txdakini
Recycles dryer sheets
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My DH (posted above under TxDakini) should have added: Stop using wife's login on this forum! for one of his first retirement year activities. 
Describe your first year of ER... Planned or Past
- Thread starter chinaco
- Start date
REWahoo
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give
txdakini said:My DH (posted above under TxDakini) should have added: Stop using wife's login on this forum! for one of his first retirement year activities.
I think he should relax on the LBYM thing - he can get his own forum membership free of charge!
txdakini
Recycles dryer sheets
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DH already has his own login, but that would require, uh, actually logging in! Easier to use the one already logged in which is me.
You asked for it. Oct. 2002 -- was laid off my last (hopefully!) job. Had been planning to retire end of year anyway. Unlike many folks, I am blessed with a "retirement income" (low-mid $20's) from money the folks left. No sense working for a living if you don't have to. Plan was to move from crummy (and expensive) suburban DC (VA) area to live with girlfriend who'd moved to central FL the year before. Did so, over a few-month period. The move was relatively easy (I didn't have much stuff). I had to sell a condo and later a SFH that was a rental. FL was pleasant enough, but too rural an area for me. GF had to work. Most of my time was spent drinking too much (day and night, now that I was retired), local tourism (one year pass to Disney, a few hours away), cycling, playing video games, or watching TV. After about a year, I had a house built a bit closer to Tampa, where there were sidewalks at least, and we moved there. About same time, I joined a "12 step" group to dry out. It took several months, but I succeeded. My relationship has proven disappointing due to my lack of commiting and discovering what I would have committed to! GF has suffered financial, employment, and health set-backs. I, at least, am healthier and better off than when I came down here over 4 years ago. While I didn't do much in the 1st year technically, I've been to Mexico 4 times in past three years, and plan on three different trips this year. This is in addition to my annual or so trips back to my home around DC to see friends and family. Needless to say, part of that is to avoid the mopey GF.
"When I drink alone, you know I prefer to be by myself." -- George Thorogood
"When I drink alone, you know I prefer to be by myself." -- George Thorogood
2003 - DH quit last year - I planned to stay about 10 +/- years at my parttime job - then got laid off...
After much worries, we decided that we could ER in our 40s. Now, in 2007, we made a big move (selling, buying, renovating) and are STILL at around 4% SWR... what a surprise!
After much worries, we decided that we could ER in our 40s. Now, in 2007, we made a big move (selling, buying, renovating) and are STILL at around 4% SWR... what a surprise!
SteveR
Moderator Emeritus
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Here is the plan for the next 12 months...
April 16..close on the sale of the cabin. Use equity to pay off the RV, finish the kitchen remodel and fund the first 12 month cash-flow in ER.
April 23..drive RV to CA for a 10 day trip.
May 18 retire.
May 21 drive RV to Lake Powell for a 10 day trip.
June 4-17 RV trip to OR, WA and ID.
July 1-5 fly to TN for family visit
July 7-22 drive RV to CA for family visit
August--TBD
Sept-RV trip to TN--attend Rally in Nashville...visit family before and after
Oct. Several RV trips
Nov. Cruise Caribbean
Dec Holidays
Somewhere 2007, we need to clean out, organize, and downsize many closets and rooms. Repaint a few rooms and replace a couple of windows.
Jan--RV to AZ for 3 months
April...Dec. TBD....
On a financial level...rebalace after-tax accounts and sell off the laggards.
Establish a cash stream for 2009-2010.
Create IRAs for my current 401K and DW's. Select index funds and forget them for a year.
Review total financial picture and readjust as needed....then forget about it for a while. Check quarterly to be sure expenses are close to what was predicted and adjust as necessary.
Relax, decompress, detoxify and learn to slow down and smell the flowers....for a while.
Go to step C and repeat as needed.
April 16..close on the sale of the cabin. Use equity to pay off the RV, finish the kitchen remodel and fund the first 12 month cash-flow in ER.
April 23..drive RV to CA for a 10 day trip.
May 18 retire.
May 21 drive RV to Lake Powell for a 10 day trip.
June 4-17 RV trip to OR, WA and ID.
July 1-5 fly to TN for family visit
July 7-22 drive RV to CA for family visit
August--TBD
Sept-RV trip to TN--attend Rally in Nashville...visit family before and after
Oct. Several RV trips
Nov. Cruise Caribbean
Dec Holidays
Somewhere 2007, we need to clean out, organize, and downsize many closets and rooms. Repaint a few rooms and replace a couple of windows.
Jan--RV to AZ for 3 months
April...Dec. TBD....
On a financial level...rebalace after-tax accounts and sell off the laggards.
Establish a cash stream for 2009-2010.
Create IRAs for my current 401K and DW's. Select index funds and forget them for a year.
Review total financial picture and readjust as needed....then forget about it for a while. Check quarterly to be sure expenses are close to what was predicted and adjust as necessary.
Relax, decompress, detoxify and learn to slow down and smell the flowers....for a while.
Go to step C and repeat as needed.
free4now
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
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- Dec 28, 2005
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It's been about a year since I FIRE'd at 35 years old. My plan was to spend a year or two out of work while figuring out what kind of new low-stress super-fulfilling job to do next. I was developing a photography hobby and thought that might turn into my next career.
What I've actually done with my year was spend it doing personal growth work: participating in several Men's groups, meditating, exercising, preparing healthy food rather than eating quick junk I had time for while working, and doing some volunteering. I've also found plenty of time for sitting on my arse watching movies and websurfing boingboing.net and other edgy infotainment websites. I've cancelled my TV cable subscription because I found TV was rotting my brain and I no longer needed it as an antidote to work.
I realized that the task of finding a fulfilling next career is less about choosing and more about becoming. Transforming myself from the obsessive nerdy guy who made ER happen into a more well rounded feeling and people focussed person. And it's more fun to work on myself than for someone else! So I have basically stopped my job search for now.
I am less interested in photography than when I started ER... I think I enjoyed it because it was a great antidote to work, but now that I don't need antidotes to work it doesn't hold quite as much appeal.
Another surprise is how little travel I've done. Part of that is because I took a long round the world trip on sabbatical shortly before leaving work, so it's largely out of my system for now. But I find I no longer need to use travel for novelty or to "get out of my routine"... I am discovering plenty of opportunities to do new things right here in my backyard.
For the past few months my main task has been getting my condo ready to sell so I can move from the suburbs of San Francisco to San Francisco proper, to take advantage of all the cultural and personal growth opportunities there. I really enjoy doing the repair/handyman things myself, and the way it allows an outlet for my obsessive tendencies to be channelled into something constructive.
What I've actually done with my year was spend it doing personal growth work: participating in several Men's groups, meditating, exercising, preparing healthy food rather than eating quick junk I had time for while working, and doing some volunteering. I've also found plenty of time for sitting on my arse watching movies and websurfing boingboing.net and other edgy infotainment websites. I've cancelled my TV cable subscription because I found TV was rotting my brain and I no longer needed it as an antidote to work.
I realized that the task of finding a fulfilling next career is less about choosing and more about becoming. Transforming myself from the obsessive nerdy guy who made ER happen into a more well rounded feeling and people focussed person. And it's more fun to work on myself than for someone else! So I have basically stopped my job search for now.
I am less interested in photography than when I started ER... I think I enjoyed it because it was a great antidote to work, but now that I don't need antidotes to work it doesn't hold quite as much appeal.
Another surprise is how little travel I've done. Part of that is because I took a long round the world trip on sabbatical shortly before leaving work, so it's largely out of my system for now. But I find I no longer need to use travel for novelty or to "get out of my routine"... I am discovering plenty of opportunities to do new things right here in my backyard.
For the past few months my main task has been getting my condo ready to sell so I can move from the suburbs of San Francisco to San Francisco proper, to take advantage of all the cultural and personal growth opportunities there. I really enjoy doing the repair/handyman things myself, and the way it allows an outlet for my obsessive tendencies to be channelled into something constructive.
TromboneAl
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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This summer DW will be going to Sweden for a class reunion for her elementary school. I'd go along, but I don't like long long plane rides followed by extended periods of relative visiting.
So I've just come up with a plan to take that opportunity for a California Coast Surfing Safari. My plan is to surf my way down the coast to San Diego, beach-bum-wise, camping along the way.
So I've just come up with a plan to take that opportunity for a California Coast Surfing Safari. My plan is to surf my way down the coast to San Diego, beach-bum-wise, camping along the way.
free4now
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
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Great idea Al. I remember a few years back that was actually one of the first visions I had of FIREhood: I was talking with my girlfriend about buying an old beater van, and living out of it for several months while learning to surf up and down the CA coast. Never happenned though.
