Reality Bites

Yesterday, J. and I headed to Stockton to meet with a financial advisor.  I've long been running models and planning - and feel reasonably confident about our assumptions and our plan.  But it's been a much different 'feeling' lately to realize that effective NOW - not three years from now but NOW - our retirement plan is 'in progress'. 

There are so many modeling tools available and I once again have to point out the impact the Internet has had on all of us.  You can find so much information and so many retirement calculators out there now - I can't imagine taking the plunge without having all these tools to assist.

But then like all great things, it comes to a mind-jerking HALT/TILT/HOLY CRAP at some point....because one model says you're short by an astronomical number while another says you are going to leave your kids that same astronomical number in the opposite direction of the previous model - and you know the answer is somewhere in between those two results.  I just want to feel 'ok' about realizing that even with Social Security and his small pension (from a bank he worked for an entire six months that was taken over close to three decades ago), we might need to start 'drawing' on retirement savings now and then.  I want to know we can do that now and still be OK...and then, if/when we don't actually need to, we will be even more 'to the good'.  But that's hard to know without a 'professional' telling me it's true.

The guy asked us 'so do you have any big purchases planned in the near future - like a motor home?'.  No...but then of course I came home and found a condo on the beach in Mexico for $159K so now I want that!  I'm not going to get it - but I'd sure love to!  It's in a beach town we could DRIVE TO! 

So we've provided our info and the guy will be running scenarios for us - and he seemed fairly confident that we are going to be fine.  He even thinks I might be able to retire a few years earlier than I'm planning currently - but we'll see about that.  Medical coverage is a pretty big incentive to keep me working into my sixties....but if the model says earlier is do-able, I'll jump on that train in a heart beat.

It is harder than I thought to get up every morning and slog off to work when J. isn't.  I don't want/expect him to get up this early but it's really hard being 'alone' as I trek off for another 10-12 hour day while he stays home.  I'm so happy for him - but the almost 11 year age difference that we've always had is sure different now that he's officially not working and I still officially must. 

Still, the flip side of that is that it is absolutely AWESOME to come home everyday to a tidy home, with dinner ready.  A quiet evening of watching TV with my beloved while the dishwasher hums late (we aren't using electricity between noon and 7PM - at least as much as we can we aren't.  Damn Time of Use rate chart is altering our lives but oh well.  We'll be 'off the grid' in a few months and then we can run the appliances whenever we feel like it!!). 

J. continues to walk close to 2 miles most day and he's volunteering a lot for the campaign he's been working on.  Don't know what he'll do when the election's over - but I'm sure he'll think of something. 

Time to slog off to the trenches for another day of fun and merriment in education!