Around 10 years ago, as they reached their early sixties, my parents made a decision that I fear will eventually ruin their lives – and, in some ways, mine too.
Almost two decades after I – their only child – left home, and even after I’d bought my own home and started a family too, they decided to move house. They put our four-bedroom family home, the beautiful cottage in which I’d lived out most of my young childhood and all my teens, on the market and decided to make a fresh start. But instead of downsizing into a smaller home, manageable in late life and easier to maintain, they did the very opposite.
After a few months of careful house hunting, my parents bought a huge five-bedroom home with two double bathrooms, four toilets, two dining rooms, and a giant garden (which, admittedly, is their pride and joy). Then, after they’d lived there a couple of years, they spent more than £100,000 of their hard-saved retirement fund adding another new room onto the back of it. Who knows why? Only two people actually live there.
When they began showing me documents about the property they had in mind to buy, I warned them, gently, that they could be making a mistake. I work in a job that touches on public health and it’s well known that downsizing early is really good for longevity and good health in late life.
