Skip to main content

Still On the Fence

I would love to announce that my retirement date is set in stone.  But I can't.

We still have our Cleveland house, and, until that is sold, we will not be able to confidently state that we can afford to retire.  We should know more in a few months.

Other than that, life has been more stable.  We're S-L-O-W-L-Y clearing out the SC house - every time I start to see real progress, something happens to set us back.  However, the trend is still generally positive.

One major factor in the organizational improvement is the ability to scan documents.  Once a document is digitized, I can toss it into a box/file, and not have to look at it again.  Even better, as the marked box/file reaches a certain age, I can toss it, confident that I will be able to retrieve it, if necessary.

Only a relatively few documents need to be kept longer - licenses, certificates, etc.

We had a minor setback with the car situation - Den's car was totaled, and we ended up buying a new car - a hybrid.  Hopefully, the savings in gas will offset the pinch of a monthly payment.

I've been focusing on mini-changes - forcing myself to break big jobs into manageable small jobs, and interrupting other things - reading, watching TV, grading - with a quick mini-job that can be completed in that short stretch of time.  So far, it seems to be working.

As far as our retirement date, two possibilities are likeliest:

  • Retire at the end of next year, or
  • Den retire this year, me the next - in some ways, I favor the second option
The second choice would allow us to better manage the process, without forcing too large a financial change at once.  On the other hand, DJ and the other grandkids are fast growing, and we will never be able to get that time with them again.  I expect that we could manage, if we could sell the house by the end of the year.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stop! Just - STOP!

I do understand that furniture designers have to make a living, but - this is just wrong . I've tried "ergonomic" furniture. I've sat in those hard-seated chairs and couches. They are NOT comfortable. They are NOT conducive to working on for extended time periods. They are NOT what I want. Apple LOVES them - well, yeah, they would. 20-somethings can sit anywhere comfortably. What I want is furniture that fits a senior, with a bad back and aching knees, and a need to get to her feet INSTANTLY, when the call of nature sings out. I don't need a seat so hard that my butt goes numb. I've seen seats like the ones shown, and a LOG has more 'give' to it. I don't need a couch for "two" that can only fit MAYBE 1-1/2 - IF they are on the 1 meal a day, semi-starvation diet (SO healthy!). I don't need a fixed table that encroaches on my already-diminished seating space. That "table" won't allow more than a small laptop/ta...
1 comment
Read more

One Reason to Write

This post sparked mine today. I've been writing (slowly, one anecdote at a time) my memories of my youth, and the stories that I remember being passed down from parents, grandparents, and other long-lived people. I was fortunate - in my mother's family, old age was the default - my grandparents were born in the 19th century, and passed on stories of their youth. My father's family was equally long-lived, but not as talkative (WV vs. Irish-descent). Still, I have an aunt by marriage whose passion is genealogy, and who had compiled a bookshelf of clippings, copies of newspaper stories, and charts of the family, back to pre-Colonial times. If you aren't on Ancestry.com (and, I don't blame you - the price has risen shockingly!), you might want to use a word processing program or app - Google Docs is easy to use, and can be shared with others easily - to write down your memories - personal, or what has been told to you. If you'd rather, set up a videocam, and...
2 comments
Read more

WEP, Explained (Sort of)

The idea behind WEP - the Windfall Elimination Provision - is that a FEW people were taking advantage of the ability to get a government pension, then take a non-government job, and get Social Security benefits, as well. According to Wikipedia: "The  Windfall Elimination Provision  (abbreviated WEP [1] ) is a statutory provision in  United States  law [2]  which affects benefits paid by the  Social Security Administration  under Title II of the  Social Security Act . It reduces the  Primary Insurance Amount  (PIA) of a person's  Retirement Insurance Benefits (RIB) or  Disability Insurance Benefits  (DIB) when that person is eligible or entitled to a pension based on a job which did not contribute to the  Social Security Trust Fund . While in effect, it also affects the benefits of others claiming on the same social security record." How it affects me: both my husband and myself worked primarily in teaching jobs ove...
Post a Comment
Read more