Yup, my official retirement date was one year ago today. The last year has literally flown by with a lot of life changes and a few nice trips thrown in. We started off with a retirement celebration to Key West in March then a trip to Tennessee in June. In August we vacationed in Wisconsin then a return trip to Tennessee in October for some leaf peeping.
Somewhere, in there we made a move from our home for the last 27 years from the Chicago burbs back to my hometown in Iowa. Some say you can never go home but that did not apply to us. After 6 months we have already connected with family and old friends and have made some new friends as well. We already know most all of our neighbors and they are great. They even threw a Welcome to the neighborhood party for us. We may not stay here forever, especially after this long cold winter, but for now we are happy to be back in our hometown.
I always thought the old saying, "I don't know how I had time to work before I retired" was really lame, but I have to admit so far it really has related to me as well. Since retiring we spent a lot of time de-cluttering and getting the house ready to sell. We put it on the market on July 1st and it was sold in August and we moved to our current home in September.
I posted some of the details about our move in previous threads but the real feat was to move 27 years of accumulation for a 2800 sf house with a 4 car garage to a 1488 sf house with a 2 car garage. Fortunately, our current house has a full basement so it has handled some of the overflow. We will also construct a new garage/shop next summer. It won't be a problem since we have 2 acres.
The current house was my parent's home and hadn't been updated much from when it was built, so there is/was a lot of updating required. We have already totally repainted the interior, moved some interior walls to make a larger master bath/closet, and relocated the laundry room. We are currently in the process of remodeling the main bath and in a couple of weeks the new solid hardwood floors will be installed in the kitchen, dining, living room, and hallways. All the bedrooms have new carpet. It seems like I have changed my old job for the non-compensated job of remodeler/handyman.
Anyway, we should be done with the inside projects by spring, if it ever arrives. Then we will start on some of the outside projects. DW loves to landscape and plant and garden. We also have 4 trips planned for this coming spring/summer/fall but we are also thinking it would be nice to rent a house for a month or so next winter. We will see what happens.
I feel pretty good about the financial end of things. It is nice to retire during an up market. We are making more than we are spending which is good considering we have no pensions and SS is at least 4 years away. After some initial issues with ACA we are finally signed up for high deductible health insurance. I seem to worry less about the finances now-a-days, well that is until the market hiccups.
We are fortunate that we are both fairly healthy. We exercise most days to hopefully stay that way. We have been blessed that we made it to this point. Life is good! Hopefully year 2 of retirement will be even better.
For those of you who are stuck in OMY I would suggest that you get off the fence and get on with what will probably be the best part of your life. For those that are aspiring to FIRE stay focused. Remember, life is short and Quality Time > $$$.
Somewhere, in there we made a move from our home for the last 27 years from the Chicago burbs back to my hometown in Iowa. Some say you can never go home but that did not apply to us. After 6 months we have already connected with family and old friends and have made some new friends as well. We already know most all of our neighbors and they are great. They even threw a Welcome to the neighborhood party for us. We may not stay here forever, especially after this long cold winter, but for now we are happy to be back in our hometown.
I always thought the old saying, "I don't know how I had time to work before I retired" was really lame, but I have to admit so far it really has related to me as well. Since retiring we spent a lot of time de-cluttering and getting the house ready to sell. We put it on the market on July 1st and it was sold in August and we moved to our current home in September.
I posted some of the details about our move in previous threads but the real feat was to move 27 years of accumulation for a 2800 sf house with a 4 car garage to a 1488 sf house with a 2 car garage. Fortunately, our current house has a full basement so it has handled some of the overflow. We will also construct a new garage/shop next summer. It won't be a problem since we have 2 acres.
The current house was my parent's home and hadn't been updated much from when it was built, so there is/was a lot of updating required. We have already totally repainted the interior, moved some interior walls to make a larger master bath/closet, and relocated the laundry room. We are currently in the process of remodeling the main bath and in a couple of weeks the new solid hardwood floors will be installed in the kitchen, dining, living room, and hallways. All the bedrooms have new carpet. It seems like I have changed my old job for the non-compensated job of remodeler/handyman.
Anyway, we should be done with the inside projects by spring, if it ever arrives. Then we will start on some of the outside projects. DW loves to landscape and plant and garden. We also have 4 trips planned for this coming spring/summer/fall but we are also thinking it would be nice to rent a house for a month or so next winter. We will see what happens.
I feel pretty good about the financial end of things. It is nice to retire during an up market. We are making more than we are spending which is good considering we have no pensions and SS is at least 4 years away. After some initial issues with ACA we are finally signed up for high deductible health insurance. I seem to worry less about the finances now-a-days, well that is until the market hiccups.
We are fortunate that we are both fairly healthy. We exercise most days to hopefully stay that way. We have been blessed that we made it to this point. Life is good! Hopefully year 2 of retirement will be even better.
For those of you who are stuck in OMY I would suggest that you get off the fence and get on with what will probably be the best part of your life. For those that are aspiring to FIRE stay focused. Remember, life is short and Quality Time > $$$.
