Lessons Learned as Retirement Approaches

Six weeks of getting better from some ailments related to getting “older” have taken a toll on both Jeannie and me.  After her struggle with pneumonia I decided to get vertigo due to a sinus infection, serves me right for going non-stop during the weeks while Jeannie was sick and while my work was winding up for the school year. 

Getting ready to retire and move has been more time consuming than we had anticipated. Staging the house for viewings, garage sales, prepping the motorhome for our trip down the Alaska Highway, cleaning, painting, yard work with grass growing more prolifically than ever before (yah, what’s up with that), and not having enough sunny days. All this has filled our time and slowed us down. 

If I had known how tiring re-tiring (pun intended, with a smile) was going to be I may have just kept on working my career as and educational administrator. 

One reason we bought our new home in the Boise area was so we wouldn’t wimp out of retiring and stay with our comfortable life in Alaska.  Once the new Ideaho home was a done deal we had no choice but to go forward.   For which I am grateful even though we are worn out.  I have crunched the numbers many times to make sure we can survive this change whether we live for 10, 20, or more years. 

Our family is getting ready to celebrate this big change by doing a Lake Powell house boat adventure in mid-August.  Everyone but our son-in-law Miguel (currently in training as a recon-Marine) will be there.  He will be missed but we will enjoy our children and grandchildren as we transition to our new life.  After stopping in Salt Lake City to spend time with my 87 year old mom, we will be back in the Boise area setting up our new home and preparing an organic garden for the next growing season. 

Some conclusion from recent experience:

1) Take extra good care of yourself while you prepare to retire, don’t overdo it or you may wear down and slow the process. 

2) Garage/Moving Sales are exhausting, get help and post loads of signs to bring in the buyers.

3) Don’t be too anxious to sell your best stuff to lowball negotiators who just turn around and sell on craigslist.

4) Just use Saturdays from 9AM-1PM for your sale.  The traffic dies down after that and you get too tired to stay out in the sun. 

5) Don’t accept first offers, they expect to have a counter offer from you before a price is settled on. 

6) Always know the original price and have a quick story about how valuable and useful the item is…such as “wow, you know that tiller was originally $700 and still works as well as the day I bought it. It’s a rear-tine tiller and churns up the ground with ease.  I could give it to you for (counter offer).”  

7) Rest as much as possible.  Keep exercising and eat well.  Manage the stress with your best routines; yoga, meditation, hot tubs, steam room, fishing, reading a good book, or whatever.  Pamper yourself…you deserve it.

My Sweetheart Jeannie is Making Great Progress

Two weeks ago my wife Jeannie’s blood pressure dropped below 90/60 and her heart rate went up to 120.  We have a home blood pressure monitor so I was able to check her blood pressure and pulse regularly.  After caring for her for a full day at home without improvement we went to the emergency room on Monday morning May 7^th.  She was diagnosed with sepsis and pneumonia and admitted to the hospital for what became an 8 day ordeal.  For a while they thought she had a staph infection but it turns out to have been strep, which was the first tender mercy since it is “easier” to cure. 

Her right lung capacity had been at 1/3 its normal when she was admitted and improved to close to 90% due to miraculous treatment to drain the infectious gunk through a chest tube.  It was no fun for Jeannie with lots of pain but as usual she was a real trooper and patiently waded through.  As I recollect she only broke down once and cried in frustration and due to pain.  I am so proud of her resolve to fight this.        

After long difficult days in the hospital, on Monday evening May 14^th she was released from the hospital and has been home on continued antibiotic treatment to clear up the rest of the infection in her right lung.  Coming home was tender mercy #2.  We were so glad to avoid the long-term care recovery center the doctors thought they would send her to. I have been able to be her home nurse most of the time.   

I am grateful to be able to do this for her since last time she was in a serious health situation in 2007 I got sick and spent 10 days in the hospital with a ruptured appendix, and was not able to care for her during chemotherapy for stage 4 oral cancer.     

Today Jeannie goes to her infectious disease doctor for an evaluation to see if she is progressing well.  She has been improving steadily and yesterday went for a short walk outside holding onto my arm. 

Life is slowly getting back to normal around our home which is tender mercy #3.  It will be a long process to get Jeannie back to “full” health but we have made it through the most difficult weeks. 

She appreciates all the thoughts and prayers offered for her.  With being this sick it “takes a village” to get better and all the positive input has been motivational for her to rally again.  Thank you for your kindness and love.   

A Great Source of Money if you know How to Do It

How to buy your next home.  There is major interest in this retirement strategy.  Interest rates at are historic lows right now.  We have been fortunate over the years to be able to make money on all the homes we have purchased or perhaps I should say "invested" in. It's easy to do, if you know a few basics.

There is no substantive reason why you have to stop using your home as an investment as you go into retirement. In my most recent private letter to my secure email group I shared how we have set ourselves up in our first retirement home in Idaho with an immediate equity gain due to it being a short sale property one year previously.

We were happy to do it this way since the seller had already been through the intense process of negotiating with the bank. We got the house for less than what they had paid once we considered the $21,000 professional landscaping project they completed. We watched the Boise homes market closely for 18 months to find the right home. Internet know-how makes this easy now a days.

As much as I appreciate all our real estate brokers over the years, keep in mind that they always have a "conflict of interest" as they negotiate on your behalf. Listen to their counsel but take charge and make your own decisions when it comes to negotiations.

If you go after a foreclosure or short sale, be prepared to walk away when the business process gets pushy. You will almost always hear that another potential buyer's offer is about to be on the table as they try to get you to settle on a price. Don't let your emotions govern your decisions.

If you know what to do you can make 10's of thousands of dollars as you buy your next home. We picked up $60,000 equity the day we signed our new home papers in Boise last week. If invested wisely, at 5% draw that can be an inflation proofed addition of $3000 in retirement income per year for perpetuity. Not a bad bonus.

To get more detail about this and other investment strategies you can join my secure email group by signing up in the box to the left of this post: http://saferetirementfreedom.blogspot.com/

Retire Early---Real Life Stories of Success

My newest 8 minute podcast is available for listening. It’s the follow-up to “Building a Nest Egg in 5 Years or Less”.  You'll hear real stories of people who retired early because of aggressive savings, without risky investments.  No matter your age, it can be done. 

The audio file is available only to my secure email group, which helps protect my copyrighted material.  If you'd like the link, sign-in to the left of this Blog then go to your email address to confirm.

If others would like to have access send them to: http://saferetirementfreedom.blogspot.com/
to sign up.

The Podcast is avaiable now to my secure email group only.  
I will always protect your email privacy.

More Pics of the New Homestead outside Boise Idaho

Living Room

Living Room toward Dining and Kitchen

Master

Family Room downstairs

Home and View

21 Great Ideas for Controlling Debt

     1)     Don’t eat out could save you thousands per year

2)     Cut up credit cards

3)     Build an emergency fund for unexpected expenses

4)     Entertain yourself at home or by hiking etc. rather than using expensive forms of entertainment

5)     Spend less than you earn

6)     Use cash for your purchases

7)     When debt is paid off increase your savings

8)     Don’t use the government tax system as a bonus plan, if they have your money they earn the interest and you do not, your money should be working for you not the government

9)     Use a realistic budgeting system that works for you and live by it

10)  If married, work on the budget together and discuss any deviations from the budget plan

11)  Read Dave Ramsey’s “Your Money or Your Life”

12)  Be patient, it takes time to get rid of debt, but it’s worth it

13)  Stop borrowing money no matter what

14)  Track all of your expenses...I like to use mint.com, but there are other useful tools

15)  Maximize a retirement savings plan

16)  Have a long range vision for your future

17)  Examine your expenses and decrease where possible, you will be surprised how well this works, negotiate with cable, phone, and other providers

18)  Don’t impulse purchase anything, educate yourself on the alternatives before making a decision

19)  Put a note in your wallet that says, “Do I really need to buy this”

20)  Think about debt as slavery and savings as wealth-for-your-future

21)  Improve your health to lower your health costs with dentists and doctors

For more detailed information about this topic and others related to preparing for your future sign-up for my secure email group postings to the left of this blog. 

Prepare a Safety Net Now as you Prepare for the Future

My first teaching contract paid me just over $11,000 in 1978.  By the time we settled in Wyoming to start teaching, our second son was born. For the life of me I could not figure out how I was going to save enough money to buy a house for our family of four.

Fortunately I was able to borrow $500 from my father and we bought our first home for $49,000 in 1979 due to a first-time home owners program in the state of Wyoming. Our house payment at $400 per month was about double the rent we had been paying.  I was transferred out of Wyoming the following year and we sold our home and made $9000 profit.  We learned valuable lessons about building equity and tax breaks. 

In those early years we made extra money by working second jobs.  It helped get us by and we weren’t worried at all about retirement at that point in our lives, we just wanted to survive.  We did our best to save a few dollars for emergencies, but not much. Then I was blessed to attend a special convention put on by my employer about retirement preparation that changed things. 

I learned that I had a three-pronged retirement program available to me: 1) company pension, 2) 401K styled savings program with matching fund's from my employer, and 3) Social Security.  Since I enjoyed my profession, which would never make me rich, I determined to maximize my retirement options. 

I started by figuring out how long I needed to stay with my employer to top out on a pension. Next we started savings to our 401K that brought us the maximum matching funds from my employer with a goal of getting to at least 10%.  We did this on 'faith and a prayer' hoping we could pay our bills and be aggressive with our savings. Finally, we hoped Social Security would provide an additional financial cushion. 

I made a flow chart of major expenses we could anticipate.  Missions and College for children, purchasing cars, some travel, and perhaps graduate degrees for Jeannie and me. The result was panic at first and then more careful planning for our future without behaving like penniless paupers.By being frugal we managed to get by and satisfy all of our obligations to others and ourselves. 

Now, lest you think we did not have much fun along the way, we bought a ski boat and took trips to Lake Powell and other ski “meccas” to enjoy some family recreation. But we camped out rather than renting villas or motel rooms.  After some years we were able to sell the Bayliner and recoup all but $1000, so we considered it worth the investment to spend quality family time.

The ultimate result of this is that we can retire at age 60 and manage our financial needs if we are cautious and wise.  Our home will be paid for and our expenses will be minimized with our 5 children successfully launched into their independent lives and careers.

With careful inflation-proofing of our nest-egg, we should be fine for the rest of our lives. We plan on living in retirement for 20-30 years.  But something is still concerning me about our future. 

We are worried about health care expenses.  We worry about Social Security.  What about hyper-inflation, could it really happen?  What if weather and other natural disasters disrupt and then permanently change our food distribution systems?  What if the economy worsens? 

Now please don’t get me wrong, I am not pessimistic. I doubt that any of these calamities will happen beyond repair. As a people we continue to be more resilient than we suppose.  But just in case, I have determined to add a few more elements to our retirement plan. 

In addition to our pension, 401K savings, and Social Security, we have added our own fun, simple, & lucrative Internet based business,  and a production lifestyle so we produce some of our own food. This brings us peace of mind and a compassionate approach to retirement.  Being my own boss will allow freedom to serve family and community. 

My Blog and Website deal with these new parts of our lives.  By way of review, they are: operating our own Online Business, and enhancing our production-lifestyle to provide some of the food we consume.  Preparations are becoming interesting and fun.  We love the creative process.

I encourage you to become part of my secure email list since I will be adding new material several times a week to update what we are learning.  Thus far it has been most rewarding and provides an opportunity to help others.  I have made mistakes and by learning from them have found some of the best mentors for guiding us while improving our health, fulfillment in retirement, and financial security.  Sign-in to the left of this post to join our group. 

Podcast about building a Retirement Nest-Egg in 5 Years or Less

I have completed my newest Podcast.  It's 8 minutes long, on the secrets to building a retirement nest egg quick, in 5 years or less. For those who haven't started to preare, this is how it's done without risky investing.  These steps work extremely well.

Three Ways to Get Mortgage Free Sooner than You Thought Possible

My newest Podcast “Three Ways to Get Mortgage Free Sooner than You Thought Possible” is ready to broadcast. I give you the 3 best ways to get mortgage free.

These are real life workable methods for getting to that much anticipated no-more-mortgage, stress free part of life.  Ahhhhh, doesn't that feel better already.

Join my secure email group to get access to this podcast.  Sign up in the box to the left of this post.

More Pictures of the New Homestead in Idaho