My father was 78 when he died last week, the same age as this couple. He and mother did NOT spend the last 15 years as slaves to an enormous house in New England. They had a 2-bedroom on a postage-stamp lot in Florida, until they moved into a condominium building.
Well we ran into a problem. We bought the home when homes were affordable on a 15 yr loan and paid it off quicker than normal payments. We looked at downsizing but financially it just doesn’t make sense because of the price of real estate here. Plus we have spent quite a bit of money upgrading stuff. We built a sunroom, pebble teched the pool, new carpet and granite, new air conditioner/heater etc. we’d just have to start over again with something else. Might as well stay here and hire people to help.