Good Living and Lucky's Personal Finance Blog

We finally got the AC repaired and it did cost us a little extra. We were fine with that but also we've been spending time in another state with my elderly mom. She's been having health issues that might impact her ability to live independently. I have a sibling there who works full time and is also working on a doctorate degree. 

We did buy our van, set it up and took a brief trip but otherwise we've used it while we've been out of state with my mom. We thought we might keep track of the days we've used it instead of a hotel room. So far 13 days and that's a good savings. 

I'm back to work next week and so I'm pushing my way through preparing. This included taking a big bin of paper to be shred to the credit union. I'm grateful for the complimentary service. 

Our old home is sold. The balance of the proceeds is in the HSA until we make decisions on things. I'm hoping to save some of it. We're planning on buying a van for travel and buy a few things for the new house. Summer is for rest and recovering from the year. Our AC is currently out and it's nearly been a week since we called the warranty company. We knew the furnance and the AC was original and so we wait for replacement. I hope it won't take as long as the furnance did this winter. We're hiding in the lower level where it's as cool as it can be. 

So I didn't get the position I interviewed for but at least I went through the process. A little disappointing but at least it went quick. Old house is on the market and we're starting to settle into the new place. We've got two weddings to go to within two weeks and then we can really start our summer. I hope our hold place sells quickly but it's almost been a week and only two showings. We might have priced it a little too high. I've got classes this summer in preparation for fall. We'll see how this goes, it might push me into part time work sooner than later. 

Who doesn't love the market right now?

2 more days on my current contract, by the end of the week we should have the old place emptied and ready for pictures and put on the market within that week. There are very few options at this price point so I expect it will go fast maybe multiple offers. Two weeks ago, an amazing opportunity opened up so I threw my hat in the ring. I interview next week and I'm crossing my fingers. 

I prefer using a tax preparer because I don't want to deal with the stress. A couple of years ago our preparer died just before tax season, it was weird another reminder of my own aging. I had used him for probably at least 20 years. Through some networking we found another one who has been wonderful and even costs less, they are an attorney as well. She is younger so I hope we can use her through the rest of our days. 

So we have a big refund due the liquidating of my sick time to cash with my layoff, they did take a lump sum of taxes out but it's a nice refund. Which is great because we'll use it for the double property taxes, HELOC interest and moving expenses. We plan to be moving the big stuff a little more than a week from today so this week will be more packing and loads up to the new house. It still feels a bit surreal. 

Hopefully, we can get the old place ready to put on the market and maybe sold in the next couple of months. 

So working at the one year contract that will be up in May. We hope to finish packing and move in March so that the closing of the old house will happen in April or May. We've also started moving some of the stuff as we go up there, things we know we won't need between now and then. 

I also ended up taking on a side hustle that I had retrained in after my layoff. This is in addition to my current contract so more money. 

This leads to me deciding to claim a postion starting in the fall for what I retrained in. I'm in a bit of a shock because this wasn't something I expected to do but hopefully I can do it for a couple of years and then start phased retirement, which means working part time with prorated benefits. These next couple of years might be a challenge because of the commute (50 miles via highway) but hopefully I can work remote 2 days a week or so. 

Life is an adventure

Hey, does anyone ever hear from Laura anymore? 

I found this really interesting interactive article in the Washington Post - Are you Rich?    I hope this link worked.  If not, here's the link to copy and paste. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2024/are-you-rich-american-wealth-net-worth/?fbclid=IwAR3HXcCb5xnufXwSrBIi5ZqDoxXlk_0AhaDGLB71xS-gaghokhNXeSi_sz8 

My net worth is higher than 86 percent of American households, more than four times that of the typical American household.

My household’s net worth is close to the middle for households like yours. 

Compared to households like yours, you have a very low income and a net worth near the middle.

You hold a greater portion of your assets in retirement savings and a smaller portion in cash, your home and investments than the average household with similar levels of wealth.

I feel pretty proud of that. 

We put an offer on a property, it's about an hour away and not where we expected to think about living but the cost of housing there is so much lower. Like $80k less than something here, after closing and moving expenses maybe we will have somewhere between $40-50 leftover which we can consider for a campervan.  My adult child lives there with their spouse and it is a larger town (we need diversity, culture and etc) so I think we can be happy there. I know there are other offers so we'll see if we can beat it. I don't know when we'll hear, probably after the weekend. Ours is a good offer, I just won't know if it's the best offer. 

The only thing that I really think about is that I will likely not be able to find a job in my field and will have to change but it's possible I can find an adjacent career or something completely different and I know this is just part of the process. In addition to lower housing costs, the wages will also be lower. I will probably explore remote working positions too. 

I'm working a one year contract and while I have to drive farther, I'm really enjoying the folks that I'm meeting here.  I'm spending the time with my commute listening to audiobooks and podcasts again which I very much enjoy.  The days are longer which is taking some adjustment plus it's been like 8 months since I've really had to pay attention to a schedule again. 

There's been a number of death/illnesses in my circle of friends. I think I need to start a gratitude journal, pay attention to how full my life is and all that I have to be grateful about. 

Finance related, even though I'm considered laid off, because of our union contract, I did receive my 15 year step in pay. Every little bit helps. 

My spouse and I live in a three level townhouse and due to recent physical issues, we need to go down to a single level. It's also a good time to downsize, we tend to expand to fit the space available. If we can find a place cheaper, we can start to invest in a travel vehicle for our retirement. Who knows what next year will bring....we hope within a year we'll be in our new place. I hate moving. 

I'm free until mid-august so between music in the park, farmers market and a few low cost travels, I'm just going to enjoy the summer. Winter was tough and now it seems that summer is hot. Staying up late to finish homework has switched my days around but I'm hoping to figure out how to wake up early and enjoy the cooler part of the day. 

I'm waiting on one last class but I expect that the final tally of classes will be 5 As and 1 A- which I actually should have received a lower grade but oh, well. I won't tell the Professor to lower it. 

We've got one camping weekend planned with friends with campfire and biking. More to come. 

I do have to get my commuter cars AC fixed because it's miserable without it. 

Hope you are all doing well. 

After this week, I can start breathing. Last week I finished up a week long class and this week has lots of things happening including big furniture moving which we hired the labor for, we can't be moving all these heavy things up and down stairs. Last week was a week long extensive training with just a few assignments to submit. 

I also stopped in to the campus at another college where I will have one year contract starting in the fall. This does mean that once I've completed the classes mid-June, I'm free until mid August. Who knows what employment will look like after next year but we'll see how it goes.

Yesterday while driving in the car, I was listening to the radio and they mentioned that the average age of cars on the road is 12.5 years which is apparently the highest it's been in years. I thought this was very interesting. It makes me wonder about the switch from gas powered cars. We actually have three vehicles which feels a bit excessive but they are all older than the average age. One commuter car, one truck that belonged to my Dad (sentimental) and a minivan that we've turned into a little RV for travel. The minivan could die any moment because it's got 210k miles on it but if we can keep it going for the summers we use it, then we will buy something of greater value in retirement. 

So in my layoff I've been able to take advantage of the "re-training" which means that if I take 6 graduate classes, I could teach in that discipline in a community college. I'm taking 4 this spring semester and will take 2 come summer. I will also be paid spring and summer for this. They cover the tuition and I cover fees and books. I will be able to register for my classes starting this week. 

One of the classes was a travel study to Costa Rica which I just returned from, it was a marvelous time with wonderful people both in Costa Rica and also the folks I traveled with. I tried to add a picture but I kept getting an error.

Friday I had a first round telephone intervew, I hope to that it results in a second interview. I was a little anxious because it was while I was in Costa Rica but it worked out well. It would be great if I could seemlessly slide into a new position. 

My kid and their spouse also traveled to Japan for two weeks while I was gone. They returned the same day but just a few hours earlier than I did. Such busy times. 

While I'm currently still getting paid, we're trying to squirrel all the funds we can for when I'm not working.  I'll also be getting all my sick time paid out which will be a fair amount and that will be saved as well.

Taxes filed and state and Fed refunds received, squirreled most of that too. I'm glad that interest rates are high right now. 

We live north and I'm sure you all have heard about the weather. We were on our way back home when things hit, we're waiting it out in a hotel until the worst of it has passed. While we were gone, it was easy not to think about anything but on our way back everything is coming to the forefront with work. I don't know why I'm stressing, I just need to let it be what it is. We will be traveling on the big holiday and might have to adjust our driving because of the weather. Thankfully the family back home has adjusted the gathering so we're not missing anything. We'll get there when we get there, no rush. 

The visit down south was lovely and we brought our little ebikes so we had a good time. While it wasn't super warm for those folks that live there, we enjoyed it very much. I suppose it's kinda like what we could expect in retirement. 

I hope everyone else stays warm and safe and it's impacted too much by the weather. Happy Holidays to you all!

Then I'm done with my job, it's so interesting because some folks thought I'd be there through spring but that's when I'm going to be retraining.  When I first started there nearly 15 years ago, there was about 5.4 people working in that department. At the end of the year, there will be a single person there. I'm glad I'm not them.  I don't really know what they are going to do, it's crazy. 

I'll be retraining and we'll see where that will take me. I'm also going to start doing some side hustles. Once the retraining is over at the end of July, we'll see where I am then. So many options and I don't know how it will all shake out but I'm going to be okay.

Over winter break, we're going to go visit family and have some time at the cabin. I'm not going to worry about it too much.  

I've got a retraining package. I will be heading back to school again. This will put me in a position to continue working for the same organization. There's support from the folks in the department but goodness, I'm so salty. I've really pulled back and my current supervisors understand. I'm working on emptying my office and etc. It's tough after more than 10 years. Another coworker in my department was offered an early retirement package and they have until the end of the month to decide. They are 63 and have been there 30 years. This would leave a single person left in the department, when I first started there nearly 15 years ago there was 5.5 people in the department but now it's been stripped away. It's such a sorry state. 

I also believe that if we could figure out health insurance and work part time, we'd be fine. I've thought about this too but I'm not going to decide until I've gone through this whole process. I would be on a layoff list for up to 4 years so if another position opened up, I could claim it. 

Last week on Monday, I received an email notification from our HR for an appointment with them the following day, a week ago Tuesday and when you get that kind of notification, you know it can't be good. Apparently, I'm being laid off. Thank goodness it's not the first time so I've been through something like this before, I know the decision is a bad decision made by someone who doesn't know anything about me personally. It's someone who claimed to support the work that I do but obviously not. We are going to be so critically understaffed that it's not even funny. When I first started working there almost 15 years ago, there was a total of 5.5 people working there and now it will be 2. To be honest, I'm glad I'm being made to leave and I'm not one that is left behind. I've received an outpouring of love and support from my coworkers and immediate bosses who have said such wonderful and kind things. Thankfully for our #UnionStrong, I've got options and I will be using them. There's enough notification and options that if my first plan doesn't work out, I'll try another and another and another before I figure it out. I know that I will be okay and land on my feet even if these feet won't know what they are doing yet or where they will be. 

If I'm not able to return in any capacity, I will be sad and I think it's a horrible decision that will have long ramifications to the organization but they didn't ask me. 

I will be heading back for more schooling and pushing myself beyond my comfort zone to other things. I'm grateful for the opportunities that I have and I know I have more to give so I look forward to what's ahead. 

I took a peek at Personal Capit and since the first of the year, net worth despite automatic 401k deductions, matching and additional investing every month, lost about $39k. If I look at the investments, I've lost so much more.  So I'm just going to ignore it. I'm still sorta young and I'm going to do my best to keep ignoring it. I think just like the housing market over time, it's just a matter of when you take the money out. The value doesn't matter until I take it out. I'm 9 years away from even minimally taking out social security and I know things can change so much. I think 10 years ago I bought a 2 bedroom 800 sqft townhouse for $30k and put in about $5k of work into it,  sold it 6 years later for nearly $120k. 

The other thing that I keep in mind is that I know that I'm so much better off than so many folks I know. Unless things completely colapse, I think we'll be okay. We have no debt. 

I'm 2 years away from being able to phase retirement. Things have gotten bad at work and there will be layoffs by November 1, I will know if I'm impacted. I have no control over if this will happen or not. I believe if it does happen, it won't be the worst thing. I know that there are other folks who are really impacted. It helps that while I enjoy my job, it's not my identity. I have also been through a layoff and came out better than I expected. This could be true here too if it comes to pass. I also work extra during the summer and the second half of my wages were not paid. There will be a lump sum to me hopefully on the next paycheck if everything goes right. Sadly, I expect it will be highly taxed but oh well, this too will resolve itself eventually. 

Summer is over and life just continues to move a long. 

After we learned of our CPAs death, we asked around for recommendations for a new one. Thankfully we got the name of someone that multiple folks recommended. The turn around was a little more than a week, I think. And the cost went down by $50! This person is younger and also a lawyer so we feel really good about the possbility of staying with them into retirement. I'm so excited about this possibilty and later after tax season, we might meet up to share a meal. We're going to get about $2k back between state and federal. We also are getting a little bit more from our real estate tax refund. They also gave us a good strategy for how to handle my spouse's new part time job. 

So I work for the state and because of covid, there was less usage of health insurance so they decided to "give back" the surplus as a premium vacation. This month of March we don't have to pay our insurance premiums. I think that will reflect around a increase of $250. I'm not sure what our plans will be for that. I know my spouse wants to purchase a different couch for our main floor. When either of us can't sleep well  (sick, wiggly, insomnia) we leave. I go to our lower level but they don't feel comfortable there so they sleep on the couch but it's not comfortable for sleeping.  I'd rather not have to buy a new couch when the one we have is perfectly fine except for the need to sleep there.  They want to get a small sectional and to be honest, I hate shopping. 

Yesterday I learned that my CPA of probably 20 years suddenly passed away. It was quite a shock to me. He seemed to have an infection and a weak heart. His heart couldn't manage and he was sick and later died within about three weeks. He was 75 years old and a one man shop, quirky but a good guy. Now in the middle of tax season, we need to find a new one. Ours is not that difficult but I want to have a relationship with someone who can carry us into retirement. I expect that we'll have to scramble to find someone who has availability but I'm really sad about my old guy. We have some calls out to people we know looking for recommendations. 

There's been a few folks who have been gone for a while....or maybe just not posting. Folks who haven't posted in a long time, one more than a decade. It's fun to read about them catching back up here. Congrats on your retirement Priceplus!  And just like Commute I-78, I like looking back too. 

Nothing here happening too much. My household is tracking our spending this month, next month we'll get a little more granular about the spending. It's been good for my spouse and admittedly they are paying better attention to how they spend money. What a great bonus! I usually do the bills but I always think it's important that we both know what we're spending and how to pay for it. If anything happens to either of us, we should know how to manage independently.

This week we're meeting with an attorney to figure out wills and other legal documents. We've been having some of those challenging conversations about end of life and etc. It's good to do this planning. 

Yesterday we met with our FP and he has given us a 3-5 year recommendation for retirement. We went out and celebrated by having lunch at a restaurant we like but that is closing after this month (sad). I'm guessing we could do it sooner too if we were really motivated but I think taking time to prepare will benefit us and only position us for less worry. 

It's a bit weird because I feel too young and while I will certainly miss aspects of my job, as we all know...there will be some that I won't. I just feel like with how life is speeding up and nothing is guaranteed (a cousin recently had a really sad diagnosis which is forcing a retirement due to medical reasons with a grim future). We want to have adventures now while we're probably the healthiest we will be and eventually settle down after 5-10 years of fun. 

I also feel like we're going to end up dealing with some folks who might be envious or something after seeing us retire. Has anyone dealt with that? I think because of covid, there's already been a disruption in friends and etc and so this makes it feel a bit worse but I guess this is just a bigger change in life and it's how it goes. 

So I didn't start blogging here until 2015 but I was lurking here for years before then...I remember when CeeJay didn't have kids when they were living in the Condo. I remember when Laura before she worked at a librarian and Fern (as she goes by now) was looking for work. I believe it was somewhere around 2010 or 2011. That's a long time. 

It's been forever since I received a property tax refund. We're supposed to get one this year. A few months back we received a letter than we had to fill out so I'm guessing it delayed it some. Normally the refunds are sent in August. I've got to go find the paperwork that will tell us what we should expect to receive back so I check the "where's my refund" page. It's supposed to be like $400 or so. 

My spouse injured their ankle about 7 weeks ago, this has put more on my shoulders around the house. It's been a bit tough. We fortunately know a friend who works for an organization which takes things like shower chairs and crutches and sends them overseas. Instead of purchasing the following, our friend brought them over - 2 shower chairs, crutches, walker and a knee scooter. We will give them back when we're done with them. What we have purchased was numerous pillows, socks and elastic bandages to support the ankle. MRI was done this week so hopefully there will be confirmation that all is good and healing is happening. 

We finally got the federal refund but it's less than what we filed for. I'm assuming that in a few days/weeks we'll get an explanation of the difference and then talk with our tax preparer about the difference. I don't know why it's different. I've used the same tax guy for over a decade. 

I'll be using it to pay towards our annual insurance bill. 

Strange, taxes were filed at the end of March and we're to expect a refund. State has already been direct deposited but we're still waiting on the Feds. I looked it up on the IRS website and it's pending. I thought with all of the things happening with covid and etc it might have been held up but I hear others received theirs as quickly as it has always been. Nothing has really changed for us, same tax preparer, same jobs, same bank account. I sure hope it's not hiding up in a ceiling somewhere. 

During these strange times of covid, I felt compelled to check on an ex that I cut off communication with after the end of our relationship. I wondered about how they were considering their poor health, their aged parents who I also known and cared about. They owed me money and claimed they would pay me back. I explained that good faith would be regular payments even if it was as small $5 a month but nothing ever came. The last payments I received were in 2015. Life hasn't been easy for them, a car accident with a week long hospital stay and rehab. They wanted my address to send me a payment but I wasn't willing to share so I had them send me the check at my workplace. I didn't expect any follow through and was shocked on Friday when they texted me asking if I received it. As I'm working from home, I went on Monday picked it up, double checked it was still good through the issuing bank and deposited it. It's probably 20% of the balance and I had long since believed I would never get anything back. It is a surprise. Found money, unexpected money....it's not a small sum. I think we'll reserve half for an expected car repair and split the rest to our two retirement accounts even though I want to treat myself for something since it's so unexpected. I don't expect additional payments but that was nice. 

We had our second pfizer done on Saturday. Low grade fever, feeling queasy and headache although it didn't really start until Sunday at 1am. I spent most of Sunday in bed. That's how I prefer to heal, sleep it off. 

We've gotten our state refund back but still waiting on the federal refund. 

I pulled up our zestimate through mint, our home has increased by almost $25k since we bought it 9/19. That just blows my mind, real estate is increasingly out of reach for the average person. 

Mint tells me my credit score is 830 but it doesn't mean much because I don't expect to take any loans anymore. 

I recently did set up a small bi-monthly withdrawal for a work tax sheltered annuity plan. My current work retirement accounts are now at about $420k which seems so strange. I've got a few other accounts with other employers and etc that is an additional $260k. About 300k in real estate.  Slow and steady wins. 

What I really need to do is make sure all my account names are correct. I got married 3+ years ago and make sure the beneficuaries are set as I intend. Additionally, we need to get living wills all those end of life discussions and forms completed. We have friends who are starting to deal with memory issues and the children are very scared so they are talking about forcing them out of their home into care but that's not what they want. 

Glad to work with the tax guy virtually. Taxes are filed and the state refund is already in the bank. I'm glad to have this done even though there's an extension.  I also opened up an additional retirement account at work because one time in my life I took it as a challenge to see how much money I could siphon off my paycheck without noticing and live on less. As a single parent living as lean as possible so I could take care of myself in retirement was a smart thing. It seems so weird to be closer to retirement than working too long. I always thought I'd have to work until I was 65 but that's not the case, thankfully. The time went so fast and now I want to look at the things I might have missed out on. I want to live my life a little slower now.