m-set wrote: ↑03 Oct 2017 23:27
(...) I'm sort of like a night shift worker in terms of when I sleep and wake. I'm also becoming sort of noise averse in my old age (...) I need a place that's relatively quiet in the mornings. The place I live in now is like a tomb. I never hear anything. It's ironically a condo, but it's like a retirement condo and the build quality is great. I have never heard any footsteps or voices. (...)
Why not stay where you are if you're happy there? Just invest the inheritance into a balanced portfolio, with the ultimate intent to generate retirement income, and skip the madness of the Toronto RE market.
What was the result of your meeting with a financial advisor, by the way?
If your end goal is to retire somewhere warmer than Toronto, I don't see the sense in committing yourself to a huge down payment and expensive mortgage payments on a dumpy, tiny, noisy apartment. Any idea where your someplace warmer might be? It might be worth your while to consider purchasing something there and then renting it out until you retire...
Other responses have touched on having a contigency fund in case of emergency. You can't go wrong keeping some money back. You're a musician- if anything happened and you couldn't play anymore- yikes! Most musicians supplement retirement with gigs or lessons, so if you couldn't play what is the plan? If you purchase or rent a place big enough to rent out part of it or (god forbid) take a roommate, then at least you could cover reduced expenses with a tiny pension.