[vin_laurie]

The wife and I have officially started our 5-year plan for an early retirement, basically our plan is to retire when I am 65 and she is in her late 50’s. From a financial perspective we should be fine with enough income from investments and reduced SS for a modest, yet comfortable living. We currently own a beautiful custom home in Daphne, AL that we purchased new construction in 2015. The property values have skyrocketed in our area, in less than 5 years the value of our home has increased almost $75k from the original purchase price.

We currently have a short list of two “Active Adult” communities we are considering for relocation. The Villages (TV) as of this moment is my top choice, the wife favors a community in Arizona. We have done quite a bit of research over the last several months on these communities especially when it comes to the “rent first or buy now question”.

Assuming we BOTH agree on TV, we would love to duplicate the style of home we have now, just in a “smaller scale”. Checking available resell homes at current listing prices, we can easily meet this requirement. However, that may not be the case several years from now if home prices in The Villages increase at similar rates we are experiencing in Daphne, AL. The idea that I am kicking around now is to cash out some low performing stocks and use the funds to purchase property in The Village’s now then rent it out for some positive income until we are ready to make the move permanently.

I have spoken with a coupe of financial advisers and the feedback I have received is not very helpful in either direction, any advice at this stage from TV owners who are in a similar situation would be most appreciated, thank you in advance!

Vin & Laurie
Daphne [Sweet Home] Alabama