kyounge1956
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2008
- Messages
- 2,171
I keep vacillating between putting this thread here or in "Health & Early Retirement". On the one hand I can't really say this is about Life after FIRE, because I'm still working, although I may be pulling the plug shortly. Then again, what's prompting me to consider retiring a year sooner than I had planned to is that about 6 weeks ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
I had been feeling more and more burned-out at my job anyway, asking myself, why am I continuing to work? Even before I found out the lump was cancer I was strongly considering telling my boss that I had changed my retirement plans from "May 2013" to "as soon as I can sell my house". I talked to several real estate agents at the Home Show back in February, and was told that houses were starting to sell more quickly than they had been in recent years, and this spring might be a good time to put my place on the market. Meanwhile, my mother had broached the idea of my moving in with her for a time, which would let me put my house on the market sooner and reduce the chances that a slow sale would force me to delay my retirement. My father died last December and Mom said she felt like she was rattling around living by herself in the same house. She's probably going to move into a retirement community, but hasn't picked which one yet. Downsizing from her home of 30 years to a maybe two-bedroom apartment is going to be a major undertaking, and I thought I would be able to help her more with that if I was living in the same house than from across town (although I don't know how much help I'll be able to be now). The idea of moving in together for a while sounded like a win-win, and we were just starting to think about the details when I got diagnosed. At that point drastic action was called for, because whether I retire immediately or take a leave of absence from work, I won't have enough income to continue my mortgage payments for more than a few months, so I need to sell the house ASAP. Some friends from the choir helped me move most of my stuff into a storage unit two weekends ago, and I hope to get the house completely emptied out by the end of the month.
So....I'm writing this from the spare bedroom at my mom's house, where I'll be staying during the initial phase of my treatment. I'm scheduled for a mastectomy on June 6, dreading it but not wanting to delay it either. I have never had such a major surgery in my life and have no idea what to expect as far as pain, recovery time etc. I won't know whether chemo will be part of the treatment until after the surgery. I hope I'm not faced with radiation also, as I have something very like a phobia of it, but due to the location of the tumor, I may not avoid it even by having a mastectomy. That also I won't know until after surgery. Then there is reconstruction, which will involve at least one more big surgery and probably one or more lesser operations. The silver lining is that the tumor is small and appears to have been caught at an early stage, so unless something unexpected turns up during surgery I'm told it's very likely I'll make a full recovery, but I am expecting the next year or so to be a real toughie.
I feel like my life has been turned upside down. My mom says "don't burn your bridges behind you". She doesn't see how I could possibly afford to retire at my age, but all the models I've run in FIRECalc and flexible retirement planner, plus a number of financial planners I've talked to through the retirement plan at work and the like, say that with my income and budget I could retire tomorrow and be pretty confident of not running out of money. Frankly, I can't see myself going back to work after treatment. I'm very certain I don't want to, and not sure that I could do my job well again after a lapse of a month or more, even if I wanted to.
I had been feeling more and more burned-out at my job anyway, asking myself, why am I continuing to work? Even before I found out the lump was cancer I was strongly considering telling my boss that I had changed my retirement plans from "May 2013" to "as soon as I can sell my house". I talked to several real estate agents at the Home Show back in February, and was told that houses were starting to sell more quickly than they had been in recent years, and this spring might be a good time to put my place on the market. Meanwhile, my mother had broached the idea of my moving in with her for a time, which would let me put my house on the market sooner and reduce the chances that a slow sale would force me to delay my retirement. My father died last December and Mom said she felt like she was rattling around living by herself in the same house. She's probably going to move into a retirement community, but hasn't picked which one yet. Downsizing from her home of 30 years to a maybe two-bedroom apartment is going to be a major undertaking, and I thought I would be able to help her more with that if I was living in the same house than from across town (although I don't know how much help I'll be able to be now). The idea of moving in together for a while sounded like a win-win, and we were just starting to think about the details when I got diagnosed. At that point drastic action was called for, because whether I retire immediately or take a leave of absence from work, I won't have enough income to continue my mortgage payments for more than a few months, so I need to sell the house ASAP. Some friends from the choir helped me move most of my stuff into a storage unit two weekends ago, and I hope to get the house completely emptied out by the end of the month.
So....I'm writing this from the spare bedroom at my mom's house, where I'll be staying during the initial phase of my treatment. I'm scheduled for a mastectomy on June 6, dreading it but not wanting to delay it either. I have never had such a major surgery in my life and have no idea what to expect as far as pain, recovery time etc. I won't know whether chemo will be part of the treatment until after the surgery. I hope I'm not faced with radiation also, as I have something very like a phobia of it, but due to the location of the tumor, I may not avoid it even by having a mastectomy. That also I won't know until after surgery. Then there is reconstruction, which will involve at least one more big surgery and probably one or more lesser operations. The silver lining is that the tumor is small and appears to have been caught at an early stage, so unless something unexpected turns up during surgery I'm told it's very likely I'll make a full recovery, but I am expecting the next year or so to be a real toughie.
I feel like my life has been turned upside down. My mom says "don't burn your bridges behind you". She doesn't see how I could possibly afford to retire at my age, but all the models I've run in FIRECalc and flexible retirement planner, plus a number of financial planners I've talked to through the retirement plan at work and the like, say that with my income and budget I could retire tomorrow and be pretty confident of not running out of money. Frankly, I can't see myself going back to work after treatment. I'm very certain I don't want to, and not sure that I could do my job well again after a lapse of a month or more, even if I wanted to.