Ten years ago, if you’d told Northern Rivers, NSW, grandmother Carmel Warnock that she’d be happily storing all her worldly possessions, renting out her house in the quaint enclave of Alstonville and moving into a friend’s Lismore home to house-sit for the next six months, she’d never have believed you. “I used to be obsessed with stability,” admits the office manager, “and the idea of putting down roots”. But after the breakdown of a 35-year marriage eight years ago, along with the arrival of grandchildren and a desire to spend more time with them, Carmel has found herself looking at things differently.
A fresh start
For older women who may not have the savings or income to create a financially stable life while the cost of living is so high, Carmel says house-sitting is an attractive option. For people who have spent years out of the workforce raising children or have little superannuation to show for their working years, being on your own after 55 can be financially daunting.
“After my marriage ended, I bought a house and had a mortgage,” she says. “The bank loaned me the money over 25 years because I had superannuation and that was my exit plan. If I couldn’t meet the repayments or if I got to pension age and still had a mortgage, I had enough super to pay out the loan and then the pension would carry me through to old age.”
Getting ahead
As she creeps toward retirement, Carmel uses long-stay house-sitting appointments as an opportunity to rent out her own house and top up her mortgage, something that also allows her to contribute extra money towards her super. “The thought of living on the pension alone doesn’t thrill me so growing my superannuation is important.”
Over the past few years, she’s been able to spend a period of time living in her daughter’s granny flat using a secondment from her workplace and has completed a stint of six months looking after a friend’s house. Now, Carmel’s on the move again. “I’m about to do a house-sit for 18 months. My friend, who lives and works abroad for nine months of the year, doesn’t want to let her house out and store her furniture so house-sitting is good for her, too. She doesn’t have to continually move her furniture and has a trusted friend to look after her garden and tend to maintenance as required.”