Today is my 51th birthday and my 1st anniversary of retirement. My wife also retired the same day. Its been a big year of change.
We retired on Jan 23rd. The first week of Feb I started doing to some work around the house in preparation to sell the house that we built 20 years earlier and the only house our 16 year old son had ever lived in. I've had back and neck problems for 25 years and while laying floor tile I seriously hurt my back. I literally went 4 months without being able to sit down.
After trying everything else, I went to a neurosurgeon who determined that I needed surgery. I had a previous neck fusion surgery in 2000 and my neck was also hurting. The doc also said I needed another neck surgery but it would have to wait until my back healed. So I had the back surgery in May with expectation that I would be able to play golf by Aug.
I lived in the Dallas metroplex for 37 years (actually 34, with a 3 year stint living in Germany while in the Army). On July4th, 2015, we moved to the Ft. Lauderdale area to be close to family. We packed up and moved halfway cross country with me still in serious pain and taking pain killers like breath mints.
As for the estimate by the surgeon that I would be 100% by Aug, lets just say that I still havent picked up a golf club. I am back to living day to day without too much pain and havent taken any meds since Thanksgiving but I still have discomfort every day and still have numbness in my right thigh. The new doc here in Florida told me that he doesnt believe I need neck surgery now but will in the future. Its a major surgery since I already have one level fused. My neck had been feeling pretty good up until about a week ago. I feel like my spine is a hose with a kink in it. Every time you unkink it, it re-kinks somewhere else.
After my 1 year, the SP500 is -5% or so incl dividends. Not exactly what I hoped for in my first year of retirement. My portfolio has a return of about -2.5% so its not the end of the world and we have a serious amount of discretionary spending in our budget so all is fine.
We love to travel and have been trying to take a trip somewhere every month. The last couple months we havent been anywhere due to the holidays and spending time with family, but we start again in Feb when we are going to New Orleans for Valentines Day.
I bought a new guitar and will start taking lessons in the coming weeks. Im decent but havent played a lot in the past few years and want to brush up.
I used to be a very well known online poker player back in the day. I made a good amount of money and sunk it into the stock market. It just happened to be late 2008 and early 2009 when I tossed it all in in a couple large lump sums, so obviously I excel in the luck department.
My back is well enough to do just about anything that's not too physical. So far, I still cant play golf, volleyball, basketball, run and other active things that I would love to be doing, but what I can do finally is sit down for long periods. There is a large poker room 7 miles from me and Ive been going regularly so I guess you could say Im living the life of a professional poker player right now. I have a pension but my wifes pension doesnt start until June 2017. Our plan calls for unsustainably large withdrawals between now and then and then much smaller withdrawals once her pension starts. Lets just say that my winnings have been easily enough to replace the withdrawals that I would otherwise be taking right now which is great considering the state of the market.
Its hard to say that 2015 wasnt a good year since we retired but I was seriously in more pain that I can describe. Ive had 4 surgeries and a host of other injuries but nothing compares to severe nerve pain. Im confidant that 2016 will be an outstanding year and we are really looking forward from here!
We retired on Jan 23rd. The first week of Feb I started doing to some work around the house in preparation to sell the house that we built 20 years earlier and the only house our 16 year old son had ever lived in. I've had back and neck problems for 25 years and while laying floor tile I seriously hurt my back. I literally went 4 months without being able to sit down.
After trying everything else, I went to a neurosurgeon who determined that I needed surgery. I had a previous neck fusion surgery in 2000 and my neck was also hurting. The doc also said I needed another neck surgery but it would have to wait until my back healed. So I had the back surgery in May with expectation that I would be able to play golf by Aug.
I lived in the Dallas metroplex for 37 years (actually 34, with a 3 year stint living in Germany while in the Army). On July4th, 2015, we moved to the Ft. Lauderdale area to be close to family. We packed up and moved halfway cross country with me still in serious pain and taking pain killers like breath mints.
As for the estimate by the surgeon that I would be 100% by Aug, lets just say that I still havent picked up a golf club. I am back to living day to day without too much pain and havent taken any meds since Thanksgiving but I still have discomfort every day and still have numbness in my right thigh. The new doc here in Florida told me that he doesnt believe I need neck surgery now but will in the future. Its a major surgery since I already have one level fused. My neck had been feeling pretty good up until about a week ago. I feel like my spine is a hose with a kink in it. Every time you unkink it, it re-kinks somewhere else.
After my 1 year, the SP500 is -5% or so incl dividends. Not exactly what I hoped for in my first year of retirement. My portfolio has a return of about -2.5% so its not the end of the world and we have a serious amount of discretionary spending in our budget so all is fine.
We love to travel and have been trying to take a trip somewhere every month. The last couple months we havent been anywhere due to the holidays and spending time with family, but we start again in Feb when we are going to New Orleans for Valentines Day.
I bought a new guitar and will start taking lessons in the coming weeks. Im decent but havent played a lot in the past few years and want to brush up.
I used to be a very well known online poker player back in the day. I made a good amount of money and sunk it into the stock market. It just happened to be late 2008 and early 2009 when I tossed it all in in a couple large lump sums, so obviously I excel in the luck department.
My back is well enough to do just about anything that's not too physical. So far, I still cant play golf, volleyball, basketball, run and other active things that I would love to be doing, but what I can do finally is sit down for long periods. There is a large poker room 7 miles from me and Ive been going regularly so I guess you could say Im living the life of a professional poker player right now. I have a pension but my wifes pension doesnt start until June 2017. Our plan calls for unsustainably large withdrawals between now and then and then much smaller withdrawals once her pension starts. Lets just say that my winnings have been easily enough to replace the withdrawals that I would otherwise be taking right now which is great considering the state of the market.
Its hard to say that 2015 wasnt a good year since we retired but I was seriously in more pain that I can describe. Ive had 4 surgeries and a host of other injuries but nothing compares to severe nerve pain. Im confidant that 2016 will be an outstanding year and we are really looking forward from here!