Even if you are a younger working person it is good to investigate retirement living alternatives. As your working years progress you and your family can get some idea of how much money you will have to work with in your retirement.

We were living in Grand Junction, Colorado when I retired. A friend of my wife ask her to go with her to visit her mother and present the benefits of DoTerra essential oils. My wife took the friend in our car and drive about 180 miles to a place called CORA (Campground of The Rockies Association). It was an HOA type campground where all the people owned their own property and could have a motor home, fifth wheel, park model home, or trailer on a lot that had purchased within CORA. My wife went to the office and got a list of available properties. She stayed with Dave and Lou the parents of her friend. They invited her to bring me back the following weekend to look at properties. My wife was very excited at the location and the affordable prices for the properties. My wife had a favorite on the list she wanted to see again on our visit. We drove our 1983 Volkswagon Vanagan to CORA and stayed on the lots Dave and Lou owned who were the parents of my wife’s friend. They fed us and took us on a walking tour of all of the properties on the 10,000 ft. elevation level. It was dark when we returned to our Vanagan but we got to see about ten properties that were for sale. There are 500 properties on the 10,000 ft level and 350 properties on the 8,000 ft elevation level.

We were running two tables in an indoor flea market so could only go up the first part of the week, the flea market was open Thursday thru Sunday. We went back to CORA and decided to make an offer on a property. The owner was a very difficult person, when I made an offer close to his price he would raise the price, I decided I was not going to play games with him and looked at other properties. The place next to the place we made the offer on had a very new looking Everest fifth wheel and the lot had an unobstructed view of 13,000 ft. Buffalo Peak. There was a real estate for sale sign in front of it. I called the number on the sign and instead of the real estate agent I got the owner. He said he had just cancelled the listing with the agent and was going to sell it himself. He explained he purchased the Everest fifth wheel in 2002 new for $66,000 and had it towed to that location from Denver and it had not been moved. He said in six years they had only stayed in the Everest about six weeks so it was like new. The real estate agent had it for $87,000 then $78,000, then $68,000, then $52,000 when I looked at it. I ask the owner are you asking $52,000 for the lot and the trailer? He said oh that is too much, how about $45,000, I said how about $38,000? I ask if I was in the ballpark? He said yes but I want to have one more party up there this next weekend, you come up after 4 on Sunday and look at it. We went up and looked at it and he accepted $38,000 for the Everest and lot. Lots were going for about $24,000 at the time, so we got a fantastic deal to get the fifth wheel and the lot for $38,000. The seller needed cash right away to buy a lot to build a home near Breckenridge, Colorado.

CORA has a large indoor swimming pool, a clubhouse, a tennis court, cow pasture golf with sand greens, horseshoes, and playgrounds for the children. The annual cost is less than $1800 for dues and $100 for electricity, and the property taxes were less then $300. The insurance on the property was about $500. The property is only usable about nine months a year. In the heart of the winter the temperatures get to 40 below zero. The roads are kept clear year around so people do go up there in the winter to cross country ski and to go hunting. There is a large reservoir across from CORA. Antero Reservoir is one of lakes that supplies Denver with water. There is fishing and boating allowed at Antero. There is also a fishing pond owned jointly by CORA and Ranch of the Rockies which is stocked with trout.

We sold our home in Grand Junction Colorado, and moved our possessions to CORA and to a home we owned on rented land in an RV park in Apache Junction, Arizona. We spent the summers at CORA for
eight years until COVID 19. We did not go there in 2019 and 2020 with COVID. In 2022 we went to CORA in June with the idea of putting our place up for sale and if it sold right away we would come back to Casa Grande, Arizona where we had purchased a home. We sold the place within two weeks and returned to Casa Grande.

SO YOU CAN SEE THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO RETIRE AND PROVIDE LIVING PLACES WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK. GOOD LUCK IN YOUR RETIREMENT!