Approximately 5 years ago Chris and I were preparing ourselves for an early retirement. Chris had worked 35 years for a public utility company in Oklahoma. During that 35 years I had been a stay-at-home mom, taught school, tutored during the summers, and later had my own videography business. When at age 56 Chris mentioned retirement I was somewhat startled at first. I had assumed we would keep working until we were 65 or so. We needed to consider what that decision meant to us financially and what we would do during retirement. As we began to discuss these two points one thing became clear. Whatever we decided to do could be undone later, if we were not happy.
The two questions concerning finances and what to do upon retirement were not independent of each other. Each would be examined with the other in mind.
The big question was "How much is enough?" How much money must we have saved through 401Ks, retirement benefits, and investments for the last 35 years? I was skeptical. So my very analytical engineer husband opened up Excel and made a spreadsheet. A big one! Lots of columns and lots of rows. LOL He took everything we could both come up with as far as assets, incomes, savings, etc., and lined them up against our financial needs (those known, and those we might expect in the future). He extrapolated over the next 40 years. We spoke with financial advisors and attended a retirement seminar offered through Chris' company. One thing we learned is that there isn't a pat answer to the question "How much is enough?" It depends.
Other than the financial aspect, there is another very important consideration. Health. We were both healthy. How long would that continue? Another unknown. For now we have our health. That is so BIG! Wouldn't it be better to do our traveling while we were healthy and had each other with whom to travel? How much money is enough? When factoring in our health along with the spreadsheet, the answer became quite clear. We had worked all our lives. We had saved and invested in retirement all our lives. We can retire and whatever we have will be enough. What better time to made the change?
Change. That is a frightening word to most people. Chris and I are a bit on the weird side about "change". Over the years we have been transferred with Chris' company many times. As a result I would change jobs/schools. Moves were made from one home to another. We would then change churches and begin making new friends. Change was stressful, but always brought about growth in our lives. In our lives change was not to be dreaded but embraced.
What are our retirement goals and how can we achieve them on our retirement income?
Something I had always (and I mean ALWAYS) wanted to do when retired was travel. Chris also wanted to travel and wanted to incorporate fishing, golfing, and biking. We both wanted to see family more often (more than 1-2 times a year). That's when the idea of RVing came up.
When we were first married we inherited a tent from Chris' parents. In a year or two we had a pop-up trailer. Some of our best vacations were spent camping with friends and family. We were familiar with camping and both had enjoyed the experiences years ago. It seemed we could best accommodate our retirement goals with the help of an RV.
After much prayer the decision was made. We would test the "retirement waters". And so it began...
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