Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow,
I will Retire.
Just thinkin’ about tomorrow
Clear away the emails and files
’til there’s none
All the days will be free of conference calls,
I just pick up my cell phone and grin and pitch it…oh
The sun’ll come out, tomorrow
So I will hang on, ’til tomorrow, come what may!
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I’m all done, tomorrow,
Tomorrow is a big, big day!
I love you honey…..another phase on our wonderful life together! And it all starts Tomorrow!
To move or not to move, that is the question. Whether it be nobler to age in place or to face the many stairs and rooms as you wonder why you remain. ….And we are there.Our daughter and son made us an offer from their heart. An un-selfish, wonderful, generous, loving offer to have us move to their acreage where we could build a small abode and live close to family. Our hearts melted at the thought and our minds raced on overtime thinking how we could convert a barn into a home, how could we make this work, is this the time? That started our thinking. Many nights were spent seeking ideas, discussing options, and envisioning what life could be like. We even started checking into various locations near family (and far), wondering if we could leverage our equity better in one area or another. Our thoughts centered on if we should move and downsize now or stay and enjoy what we have already built? I am sure this question crosses the minds of many 60ers as they look to retire. Whether its off an island or down from a mountain top, the scenarios of how we want to live flowed.
So as our knees get sore, and the hours of weed-eating 2 acres get tiresome, we face the inevitable question of moving. Where can you go where all your savings are not taxed? Where can you be close to healthcare and family but keep your independence? Are we ready to slow down and if so, how much? Where can we explore and carve new life experiences? Where is it that housing prices can be justified? Washington does not have state sales tax (for now). Idaho and Oregon does. California is a no based on their taxes. Wyoming is rural but too far. And where can we live where the number of stop lights and street signs are less than the number of seagulls? It all comes down to quality of life and the bottom-line costs.
This may strike you as odd, but we have to budget for unusual island expenses:
$200/mo in ferry costs
$400/mo in water (summer months)
$97/trip ferry fees to take off in our trailer
$4.60+/gal fuel (unless we take a ferry to the mainland – $18/trip)
Delivery fees, high service fees, and higher cost of goods
And if we want someone to do the weed-eating, it runs $30/hr each for 2 people!
So we ventured off-island, over town, to the mainland, into the masses, and checked out different locations for this next adventure. We haven’t bought a house in over 16 years so we wern’t sure what the costs would be. Thank you Zillow for teaching us that a $499,000 house is really only worth $397,000 (right). We scoured the internet sites to study the effects of housing inflation. What $200K bought 10 years ago, now runs over $500K. So we created a simple ‘want’ list for this next house, a scaled down version of what we have today….
2+ bedrooms, enough for the 2 of us and 1 set of guests. We have the trailer for another set.
Open plan great room for gathering people
A kitchen built for 2
A separate football viewing room (we get a bit loud)
Acreage
Great access to water, beach, sea creatures, diving eagles, whales, porpoises, starfish, etc
No noise – that means roads, jets, motorcycles (but we could get used to roosters crowing and fog horns)
A shop and storage for an RV
Close to healthcare (stitches and deeply embedded splinters are considered an emergency)
No sidewalks (this screams street signs and stop lights)
And places to walk and hike where traffic doesn’t shoot by you at 45 mph
Simple, no? We went house viewing with realtors. One was very excited to show us a great area that she exclaimed was very rural….open fields, large lots (.5 acres). Hmmm.. I was thinking… I need to readjust her concept of rural. I said “this isn’t rural, the streets have painted lines on them, yellow down the middle and white on the sides”. I could see from her dropped jaw that this changed her concept. We stopped at signal lights, we drove 45-50 mph with traffic, we went around and around traffic circles, we merged onto freeways and waited for hours to make a left turn into parking lots. No Exit, No Parking, No Turns, Left Lane Ends, No Standing, No Stopping To Talk With Neighbors, (okay, I stretched with that last one) but you see my point. I admit, there were good areas with houses that could work but would any of these options make us want to spend $75,000 in closing costs to move? Uhhh…no.
If anything, the process of walking through different scenarios re-affirms that where we live will work for a few more years. Then maybe the dreams of a remodeled barn may be too attractive and we end up knocking on our kid’s door with boxes in hand.
Wonderful lyrics to a wonderful song…. but it is more about the emotion it conjures. For me, I still can’t believe my gorgeous lady said ‘Yes’ 40 years ago. An now here we are, in what feels like a brief span of time, ready to head out on new voyages. This song chokes me up. I think of her, our life, the fantastic children she gave me, the wonderful experiences we have had….and that’s it, all bleary-eyed.
We are heading out on our 40th anniversary, a little delayed but never too late. I can’t wait to see new sights with her but I really want at her side, to watch her eyes as she finds new sights, feel her hand as we talk across the table, feel her closeness as we walk along paths, and listen to her chuckle as we talk about the last 40 years. I may sound overly emotional but hey, I need some slack here. We have plans for a whole new life which retirement brings. I can’t wait.
There is a special passage from my previous posting, Never Too Old To Date, that I would like to share. Allow me this…..
“I often hear reference to spouses being a point of stability; a rock, or rudder. Sometimes I hear they are a guiding light or a source for energy. In my case, she is my equal, my side, sometimes my eyes, my desires, my thoughts, my pulse, and my smile. She is everything about who I am as a person. Don’t get me wrong, I do have an identity. It is just defined by where we have been, what we have learned, how we have experienced and …. who she is.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself (but I did)….
I recently read the following post on a forum I follow….it is both good but a little unnerving. I am not sure the origin of this but I hope you will enjoy.
After Christmas , a teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their holiday away from school. One child wrote the following:
We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa. They used to live in a real big house, but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Florida . Now they live in a blue box that has wheels, but its fastened to the ground. They ride around on their bicycles, and they wear name tags because they don’t know who they are anymore. They go to a building called a wreck center, but they must have got it fixed because it’s okay now, and they do exercises there but they don’t do them very well. There is a swimming pool too, but they all just jump up and down in it with hats on. At their gate, there is a doll house with a little old man sitting in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape. Sometimes they sneak out, and go riding around in their golf carts. Nobody there cooks, they just eat out all the time. And, they eat the same thing every night – early birds. Some of the people can’t get out past the man in the doll house. The ones who do get out, bring food back to the wreck center for the other ones. My Grandma says that Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and, says I should work hard so I can be retarded someday too. When I earn my retardment, I want to be the man in the doll house. Then I will let people out, so they can visit their grandchildren.
I think I have ‘Retirementism’. It is a rare symptom of those who’s primary focus is on retiring. Yep, afraid so. I learned of this from an old movie titled, “You Can’t Take It With You”, starring Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, and Jimmy Stewart….have you seen it?
Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: Penny, why don’t you write a play about Ism-Mania?
Penny Sycamore: Ism-Mania?
Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: Yeah, sure, you know, Communism, Faschism, Voodoo-ism, everybody’s got an -ism these days.
Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: When things go a little bad nowadays, you go out, get yourself an -ism and you’re in business.
So that’s my ism; Retirementism. I have only 244 days left, according to the clock on my desk! I glance at this constantly and bite my tongue when fellow workers talk about their plans. I keep quiet for now but, on that day, I will be repeating another favorite line from ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’, where Graham exclaims, “This is the day!, This is the day!” when he made his mind up to retire. My ‘ism’ isn’t too bad. I can still function throughout the day but there are periodic “episodes” where things get a rosy hue and my cheek muscles restrict resulting in an upturn of the corners of my mouth. There is a slight tendency to whistle and what disturbs most around me is this look I have, seeming to say, I know something you don’t (aka ‘goofy grin’).
Retirementism also causes you to look for references of retirement in everything from stories, to movies, to interactions with people, even to commercials….and I am not talking about commercials with people holding hands in a bathtub by some lake. These references are everywhere nowadays. “Look at the Sony ad, isn’t that an Airstream like the one we will use for our travels?” I asked as I scan back to view it over again….a magazine article in the airport about Best Places to Retire!- I quickly thumb through it….a TV ad about technology classes or language classes, all things I have on my list….an art tour with paintings, woodworking and photos like I want to do more…..Uncle Si is retire-working, Jay Leno retiring from the Tonight Show, my dentist and his wife just retired….and it goes on. These references are all around us and like buying a new car and seeing more and more of those cars on the road, I am sensitized to retirement references – Retirementism.
Do not fear, this strange symptomatic phenomena is not contagious unless you too have similar designs on your life…breaking free, doing something new and different, getting on the road less traveled…and so on. It is a refreshing break. Here, tell you what, I will leave with some favorites from my reference list…. enjoy
“You can keep working and earn this much money or retire and make the same amount”, From a co-worker who planned properly and was told this by his financial advisor….the same one I have!
“Maybe it’ll stop you trying to be so desperate about making more money than you can ever use? You can’t take it with you, Mr. Kirby. So what good is it? As near as I can see, the only thing you can take with you is the love of your friends”.
You Can’t Take It With You, Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff (Lionel Barrymore)
“Before I retire, I plan on Part Time – part of the time I will work and part of the time I will play”, me
“Don’t simply retire from something; have something to retire to”.
Harry Emerson Fosdick. Good inspiration. I definitely have a long list of hobbies, plans, things to learn.
“The older the violin, the sweeter the music.”
Lonesome Dove (1989) – Gus McCrae (Robert Duvall)
Enjoy your plans….
Sometime between this (1959)….
And this (1972)….
…. was the last time I traveled with my Brothers. The four of us often took journeys in the Country Squire wagon with our parents and fought over who got middle seat and thus, the first to claim they were car-sick. This weekend, the 4 of us ole dogs are climbing into a pickup, throwing our packs into the back, charging our smart phones and Kindles, loading the GPS and heading out on a 10-day road trip to rediscover the Oregon Trail and Butch Cassidy’s last stand. This is a brainstorm of our youngest brother who, might I add, NEVER HAD TO SIT IN THE MIDDLE!
This is a good test of road tripping when I am retired. You see, My oldest brother and my next youngest (see ‘Slick’ in the picture above) are both already retired and I plan to be next. We will see how this goes and barring any quibbling over meals costs, frequency of stops or music tastes, it should go smoothly. We do not have any reservations, just a plan to stop, when tired, and find a bed-bug place in the smallest of towns (oooh, fun!). I do look forward to seeing the sites and noting places to bring my bride on a future trip (please see earlier post concerning the need for an RV to sleep in instead).
There are places along our route I have never visited but have on my list. There are many Oregon Trail interpretive centers (I didn’t know they used a different language), historical markers. etc to help understand what life was like back then. And then there is Hole In The Wall and places where the outlaws hung out. Lots to see, lots to explore with my 3 hermanos.
So what’s the new trick you ask? How about how 4 guys, who have not traveled together in 4-5 decades, learning to get along for over 240 hours in a space of about 7.5 ft X 6.5 ft. Brave men all, departing comfortable lives and embarking on a dangerous course, looking for untold adventure, knowing full well they will get beat to the pulp if they don’t return to the wives when scheduled. How’s that for a movie trailer?
In life, we have all gone our separate ways. But now as we set out, with our ponies hitched up to the wagon, we will merge our talents and seek our destinations. Unlike the early settlers on the trail, we aren’t looking for a better way of life, just to rekindle the spirit we had as brothers.
So there is Brother (A) who has this trip Excel’d on his iPod (along with a collection of movies about bandits and outlaws). He has calculated distance to/from/between including time and allotments for beer stops. A collector of rocks and history, I am sure he is looking forward to getting off the main roads and using the sun and horizon, he can calculate the exact location where we spit. Then there is Brother (C) who has each waypoint and pee stop (read ‘tree’) plotted on his GPS along with a complete 3-ring binder noting all interesting sites and signs along the journey. He has traveled these roads before and spoken each tree personally. Having fully studied the maps, streets and trips, his Rand-McNally-like plans will help us keep on track. Brother (D), the youngest and one who only remembers the blissful life of traveling with his brothers in the early days, will ensure that we have adequate meal planning, BBQ supplies, and a fully stocked cooler. He has worked in these parts on the crew at Yellowstone and is pretty darn good cook. It’s his truck that will be gassed and ready for the trail but not waxed…..this he leaves to his skillets and spatulas which are seasoned and ready. Me? Well, never having been this way before, and lately heavily traveling only by plane/resort hotel, I plan to seek a different, slower life as part of this road trip. “oh look, a rock!” I will have my camera, PC and Kindle to log the journey and blog away on how these ole dogs get along for 10 days. Plus, I plan to bring along a couple of good bottles of wine (“Hey, I been there and there’s nothin, Jack”).
It will be a fun time and I am looking forward to a road trip of this magnitude. Weather….will be weather… and we are not entirely sure what we will find out there. But its a chance to be together again…just like before except no one has to settle for the middle seat! Here’s looking forward to being with you guys!! I’ll bring some good music….okay?
Here is a snipit of the itinerary we plan to follow with many stops along the way. Unless, of course, these ole dogs see a squirrel….
A Voyage To Retirement 