Yes we are, no we're not, yes we are

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spncity

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
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Jan 28, 2007
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No doubt we will eventually be able to give ourselves an ER grade of "A" ... but there are twists and turns and false starts in the journey.

THE PLAN: We planned to sell our house and RV full-time for a couple of years and then relocate.

DH's last day was Fourth of July two years ago. Yay! Can't believe it's been that long. It took him a year to feel rested. Boo! Put the house on the market in early 2016. Yay! Then to pass the time while we were waiting to sell, I took a six-month work contract that fell into my lap. Boo!

Found out we were going to be grandparents. Yay! Can't move away now! Took the house off the market - and then the work people asked for an extension. Boo! Grand baby born. Yay! DH was good and [-]rested[/-] bored by this time, and I was still stuck at work, so he asked his old company if they wanted him to work a couple of days a week with complete flexibility for RV travel. My six-month contract stretched into ten-and-a-half months. Boo!

Finally took a 10-week trip in the RV. It was awesome and included spending April in Texas seeing friends, family and bluebonnets. Yay! It would have been longer but but our mom was hospitalized and needed to move to memory care. Boo! So thankful to have the flexibility and time to turn around, retrace our steps and go help my sister and her DH move our mom, as well as help them move into their new house. Yay! (They were pretty happy about it, too.)

Of course, I've happily ditched "The Plan" in exchange for staying close to the grand baby!

So, this gives me another opportunity to say thank you to "All Ya'll." Appreciate this forum and the diverse learning to be found here.

Feel free to comment.........

Did you have a false start, or some back and forth when you ER'd? :eek:

Or did everything go as smooth as a baby's butt and exactly according to your plan? :D
 
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Our downsizing definitely did not go according to plan. Spent a LOT fixing up the old place (you know it's bad when they head into the basement with a jackhammer) and making changes to the new place. Fortunately the house was the perfect choice, we were glad to ditch the McMansion and carrying costs on the new place are definitely lower. Overall, finances have worked more or less according to plan, too. Big "yay!"on that one.
 
I retired in 2007 . Got talked into working a few days a week . I then retired in 2008 and started an ebay business . Surprise , business is very successful .After 8 years decide to close business and really retire .
 
If we let proximity to 5 grandkids influence our retirement, we would have missed 14 wonderful years of being free! But we fully understand how it impacts others.

And a plan is just something to measure how much you miss it by. In14 years, we have had 5 versions of the plan! Flexibility is what an interesting retirement is about.
 
Not retired yet, so can't answer that - but it sounds as if you're doing great! DH got to rest, you decided to take a project on your own terms, you did get to RV, you were there for your Mom, and now it's your choice to be there for grandbaby, which I totally understand.:dance:
 
Maenad said:
Exactly! I think you did a great job of rolling with the punches. The resilience to update plans based on new information is a skill you should be proud of.
Click to expand...

+1. You have been able to do what you want with your time, that is what is important !
 
I told my kids I don't want to be a grandma yet until I'm 60, that's for sure give me plenty of margin to retire early at 55. In the mean time I was having fun playing with my niece's baby in my U.K. trip, a beautiful baby who I'm going to paint this summer, when I have some free time. So I got my fix after all without any derailing.
 
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You experienced SOOMY. Sort Of One More Year.

:)
 
Plan? What plan?
 
spncity said:
Did you have a false start, or some back and forth when you ER'd? :eek:
Click to expand...

A few years after I retired at 52 I stumbled into a nearby (3.4 miles) low-stress job that paid almost what I was making before I retired so I took that, intending to commit to one year as long as there were no unpleasant surprises and reassess yearly after that. I ended up staying for a bit over five years, then things went downhill. They downgraded the qualifications and the pay scale so I didn't go with the new contractor. Good thing too, because from what I heard conditions got real bad and I would have quit in a day or two. By "real bad" I mean violations of both federal and state labor laws - no breaks for meals or anything else because so many like me did not need to have a job and quit, leaving them short on staff. Clearly not tolerable conditions. I felt bad for the people who had to stay because they needed the money.

However, because of that job I was able to put off taking SS at 62 and instead took it at FRA of 66 and our savings/investments are higher so we are better off than we had planned on, in addition to being able to do some spending that we probably would not have otherwise done.

DW had wanted to continue working after we moved and she applied for several jobs and was interviewed for several but never got hired. We finally figured out that here you pretty much have to have an inside contact and because we were new to the area we didn't have that. In hindsight I'm surprised I was hired but perhaps they ran out of qualified applicants - it would be difficult for most people. Later when her father needed more and more assistance she was happy to not have to deal with that and a job too.
 
No major surprises here. Had sort of planned to do some consulting with my former employer but they never called me and I never chased them as I was enjoying my newfound freedom too much.

Stepped into guardian roles for my grandmother and my great-aunt and was thankful that I had the flexibility of time to do so. That's about it.
 
Once I set the date, about 30 months out, it was set in stone. Then, after about 6 months after setting the date, I realized I could have gone sooner. I was saving 2x my gross pay, from my rental income.

But I stuck with the plan.
 
No big surprises here either. I have lived all over the country and love where I have been the past 20 years. My DH is from here so did not want to leave either. We did downsize and that turned out great. One great thing is that after 7 months I was offered a chance to teach an online college class and I love it. Now 4 years later you could not pull it out of my cold, dead hands. I can do it from anywhere so it does not affect our ability to travel.
 
kcowan said:
If we let proximity to 5 grandkids influence our retirement, we would have missed 14 wonderful years of being free! But we fully understand how it impacts others.

And a plan is just something to measure how much you miss it by. In14 years, we have had 5 versions of the plan! Flexibility is what an interesting retirement is about.
Click to expand...

Only 2 so far. Love the grand kids, but don't live our lives around them. Don't plan our travels around them. We get to see them once or twice a year and they are welcome to come visit US.

We know folks who are ready to pull up stakes of 35 years and move, sight unseen to a new area because that's where their kids are taking the grand kids. They drive 70 miles one way to provide free baby sitting so mom and dad can w*rk. The kids make a lot more than mom and dad. I understand some families are "close" but this just seems a bit much, but of course, YMMV.
 
spncity said:
No doubt we will eventually be able to give ourselves an ER grade of "A" ... but there are twists and turns and false starts in the journey.

THE PLAN: We planned to sell our house and RV full-time for a couple of years and then relocate.

DH's last day was Fourth of July two years ago. Yay! Can't believe it's been that long. It took him a year to feel rested. Boo! Put the house on the market in early 2016. Yay! Then to pass the time while we were waiting to sell, I took a six-month work contract that fell into my lap. Boo!

Found out we were going to be grandparents. Yay! Can't move away now! Took the house off the market - and then the work people asked for an extension. Boo! Grand baby born. Yay! DH was good and [-]rested[/-] bored by this time, and I was still stuck at work, so he asked his old company if they wanted him to work a couple of days a week with complete flexibility for RV travel. My six-month contract stretched into ten-and-a-half months. Boo!

Finally took a 10-week trip in the RV. It was awesome and included spending April in Texas seeing friends, family and bluebonnets. Yay! It would have been longer but but our mom was hospitalized and needed to move to memory care. Boo! So thankful to have the flexibility and time to turn around, retrace our steps and go help my sister and her DH move our mom, as well as help them move into their new house. Yay! (They were pretty happy about it, too.)

Of course, I've happily ditched "The Plan" in exchange for staying close to the grand baby!

So, this gives me another opportunity to say thank you to "All Ya'll." Appreciate this forum and the diverse learning to be found here.

Feel free to comment.........

Did you have a false start, or some back and forth when you ER'd? :eek:

Or did everything go as smooth as a baby's butt and exactly according to your plan? :D
Click to expand...

We followed most of "The Plan" but endured a number of missteps and interruptions along the way. Before our "Big Move", we had (in no particular order) loss of DW's mother, loss of DW's brother, delayed home sale (AFTER we moved - mucho $$ FAX charges), the Failed Experiment in repositioning cars - long story, eldest's wedding, finding a long-term apartment to keep one foot in the midwest, getting rid of mainland car/purchase "new" car for mainland, finding storage for car, and the list goes on

IN SHORT, as we plan and do, life happens (could have used another word in place of life:blush:) YMMV
 
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