Retire to PEI with Extra Cash

PEI is located off the eastern coast of Canada, situated 13km off the shores of New Brunswick and accessible by the Confederation Bridge or the Wood's Island Ferry. Our year round population is approximately 140,000 but grows close to 1 million in the summer including residents, summer residents, and vacationers.

PEI affords beautiful summers, lots of ocean and riverfrontage, parks to play in, all the shopping, restaurants and sports facilities you could want as well as access to hospitals and great PEI real estate.

For anyone in other parts of Canada looking for a place to retire, PEI real estate offers the best of all worlds. Small enough that neighbours know neighbours, large enough to still offer the amenities, PEI real estate is some of the best priced and best valued in Canada. You can live on PEI, the island that so many choose for their vacations, steeped in tradition and history, and with our less expensive cost of living, largely a result of lower housing costs, enjoy a better standard of living with more money to invest in income-producing investments.

As you retire you should be thinking of converting your biggest long term asset, your home, into income producing investments. You have lived in this home probably the best part of your life, raised a family there; but now they are gone and the house is usually too big. However you still need a place to live and you don't want to resort to renting. If you buy in the area you currently live you will have to substantially reduce the quality of home you live in or the neighbourhood in order to extract any money from your investment to re-invest in income-producing market investments

The alternative is to really change your neighbourhood, move from your province and reap the reward while still enjoying a great lifestyle - relocate to PEI. To give you an idea of the money that you can extract and re-invest in income-producing financial instruments consider that if you currently have a home in BC, the most expensive real estate market in Canada, you will be able to re-direct over 70% of the value of your home (because PEI's average home price is 30% of BC). Let's say that your home is valued at approximately the average BC home price of $450,000 - that means that you will have $315,000 to invest in income-producing assets. At a modest return off 5% that would net you an annual return of $15,750 per year or $1312.50 per month that will surely result in a better lifestyle here on the PEI.

Now if you live in Ontario, the average home price of just under $300,000 would mean that you could re-coup 47% of your investment. This would net you $14,100 per year or $1175 per month to make you retirement on PEI that much more comfortable. These are of course averages but I am sure that you can see the idea. Also taking your investment return at 5% is very conservative and represents investment security. That figure could be double or even more if you were willing to ride the market a bit more and accept some risk. This would mean that you could be into income figures in the range of up to $2500 per month.

The above scenario of course pre-supposes that you have paid off your mortgage. However this plan still brings benefits even for those who owe money on their current home. Even for those who owe too much to actually re-coup money for investment purposes, selling your current home and moving to PEI could result in reducing or eliminating your mortgage. That could be a saving of a thousand or more dollars per month. Money saved is the same as money earned and will still result in a better lifestyle.

So why not call a local PEI realtor and begin the search for your PEI real estate. With homes starting in the $50K's there are lots of opportunities for everyone. While retiring here is a great option, I also want to suggest that this is a perfect place for new couples and young families. You can get into the real estate market here while you might not be able to in other provinces. PEI is a safe place to raise kids!