Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

What we were seeing a few years ago was a lot of folks getting the "golden 
handshake" from companies in Southern Cal and companies like IBM.  They are 
already retired, 5 to 10 years early.  They sold those properties in So. Cal 
and the Silicon Valley for a half to a mill more than they paid for them. 
They moved to *real* Northern CA or Idaho or Washington (lots to Eastern WA) 
and have paid cash for land or houses.  They still have money from the house 
sale plus their retirement plans plus they have become future double 
dippers.

We had several of them as neighbors before we sold on the coast.  We have 
several of them as neighbors up here (one was an attorney for OC and her 
husband is now working as a teacher part-time).  Contrary to popular 
fairytales, not all baby boomers are stupid.  These folks know the bubble is 
going to burst and they are now debt free.  They have a nice BIG savings 
account and owe nothing.  Their house is paid for, their cars are paid for. 
They are working little nothing jobs for the local schools or city or county 
governments which is what pays for their day to day needs and the bank 
accounts and so forth and so on are sitting there until they need them.

There were also other houses that sold around us down on the coast and lots 
of places up here that were bought by baby boomers 10 or 20 or even 30 years 
ago as "summer" or "vacation" houses.  A lot of them also have lease lots on 
the lake (Those folks will do the snowbird thing).  Folks plan on selling 
the houses down where the big dollar jobs are and retiring to their houses 
up here which will already be paid off or they'll pay them off from the sale 
of their houses down there.  I don't think there will be a big rush to buy 
houses in the nuclear waste land with  the few trees planted along the 
highways to hide the clear cutting.

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>


> Forget the pensions.  Companies are shedding pension plans as fast as they
> can.  They are also cutting health care for retires even faster.  Many of
> those boomers (who start retiring in 2007, not 2010) will be faced with no
> health care and will have to put off retirement.  Many others will see the
> promised benefits evaporate in a merger or a business decision based
> bankruptcy.  Most have only a modest 401(k) as the average holdings are
> around $17,000.  For many the biggest asset is the house and for many of
> those it is mortgaged to the hilt.  So for many the sooner the baby 
> boomers
> parents die off the sooner they can retire.