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wrapping up

May 22nd, 2024 at 01:33 am

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?

More changes

February 10th, 2024 at 05:22 pm

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? 

Are You Rich?

January 7th, 2024 at 07:03 am

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. 

 

Big changes

October 14th, 2023 at 03:54 pm

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. 

working one year contract and a raise

September 22nd, 2023 at 07:01 pm

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. 

How old is your car?

May 16th, 2023 at 05:23 pm

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. 

two days left

December 14th, 2022 at 01:21 am

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.  

About three weeks left

November 28th, 2022 at 11:54 pm

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. 

Since the first of the year

September 16th, 2022 at 06:04 pm

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. 

Will I make it?

August 22nd, 2022 at 09:13 pm

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. 

taxes are done

March 8th, 2022 at 11:14 pm

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. 

Such a bummer

February 23rd, 2022 at 09:18 pm

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. 

Welcome back!

January 31st, 2022 at 09:55 pm

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. 

Three to Five

November 12th, 2021 at 05:42 pm

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. 

That's a surprise

April 29th, 2021 at 04:55 pm

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. 

2nd shot down

April 12th, 2021 at 09:59 pm

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. 

taxes are filed

March 26th, 2021 at 08:53 pm

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. 

Home was good but at the cabin....

February 24th, 2021 at 06:15 pm

During the cold spell, everything was good at home but the cabin had some issues. We went there last weekend after not being there since some time in December I think. We had water for a bit but then it stopped. The next day we went to the gas station and picked up some jugs of water so we could flush the toilet. Plumber came out on Sunday and determined that the pipe for the well was frozen outside from the house to the well pump. This was the first time this happened and because we don't know how long it had been frozen, he recommends that we replace the pump as it's probably been weakened for working continuiously. We also need to excavate and bury the pipe lower. It's possible the it was fine but because we had a driveway installed that messed it up or that it would have happened even before the driveway was installed because it finally got that cold. I'm thinking it will be like $3k after all is said and done. Sucks but we don't want to run into the same problem again.  We'll get it done in the spring. If we go out there before the thaw, we'll bring water. 

We also dream of building a polebarn/shed with living quarters out there. Apparently they are a thing...called barndominium. In retirement, we could house our RV/campervan and vehicles but also have a homebase. The cabin could be part of family compound...at least that's our dream. We haven't even discussed it with the young people. 

Traveling volunteer opportunities

February 9th, 2021 at 04:48 pm

So my spouse and I are dreaming of retirement and travel. We still want to put good and kindness out into the world so we're thinking about traveling and volunteering. I expect that some of this we can do before retirement but also after. Do you have any experience or knowledge of good organizations that help with this both domestically but also internationally? We are both educators so that's are employment skillset, if that matters. 

I think it's possible to retire in 5-8 years so I want to start really thinking about it. 

YNAB

February 4th, 2021 at 03:22 pm

I know a lot of you all use budgets, I don't because how I've always done it was figure out what my fixed expenses were and the rest was in the flexible spending(groceries, clothes and etc). If money was tight, I spent less on this and if I had more, I was more flexible. As I start looking into my retirement planning, I want to get there faster. I started reading some of the FIRE blogs and learned that for those who used to use YNAB, will appreciate the budgeting through https://aspirebudget.com/ which apparently is very similar. I'm going to look into it more and see if this will help me get to retirement faster. 

The FIRE folks talk about having 33x the annual living expenses and living off of 3%. It's farther away than I thought but who knows. After covid, I will talk to my financial planner some more too. I've read that when folks retire, spending typically goes up for the first few years because folks finally get a chance to do the travel and etc they couldn't when they were working. This makes sense to me. 

So strange

January 26th, 2021 at 06:00 pm

Just checked mint and I suppose with the market as it's going, it's just growing in leaps and bounds. 20k in a couple of weeks or so.  It's kinda unsettling to me because there *has* to be a crash at some point. This is just not sustainable. 

Sitting at home, spending mostly just for food and other basics. Although last night I decided to buy some really warm slippers, spent $50. They aren't as expensive as the Glerups and it seems my previous favorite sheepskin seem to have uneven reviews. I did consider the Glerups at more than $100 because my spending allowence has mostly just sat and gathered since I've go no where to spend it. One reason that I didn't get the Glerups is because I couldn't find anywhere that had my size and style in stock. I wanted to get the boot style because I work in the basement and my feet get cold. I use a space heater but it's hard to find the right balance. 

The other things we bought yesterday were usb rechargable fans for the van. Even if we end up not getting the van for whatever reason, the fans will be used outdoors for mosquito prevention or on hot days. We had some credit card points that reduces out of pocket to about $20. 

Dreaming of the summer

January 17th, 2021 at 09:19 pm

One of the things our household is doing to get through covid is watching vanlife videos. We both want to travel more when we can. We want to do it inexpensively and vanlife seems great. We currently own a commuter car and a pick up. The small pick up was previously owned by my Dad who passed away and I know that I'm sentimental but I'm hoping to drive it to the ground. I think it could be used for camping in it but my spouse doesn't. Well....my mother has just purchased a new to her vehicle and when she moves south will sell her late model high mileage minivan to us for $1200. She's owned it for probably 12 years and we know the history. If we can travel with this van for one to three summers, it will be perfect. It will help us learn if the dreams we have about vanlife are reality. Is this something we want to invest more into? There's an outfit here that rents van conversions like we dream about but for just a week it's nearly $1000 and granted there will be more costs associated with buying my mom's van like outfitting it, insuring it and garaging it, it will be a really inexpensive trial without huge drawbacks except maybe a breakdown. Those are solvable. 

Whoa - 2021

January 11th, 2021 at 09:15 pm

Well, we all thought the new year would be better....but it's not. So hard that I feel like I keep wishing away my days.  Not too long and it will be March which is when the pandemic started and we all that that was bad. 

I looked at Mint and now definitely over the 1 million mark with all assets counted. That feels weird to me and to think I've got 10 years left. I went to go look and see what I've put in my 401k per year to see a ball park of what I can expect to have it increase. I know that our returns can't be expected to stay the same. My annual rate of return for it was over 20%!!!  I believe I put over $16k in every year and even if I wanted to, I couldn't change that, it's mandatory at my job. With luck I'll be like Patient Saver and have at least 1 million investments before I retire. Of course over that time, so many things could change but I know that I'm sitting better than so many others. 

 

last paycheck of the year

December 18th, 2020 at 08:18 pm

All the regular bills have been paid for the month. And my net worth including real estate and etc is about 10k short of a million and I feel pretty good about that personally but I think of everyone who has lost their lives or their job and etc due to covid. I worked hard and it paid off by this security but I'm privileged and lucky.  I still have another 10 years to work before I can retire unless we figure out something else for health insurance. Also I know that now that I'm in this age bracket, folks start dealing with big medical issues or other very unexpected things so I'm just going to try to carefully stay the course. I'm fortunate. This much I know. It's warmer here today than usual for this time of  year. I've got one more day (Monday) left of work for the year and I'm really looking forward to that break. It's been a tough year. I think I'm going to go out for a really nice walk before it gets too cold, possibly rains. 

update

July 28th, 2020 at 10:44 pm

This summer has been hard trying to figure out ways to enjoy it that still keep us safe. Trauma has been triggered in my household so it's been challenging. We have purchased bikes, inflatable kayaks, a new bedframe (switching out the one at the cabin for better sleep), WNBA league pass to watch the games, more storage shelves, bedroom chairs and a used elliptical). Most of these will be very good for the rest of the summer but the elliptical was purchased for us to continue to have some physical activity during the cold winter that we know is coming. We wanted to get it now before the demand is high. It makes me a little nervous with the spending but we're still sitting very good. Oh, we also opened a ROTH for my spouse. If there is a second stimulus check sent out, we intend to put it in there in it's entirety.

We did have a social gathering at a local lake one evening with friends, everyone masked, brought their own chairs and visited six feet away. We rode there on our new bikes, it's about 4 miles away. It was lovely.

This week we plan to go to the cabin for an overnight to switch out the frame and mow the lawn. Next month we hope to finally have a driveway installed. Sunday we leave to drive all day (12 hours) to go to a really special hiking spot. We were going to camp but because of the trauma response to everything happening in the world, we decided a hotel might be easiest for a better sense of safety.

Dreams we also have been having is next year or so purchasing a minivan and having it outfitted as a simple campervan. We've done some research, their are some folks in Colorado who do this and we hope to do some easy simple traveling in the next decade or so.

We've also been dreaming about retirement. If our country can't ever figure out healthcare. If I can stay healthy, I probably could retire around 62 and cobra for 18 months and free market healthcare until medicare (if things remain as they are) at 65. That's about 11 years from now. Dreaming...dreaming...

staying at home

May 10th, 2020 at 09:10 pm

We're eating at home so much more but I'm wanting to find healthy low carb foods that will fill me up because when I'm bored, I'm snacking. It helps having regular walks to both keep me busy and burn some calories. I found a great vegan cream of broccoli soup that I've made twice now. Super easy and tasty.

We also were watching on Netflix Nadiya Hussain’s Time to Eat which is really good and inspiring. We want to make her seasoning that goes in her rice noodle dish.

I had remembered formerly known as patient saver's granola recipe so I went looking for it. It was back in 2015 that she shared it. I'm going to try and make a batch of that too.

CB, I've always appreciated your ability to be a single person and have the variety of homemade foods you do. You're amazing.

It's unseasonably chilly here today. I like walking in the cooler weather and enjoying that soup.

So far I'm still employed but who knows what the longer view is. I think if I lost my job, I could go a year but health insurance would be the issue. I sure hope things will be ok for us all. It's reinforced how careful I've been with money.

Covid19 still

March 26th, 2020 at 06:50 pm

So my location on campus is considered a computer lab apparently (grrr...) and so we're still open. My spouse has severe asthma and we're very concerned about if she would get it. It would devastate me if I brought that home to her. I'm mostly working from home. Our state has a "stay home" order but my job is exempt. We'll see if they close the campus or somehow I don't have to go in. We have had 346 cases and two deaths as of today. I peeked at my retirement down $100k and I'm grateful knowing that I'm not trying to retire tomorrow. I'm checking on folks that I know...single parents, older folks. We're trying to organize something here in our townhouse development but we don't know all our new neighbors because we just moved here in September.

We have also discussed that if there is money coming to us and it looks like there is. We plan to give it to folks we know who are struggling far worse. I'm still working, we have an emergency fund and I think we will be ok. There are folks who don't have all that we have.

I hope you all are staying safe and healthy.

visit with the financial planner

February 26th, 2020 at 09:50 pm

We're on track for early retirement. I asked when he thought and he said age 55 or 60. I can hardly believe it because that just seems too soon. My spouse is 6 years older than I am so if I waited until I was 62 or so, it would even be better. My spouse would be covered by medicare and if I could figure out health insurance for 3 years. He also mentioned the christian healthcare plans aka health care sharing ministries but I'm not sure they would take a couple of atheists who while pretty square also probably go against their personal beliefs in other ways.

He talked about since we live pretty frugally it's easier. Our expenses have gone up due to our move but it sure makes me motivated. I also think our expenses would go up if we were retired because we would want to travel more. I'm sure we'd figure out ways to travel inexpensively but who knows.

I'd also love to figure out how to earn income as a digital nomad.

We made it

December 9th, 2019 at 04:58 pm

The old house is finally sold. Now we wait to see what our final tax bill is next year. I'm looking forward to this being all wrapped up.

Yesterday we went through our expected bills and there's a little bit of wiggle room each month that we can use towards building our emergency fund back up with the goal of being $50k. I think we are approximately 50% of the way there. Also my spouse is looking to go back to work. We don't expect that she will make much money due to the nature and therefore the pay of the work.

Mostly except for the unexpected, we'll be mostly chugging along at a good pace towards our future.

My position is union work and recently the contract has been settled, I will have a small increase in January and then a one time payment in July. I don't know if I will have summer hours next summer and if I don't, we'll be fine. If I do, then we can build that emergency fund back up quicker.

We have our holiday plans scheduled. We also plan to look back at the last decade and do some thinking about what we want in the next decade. The decade after that will be looking at what retirement looks like.

Summer is nearly done

August 13th, 2018 at 08:03 pm

I'm mostly back to work full time except for a couple of days. So much has happened this summer, landscaping, road trip, sister got married, visit to my son in WA and he was here for the wedding too. We're starting our foster care training. Work is heating up, and I will have more responsibilities. I feel like I've got to mindfully pay attention to self care. There's not a whole lot of wiggle room for getting sick and etc.

As far as net worth, I've been hanging around $800k for the last few weeks. I did meet with a Tiaa Cref representative to see when I could retire. With the marriage and my spouse not having great retirement, if we can figure out healthcare, I could probably retire at 62. I love what I do but I'm not sure where things are going. This is the longest I've been at any job (10 years) but I feel like I'm working with golden handcuffs.

With the current state of the country, I also dream about leaving. Listening to podcasts and reading blogs about expats. I loved New Zealand and heard that Thailand is a great place to be as well.


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