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Monday, January 5, 2015

Retirement Countdown: Big picture planning at 2 1/2 years out

We think my husband will retire from his current job at the end of April 2017. Then we will sell our house and move across country to the Pasadena, CA area and recreate our lives closer to family.

The end of 2014 found us tackling some of the big questions at the big picture level. What kind of lifestyle do we want in the first phase of retirement? Where will we live precisely and in what kind of housing? What will our income stream be and will it be sufficient? What do we need to do in 2015 to prepare?

Well, you already know part of the answer to the last question. Some reduction in the amount of stuff we own is to happen both through another round of decluttering focused initially on books, paper and office supplies as well as very carefully limiting what we buy. That will make keeping this house clean take less of my time too.

The other major pieces of what to do in 2015 are financial planning and action as well as perhaps some home repairs. We are very fortunate that we can keep on living on a similar budget to what we have been doing and that is part of the financial plan. We also did a review of our retirement accounts and decided to keep on with what we are doing at least for the first quarter. Possible home repairs still need discussion although at the moment we are trying once again to find out where water enters the basement during a heavy rain and then fix the source.

We have discovered that we have different visions of our future housing situation so lots more discussion and thinking on that to come.

What we have agreed upon is to build in a bit more travel just for fun this and next year. No decisions yet but Santa Fe, Taos, Denver is one possibility and New York another.

Slowly but surely we are moving forward!

6 comments:

  1. You are doing great! I hope that the differences in your expectations about housing can be worked out without too much angst. Sometimes just the cost of each option will be the deciding factor. I love so many things about our house, but I have to admit, the thought of having a more turn-key abode (turn the key and go) is tempting, especially for travel we want to do.

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    1. Thanks for your comment. I'm sure we will work it out and am seeing it as a huge step forward that the differences in our thoughts are on the table. You are right that the cost may be the determiner but availability is also going to be a factor. All hypothetical at this point LOL.

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  2. We found that the type of house depended on where we lived. We have moved twice since my husband retired. First move was to a rambler with 18 acres. This move is to a one story with full basement with a wilderness back yard. Low property taxes and moderate climate keep the bills down while we travel (we hope).
    Sounds like your locations are like ours- all over the country..
    It will be fun to follow your journey.

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    1. Your plans to travel sound lovely and I hope we can do the same. However our destination for our upcoming move is very narrow. We will head to the Pasadena, CA area and what we need to narrow down is the type of housing and how much driving vs walking we are willing to do, etc.

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  3. Thanks for the update! Always interested to hear your plans.

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  4. I am also a retiring boomer. Just 281 days left. It is great to see other stories of the final count down.

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