In this episode of Next Act Ninjas, Rachael empowers you to make one of the biggest decisions you'll face on your longevity journey: Where and how you’ll live out your best years.
In this episode of Next Act Ninjas, Rachael empowers you to make one of the biggest decisions you'll face on your longevity journey: Where and how you’ll live out your best years.
Are you ready to design a lifestyle that supports your health, wealth, and happiness for decades to come? Join Rachael as she reveals three powerful paths to thriving in retirement:
Thriving-in-Place: Love where you live? Learn how to age gracefully in your own home, strengthening ties to your community and maintaining the stability you cherish.
Strategic Downsizing: Feel ready for a simpler, more flexible life? Discover how moving to a smaller home or a new area could free up time, money, and energy for your passions.
The Sunbird Lifestyle: Crave a life full of seasonal variety? Find out how splitting your time between two homes can optimize your health and make life feel like a constant adventure.
Packed with real-life insights, practical tips, and an honest look at each option’s pros and cons, this episode will help you pinpoint the lifestyle that fits your personality, health needs, and life goals.
Special Bonus: Want personalized guidance? Download Rachael’s Lifestyle Longevity Assessment (link in the show notes!) to see which path is truly right for you.
Tune in now, and let’s make your next act your best act!
Chapters
00:00 Introduction: Thriving in place, Downsizing, and Sunbird Lifestyles
02:12 The Upsides and Downsides to Thriving-in-place
03:43 The Upsides and Downsides to Downsizing
05:08 The Upsides and Downsides to the Sunbird Strategy
06:31 Which Strategy Fits Your Personality Best?
08:00 Red Flags and Green Lights for Each Lifestyle Strategy
09:47 Think Long Game and Be Proactive Regardless of Strategy
11:45 Take the Lifestyle Longevity Self-Assessment
Hey, hey, welcome back to Next Act Ninjas, the number one podcast for mastering your health and wealth longevity. I'm your host, Rachael Van Pelt, a retired healthspan scientist turned realtor and coach. Today, I'm going to tackle one of the most important decisions that you will make on your longevity journey. And that's choosing where and how to live out your final decades.
Throughout my career, I have seen repeatedly that how we live plays a huge role in how we age. As a healthspan scientist, I studied a wide variety of research volunteers over the years. I studied women and men, young and old, people of all socioeconomic status. And it became increasingly clear to me over the years that there were striking differences in health outcomes, depending on the lifestyle choices that people were making in retirement.
That's exactly why I'm so passionate about combining my research insights with my real estate experience, because I want to help you make the best choice for your future. I think most of us want to make choices that are good for our long-term health and our long-term wealth. But there's no one-size-fits-all approach, is there? That's why I want to explore three main paths that I see people taking, each of which can support optimal healthspan and wealthspan, but aren't right for everyone.
First, there's what I call thriving-in-place. That's where you optimize your current home and lifestyle for longevity. Second, there's the strategic downsizer. That's somebody who moves into a smaller home and/or simplifies lifestyle to up-level in other areas of life. And third, there's the sunbird strategy. That's where you split your time between two homes so you can create an optimal lifestyle year-round.
Now what's fascinating is how each of these approaches can be exactly right for one person and completely wrong for another. It's not just about financial resources, it's about your health needs, your personality, and of course how you want to spend your time and energy. To help you envision each of these options and try them on for size, let's take a closer look at how each of these lifestyles might play out.
For those of you who choose thriving-in-place, stability and routine probably take priority. Staying put is ideal for people who are already living near family or have strong community ties. It's great for those who have a bigger home and enjoy hosting holiday gatherings or get togethers with family and friends and neighbors. Thriving in place often requires keeping up with more yard work, housework, home maintenance. It could mean if you live in a suburban or rural area that you have to drive longer distances for shopping, dining out, attending medical appointments, going to cultural activities. But the upside to thriving-in-place is that you have the ability to maintain those established relationships and routines that you love. That stability and comfort can reduce stress and improve well-being. You get to keep your trusted healthcare providers and neighbors. You don't have to worry about the financial burden of moving. The biggest downside to thriving-in-place is home upkeep though. Maintaining a larger or an aging home can become physically and financially burdensome, even overwhelming as we get older. Declining health, immobility and disability, they're the number one reason that people struggle to stay in their current home. The second major reason is the financial strain of maintaining that larger or aging home.
Now, unlike those who choose to thrive in place, people who choose to downsize do it for a wide variety of reasons. Often people choose to move from a larger home to a smaller home simply to reduce upkeep. But sometimes they move from a community with a high cost of living to one that has a lower cost of living, which can save money. The actual size of the home may not even change all that much. Simplifying lifestyle could mean anything from moving from a big house in the suburbs to a sleek urban townhouse to moving from a fast-paced urban environment to a slower-paced rural environment. Regardless, the upside to downsizing is it frees up time, money, and energy for other lifestyle pursuits. When you free up your money, that gives you more funds to travel, pursue hobbies, pay for healthcare. When you free up time and energy, it opens up a world of possibilities to pursue other passions. If simplifying also frees up your mental bandwidth and reduces stress, that can improve your overall health and wellbeing. But the downside to downsizing is how hard it can be to let go of possessions and a family home that's filled with a lot of memories. You might also miss certain amenities or the comfort of having all that extra space. And of course, just the uncertainty of change can be hard for many of us.
Conversely, people who choose the sunbird strategy, they tend to embrace change. They might not always enjoy the change of seasons, or at least the extreme weather it brings, but they don't mind moving back and forth between two locations. This lifestyle is typically about wintering in a warm, sunny location and spending summers in a cooler, milder climate. Sunbirds enjoy building seasonal routines. They don't mind building social networks in two locations. The upside to this lifestyle is that it allows you to optimize your environment, choosing a climate that supports your health year-round. It's especially good for outdoor enthusiasts. Many people will experience less joint pain and increased energy in warmer, sunnier months, and they'll have less allergy irritations in cooler seasons. It also brings variety to life, doesn't it? It keeps things fresh and engaging. But the major downside to being a sunbird is the logistics of maintaining two homes. And managing healthcare between two locations can add complexity, especially if you're coordinating multiple providers.
So when you envision each of these three paths, which do you think fits your personality? Here's what I've observed fits different personalities best.
Thriving in place, I think works best for people who enjoy stability, routine, and a sense of connection to their community already. They tend to feel fulfilled by close, familiar relationships, and they enjoy staying in the home and neighborhood that they know so well. These folks typically benefit from having a trusted medical team and community, and that can greatly reduce stress and support good health.
Successful downsizers, they're typically looking to simplify and they might feel a pull towards "lightening the load". They're often people who find joy in experiences over possessions and enjoy adaptability and the adventure of a fresh start. Downsizing offers peace of mind through lower maintenance costs and it allows more financial freedom and time freedom to explore travel or hobbies.
Sunbirds on the other hand are often social energetic people who thrive on variety and flexibility. They don't mind planning ahead and managing two locations and they appreciate the fresh routines that come with each season. Sunbirds aren't just avoiding extreme, undesirable weather. They're using the shift to support their physical and mental well-being year-round, and that can feel rejuvenating.
But let's talk about a few red flags that could indicate that a strategy isn't right for you, as well as look at some green lights that might suggest you're on the right track.
For thriving-in-place, a red flag would be if maintaining your home already feels overwhelming. If you're feeling tired or stressed keeping up with the space, it may be time to look at how to make your current home more manageable or consider if another path might be better for you. On the other hand, some green lights to stay put include feeling connected to your community, feeling like home upkeep is easy, and finding joy in your daily routines.
Now for downsizing, a red flag would be intense anxiety around letting go of possessions or fear of adjusting to a smaller, simpler lifestyle. Downsizing works best if you're ready to let go. If you want to let go of that extra space and you're ready to focus on what really matters to you. The best green lights are experiencing a sense of freedom, increased energy, excitement at the idea of letting go of stuff and a real excitement about adopting a more flexible lifestyle.
For sunbirds, a red flag would be, if managing two homes or coordinating healthcare in two places feels stressful just thinking about it. Sunbird living thrives on the ability to stay organized and enjoy the lifestyle variety. So it's best for those who feel energized by change. Some green lights would be looking forward to the shift of seasons, feeling energized when you're in different locations, experiencing positive health benefits from changing climate and scenery.
Regardless of the lifestyle path you choose, thinking long game and being proactive is key. Here are some ways to ease the challenges that come with each of these choices.
If you want to succeed at thriving-in-place, I suggest you hire a coach to help you build strength and fitness so you avoid immobility, disability, and age-related disease. You want to be strong enough to be able to keep taking those stairs and doing all the yard work or housework. At the very least, you want to build up a support system. You might want to find reliable house cleaning services, landscapers, handymen. It's also a good idea to cultivate hobbies or social connections nearby so you can stay engaged and fulfilled. You might need to proactively modify your home to improve safety and accessibility as you age.
If you want to succeed at downsizing, that's going to require careful planning. You need to be emotionally ready to let go of stuff. And you might want to downsize in stages to make the transition easier. You can make the process more meaningful simply by creating a memory archive or donating items to causes that you care about. Consider working with an organizer or a moving specialist that can help you with the practical and emotional challenges of a transition.
If you want to succeed at sunbirding, get organized. Set up a digital health record that's accessible anywhere so you can reduce the hassle of managing healthcare in two places. And consider hiring a local property manager to handle seasonal maintenance and security. That'll take the weight off your shoulders.
Remember, this isn't just about deciding where to live, it's about optimizing your environment to support your healthspan and wealthspan. The right choice for you should reduce stress. It should enhance your health. It should free up energy for what matters most to you.
If you'd like to explore this decision more deeply, I've created an assessment tool to help you identify your best path forward. Just visit the link in the show notes to download the Lifestyle Longevity Assessment. It's free and it'll help you think through these three paths systematically.
Thanks for joining me for another episode of Next Act Ninjas. Until next time, live well, love more, age less, my friends.