107 year old Man Who Retired in 1969 Gives Advice – Real Estate

Leonard McCracken, who lives in Florida, has been living in retirement since about 1969, when he left a position as a salesman with a now-defunct steel company in Ohio. Since then, he’s been living on savings, Social Security and a lifetime annuity that he purchased before he retired. He has never had a pension. At 107, after living in retirement for 41 years, he’s still paying the bills and getting by on his own resources.

Real Estate Investments

McCracken bought and sold 35 houses in his life, including five that he built himself. His son, Bob McCracken, says his parents “always invested in a nice house and that has helped my dad. He is living off the equity in the last home he and my mother owned.”

The elder McCracken agreed that buying and selling real estate was a smart move for him. “We didn’t make a lot of money in every case,” he says. “But we made something and that helped.”

What is his advice for current owners of real estate? “It’s bad now, but it will come back,” he says. “And people who buy now, they’ll make a lot of money,” he says.

Read full article: http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/111841/view-of-retirement-at-107?mod=fidelity-livingretirement&cat=fidelity_2010_living_in_retirement