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Steps toward a major move

Feb 6, 2012
I'm a 58-year-old widow and I have been paying on a 30-year mortgage for 28 years, so I am almost there. I think I owe about $8,000. I am contracted to a job that doesn't offer a pension, but I do have investments (which I think of as retirement money). All three of my daughters moved to Seattle and I want to move there this summer. Right now, I have a little cape cod, which hopefully I can sell for $200,000+. However, my daughters live in the Ballard neighborhood, where a house even a little smaller than mine would cost nearly $400,000. They have condos. I wouldn't mind a townhouse if I get a patch of land to garden. I will be getting a job when I move, but should I just rent at this point? Should I leave the investment money alone? Laura, Ann Arbor, MI