ya, ok!
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hell yeah!
I started watching her channel after your post - so thank you, sir - totally hooked now :)

I have split feelings about her adventures - On one hand she shows how reality about those remote places is much easier than we let to believe by our media, but on the other hand I fear that one day we would learn about her disappearance, I still think traveling solo female involves greater risks even in "safer" parts of the word...
Well, hats off to her for being truly brave and adventurous. I do support her now with my subscription to her channel, likes and views :)
 
sburns said:
It's great you had a wonderful experience, and I hope it works out for you. But it sounds a bit like you are viewing this with rose coloured glass's. Not to put a damper on your vacation, but you had a insider experience. You know someone from the country, they speak the language, know the in's and out's of the area, have a support network. Things most people would not have on a typical visit. Also there must be a reason why both of you are living in the GTA rather than there, if it is so wonderful and perfect. Unless I missed something?
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Well we still live in the GTA because we are not retired yet. But I will retire at 55 years of age, that's 10 long years away yet. We will still keep renting this apartment here in the GTA just in case something goes wrong over there and we have come running to safety here.
 
Wingboy said:
Just watched season 6 episode 27 of itchyboots. Safe in Central America? Ya, ok!
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Sir, in El Salvador a new President took over, in 9 months he dropped crime by 90% and completely decimated the MS-13 gang. Now El Salvador has the same crime rate per 100k people as France and it's 4 times more safe than Toronto. In Toronto we have a shooting every day, in El Salvador there's gaps of 6 days with no shootings in the entire country. There's more armed robberies a week in Toronto than El Salvador. There's 10x times more car thefts in the GTA than in El Salvador. There's 10x times more police harassment in the GTA than in El Salvador. In 6 weeks I was there I didn't hear a single case of a vehicle being stolen because the owner left the ignition running and his doors unlocked. Try that in the GTA. Teenaged violence is also way higher here in Canada. You also have a higher chance of getting scammed here in Canada. I never heard of a single credit card owners in El Salvador who had their MasterCards compromised or scammed. And I talked to a lot of them.
 
Pegassus said:
Sir, in El Salvador a new President took over, in 9 months he dropped crime by 90% and completely decimated the MS-13 gang. Now El Salvador has the same crime rate per 100k people as France and it's 4 times more safe than Toronto. In Toronto we have a shooting every day, in El Salvador there's gaps of 6 days with no shootings in the entire country. There's more armed robberies a week in Toronto than El Salvador. There's 10x times more car thefts in the GTA than in El Salvador. There's 10x times more police harassment in the GTA than in El Salvador. In 6 weeks I was there I didn't hear a single case of a vehicle being stolen because the owner left the ignition running and his doors unlocked. Try that in the GTA. Teenaged violence is also way higher here in Canada. You also have a higher chance of getting scammed here in Canada. I never heard of a single credit card owners in El Salvador who had their MasterCards compromised or scammed. And I talked to a lot of them.
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Well you’re exaggerating a bit but that’s fine.

Sounds like some of this good work could be unwinded from a future administration. The one thing you haven’t talked about is corruption.
 
Roadghost said:
Truth is, once you get past 60 you're watching Netflix and hanging on the computer a lot no matter what the weather outside is. Gets harder and harder to get off your arthritic backside.
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I don't know man, while riding my motorcycle in summer here in Ontario I see LOTS of old dudes in their 60's and even 70's riding motorcycles and I mean in long treks that not even younger ones would probably attempt. I once went riding with this group of oldies, all of them past 60 years of age and they wanted to go to Ottawa from Toronto roundtrip in their bikes in 1 summer day! Are you kidding me? That's a killer ride. I split away from them.
 
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This 6" tall Canuck white boy is the great "Pegasus" in a road outside the city of San Miguel.

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My wife and 2 of my kids (I have 4) taking a look at the Gulf of Fonseca where 3 countries meet, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador which was the side we were on. The little boy on the far left was just a local vendor who decided to crash the pic LOL. At only 9 years of age he works 8 hrs a day selling sweets in that aluminum pail.

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My 2 youngest kids playing with the sand at "El Tamarindo" beach in the province of Usulutan. This was the most remote and hardest-to-reach beach in the country probably. It took more than 1 hour driving in a rough road to get there.

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Pegassus said:
Now El Salvador has the same crime rate per 100k people as France and it's 4 times more safe than Toronto. In Toronto we have a shooting every day, in El Salvador there's gaps of 6 days with no shootings in the entire country. There's more armed robberies a week in Toronto than El Salvador. There's 10x times more car thefts in the GTA than in El Salvador. There's 10x times more police harassment in the GTA than in El Salvador.
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Huh?

Where are you getting these stats from? Because a few cursory google searches show a lot of articles from very recently showing a waaaaaaay different picture.

www.aljazeera.com

El Salvador orders army into the streets after spike in killings

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has adopted draconian measures to crack down on gang violence.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com

“El Salvador’s homicide rate had dropped sharply from the violent days of the mid-2010s, when 15 or 20 killings a day were routine, but the country continues to have one of the world’s highest homicide rates.

Prior to an uptick this week, El Salvador had been averaging 3.8 homicides a day. Before Bukele took office in 2018, the average was 9.2 killings a day.”

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“We have deployed our national police and armed forces to contain the increase in homicides registered over the last 48 hours,” Bukele posted on Facebook alongside videos of soldiers patrolling the streets.

The military deployment follows more than 30 homicides on Tuesday and Wednesday in the impoverished Central American nation of about 6.5 million people.

Sounds….peachy? This was from just a handful of weeks back.

Pegassus said:
and they wanted to go to Ottawa from Toronto roundtrip in their bikes in 1 summer day!
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A whole 750km with only 16 hours daylight to work with? Oh noes!
 
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During a 10-hour long trek across half the country in my motorcycle (a Serpento 200cc dual-sport) , I made a 10:00 am pit stop at a bus stop where they sold drinks, right at the beginning of the mountain range near Chirilagua in San Miguel province. At 10:00 am it was already 33 C with the humidity making it feel like 39 C.

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A Salvadoran girl who was with a group of people walked up to me at "El Icacal" beach to inquire what was all the camera equipment for and asked me to take her pic to see it later. This beach is insanely LONG and desolate. There must be tens of thousands of coconut trees. I made sure my tank was full to try and navigate to the end.


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A Salvadoran cowboy drinks his Corona beers while watching the waves at "El Icacal" beach in a remote restaurant and hut I found while riding the beach.

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After long miles of desolate beach I finally found civilization and came across this cluster of businesses where I stopped to eat lunch. Used telephoto to take his pic from far away.


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Eating lunch at this cluster of civilization, with a "Tropical" strawberry soda. It's a Salvadoran local brand and it's as popular as Coca-Cola among the population. The lady in the foreground sells snow cones topped with taamrind honey and condensed milk, it's delicious!


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