Author Topic: Four years into my towney retirement  (Read 6242 times)

Cerastez

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Four years into my towney retirement
« on: October 31, 2016, 03:56:03 PM »
So, four years ago I retired.  I had $550,000.  My first step was to buy a condo.  I had been a country girl most of my life, but I wanted to keep busy and to be honest I was tired of roughing it.  So, for me that meant the town life.  I got a great deal and bought a 2 bedroom / 2 bath condo for $103,000. 

My income is as follows:
$1000 a month from my investments (roughly $450,000 in investments and I do use an investment advisor) anything over the $1000 gets re-invested.
$400 a month rent.  It is a long story but I rent one of my rooms to a family member. 
$334 a month mortgage.  I hold the note on a mortgage.

And My Monthly Expenses
NETFLIX                    $10.86   
NATURAL GAS            $19.79   
CONDO INSURANCE    $19.83   
bus pass                     $25.00   I got rid of my car a year ago.  My city has great bus service so this has worked out well.
VIRGIN MOBILE          $33.56   
ELECTRIC                    $34.33   
Internet                    $36.94   I am an internet junkie...I admit it
DENTAL Ins            $46.00   I go back and forth on whether dental insurance is worth it
HEALTH ins            $68.52   Thank you Obamacare
Property Tax            $98.25   
CONDO Fee          $215.00   
      
Total                          $608.08   


If you do the math that leaves me $1,126 a month left over to keep myself fed and entertained.  I don't end up spending it all, but I am as free as a bird and I have a hard time not just bursting into song at inappropriate times.  I am really and truly happy.

CatamaranSailor

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2016, 04:00:22 PM »
You definitley qualify as a badass!

human

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2016, 04:42:48 PM »
That is awesome! It's funny one day I hope to retire to the middle of nowhere.

geekinprogress

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2016, 04:58:50 PM »
That sounds positively lovely - congrats!

Life in Balance

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #4 on: October 31, 2016, 06:10:23 PM »
That sounds pretty sweet!

Metric Mouse

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2016, 01:30:57 AM »
Awesome. Always great to hear another success story!

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #6 on: November 01, 2016, 07:22:01 AM »
Wonderful situation to be in, how old are you if you don't mind us asking?

MasterStache

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #7 on: November 01, 2016, 07:44:25 AM »
Badass!!! Sounds like a wonderful life.

Cerastez

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2016, 09:47:12 AM »
Wonderful situation to be in, how old are you if you don't mind us asking?

I'm 52.  I feel very fortunate, believe me :)

RedwoodDreams

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #9 on: November 01, 2016, 04:47:31 PM »
This post made me so happy. Thanks for writing it up.

I'm close to you in age, and thanks to discovering this forum a few years ago, realized that I'm fairly close to freedom myself, if not already there (health care!!), and I can just sense the happiness and relief you have in owning all your own time but still having a great (and greatly simplified, it seems) life. I just got back from a lunchtime stroll over at the beach, everybody else there seemed to be about 65, out walking their dogs in the clear fall day, looking all happy and relaxed, and I realized that beach + book + dog + no money cares = bliss.

This simply wouldn't be possible without ACA, at least for me. So grateful for that too.

nalor511

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #10 on: November 01, 2016, 05:06:33 PM »
Excellent post. Where is a condo in town with a spare bedroom only $100k?  (Serious question). Nice work.

Cerastez

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #11 on: November 01, 2016, 05:39:08 PM »
Excellent post. Where is a condo in town with a spare bedroom only $100k?  (Serious question). Nice work.

Bellingham, Washington.  I do feel like I may have gotten the last bargain before prices really started to skyrocket.  The previous owners were getting divorced and filing for bankruptcy so they jumped at my cash offer. 

Bellingham is a very cool little town.  The weather is gawd awful, but it has a great city bus system, a fantastic library, 5 or 6 local brew pubs and it is a college town so there is always lots going on.  I would love it if more Mustache types moved here, but don't tell anyone else ;)

paddedhat

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #12 on: November 04, 2016, 05:48:13 AM »
My dear wife unfortunately has had horrible luck with dental problems. She had coverage from her employer, and we continued it, at $49/month, after she retired.  For her, it's been a good decision, but even with a huge amount of care required, it's close to being a wash. There are just too many things that they don't cover, like she had a partial denture that broke apart, literally split in half, when it was two years old. They paid half the cost of the device originally, but zero for the replacement, since they will only cover a partial ever three years. We battled them for months when they misread a chart and denied extensive work on her upper teeth, since they claimed that they had already paid to extract the teeth in question. Now they had copies of charts, and current x-rays, and swore that their in house dentist was reviewing the claim, but in reality they were just playing games. In the last three years we probably got a 25% return over the premiums, with a really heavy volume of dental work.

My take, after far too much interaction with the dental insurer, is that IF your dental health is a mess, it's PROBABLY a good idea to have the insurance. If you are pretty normal, then your best bet is to stick that $46 a month in a saving account and pay out of pocket, when the time comes.

JT

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2016, 11:42:24 PM »
Cerastez, what an inspiration you are!  And a big thanks for sharing your numbers.  You've made me sit up and take notice as I'm close to your age and sitting on a house with over $1M equity!  There I was thinking more was needed, but I could get retired NOW!  I still have one dependent son, though, and figure extra cash is needed for food/utilities/clothing/education.  Also, I'm not legally allowed to move towns due to Family Law in NZ.  So am kind of locked in at the minute!  But your story will stay with me.  Now, where's that excel login gone....?!!

slugsworth

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #14 on: November 05, 2016, 11:58:22 AM »
Absolute badass.

I'm getting closer to that number - super inspirational!

Do you have any post-town plans, E.g. travel, bucket list items, hobbies, etc.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2016, 12:11:59 PM by slugsworth »

golfreak12

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #15 on: November 07, 2016, 09:36:35 PM »
Completely badass !!!
Sorry but I don't completely understand your income.
The investment and rent for the extra room I get. Where does the $334 mortgage comes from ??

DavidAnnArbor

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #16 on: November 08, 2016, 09:02:12 AM »
What a great situation !  Looks like you're only withdrawing around 2.7% of your investments which is very sustainable. I'm almost exactly your age, and I think I am probably over saving. I worry about a situation where I could be disabled and could need extra money to pay for care. But I'm not disabled, so just not sure what risks are out there. Good for you.

Cerastez

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #17 on: November 09, 2016, 11:56:54 PM »
Completely badass !!!
Sorry but I don't completely understand your income.
The investment and rent for the extra room I get. Where does the $334 mortgage comes from ??

The $334 mortgage is a mortgage that I am collecting, not paying.  When my Mom passed away she left my 3 siblings and I a piece of property.  It had some issues, an old well, no septic and well some other oddball things.  No bank would touch it, so we waited and hoped for a cash buyer.  After a while we gave up hope of a cash buyer coming along, so we bucked up and sold it with an owner contract.  That has worked out surprisingly well.  Anyway, that is where the $334 income comes from.  It is my quarter of the mortgage payment.


Cerastez

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #18 on: November 10, 2016, 12:21:25 AM »
What a great situation !  Looks like you're only withdrawing around 2.7% of your investments which is very sustainable. I'm almost exactly your age, and I think I am probably over saving. I worry about a situation where I could be disabled and could need extra money to pay for care. But I'm not disabled, so just not sure what risks are out there. Good for you.

I worry about needing more money as I get older too.  Any sort of care giver/assisted living situation is really expensive.  I am fairly healthy, but you can never guess what might happen.  I am living comfortably on my investments now and I don't want to have to depend on Social Security when I am old enough to collect it.  I want Social Security and my condo's equity to be my emergency fund when I am in my old age. 

DavidAnnArbor

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #19 on: November 10, 2016, 01:40:13 PM »
What a great situation !  Looks like you're only withdrawing around 2.7% of your investments which is very sustainable. I'm almost exactly your age, and I think I am probably over saving. I worry about a situation where I could be disabled and could need extra money to pay for care. But I'm not disabled, so just not sure what risks are out there. Good for you.

I worry about needing more money as I get older too.  Any sort of care giver/assisted living situation is really expensive.  I am fairly healthy, but you can never guess what might happen.  I am living comfortably on my investments now and I don't want to have to depend on Social Security when I am old enough to collect it.  I want Social Security and my condo's equity to be my emergency fund when I am in my old age.

Yes I agree with you that a care giver situation is expensive, which is why I'm still in saving mode instead of totally retiring at this point.
As an illustration of this issue, today I massaged a client, (massage therapist here), who got diagnosed in April with Lou Gehrig's Disease, also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Basically all the nerves to his voluntary muscles are dying - and it's happening fast. When I saw him today, he could not lift his head up, he can't speak anymore, his breathing is difficult, he barely can walk (it's more like a shuffle), his balance is difficult. I had to massage him in a hospital bed. His wife hopes the massage will ease the pain and difficulty. By the end of the massage he was asleep, which is probably the best, because I imagine it's a reprieve from the reality of no control anymore. His wife was thrilled he was asleep, she said it gives her a break.
But I thought about a caregiver situation being expensive, and here I got a glimpse of a disabling disease. I was humbled by the experience, and the magnitude of the challenges as I wondered how would I cope with an illness like this.
« Last Edit: November 10, 2016, 02:24:47 PM by DavidAnnArbor »

stashgrower

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #20 on: November 10, 2016, 05:26:16 PM »
I heart your story! Congrats.

soccerluvof4

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Re: Four years into my towney retirement
« Reply #21 on: November 13, 2016, 03:14:23 PM »
Really really awesome. I do tell people Freedom comes at a price but it doesn't have to be expensive! and oh ...your free! Great job!