“Stevie, it’s your number one brother calling.”
“You mean my only brother.”
“Very funny. Look I’ve been thinking about something important I want to pass by you.”
“Sure, but it sounds ominous. Not health I hope.”
“No, no, fortunately, my back situation seems to have stabilized. I can get around and I can walk about a block or two. I still have trouble getting up from a chair.”
“Better but not great. So what’s up?”
“I want to sell the Jacksonville properties.”
“Seriously? 

IN RICH DAD POOR DAD, author Robert Kiyosaki touts the virtues of owning real estate as a way to reach financial independence. He explains the difference between how his father handled money and invested in his education, versus his friend’s dad, who gained his wealth by investing in businesses.
There’s controversy over whether this is a true tale or just a literary device to explain how to invest in real estate.

I have written several times that I don’t use spreadsheets or budgets. However, once when buying our first home I spent endless hours with paper and pencil trying to determine if we could afford a house and for how much?
It was 1971. I had gotten out of the army 18 months before and we had one child. Connie stopped working in July 1970. Mortgage interest rates were about 7.5% and you needed a 20% down payment. 

Reading Richard Quinn’s recent article on 55+ communities it seemed that some of people posting comments thought that a CCRC was where you went when you could no longer live independently. This is far from the case. In fact, if you wait that long a CCRC is highly unlikely to admit you.
The initials stand for Continuing Care Retirement Community, and that continuum of care is key. Although there are different models, a typical CCRC will offer Independent Living (IL),

IS A 55-PLUS community for you? Do you want to spend your later years surrounded by folks just like yourself—mostly crotchety, demanding old people?
I’m joking, of course. But am I exaggerating?

My wife Connie and I made the move from our New Jersey single-family home to a nearby 55-plus community six years ago. Like the idea of a 55-plus community? Here are some factors to consider.

First, a 55-plus community requires defining. There are several types and sizes,

MY WIFE AND I HAD intended to live in our single-family home for the rest of our lives. We remodeled several times so we could age in place, and we were confident we were all set for the future.
We knew life could change in an instant. We just didn’t think it would happen to us. My wife fell at home four years ago and suffered a traumatic brain injury. After six months in hospitals and rehab,

IN YIDDISH, CHUTZPAH  means audacity. Larry Ellison, the flamboyant founder and ex-CEO of Oracle, is the embodiment of chutzpah. I want to share a real estate caper that took place during my making-it stage when the river of my ambition was flowing swiftly and perhaps recklessly. The gambit called upon all the chutzpah I could muster. It worked famously, a highlight of family lore and my ambivalent career as a small residential property investor.

“IS THAT INDIA or something? Where was that picture taken, Richie?”
“You’ll never guess, Stevie. Remember 266 Washington Avenue?”
“That brown brick, 114-unit apartment building in Brooklyn that Grandpa bought 75 years ago? Mommy said he saved for the down payment with money from the kosher butcher shop he opened after he got here from Poland. But didn’t we sell it in the 1970s? It looks like the Taj Mahal now.”
“Yeah, it’s obviously been spectacularly upgraded over the years.”
“How did you get the picture?”
“Robin and I were in New York last month and went to see it.

I walked into the room and saw Freddie sitting on the exam table with a bloody gauze on top of his bald head. I asked him what happened and he told me that he had been snaking a clogged toilet in a rental apartment. He does maintenance on a lot of rental properties around our area.
All of a sudden the snake backed up on him and hit him on top of his head and caused a V-shaped laceration.

I’M A SUCKER FOR those “10 best” lists. But are they accurate?
What if you had the best job in a poorly rated company? Would that be better than the worst job in a well-rated company? What if you move to a bad neighborhood in a well-rated city? Would that be better than an excellent neighborhood in a poorly rated community?
You get my point. Even among the worst, you can find some real gems.

I’M TYPICALLY FRUGAL and financially cautious. But this past January, I became reckless. No, it wasn’t love, at least not the ordinary kind. Rather, I saw a photograph and made an offer of $48,000 on a “park unit” located 1,000 miles from home.
Park unit, I learned, is a technical term for a variant of what I’d call a mobile home. My first task was to look up the term, so I’d know what I was offering to buy.

LATE LAST OCTOBER, I was one of the first to move into the new building at my chosen continuing care retirement community, or CCRC. Now, more than five months later, I’m more confident than ever that I made a good decision.
I’m in my mid-70s, single and childless, with relatives 3,000 miles distant in both directions. Both bathrooms at my old home were up 15 stairs. Aging in place was not a good option.

IF SOMEONE TOLD ME 10 years ago that I’d end up living in a 55-plus community, I would have laughed. Our plan was to stay in the home we loved and age in place.
What happened? Our initial move to a 55-plus community was driven solely by convenience. My company transferred me to Atlanta in 2021. We wanted to downsize to an apartment, but finding one close to work was challenging. Our son pointed out that there was a 55-plus apartment community close to my workplace.

WE RECENTLY MADE a down payment on our next home. After several months of research, we joined the waiting list for a continuing care retirement community, or CCRC.
We’re in our late 60s and only relocated to our current home four years ago. It’s in a metropolitan area two hours’ drive from our daughter and her young family. We know that perhaps 10 years or so from now, we’ll want to be closer to her,

WHEN I FIRST CAME across HumbleDollar, I just lurked on the website, convinced that everyone knew more about investing and personal finance than me. After a while, I started making occasional comments.
Finally, I’m ready to share some of my financial stories. My first topic relates to my misadventures with real estate limited partnerships. Note that all references here are to my then-wife, not my current wife.
I was in my first job as an engineer.