Housing, and the cost of it, are the biggest conundrums to face when crafting your personal retirement dream.

You could be asking yourself questions such as the following:

Should we keep our home and all the corresponding expenses? Maybe we need to downsize so we can afford retirement? Do I want to relocate someplace different all together; a place with better weather and lower cost of services? How about if we travel part time, or not own a home at all and rent instead?

The good news is that no matter where you are in the assessment of your needs both financially and emotionally on this topic, there are solutions that will fit. Take a look below at some of our viable suggestions for the retirement housing challenge.

– Keeping your home

If you want to mix travel opportunities with keeping your permanent residence, you could do a home exchange with other home owners around the world. This is a win-win situation, as you will be saving money on lodging while on vacation, and your own home will be taken care of while you are away. Neither party in the exchange has to worry about plants, pets, or other maintenance requirements during their stay.

If keeping your home is a priority in the retirement equation, but finances are a consideration, some people are choosing to rent out a room, a section of their home, or a cottage on their property on a more-or-less permanent basis. This works out especially well if your home town has appealing tourist options like a winery nearby, professional sports stadiums, museums, mountains to climb or a beach. In this way, you could host a tourist and charge for their lodging, or take on a roommate. Airbnb ( https://www.airbnb.com/whats-
my-place-worth?af=24387&c=fb_
la_us_mp_eng_p_us122ad02_
img04_ints_trvl_&split=1&cdn_
locale_redirect=1 ) has become very popular with both sides of the coin in this trade.

– Downsizing

If downsizing suits you better, how does one go about it? Do you want to downsize and live in the same town or state? Would you rather find states or countries with better costs of living, better weather, and friendlier tax policies? Maybe you like the urban style, living right in the city with restaurants, gymnasiums and shopping all within walking distance?

Find information here on Income Tax Friendly States ( http://www.govspot.com/know/
incometax.htm ), ‘Worry-Free’ Housing (http://www.
retireearlylifestyle.com/a_a_
communities.htm ), or the 100-best-places-to-retire (http://www.topretirements.
com/blog/great-towns/100-best-
places-to-retire-for-2013.
html/ ).

– Travel is for me

If you are one of those who’d like to make up for lost time and travel through your Golden years, you don’t have to give up luxury. There are countless house sitting ( http://www.
retireearlylifestyle.com/
trustedhousesitters.htm ) opportunities where you could care for a home for weeks or months at a time. Or hit the road in an RV or live on a boat!

– The perpetual question

No matter what you choose to do today, time accumulates and life moves on. One day you might find yourself in need of assisted living or long term care. This is the housing consideration years down the road. You could choose to age in place, join communities which provide for progressive care or move to a different, more affordable country (http://retireearlylifestyle.
com/continuing_care.htm ) as this need presses.

Wherever you find yourself with this perpetual question of housing, take a look at our housing options page ( http://retireearlylifestyle.
com/housing.htm ) for a variety of choices that may fit your situation.

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Editor’s Note:  Billy and Akaisha Kaderli are recognized retirement experts and internationally published authors on topics of finance and world travel. With the wealth of information they share on their popular website, RetireEarlyLifestyle.com, they have been helping people achieve their own retirement dreams since 1991. They wrote the popular books, The Adventurer’s Guide to Early Retirement and Your Retirement Dream IS Possible.