Retire Cheap. Buy a Home for Less than $50,000

If you want to retire cheap, one thing that you need to consider is finding a cheap home. And they ARE out there. Small towns across the United States where you cannot only purchase a cheap home under $50k, but the town will also have a movie theatre, there is ample shopping for your basic needs and you can enjoy more natural beauty than you can find in a big city. In fact, a lot of people are trading in the big homes for a quieter retirement lifestyle as are many young families today.

For example, in Anaconda Montana you can purchase a home for less than $40,000, fly fish, go to a movie in the 5th ranked most beautiful theater in the country, according to the Smithsonian, drop a few nickels in a slot machine at one of a dozen casinos, eat at a nice restaurant, or buy a dollar beer at a favorite watering hole - all within a four block area!

How is it that you can retire cheap in this Montana town? It’s the economy. People started leaving the area in the 80's, after the mines and smelters closed. Jobs are few and far between, and they don’t pay well. Where there are no jobs, the housing market has to adjust. Sounds like a lot of towns…and even some large cities across America today doesn’t it?

The economic situation is the primary reason that you can buy a cheap house in many parts of the country. These are towns are seeing troubled times, but are often recovering or will soon recover, and with good reasons. There may be a nearby lake where a lot of people recreate, a great golf course or a ski resort that attracts a lot of visitors. There may be a large city with jobs less than an hours drive away. As we know, the closer you are to a thriving job market the higher the cost of real estate. So, if you drive for an hour in either direction of the small town that has a couple of the “attractions” I just mentioned, the cost of housing is four times as much as the little town with the mom and pop diner. But make no mistake…higher prices will come as the larger cities expand outwards. And as they do, you can enjoy those amenities when you retire cheap in a home that cost less than $50k.

Other places you will find amenities and be close to the great outdoors include western Idaho, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and more, tucked away in small towns of sometimes less than 4,000 people.

Get ready for this one. I’ve even seen homes for sale under $50k in California (even under $40,000 in 2010). Of course that isn’t in Los Angeles, San Diego or Orange County but they are close enough that you can take a day trip into one of those cities. Look in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties for great deals.

What you can't get very easily in these small communities will not come as a shock. There are not many jobs. But if you want to retire cheap, or you want to work from home or start a home business these are great opportunities. Writers and internet entrepreneurs are already beginning to discover these gems

An alternative if you still want to live in a larger city would be to buy in the inexpensive part of town where you already live, or buy different types of homes like condos, pre-fabricated or modular homes that cost less. Don't set your mind on one type of home or one neighborhood before you know all the alternatives you have to choose from.

And I’m not talking about buying a cheap dump in a bad part of town just to save money. It is more about a philosophy of defining your true needs so you can find the least expensive way to meet them. You may be surprised at what is available for less.

For example, my husband and I owned a stunning 3,200 sq ft home in a much sought after community with a private pool, 3 car garage, four bedrooms….you get the idea. But when we started thinking about how we could retire cheap, we realized that we didn’t have a need for all the bedrooms, we could get by with a one or two car garage and we’d rather have RV parking than a pool. We also didn’t want to pay any more HOA fees, which have gone out of sight! (And let’s be honest. Most HOAs could care less about how the neighborhoods look. They just want our money. I’ve seen better kept neighborhoods that don’t have HOAs so it isn’t a guarantee that your neighbors will keep their property looking nice just because you‘re in a planned community with fees) That being said, we decided we wanted an older neighborhood that had more land so we could park our recreational vehicles.

What I’m saying is that if you want to retire cheap, you just need to make some modifications. Your list will be different than mine probably. And one way to meet your goal can be selling your big home and purchasing a home for under $50,000.

Cheap Houses You Don't Want To Buy

If a town is in decline, with no possibilities to recover over the next several years, it isn’t a good choice even if you can save money and retire cheap.

If, when you look down a street you notice that most of the buildings are boarded up you can be pretty sure that the town is dying. Especially when everyone is trying to sell their homes at the same time. You might be able to find a home for $11,000, but you will be all alone.

Look instead for Cheap Homes In Paradise…ok maybe not paradise, but there are wonderful towns all over the country from Florida to California and everything in between.

If you want to retire cheap in one of these places here are a few guidelines:

1. Population between 4,000 and 80,000.

2. 6 or even a few more homes for sale under $50,000, but not all.

3. A grocery store that is well stocked.

4. A movie theatre.

5. A nice library with internet..

6. A town that is inviting

There are even homes for sale under $30,000! Using a phone and the internet, searching for your affordable dream home is easier than ever.

 

 

thailand-river-palms-t6_small.jpg RETIRE CHEAP AND LIVE LIKE A KING FOR $20 A DAY

By Bruce Webster

Americans are often surprised when they hit 65 or 66. This it the age they planned to retire and now they can't afford it. At least not the retirement they'd hoped for and been paying into for the past 45 years or more. Polititians are still screaming about how to get rid of social security too.  (Of course most of them are wealthy and it wouldn't affect their bottom line but that's another topic) So, the question is...how can we retire cheap?

According to recent reports, most of us will only have our social security benefits as income, which in today's market may pay for the bare minimum living expenses, but that 700-$1500 check you receive from SSI in 2009 won't pay for any luxuries, and it wont be going up over the years as the cost of living rises. In fact the current Administrataion is trying to find ways to reduce our SS checks.

Let’s face it, high-priced cities like Chicago, Hawaii, New York and San Francisco are out of the question for anyone who wants to retire cheap. A two-bedroom apartment will set you back almost $2,500 a month. If you own your home free and clear you are better off than most, but you will still have property taxes, possible home owner's association dues etc. that will take a chunck of your monthly income. And as the basic cost of living increases, your retirement lifestyle decreases once you are on a fixed income. 

Like many, I wanted to retire in 2009, a couple of years early, but when I ran the numbers I discovered that I will have to keep working until I'm 70 if we want to live in the style we've grown accustom to, or anything close to it. The economy pretty much knocked out my stock portfolio, my wife's home business income that had been growing steadily over the last few years dropped to half...and yet our expenses did not. So how were we going to be able to make it work? 
After racking our brain one day about how we could make it work we thought, there’s got to be a way to retire cheap and still enjoy the things we've grown accustomed to… and after doing some research found that there is. It’s a matter of priorities. If we wanted to have the retirement lifestyle we had dreamed about, we would have to make some changes. Some would be easier than others, but we had to start by defining what we wanted most and then figure out how to achieve it.

Our solution to the retirement dilemma was becoming clearer.

1. My wife decided she had to rebuild her business and possibly start another with more momentum. Her income would be crucial, and the residual checks will allow us flexibility to live wherever we want.

2. We are selling the big home we raised our children in. 

3. The income from the home business, along with the social security check I'll be qualified for should put us up to 50% of my current income. Financial planners say you need 70-80% of your current income in order to retire comfortably. We can buy a smaller home in a less expensive city and live on that, but we won't be able to have the retirement lifestyle we wanted. So, we were back to how to retire cheap.

Where there's a will, there's a way. ...So I got on the internet. I put in key words that were associated with retirement and for the most part all I got were websites trying to get me to invest in stocks, insurance programs, financial planners etc. But after a few days I started finding some answers.

Luckily there are alternatives if you want to retire cheap and still be able to enjoy your retirement years. But as we're discovering, there may still have to be more changes if we want to enjoy leisure and travel activities. Were we ready to embrace them? Were we ready to become expats? People who couldn't afford to life the lifestyles they wanted here in the U.S. so they looked elsewhere, like Thailand or Ecuador, where you can live very comfortably for as little as $20 a day. Or other tropical countries lilke Panama, Honduras or Nicaragua? (Costa Rica was too expensive)

The trick to being able to retire cheap is to find a place you'd like to live that has most of the things you enjoy doing within your budget. To do that... READ MORE


MORE CITIES WHERE YOU CAN RETIRE CHEAP:
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Las Vegas, city for lovers of night life, glitz, glamour and neon eye candy... is a growing mecca for boomers. Poet Robert Browning must have been referring to this eye-popping, mouth-watering oaisis in the desert that is attracting more retirees every year when he wrote "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be." 
Sure, the city is famous for "What happens in Vegas..." but for the locals, it is no different than any other mid-size city. We send our kids to school, go to the movies, the theatre, shop in great malls and dine at take-out to 5 star restaurants.
There is Mt. Charleston for skiing in the winter and keeping cool in the summer, Red Rock desert hiking and of course the famous Lake Meade for everyone's favorite summer water sports. And don't forget...we are also one of the entertainment capitols of the world. Movie stars and celebrities of all kinds relax and party here throughout the year. We have some of the finest restaurants and shows in the world for discriminating retirees and their guests.
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Summers are hot (many days are over 100 degrees so hang out by the pool or recreate somewhere inside like a casino, mall, theatre etc), winters are chilly (average is mid 50's during the day so for many snowbirds this is comfortable)
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There is no state income tax, a definite consideration for anyone who wants to retire cheap.
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Inexpensive Housing: The local real estate market has dropped so dramatically that now may be your last chance to pick up a great home to retire in, or add an investment property to your portfolio or second home. I try to keep a close watch on what's happening here and what I'm seeing is that properties which have been foreclosed on, in a nice area are now starting to be bid up. So, if you are considering Las Vegas as your retirement city, don't wait. Home prices are one of the biggest factors when you're considering a place to retire cheap. Take the money you make selling your home in a more expensive city and invest it here before it's too expensive to retire cheap in Vegas. (By the way, I am not a real estate agent trying to create an urgency here. But when we were looking and bidding on homes to buy, this is what we had to deal with).
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There are still some good dining deals at some of the casinos, two for one's,  and locals are sometimes able to get discounted tickets to various shows on and around the strip. Most locals don't frequent the Strip during the week and when they do they use the side streets to get around. Compared to other hot cities, Las Vegas would be considered a cheap place to retire. And, it's a great spot if you want friends and family to come and visit because ...well, everyone loves Vegas.
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INTERNATIONAL LIVING THAT MAY BE WITHIN YOUR BUDGET...
Ever wondered what it would be like to live in the country where most Europeans want to vacation? Click Here
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Need More Money for your retirement? Want that lifestyle you've dreamed about? Think you may have to try and find a job for that extra income you need? You don't. Home business ownership is increasing exponentially, saving individuals money on income taxes, and solving their  financial problem. But you need to be armed with the right information before you take the plunge because there are scams everywhere. I've researched the "home business ideas" market for years and I want to share some important things with you so you will be successful.

Beachfront Retirement on My Budget? We've all dreamed about retiring someday on a glorious sandy beach with aqua blue water lapping at our toes. But, is this reality? Can You Retire Cheap and still live the lifestyles of the rich?  Read more...

CROATIA, not the war-torn, backward, poor country you may be imagining. Today this wonderful retirement community is alive with emerald wooded hills and crystal turquoise seas. Low density towns meander along the 1,00 mile coastline beneath firey hills dotted with orchards of sweet fruits and citrus.
A far cry from the former Soviet Union. And the new Croation government wants to keep it that way.
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Home prices have been increasing, but are still a bargain when compared to other Mediterranean and European properties so you can still retire cheap. Taxes are favorable to retirees and income from pensions received from abroad,interest payments from loans and other investments, capitol gains from stock trading, capitol gains from real estate owned for more than 3 years and first line of succession inheritance are also exempt. 
Click if you are interested in more information on the real estate climate of Eastern Europe

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ITALY-Venice is inarguably the most romantic city ever, but it's expensive. Try one of the little villages in the north, or the Tuscan countryside... Click and Read More
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SPAIN- A place of sun-drenched beaches, modern cities, verdant mountains and tradition.


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