Said It Here

Should I buy my retirement home now or wait 5 years?

Buying a second home years before retirement forces you to juggle primary housing, taxes, and ongoing work while managing two separate locations. This often means paying for a mortgage or HOA while still renting near work, leaving you to weigh whether buying now or waiting until retirement makes better financial sense.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Waiting five years until retirement to buy a home
  2. 2
    Using home sale proceeds as a down payment with small withdrawals for a mortgage
  3. 3
    Paying cash upfront to cover monthly expenses while continuing to rent

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/personalfinance2 people · September 2026

“I (M59) want to buy a second home closer to ocean with a budget of 900k. This is to establish a place where we can retire eventually peacefully when we turn 67 me and 64 wife.”source ↗

“Do you think I can keep both places 2 hr apart from each other and make it to retirement.”source ↗

AcademicHedgehog7239 · r/personalfinance

“We are considering buying a forever home now. The forever home is far enough away that we would still need to rent for work.”source ↗

“Would it make sense to just pay cash to ensure monthly cash flow pays HOA/Taxes/Rent? Perhaps the $175K as down payment and small withdrawals for a mortgage?”source ↗

“The other option; Just wait another 5 years and buy then? Ideally 401K would be bigger and could pay cash then?”source ↗

“I’m guessing housing prices won’t drop too much over next 5 years.”source ↗

xcrunner1988 · r/personalfinance

Where this came up

r/personalfinancefinancial planningreal estateretirement planning

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