[grania]

I'm in the same housing financial situation you are. I live in a two-bedroom modest, well built 1951 brick house. It's a neighborhood that has aged well, so far. Add up all of the taxes, utilities, insurance, maintenance and it's getting to almost $10,000 a year to live here. That's without repairs, and there's usually one somewhat major repair every year. No air-conditioning or dishwasher, really watch water and electric usage. I have no idea how people can pay mortgages and car payments and keep a house properly maintained.

One of the biggest problems is utilities, with minimums, service fees, new charges every month.

If I ever move again, I'd definitely rent. Or take cheap cruises full time.

[Grams A]

We’re in the same situation as you except that our house is some larger and newer and our a/c bills are eating our lunch. It takes almost $20,000 a year to live in our part of Texas for just the basic necessities not including food or any medical expenses. No way we could ever afford to obligate ourselves for a car payment again.

One of the ladies at our church just sold her home and moved into a Holiday Inn close to the beach. $900 a month covers all her costs - twice a week cleaning, cable TV, utilities, taxes and insurance. Her bedroom is separated from her living room by a partial wall. Everything except for food, meds and clothes. Sounds like a wonderful solution.

[Graybeard58]

“If I ever move again, I’d definitely rent. Or take cheap cruises full time.”

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http://999thepoint.com/86-year-old-woman-lives-full-time-on-cruise-ship/

Lee Wachtstetter, an 86-year-old widow, has been living on a curries ship for almost seven years. “Mama Lee” has been living on the luxury cruise ship Crystal Serenity, since her husband passes away. When he was alive, Lee and her husband had gone on 89 cruises during their 50-year marriage. When her husband passed, she sold her five-bedroom, 10-acre Fort Lauderdale home and moved onto the ship permanently. Since then, she has lived on the ship longer than most of its over 650 crew members and has almost tripled the number of cruises she had gone on with her husband and has gone around the world 15 times.

According to the APP, Wachtstetters “stress free life” costs her $164,000 a year. The cost covers her “single-occupancy seventh deck stateroom, regular and specialty restaurant meals with available lunch and dinner beverages, gratuities, nightly ballroom dancing with dance hosts and Broadway-caliber entertainment — as well as the captain’s frequent cocktail parties, movies, lectures, plus other scheduled daily activities.”

Read More: 86-Year-Old Woman Lives Full-Time on Cruise Ship | http://999thepoint.com/86-year-old-woman-lives-full-time-on-cruise-ship/?trackback=tsmclip