Downsizing is about switching from a bigger home to a smaller home. Seniors who are left alone in a big home have to go through several issues related to their security, high cost of living, difficulty in moving around and challenges related to the maintenance of their home. Big homes can be more troublesome if the seniors live in an empty nest. So, downsizing can be an effective strategy for seniors to improve their quality of life.

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When You Fall Short Of Creating A Sufficient Retirement Corpus

People may fall short of creating a sizeable corpus for their retirements. In such a case, they may use their accumulated home equity to reach closer to their desired retirement corpus. Using the downsizing option, they can sell their existing big home to use some part of the proceeds for shifting to a smaller home and the remaining amount can be added to their retirement corpus to enhance their lifestyle.

When You Want To Reduce The Cost

Living in a big home can be a costly affair, especially for the retirees. Downsizing can help retirees cut several expenses such as electricity costs, maintenance costs, society charges and government taxes. Amount saved by downsizing can be used by retirees to achieve their retirement goals.

For Better Accessibility And Easier Maintenance

A bigger home is not only difficult to maintain but senior people may also find it difficult to move long distances in a big home. Senior people require easier accessibility to different parts of their homes. For example, the bedroom, dining hall, kitchen, and main door should be aligned in such a way that they can cover them within a few steps. Smaller homes normally have better accessibility than bigger homes, so they are preferred more after retirement.

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For Shifting To A Better Location

After retirement, seniors may want to live in a different location for reasons such as location being close to relatives, better infrastructure, better facilities, etc. A better location may require a bigger amount for buying a property, but it can be easily taken care of by home downsizing. When downsizing a home, make sure you sell your existing property only after buying your new home.

If you plan to downsize your home, make a plan in advance. Don’t rush for a downsizing without knowing everything about it. Prefer buying a ready-to-move-in property instead of buying an under-construction property for the downsizing purpose.

The author is an independent financial journalist.