Millennial Golden Girls: The New Retirement Planning Strategy?

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Perhaps in 2060, kids will have the same response to the question “What did you do during summer vacation?” as they have now.  They will still say, “I went to Florida to visit my Grandma.”  Visiting Grandma in Florida might be different when millennials are grandparents, though.  Perhaps in 2060, instead of living in a grim condominium that is eerily quiet except when the TV is blasting, they will share a four-bedroom house with their lifelong friends.  Kids in 2060 might go on to explain that Grandma Heather lives in a house with her friends Jessica, Amanda, and Stephanie and their cats Dora and Boots.  Grandma Heather and her roommates have a lot of fun, and they are full of stories about the old days, but they don’t have a lot of stuff.  An increasing number of millennials are embracing the Golden Girls strategy, where a group of elderly women friends live together, and some financial planners even encourage it.  If your vision of retirement happiness means living with several of your friends, an Orange County estate planning lawyer can help you figure out the legal and financial aspects.

When Your Sorority Sisters Are Your Retirement Strategy

The concept is simple, a young person’s vision of retirement planning.  Four friends (maybe three, maybe five) live together in a house they can afford.  Maybe one of them owns the house (perhaps she inherited it) and the others pay rent, or maybe they all rent the place.  For the most part, they keep their finances separate but their lifestyle communal.

The Millennial Golden Girls model of retirement solves some of the problems that people in the early stages of estate planning fear.  You get the physical and mental health benefits of being near your closest friends.  Living with roommates in your 70s is affordable, just like it was in your 20s.  It is also uniquely millennial.  People born after 1980 have lower birth rates and marriage rates than older generations, and the divorce rate remains at 50 percent.  None of the Millennial Golden Girls are married, some of them never have been, and only Heather has children.  Visits from Heather’s children and grandkids are special for Heather’s roommates, too, and for the kids, it is like visiting four fun grandmas in one house.  When Heather and her kids need to have difficult conversations about the future, the roommates provide emotional support for both generations.

Being a Millennial Golden Girl may be affordable and emotionally satisfying, but by itself, it doesn’t constitute an estate plan.  You still need a will (and you are free to bequeath property to your family of roomies).  You still need long-term care insurance.  You can still keep some assets out of probate.  Therefore, you still need an estate planning lawyer.

Grandma Heather may look silly in her skinny jeans, but she seems happy.  When the kids ask, she says that she plans to continue rocking her skinny jeans until they are cool again.

Contact an Attorney Today for Help

There isn’t one right way to spend your old age.  You do you, and your Clearwater estate planning lawyer will help you do it in a financially sustainable manner.  Contact William Rambaum for help with your case.

Resource:

goodwordnews.com/my-friends-and-i-will-be-living-in-a-golden-girls-style-situation-after-we-retire/