Welcome back to the second half of our fantastic two-part article on how to ‘age in place’ by staying in the family home but still receive most of the financial benefits of downsizing to a small apartment. Last time we covered moving in more family or renting out to young professionals. Let’s pick up where we left off at running your own Airbnb.
3. Host a Bed & Breakfast with Airbnb
Running a bed and breakfast is a tried and true retirement option, but recent leaps in technology and industry standards have just made it easier than ever before. By listing your extra rooms on Airbnb, a sharing-economy app that allows people to book their spare spaces as if they were hotel rooms, you can make more than enough to support bills, a cleaning service, and maybe even renovations! This friendly arrangement will have you constantly meeting and sharing breakfast with new people on vacations, business trips, and holiday travel without leaving the comfort of your personal living room. This is also something a caregiver can help you with along the lines of keeping the rooms clean and restocking the little soaps.
4. Offer Lessons to Local Children
If you’re still relatively energetic, consider turning some of the skills you learned over the years into a nice, slow-paced home business. No need to stock up on office furniture and hire a secretary, but you might enjoy hosting a few lessons in your home. Parents are on the constant lookout for opportunities to teach their children useful skills like cooking, sewing, and playing musical instruments and kids are always interested in learning something their friends don’t know. This is a wonderful opportunity to pass on your talents to a younger generation who will appreciate gaining real-world abilities while their friends only pretend to cook in phone games. You may quickly find yourself as an auxiliary grandparent and an important part of many children’s lives, teaching them valuable life lessons along with the skills their parents are paying for them to learn.
5. Open a Home Daycare
If you feel your house is most enjoyable when filled with children, an in-home daycare could be the perfect use for your bounty of currently unused rooms. Many parents prefer home daycares over the commercial variety because it feels more like leaving the children with trusted family than abandoning them to corporate handlers. You become their go-to “grandma’s house” and everyone will appreciate how welcoming your home is. The age and number of kids you take in should depend on how much kid-safe space you have, what you and your caregiver can handle, and how many helpers you can get to assist in wrangling the children. All you need to do is gear up your home for childcare and register as an in-home daycare provider. Even with just a sign outside and a modest online listing, local parents will find you.
Retirement may mean making changes, but the changes can be fun! By bringing life (and additional income) into your home with new people and new business, you give yourself the opportunity to stay put and the incentive to keep improving on the house you already love, and a little extra budget for in-home care when you need it. With so many options to repurpose and profit from your family home, downsizing into an apartment or retirement community is a laughable suggestion.
By making the right investments and financial choices now, you can improve the quality of the rest of your retirement and leave a wonderful home for your grandchildren by choosing to keep it in the family. For more advice on retirement financial matters, whether you’re planning for retirement or have already entered your golden years, contact us today.