Playbook · Home and money
Should we sell the house and buy something smaller?
For people whose house is now bigger, costlier or harder to keep than their life needs, children grown, a move, or retirement in sight.
In short
A board of named AI experts — The CFO, The Analyst and The Empath — takes your situation, asks three things first, and hands back a decision memo: sell now, later, or stay, with the money it frees after every cost, and the first three steps. You see one price before anything runs.
Before the board starts
What the board asks first.
What decides this: what you would free up after every cost of selling and moving, what the house costs to keep, and what you would miss.
What has changed?
Roughly: what is the house worth, and what do you still owe on it?
The money freed up is what decides whether this is worth it.
In your own words.
What would you miss most about this house?
In your own words.
What you get back: A decision memo: sell now, later, or stay, with the money it frees after every cost, and the first three steps.
A real run
One person’s version,
and what the board said.
My husband and I are 61 and 63. Our kids have moved out and we live in a 4-bedroom house worth about $640,000 with $90,000 left on the mortgage. A smaller place nearby would cost around $380,000. We would miss the garden and having room for the grandchildren to stay over. We both plan to retire in about 3 years.
An example person, written for this page. Everything below is what the board delivered, word for word.
Keep the current home. Sell and downsize only if your retirement projection shows that its carrying costs threaten retirement security and the net proceeds would eliminate that problem.
What would change it: Reverse the decision if a completed retirement projection shows the current home costs more than 35% of combined net retirement income and downsizing closes the resulting shortfall.
The AnalystDownsizing is the stronger financial choice, but keeping the home is reasonable if its garden and family space are irreplaceable.
The CFOKeep the current home unless the $120,200 released by downsizing materially improves retirement cash flow or emergency reserves.
The EmpathPreserve your home to protect emotional wellbeing and family connections in retirement, not just financial metrics.
Schedule a joint retirement housing decision review
Questions
Fair questions
about this playbook.
What does running this cost?
Reading this page is free. Running it is a board: on Free it seats 3 experts and its card shows up to 135 credits before anything runs. A board never bills above its card. Nothing is charged until you confirm.
Is the example real?
Yes. The board above ran on a SynthBoard test account with the situation shown. The call, where each expert stood, what would change it and the first step are what it delivered, in its own words. The situation was written as an example; it is not a real person.
What happens when I run it with my situation?
You answer the same three questions with your own facts, then your Chief of Staff shows the board — The CFO, The Analyst and The Empath on Free, more seats on a paid plan — and its one price. The board researches, argues it out and hands back the piece, with the first step and what would change the call.
Can the experts be wrong?
Yes. They are AI and can be wrong. That is why every board seats someone whose job is to argue against the obvious answer, and why the piece says what would change the call.
Keep reading
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The playbookSynthBoard (synthboard.ai) is one place for your business, your life, and every hard call. Your Chief of Staff keeps what you tell her on file, and 24 named experts on different AI models take the calls — one expert for a consult, a board with opposed seats for the hard ones — and hand back a memo with the call, the dissent and the first move. How it works.