Most people say, “I’m never moving again.” But biology has other plans. In this episode of Next Act Ninjas, Rachael Van Pelt, PhD—Healthspan Coach & Realtor—reveals the truth behind the “forever home” myth. Learn how age-related changes in strength, balance, and cognition affect the way your home supports (or sabotages) your freedom. Discover the three curves of Lifestyle Longevity—mobility, memory, and money—and how timing your move can literally extend your healthspan. We’ll explore real-life stories of couples who chose to act early, neuroscience on comfort vs. novelty, and the “longevity dividend” you earn by proactively designing your Next Act. If you’ve ever wondered whether your current home will fit future you, this episode will change how you think about “aging-in-place” and home equity.
Most people say, “I’m never moving again.” But biology has other plans. In this episode of Next Act Ninjas, Rachael Van Pelt, PhD—Healthspan Coach & Realtor—reveals the truth behind the “forever home” myth.
Learn how age-related changes in strength, balance, and cognition affect the way your home supports (or sabotages) your freedom. Discover the three curves of Lifestyle Longevity—mobility, memory, and money—and how timing your move can literally extend your healthspan.
We’ll explore real-life stories of couples who chose to act early, neuroscience on comfort vs. novelty, and the “longevity dividend” you earn by proactively designing your Next Act.
If you’ve ever wondered whether your current home will fit future you, this episode will change how you think about “aging-in-place” and home equity.
🎓 Register for Dr. Rachael’s free online workshop — Rightsize Without Regret and download her free guide “Rethinking Retirement.”
👉 https://rightsizeretirement.com
Chapters:
00:00 How Long Will Your Home Really Fit You?
02:06 The Biology Behind the “Forever Home” Myth
04:17 The Functional Threshold: When Effortless Becomes Effortful
04:54 What “Rightsizing” Really Means
05:17 The Three Curves That Define Lifestyle Longevity
06:20 Case Studies: Two Couples, Two Very Different Futures
08:09 Comfort vs. Growth: The Neuroscience of Change
10:10 Future-Proofing Your Lifestyle
11:20 The Hidden Cost of “Aging in Place”
12:42 Visualizing Your Future Self to Figure Out Fit
13:29 Invitation to Rightsize Without Regret Workshop
Hey, hey, welcome back to Next Act Ninjas, the go-to podcast for mastering your health and wealth longevity. I'm your host, Rachael Van Pelt. And today, I want to ask you a question that I think most people avoid, even the ones who pride themselves on being planners. How long do you really plan to live there? Not in some vague philosophical sense. I mean, right there, in the home you're living in now.
If you're like most adults over 50, you've probably told yourself "I'm not moving again". Maybe you've even said the words, "This is my forever home". But here's the thing, our biology did not get the memo. Because while our life expectancy has climbed dramatically over the past century, from about 48 years in 1900 to over 79 today, our healthspan hasn't quite kept pace. On average, Americans spend the last 10 years of life living with some form of limitation, whether that's reduced mobility, balance, cognition, or chronic disease. Ten years! That's an entire decade where our bodies and often our homes start to work against us.
The truth is most people don't live in their homes as long as they think they will. Not because they don't love them, but because their homes eventually stop loving them back. That's what we're going to unpack today. We're going to look at the gap between how long you plan to live there and how long your body and environment will actually allow you to.
Oh, and by the way, this episode ties directly into my upcoming online workshop, Rightsize Without Regret, where I go deeper into how to unlock your home equity and design your Next Act with confidence. If you have ever wondered whether your home is going to fit you in the future, that workshop will give you a clear data-driven answer. You can register at rightsizeretirement.com and grab a free copy of my guide, 'Rethinking Retirement' while you're at it.
But let's get honest about the myth of the "forever home". Most of us fall in love with a house during a very specific season of life. Maybe it's the home where you raised your kids, the yard where you hosted barbecues, where you planted your roses or built that garden box you never quite kept up with. Maybe it's where you finally built the kitchen of your dreams. Our homes are containers for our stories, aren't they? They're the emotional architecture of our lives. So when we say I'm not moving again, what we're really saying is, I can't imagine my life without this version of me. But that version of you - the one who can climb stairs without thinking, reach that top cabinet, shovel snow, maintain a yard that looks like a mini-arboretum - that version of you is not guaranteed to stick around forever.
In fact, after age 50, adults lose muscle mass at a rate of about 1% per year. By 70, that accelerates to 2 to 3% per year, unless we are actively strength training. Now that might not sound like very much, but compound that over 20 years and you've lost nearly a third of your baseline strength. That is the difference between being able to quickly hop up the stairs in seconds versus having to slowly climb step-by-step while gripping the railing for dear life. And in many cases, not getting up the stairs at all.
Your reaction time also slows by about 15 to 20% over that same time period. Your depth perception and balance decline, your vision adjusts more slowly to changes in light, like when you walk from a bright kitchen into a dim hallway. And all of that means that a house that felt perfectly easy when you were 55 can become a daily obstacle course when you're 75. And yet, most people don't plan for that, do they? They just assume they're going to adapt. Until one day, adaptation turns into avoidance. One floor becomes off limits. One room becomes unused. Suddenly that home, the one that was supposed to offer freedom, starts taking freedom away.
In my research days, we used to talk about something called "functional threshold". That's the invisible line where everyday tasks go from being effortless to effortful. When you hit that threshold, when stairs, bathing, or even yard work start demanding recovery time, you don't just lose physical capability, you lose confidence. And loss of confidence accelerates age-related declines faster than any biomarker I've ever measured. So the question becomes, if your body's timeline is so predictable, why wouldn't you be proactive when it comes to strategizing your lifestyle?
And that's what the 'rightsize' philosophy is all about. It's not about downsizing, it's about optimizing your lifestyle and your environment to fit the person that you're becoming. That's why I created my Rightsize Without Regret workshop. We look at how to align your home and your lifestyle choices with your physiology and your finances. You can live more freely, not so fearfully.
And one of the ways we do this is by looking at the three curves that reveal the truth about our health and wealth longevity - mobility, memory, and money. These three curves all peak around midlife, then they start to diverge. Your mobility curve declines first due to loss of strength, endurance, and joint function. Your cognitive curve tends to lag maybe five to 10 years behind that, but it declines fast. Memory, processing speed, and adaptability all begin to taper. And your money curve, that should just be reaching its peak around the time you notice those physical declines, which means the window to make strategic moves, like selling, relocating, or reinvesting home equity, it's biologically timed. In other words, you have a short window where health and wealth are aligned. Your net worth is peaking, while your health is just starting to decline. You can think of it like a tipping point where your risk of running out of mobility and memory begins to exceed your risk of running out of money.
I've seen this play out over and over again with my clients. One couple in their late 60s told me, "Yeah, we'll probably downsize when we turn 75". But already by the age of 72, one had developed heart issues, the other severe arthritis. So just the thought of sorting, packing, showing the house, it became overwhelming. So they stayed put. But now every year their house feels bigger, heavier, more unwieldy. Do-it-yourself house projects and yard work became more expensive outsourced jobs. And much of the house just sits unused and unloved.
On the other hand, another couple around the same age moved early, not because they had to, but because they chose to. They sold their 4,000 square foot suburban home, bought a smaller place near walkable trails and coffee shops, and banked around $400,000 in equity. Today, they tell me it was the best decision they ever made, not just financially, but emotionally. They absolutely love the fit of their new lifestyle.
Was it hard at first? Of course. It took a massive mindset shift for them. They told me initially they felt like they were "giving in" to old age by selling that big house. Most of their friends were staying put in their old neighborhood. But once this couple moved, they realized just how much their life expanded with the move. While the friends who chose to "age-in-place" were the ones whose lives actually shrunk. That's the essence of rightsizing, you act before biology or circumstances force your hand. And you see it as an opportunity to expand, not shrink your life. That foresight becomes a longevity tool for you.
Again, I'm going to go deeper on these concepts in my upcoming online workshop. But for today, I want to address the elephant in the room, comfort. That's usually the real obstacle. Comfort feels safe, predictable. But comfort is also a subtle form of decay. In neuroscience, when our brains play it safe, we call it "predictive coding". Your brain prefers a familiar environment because it demands far less energy to navigate. But here's the catch, that same predictability that conserves energy also dulls your neuroplasticity. In other words, staying too comfortable reduces the ability of your brain to remain flexible, adaptable, and that in turn accelerates cognitive decline. Novelty on the other hand maintains your brain's neuroplasticity. New places, new routines, new community simply keeps your brain younger. Change literally wakes up your hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory.
So if you've been telling yourself "I'll move when I have to" remember this: moving now, while you still can, isn't an inconvenience, it's neuroprotective. It stimulates your brain, your body, and your sense of agency. And that agency, that sense of "I can still shape my life", is the psychological cornerstone of longevity. Because aging well isn't just about eating your veggies or doing your squats. It's about continually reestablishing autonomy. And sometimes that means letting go of comfort in exchange for growth.
When I walk clients through their rightsizing journey, I often say the goal isn't to shrink your life, it's to re-expand it in a new direction. Your Next Act might look simplified on the surface - smaller home, fewer possessions - but in reality, it's built around a bigger purpose, more connections, or more adventure. You aren't going backward to your poor student college days. You're expanding into a beautiful, perfectly-tailored lifestyle.
And there's even more science behind this. Studies from the National Institute on Aging show that adults who proactively plan lifestyle transitions, whether that's relocating, community engagement, or retirement timing, they have 25 to 40% lower levels of stress hormone cortisol than those who wait until circumstances force a decision. That lower cortisol leads to better sleep, which in turn improves immune function and slows memory loss. That's a fantastic return on investment. It's what we call a "longevity dividend". You actually enjoy a massive physiological payoff for proactive planning.
So when you hear me talk about "future-proofing" your lifestyle, I'm not being metaphorical. I mean literally influencing your biology by aligning your environment with your energy, your mindset, and your mission. That's exactly why I teach people how to Rightsize. I want you to know how to calculate your home's hidden potential, not just in dollars, but in quality of life. How to transform equity into optionality, how to design your physical space around the version of you that's still growing, still curious, still vibrant.
And here's something else that might surprise you. 90% of adults say they want to "age-in-place", but less than 30% of homes are designed to accommodate that. That's a massive mismatch. And it's not just because homes are missing grab bars or ramps. It's about fit. Emotional and environmental fit means your home supports your rhythm of life, where light, space, access, and community keep you moving, interacting, and inspired. When that fit declines, so does your vitality.
One of my clients once said, "I didn't realize how much my home was aging me". She lived in a beautiful community in the foothills, but it was isolated. She was surrounded by nature, but she was far from family and the conveniences of town. She found it particularly isolating in the winter. But when she moved into a walkable townhome that was near a Pilates studio, and a cute cafe, she noticed her energy shift. She walked more, she met more people, she felt more alive again. And that's the point, isn't it? Rightsizing isn't about surrender, it's about freedom. A freedom that doesn't come with having lots of space, but from owning the right space, in the right place.
So my challenge for you today is just to picture yourself 10 or 15 years from now. Maybe you're still healthy, sharp, curious, but different. Your pace is slower, your priorities simpler, your body a bit less forgiving. Now imagine walking through your current home with that future self. What would future you notice? Would you notice the stairs, the upkeep, the long drive into town,? Or would you feel supported, confident that your environment matches who you're becoming. That's the question we all have to ask ourselves, isn't it? Because the goal isn't to fight aging, it's to collaborate with it, to anticipate what's coming and design a life that supports you 100%, not 80%, not 60%, but 100%.
And the good news is you don't have to figure this out on your own. I created my Rightsize Without Regret workshop to take all of these things I talked about today and help you turn it into a clear step-by-step plan that fits your Next Act vision, one that optimizes your lifestyle longevity. Be sure to save your seat at rightsizeretirement.com. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this. Every home tells a story, but the story doesn't end when you move. It evolves. Your next chapter might have less square footage, but more convenience, fewer stairs, but more social connection, less clutter, but more joy. Rather than wait for life to happen to you, why not proactively get going while your health and your wealth are aligned?
That's it for today. Thanks for joining me for another episode of Next Act Ninjas. Please don't forget to register for that workshop; you'll find a link in the show notes. Until next time, live well, love more, age less, my friends!