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Are You Living in Your Wheel House? - with Kim Costa
3 Plays2 days ago
Kim Costa, a top 5% Realtor with Atlanta Fine Homes & Sotheby’s International Realty and creator of the Wheel House Method, shares how to use a Wheel-of-Life approach to decide whether to stay, go, or renovate in retirement. You’ll hear why “home” is more than square footage, how life changes create a “void” your current space may no longer fill, and how to make choices that support enjoyment and personal growth in your next chapter.
What we cover
- Why retirement is a “third life,” not an ending
- The Wheelhouse Method: using eight life areas to clarify what’s working and what isn’t
- How life changes (empty nest, health shifts, career ending, family moving) can make a once-perfect home stop fitting
- Downsizing options: lock-and-leave living, reducing maintenance, and freeing up equity
- Practical ways to stay put: “shut down” unused floors, adjust thermostats, and reduce cleaning/expenses
- Repurposing rooms for who you are now (hobbies, writing, yoga, podcasting)
- The most neglected area on the wheel: spirituality (connection to nature, grounding, sunlight)
- Avoiding “should” decisions (e.g., moving somewhere because it’s what people do)
- Try-it-first strategies: house-sitting, seasonal stays, and inviting family to test a destination home
- Biggest regret drivers: moving too fast, not thinking it through, and market pressure
Key takeaways
- Your home should match your current life stage. What worked at 25 may not work at 60.
- Fix the pain point—but don’t create a new problem. Consider health care access, finances, and connection before you leap.
- Enjoyment is allowed. Retirement is a season to reclaim what you loved—and design your space to support it.
- Small changes count. You can often improve fit by repurposing rooms and reducing unused space.
Connect with Kim:
- Website: lifestylefoundations.com
- Socials: KimECosta
Look for her new book, Live in Your Wheel House, available now!
Recommended
Transcript
Challenging Retirement Perceptions
00:00:03
Speaker
Retirement. That's what we're all aiming at, right? But exactly what does that mean? conjures up visions of endless days of golf, drinks with little umbrellas in them on a tropical beach, feet up reading a book.
00:00:16
Speaker
Is that what it's all about? I don't think so. Life would get pretty dull after a while without anything meaningful to do, don't you think?
Introduction to 'Beyond Retirement'
00:00:25
Speaker
I'm Jackie Doucette, and I'm on a mission to discover exactly what life is like beyond retirement.
00:00:30
Speaker
Join me while I chat with people who've already done it, who've retired to something rather than from something. Let's find out together exactly what's waiting for us when we say goodbye to that nine to five.
00:00:51
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Beyond
Meet Kim Costa: Realtor & Author
00:00:54
Speaker
Retirement. I'm your host, Jackie Doucette. And today I'm excited to be joined by Kim Costa. Kim's a top 5% realtor with Atlanta Fine Homes and Sotheby's International Realty.
00:01:05
Speaker
She speaks nationally for American Dream TV. And she's written a book called Live in Your Wheelhouse, which I'm sure we're going to talk about today. Kim, welcome to the show. Thank you, Jackie, for having me.
00:01:18
Speaker
I'm going to assume that most of the listeners haven't talked to you or heard of you before. So um can you tell us a little bit about what you help people do um for someone meeting you for the first time, what is it that you do?
Understanding the Wheelhouse Method
00:01:34
Speaker
Sure. So, you know, I'm ah a top realtor here in Atlanta and I've developed a process called the wheelhouse method. And so, you know, I help, you know, clients buy and sell homes, but more than that, I help them pinpoint exactly what the pain points are, like why they're moving or why they're thinking about moving. And we, through talking with them and having um a background in human resource development, I started listening for the pain points and then I started categorizing them into eight areas of the wheel of
Life Transitions and Home Moves
00:02:09
Speaker
life. And so over the past seven years, I've developed the process to not only help my clients, but also um other people who could read the book or take a workshop and run through the process and then work with their own local realtor to get exactly what they need.
00:02:27
Speaker
So in in your time as a realtor, you've, I guess, figured out that buying a home isn't just about buying the home. It's about how you're going to feel and how it's going to interact with all the different parts of your life and that's what helped you develop that wheel Yes.
00:02:44
Speaker
okay That's exactly right. Because you may be buying. So when if you're going to retire, um your career has changed. You probably are an empty nester, most likely, unless you're very lucky and you're retiring early. um You know, um so that's ah that's life change. And typically, life change is one of the deciding factors in a move. So on the younger side, it could be getting married or having babies or a promotion and you have to move across the country. So, um but as we get towards retirement age, it's more, it's more like health, health issues, um the, um the end of a career, um children moving across the country and, and you want to see your grandchildren. And so that's a family and friends move.
00:03:33
Speaker
um So it's becomes a different set of circumstances ah the in the different life stages that we have.
The 'Forever Home' Challenge
00:03:40
Speaker
And it's fascinating to me, to see how a home just doesn't work anymore when your life changes because you're um ah there's a void typically. There's some some kind of life change that's left a void and now the home doesn't fit any anymore.
00:03:55
Speaker
Right. And that's I think that's a big thing. a lot of people try to stay in the home that they've always had. They figure this is going to be my forever home, but your forever home when you're 20 is very different from your forever home. Yeah.
00:04:10
Speaker
view when you're 55 or 60. Sure. And the intent may be there, but sometimes, you know, if the primary bedroom's upstairs or something, or it's a large home and ah a large yard that needs lots of maintenance, those become factors as well as financial factors, you know, the maintenance on a home and the taxes and all of those things. um And then i think the fun thing that happens is, you know, in the fun and leisure area, if If you're retired, you're not necessarily pinned to a geographical location anymore, especially if your children have moved away. um
00:04:47
Speaker
So the world is your oyster and you can kind of say, well, maybe we'll downsize here and keep our roots going. But we won't have to maintain a home and let's get a little something in the mountains or at the beach or wherever it is you've always wanted to go or just downsize and travel, get a lock and leave home and lower the maintenance and go to see all the places that you haven't been. That sounds lovely to me. I like the lock and leave idea. Yes. Where you don't shovel and you don't mow and you don't do all those things. Exactly. Exactly.
Key Considerations for Retirement Homes
00:05:18
Speaker
So let's go through all of the different um aspects of the wheel. Talk about you know what you consider when you're talking to someone about their retirement home. Sure. So um when someone's considering their retirement home and it it may be, so the the subtitle of my book is an empowering guide to stay, go or reno. And so I've, I actually do work with a lot of retiring folks. um I'm, you know, getting to that age myself and my husband is in the process of retiring. So, you know, many things to consider. So you want to consider in the health area,
00:05:58
Speaker
How's the home working for you? Are there any mobility issues that are impending or that have started? um Hopefully not. and And health is good. So we can continue on in that same home. In and the same um respect, we need to look at finances.
00:06:14
Speaker
How are our finances doing? Have we saved up enough to maintain this home? and Or is there a lot of equity in the home and the size of the home might be unnecessary? So we might be able to take some of that equity out and and put that into a different fund to live off of and to gain interest in. live off of that for a while. So just simplify a little bit.
00:06:36
Speaker
Where are the friends and family? Has everyone moved out of your neighborhood? Are you still feeling connected there? Or would you like to move into 55 plus neighborhood or something like that? um or Or closer to a ah walkable downtown where you could walk to dinner and not cook big meals anymore because there's only one or two of you?
00:06:56
Speaker
So you just go around the wheel and you just discuss. There's a series of questions that ah the reader can read or the workshop taker can ponder. And then they fill in the score from one to 10 in that area. And we talk about the specifics of what's working, what's not working, or what could be better.
00:07:17
Speaker
So I did that. I used your little wheel. Oh, good. Oh, I love it. I think I need to move. yeah You don't want it to look like a flat tire.
00:07:30
Speaker
And if the wheel's kind of bumpy, um you know, you could have eights and tens and sevens in a lot of areas, but there could be one area that's a zero, you know, and that would force a move. Or if you have all threes, you know,
00:07:46
Speaker
Yeah. and when When that flat tire makes it um impossible to move forward in your life, it's time to move. Yep. I've got a few little bumps here and there, so we'll see what happens. Life is bumpy anyway. It is. we yeah or You talked a little bit about... um the changes that happen as as you get older and as you're moving into ah retirement kind of life. what's a What's one idea about aging or retirement that you think maybe doesn't fit in with the idea of your perfect home? um I don't know if that makes sense. like Something that you would like to retire about retirement thinking.
00:08:33
Speaker
Well, I think nowadays, ah for me, I think retirement should be like your third life. So we have our young life where we learn and grow and you know meet a partner and maybe have children. And then there's that middle 30 years where we were so busy raising the children, working in a career, volunteering in the community and making friends who are mostly our children's parents. Yeah. Or if you don't have children, you're working that career or volunteering or, you know, whatever it is that's occupying the middle part of your life, you're building, you're learning. But then when you get, I'm about to turn 60, so I'm hoping my mom is 89. She's doing great and just thriving and living, ah aging in place and ah driving and cooking and
00:09:24
Speaker
all the things. So I'm like, okay, I have another 30 years. What's my 34, less, maybe 40, but good 30 years. What's that going to look like? So i think years and years ago, we didn't live past 45.
00:09:38
Speaker
And so you we didn't have all this time left in our lives. So to me, retirement is like, exciting. It's what, what did i what did I love to do when I was younger? And then I kind of lost track of it. For me, it's writing. I'm writing again, which is why I wrote the book yeah or partly how I wrote the book. Cause I love to write and I love to travel and things like that. So I'm looking forward to doing all of that um for however long
Retirement as a Third Life Stage
00:10:05
Speaker
I can. So to me, aging has such a connotation of of just withering away. And I don't think that is completely accurate these days. I think that we do have access to a lot more possibilities of things we can do. And how many boomers are there out there?
00:10:25
Speaker
We're the majority of the population. We have more power than we think. So I'm right on the cusp of boomer and whatever the next one down is like, I'm like in that year. So, and I have three older brothers. So I'm like in that. And my husband is, is firmly planted in the, the boomer, um, age category. So, um, I can absolutely, and a lot of my clients are as well. So, um, I just see the potential. And you talked about, um,
00:10:55
Speaker
The changes that that people make, ah whether you want to move or reno or what you do, what kind of things should people be thinking about? We talked about the um downsizing if your house is big, that sort of thing. But what kind of things can somebody do with their house if they really want to stay, yeah but it's not quite right? Yeah.
00:11:16
Speaker
Okay. So I've seen this many times. So if you do have, excuse me, if you do have a ah primary bedroom on the main, I have many clients who will just kind of shut down the upstairs if there's bedrooms up there and they'll go up and maybe, you know, once every couple of weeks to check on things and get it cleaned once a month or go up there and tidy, but they shut the whole thing down and they, they, um,
00:11:42
Speaker
adjust the thermostats so that it's not running all the time so that it reduces costs and they don't have to clean as much up there because it's not being used or vice versa. If there's a basement that used to be, you know, the kid, the adult kids, young, young adult hangout, you know, they kind of just shut that area down and operate off the main floor. And if their primary is upstairs, so they kind of reduce their space a little bit in their own home.
00:12:08
Speaker
um for areas that they're not using. And then the other thing I've seen people do is repurpose rooms um that were once used for other stage of life purposes. And so they will find they have a hobby, painting, writing, doing some yoga, stretching, podcasting, right? You need a room for your podcasting. yeah And um so whatever interests are are but are developing,
00:12:35
Speaker
in our next phase of life, those don't feel bad about repurposing those rooms. You know, you could put a day bed in there or a, yeah what do they call the be at the flip down bed, the Murphy bed. Yeah. Yeah. For, for the occasional company that may come, but every day you walk past that room, that's not being purposed for you because on, on the off chance, someone may come to visit.
00:12:57
Speaker
And um so let's, um let's use the space that you have for the way your life is right now. It's funny, i've never I've never been able to find a way to make a Murphy bed work because if it's up, I'm gonna fill up that floor space and then I can't put it down. And if I put it down, it's gonna be covered in something so I can't flip it up. It is a challenge. A lot of them are made to look like a cabinet now.
00:13:23
Speaker
So it just, you know, so but and like you said, if you do have your desk, that's got to be moved against the wall and nothing can be in the center of the room. So it needs to be, you need to think about that when you're buying whatever you're going to put in the middle of that floor is where is it going to go when you do need to use the bed.
00:13:41
Speaker
And what do you think is the part of your wheel of life that people most often
Spirituality in Retirement
00:13:50
Speaker
neglect when they're thinking about retirement?
00:13:54
Speaker
um You know, i think it is not even so much ah the retirement age folks, but I think everybody really um neglects the spirituality part. And it doesn't mean that you have to be super religious or um you know, that that is the primary reason. Although, you know, some folks who move need to, spirituality is the first thing they think of because they have to like walk to synagogue or, you know, that kind of a thing. And so they they want to be close to their place of worship. But for people who, you know, I, to me, i had a farm once and to me, the spirituality at that farm was sitting on the front porch, watching the geese fly over,
00:14:35
Speaker
looking for deer and just appreciating nature and it and the grounding that I felt being in nature. And so that was spirituality to me. Like that was a 10 out of 10. Now, other areas in the home didn't work so well ah for me, but spirituality I think is neglected because it is one of those higher need um So Maslow's hierarchy is a part of my process. And so in each area, you go from physiological needs up to aesthetic needs. And so spirituality normally is right there in the middle with love and belonging, self-esteem, um not so much safety or physiological. So it gets overlooked because sometimes it's not a pressing need.
00:15:20
Speaker
But it is it has been proven through studies that people who ground themselves in nature get sunlight, um appreciate ah spirituality and whatever form whatever form that looks like for them are happier.
00:15:34
Speaker
And so I do think that is one area that people um neglect is just what makes me happy and how can I connect with um nature and and, you know,
00:15:47
Speaker
the creatures and and and the health of the sunlight and and living things, other living things. And I think that gets neglected a little bit, especially today in this world.
00:15:59
Speaker
I think so too. And and I agree with you. it It's something that people don't think about because these days people are worried about the The simple things that have the roof over your head, have the money for the food, have the, you know, have those things that they don't have time to stop and appreciate nature or appreciate what's around them.
00:16:19
Speaker
I agree. And if you're moving for spiritual reasons, you're in a pretty good place because it's not, you didn't lose your job. Your health is probably good. You're just trying to, and this is lovely. I've had, I've actually had help people move um who were just looking for a little more peace and quiet and ah a garden and some community connection and so And to do some creative things. So I've actually helped some folks do this. And I was so happy that everything else in their life was going so well that that was their biggest concern.
00:16:52
Speaker
And i I was like, well, this is such a joy. yeah I'm so happy for you. I wish I was in that place. you know and and You know, in five years, they may not be. That's the way life goes. But yeah um I think it is helpful to keep that in mind. And sometimes when things aren't going well, you've you know you've had a divorce, there's been a death in the family, an illness.
00:17:13
Speaker
Sometimes that spirituality takes over and saves the day. So it's something important to think about. So when you talk about um like your book's title, Live in Your Wheelhouse, we've been talking about what what your wheelhouse is. It's everything. But what does it mean to you specifically?
00:17:33
Speaker
To me specifically, it means matching my home environment to who I authentically am, not not who I was trying to be for 25, 30 years and you know lost my way, ah lost my authenticity a little bit. Nothing serious, but just felt like something was off and like, oh, I wish I was doing this. I was an accountant.
00:17:53
Speaker
I'm a creative person. i'm an extrovert. I was living in a remote farm. Um, I was riding horses, but I'm a golfer. So like, I like lost my way. Right. And so to me, i am golfing again. i am now writing and working with people, not numbers in a office, you know, closed behind doors. Um, and I live in, but in the middle of three small towns that, uh, my husband and I can travel to within five to 10 minutes And go to dinner and take a walk in the park. And there's lots of activity for me to feed my extroverted nature now. So that is living in my wheelhouse for me. And so, you know, I'm helping other people, which is very important to me, with skills that i feel like I was given, like a writing, communicating, um empathy, listening. And so I'm living in my wheelhouse because I have place in my home that allows me to do those things that I'm good at.
00:18:54
Speaker
And you help people um because of your empathy and your listening skills and your desire to be with those people, you help them figure it out. But what do you do with them? If someone comes in into you, what's the first thing you do when they say, you know, I want to move and i i don't know what I want?
Identifying Client Needs
00:19:13
Speaker
ah We start with, I start with, tell me about what's going on. What's going on with your life right now? Like what what what is your biggest pain point right now? Right? And so they'll they'll say, well, I'm switching jobs or um we don't like the... school for our kids or um I have a new dog and I have no yard or whatever it is like the I'm in a condo and I i have to go 18 floors down to get the dog out. So what I mean, it could be something simple like that. Or or like I'm lonely. So I got the dog. And now I'm like the dog is going going potty in the elevator. I can't live here anymore. Yeah.
00:19:56
Speaker
And so, you know, you just start listening to like, what is frustrating them? What are they sad about? What is, ah what are they um complaining about that they want to fix? And you start there because you want to acknowledge exactly what's going on with them. And from there, I ask questions in some of the other areas to make sure we don't create another problem while we're solving the first one that's, that's top of mind right now.
00:20:22
Speaker
That was going to be the next question. yeah was yeah once Once you're fixing something, say the environment, how do you ensure that you know all the other steps? I mean, finance might be might be easier to solve because you've got to keep it within a budget, but it's hard to do all of those things and keep that wheel from going flat.
00:20:41
Speaker
so So say you move from the city condo to um a small little cottage you know out out where you have a yard and everything, but the healthcare isn't good.
00:20:52
Speaker
You know, you have to travel 45 minutes to get to your doctors now. So, i mean, these are all things that you can't, because sometimes you think, oh, like I need to fix this one thing. But then when you start considering your options, we need to make a list of what's important. Like, okay, my my knee doctor is...
00:21:09
Speaker
45 minutes away. So i either need to get a new doctor or travel or move closer. And so these are, it's like, it's always option A, B, and C with me. It's like, okay, if we do this, we need to consider that. And so which is more important to you, you know, having the space or being close to the doctor? So it's it's kind of like budgeting for your nice to haves yeah you when you're finance budgeting. You have to say, you know, do I want this or do I want this? Which one's more important? Which one's more important? Yeah, yeah absolutely. and And that goes for every single area. And then as you're looking at the eight different areas, a lot of times, well, always I ask, what is the most important area to you?
00:21:52
Speaker
Because if you have a two in spirituality um and um an eight in finance. We don't want to fix spirituality at the detriment of finance. And so we're we're going to prioritize finance higher on our list of what we need than some of the other items.
00:22:13
Speaker
Right. When you first started dealing with people and their lifestyle as well as their desire for a new home. What was the the thing that surprised you most about doing this process?
00:22:30
Speaker
Sometimes, um, You know what? It's the timing that surprises me. Sometimes I wonder why people let themselves suffer so long in a situation that isn't right for them.
00:22:44
Speaker
And i'm I'm not sure, you know, some people have different decision-making styles. um Now on the flip side, timing ah has also surprised me because people have made a hasty decision and moved somewhere And maybe I wasn't involved and not really thought it through. And then they're moving again within the year.
00:23:05
Speaker
And so I think it's timing. There's a sweet spot in between acting um hastily and waiting too long. when So, you know, i I've had some clients who waited too long and their health deteriorated. And then it became an issue because there was no one to organize and move the stuff out of the large home. Um, and it it became, you know, logistical problem. So, you know, I, we had a, other people had to get involved and, and handle things that, um, that probably could have been handled like over 10 years, you know, let's organize, let's give things away. Let's have a sale of the items we don't need. Someone else could use them. And then, then your children aren't, um, left, you know, trying to figure out what to do with 8,000 square feet of things.
00:23:57
Speaker
Yeah. When when someone comes to you and and they think they know what they want, and they've they've decided, you know, that they need to move. How do you help them figure out or or determine whether it's something that they really want or something that they think they should want. Maybe a lot of people, a lot of people are caught up in the idea that, well, we should do this because we're this age. Right. We should move to Florida because that's what people do.
00:24:27
Speaker
um At this age, but I'm telling you, a lot of people move to Florida and then it's too hot. They cannot take the heat in the summertime. And so they're they're um there's a name for it, but I can't recall what it is. It's like a a halfback move. Like they go to Florida and then they settle in North Carolina because it's still warmer from where they came from. But the summer is not so harsh. There's still four seasons. So we get a lot of um adjustments that way. And that's OK.
00:24:56
Speaker
That's OK. Yeah. i I've been wondering about that because i I don't like the Canadian winters and I'm very kind of vocal vocal about that and I like them less every year. Yes. And i I told my husband when I retired that I wasn't spending winter in Canada anymore. Yes.
00:25:18
Speaker
So I've been trying to find what's too hot for me because I i want hot. I'm happy with hot. Yes. so So I did a house sit and I did this house sit in Phoenix in August. Wonderful. Phoenix in August is hot. August is hot. I think maybe October through ah March or April might be better. Yeah. But I liked it. i mean, I opened the door to go outside and it feels like you're opening your oven. Yes. Which is nice. I mean, in the summer here, I open the door and I start to sweat. Yes. It's not not the same thing. Yes. It's like a ah permeating heat yeah in in those areas. Yes. Well, I mean, so that is what I actually recommend to people is if you are going to make a change, go try it out first and make sure. And it if you're going to make a permanent change, it sounds like you might be considering going somewhere for just the winter, but keeping a home in Canada and up north.
00:26:16
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. i ah We're kind of waffling a little bit. i I wanted to move permanently. yeah My kids aren't real thrilled with that idea. But I figure, you having a home in Mexico would be good. They could come and visit whenever they want. Have a destination home. Exactly. Exactly. yeah but Yeah. So, no I mean, you could go try it out, invite them down for um some kind of holiday or something where you celebrate with the family and, and then, you know, they, they make, but if they live locally there, I mean, I did the same thing with my parents. They bought a home in Florida and thank goodness they could have two homes. So they went back and forth because if they had moved down there um permanently, I would have been sad, but we sure did visit a lot.
00:27:04
Speaker
because they were there quite often. And those were great, great memories. And it wasn't like when you live here locally, because you're in the home, and you're spending, you're waking up with them, you're having breakfast the whole week or 10 days, you're very much immersed together. in it's such special times for everybody. So I think people find a way of making what they want work.
00:27:24
Speaker
And um You know, I mean, a lot of times the adult kids are busy, you know, with activities and and stuff like that. So you don't see them all the time anyway. So that's it maybe a compromise is in order, but try it out first and maybe spend two, three months down there and invite you're each of them down with family or all together.
00:27:47
Speaker
So you could spend some time together and they might be like, you cannot move. You can't. We need to do this all the time. We need to just come visit you. This is going to be a yearly thing. And maybe they have guest rooms where you can come back and visit them ah certain times of the year too. And it becomes, you know, two, three, four weeks out of the year that you're together.
00:28:09
Speaker
Lots of different options. There are options. Permutations of of living arrangements. Yes. and And make it fun to go investigate. Well, i I know I have fun because I spend my winter in Mexico traveling around trying to decide which place I want to live and They're at home dealing with snow. yeah Exactly. I just spoke with somebody two days ago in Playa del Carmen.
00:28:32
Speaker
She loves it. Yep. Yes. It's a beautiful spot.
00:28:38
Speaker
um I had one more question. I'm not sure. See if I can find it. Sure. um what What is the biggest... regret that you've heard people have after they've made a move? and If they've done all the things that you've suggested, hopefully they don't have many regrets, but I'm sure that every once in a while someone does. What's the the biggest regret that they have after they've moved?
00:29:05
Speaker
So um I once had a client, now this was back 22, I think, when everything was just crazy with the
Avoiding Buyer's Remorse
00:29:13
Speaker
real estate market. And you had to decide within one day of seeing a home if you were going to get it or not. And this is this is partly why I finished writing the book, because so many people, 82% of everyone who bought a home 23 and major regrets. Yeah.
00:29:29
Speaker
had major regrets So that is um like so with 25 to 30 million people moving a year. That's that's a lot of people. Yeah. And then I think 12 percent of those didn't even like the home that they got into. So that was like three million people a year.
00:29:48
Speaker
That's a lot. So yeah there's some unhappy folks out there right now. But my my specific example, we were getting ready to go to closing and my client, um they were moving from another area, buying here in North Atlanta. We had looked at a bunch of homes, but they were going quickly. And we had lost out on a couple of homes that we didn't move very quickly on. So we got with this beautiful home, gorgeous luxury luxury home. But we were standing in the kitchen, literally on our way to closing, doing the final walkthrough. and i look on the face of the wife, she started to cry.
00:30:26
Speaker
And I was like, oh no. And the Heisman was like, what's wrong? She goes, it's okay. You know, and she was she didn't She was like, I'm going to have to totally redo this kitchen, but it's okay. And I was like, oh my gosh. I mean, if we back out now, you'll lose your money and blah, blah, blah, all the things. So they bought it.
00:30:44
Speaker
um And I i mean, the the yard wasn't big enough. I knew what was wrong, but they needed a home. And we were headed to closing. So they bought the home. Now, thankfully, this ends well, because prices went up about 20 percent that year. And they did remodel the kitchen just to see if like she's shoot because we talked about it afterwards. And and I said, well, I mean, we could turn around and sell it in the spring. You'll probably make money on it. And then, you know, we'll get you exactly what you want. Now you're living here. we have time to go look at everything. And you're not under a time pressure. So they she said, well, let me see if I like it better, if I redo this and that. So she redid like $100,000 worth of stuff. Well, they made about $250,000 on the home after remodeling it. So besides the time spent, all's well that ends well.
00:31:36
Speaker
But I did not like going that fast in in this process. I didn't feel like people had enough time to really think about what they wanted. They had to buy a house, sometimes sight unseen.
00:31:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's ah that's a scary thing to do. Yes. And I'm glad we're not in that situation anymore. But it was good for the sellers. The sellers made out very well and they're now in what I think is the perfect home for them.
00:32:03
Speaker
Oh, that's good. Yeah. So Kim, where can people find you if they want to reach out to you? Oh, sure. Okay. So if you're on social media, I met Kim E. Costa everywhere. So that's Kim. And then the initial E is my middle name, Ellen, and last name Costa, C-O-S-T-A. And my website, if you want to check out the book, which is coming out in March, there's a lot of bonuses for pre-ordering, including several chapters, um a workbook, and things that you can get started on now. And that's at lifestylefoundations.com.
00:32:41
Speaker
Okay. I'll make sure that that's in the show notes. Wonderful. um Is there anything you'd like to tell people other than your about your book before we finish up?
00:32:52
Speaker
Well, let's see, I think.
00:32:56
Speaker
Don't worry about what everybody else is doing. This is this time is your time to be you. um You've probably done everything for everybody else or a lot of people have done everything for everybody else to raise the family, to get the nest egg.
00:33:12
Speaker
um you know, volunteering in the community, but do not be afraid to take some time for yourself while you're still healthy and you so you have the finances to do so and the time to enjoy the rest of your life and really think about what that looks like for you.
00:33:31
Speaker
i think that's pretty wise advice. I think most of us don't take that time as often as we should. and Thank you very much for being with me today. i think you've shared ah a lot of information and I'm sure that people will take a look at your wheel of life and think about what it's like to live in their wheelhouse.
00:33:51
Speaker
Yeah. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for having me. And I'm really excited to talk more about it.
00:34:01
Speaker
And that's it for this episode of Beyond Retirement. Thanks so much for joining me. I hope you enjoyed it. Did you know I'm publishing books now? Head on over to placeforbooks.com to explore the variety of titles already published.
00:34:15
Speaker
There are titles in English, French, and Spanish. And new titles, like Bunny Confidence for Women and Public Speaking for Introverts, are scheduled for release soon. Again, that's placeforbooks.com.
00:34:27
Speaker
Check it out!