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.
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