Earle and Rosemary’s move that changed everything.

This is part of a series of sponsored stories by ZB’s Kerre Woodham, exploring life in Metlifecare villages through the eyes of residents – how they came to be there, what shaped their choice of village, and how they’re enjoying life now. Today: Kerre meets Earle and Rosemary, who discovered that downsizing to village living can free up more than time – it can unlock the financial freedom to enjoy retirement.

When people talk about the advantages of retirement living, they tend to focus on the security of village living; the newfound zest for life that comes with meeting new people and participating in new activities; the joy of moving into a freshly decorated, newly appointed home – many for the first time in their lives.

What isn’t emphasised as much as it should be is that, for many, downsizing from a mortgage-free home to a smaller villa or apartment within a retirement village frees up capital they can use to enjoy their retirement. It depends on the village you move into, of course.

The village fee will vary depending on where you choose to live. And how much disposable income you have will depend on how much capital you have left after you’ve paid the capital sum for your new villa or apartment.

But many of the residents I’ve spoken to over the past few years have told me they’ve been surprised at the extra money they can now enjoy having sold their house, and how pleased they are to have more consolidated living costs when they have a finite amount of capital. Earle and Rosemary are an example.

They moved to Metlifecare Hibiscus Coast Village Red Beach primarily because their three-storey home had become too big for them. Initially, Rosemary was reluctant to move to a retirement village because she, like so many before her, thought retirement villages were for ‘old people’.

Then life changed.

“I had resisted for so long, but then Earle was unwell and I didn’t like the thought of me being left in a big place and having to face the sale and the move all on my own,” Rosemary explains.

Eighteen months later, after extensive research visiting retirement villages from Northland to Bay of Plenty, they couldn’t be happier in their sun-drenched two-bedroom villa at Metlifecare Hibiscus Coast Village in Red Beach.

Earle and Rosemary’s research extended into a cost-benefit analysis – well, Earle’s did. Rosemary says she’s lucky she has a husband who’s got a head for figures and likes everything orderly and in its place.

“Those of us in retirement villages are invariably people who have owned their own homes,” Earle explains. “We’ve reached the stage of being mortgage free. We’re selling up, we’re going somewhere smaller and we’re going to have surplus cash to cover what we want to do in retirement.”

Earle says he and Rosemary needed to consider what they’d have left in the bank after the house was sold and they moved into a village.

“We’ve got this amount left and we look at it and say, if we live 10 years, we can spend this much and die broke. If we live 15 years, we spend less... and die broke. 20 years, even less. But as you get older, you don’t tend to need to withdraw... as much, anyway.”

Rosemary says people tend to get fixated on the notion that you “lose” money when you go into a village. It’s true that most villages don’t offer residents capital gains on the property. As a resident, you have a Right to Occupy – you don’t own the home.

But for Earle and Rosemary, that wasn’t a concern. Their children are financially independent and urged them to use their money to enjoy life now, rather than preserve it. Any remaining capital – less the deferred management fee – will get refunded in time once their home is resold.

As well as consulting their adult children, Earle and Rosemary got independent legal and financial advice. Each village has different structures and rules and Earle went over the contract with a gimlet eye.

“You have to know what you’re signing up for,” he says. “It’s a protection for the resident and a protection for the owner – the village.”

The residents at Metlifecare Hibiscus Coast Village Red Beach pay a monthly village fee for things like lawn mowing, gutter cleaning, window washing and the like, but Earle says they were effectively paying a monthly maintenance fee in the big home they owned previously, with all the different expenses involved. In their village, that fee is a lot less than they were used to paying to maintain their old home, he says, and Rosemary agrees.

“All we could see was maintenance and repairs money going out, that we didn’t see any huge return on. And it wasn’t adding value to the property.”

Life for Rosemary and Earle is good. Earle says when they were living in their old home, in their old street, they didn’t really tend to socialise with their neighbours.

“Maybe once a year, there’d be some sort of street party but mixing with your neighbours, going out for a meal with them, didn’t really happen. Whereas here in the village, there are so many activities and there is always company if you want it.”

Earle says now he’s moved to Metlifecare Hibiscus Coast Village Red Beach, he and Rosemary feel settled and happy and ready for the next phase of their lives.

“At our old home, there was always something to do. I like to read and I don’t like gardening. Now I can read two books a week, usually over there,” he points out his favourite chair in a sunny corner of the lounge, “and I finally feel I’ve retired”.

Disclaimer:

The views, opinions, and experiences shared by residents in this article are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Metlifecare. The information provided is general in nature and should not be relied upon as financial, legal, or professional advice. Prospective residents are strongly encouraged to seek independent legal and financial advice, and to undertake their own enquiries, before making any decision about entering a retirement village.