The Foreign Service Journal, May 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2022 25 How will you pay for this dream house of yours when it’s time? Connell recommends that you find out the average sales price in the area you’re dreaming of. If the down payment isn’t coming from the equity in your current home, she says, set a goal for what 25 percent of that price would be, and save it in a separate account. Crunch the Numbers There’s no magic number that will tell you when you can afford to retire, says Chris Cortese, a former Foreign Service officer who now owns Logbook Financial Planning. He looks carefully at each client’s financial situation, helping them plan out “cash flow for life” and looking at both their goals and their risk tolerance as he helps them decide if they can afford to make the leap into retirement. “A decision of that magnitude should be looked at by an objective third party,” says Cortese, who recommends working with a fee-only, fiduciary professional. (Check the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors at http://napfa.org or the XY Planning Network. ) AMild Climate Monterey, California Virginia Keener joined the Foreign Service straight from graduate school in Monterey, California, and always dreamed of retiring there. She watched real estate prices go up and feared she’d be priced out of the market, so when COVID-19 struck, she took advantage of the money she was able to save while stuck at home and used that money, along with funds from the sale of her house outside Baltimore, for a down payment on a house. She’s renting out the house in Monterey until next year, when she plans to retire after a 37-year career. Monterey’s mild climate appeals to her, as does the fact that she’ll be close to family. She took out a 30-year mort- gage on the house and doesn’t plan to find a post-retirement job—pension, TSP and Social Security will cover her costs.