We have not RE yet. Will RE in May after DW stops teaching. I am not sure you can really call it RE. I am 62 and DW 61, however, we are leaving on our own terms. We have been planning this for about 5 years. Five years ago we went looking for a lake lot. We knew we were a year or two ahead of the boomers and when the boomers hit 55 or so they are going to be looking for that place, and most are not going to be looking for 170 ft of downtown concrete. We were lucky and found 1.1 acres with 270 ft on the lake for $36,000. We spent the next five years designing the house. Finished the house last July.
While that was part of the picture it is not the whole picture. My brother died two years ago. He was one year older than me. Six years ago DW’s sister-in-law died of leukemia. We remember what her brother said, “Don’t put off doing the things you have always wanted to do, because you never know if you really have the time to do them”.
The third was money. On that point we had never really done the math. I had always thought the cash would be there, but never really ran the numbers. After reading tons of articles on the net I began to do the math. I created the MOAS (mother of all spreadsheets!). First a budget as to what we should expect to spend. Then escalate it till we are 99 at any inflation rate you want. Then what are the sources of income, and how will they inflate, then how will I withdraw the IRA’s. Still tweaking it, last thing was to add in a more realistic tax calculation. After about six months of ‘what-ifs’ I came to the really bad news. WE COULD HAVE RETIRED THREE YEARS AGO!
Case Closed, we will sell the current house and our new email address is outonthedeck.net!
