One article I read said that retirees should only keep their "free and clear" home if the value is less
than 30% of your entire retirement assets.
And you should only own a home after you retire knowing that at some point during your retirement life you
will have to sell your home to support your retirement, the house is a two story and you have knee or hip pain that makes
it hard to get to the second floor or a falling hazard, it is too large to care for as you age etc.
If your owning
your home represents 75% of your retirement assets, it is equal to spending 75% of your retirement income on
housing, leaving you only 25% of your income to pay for everything else you need to live. A rule of thumb for anyone,
retired or not is that housing should only take up 30$ of your total income, leaving 70% for food, travel and entertainment,
health and auto insurance, gasoline, utilities etc.
However, there are also reasons to own a home which makes
the question of "should I own or rent after retirement" more complicated than renting is the answer. It may
not be. Read more
