This is my first day here. I hope to bring something positive to this community. I've been a lurker and have tried to use some of the great ideas here to get ahead.
I'm 49 years old. I work a 9 month job at a school and work part time in the summer at a bike shop (gotta support our high end bike habit). My spouse is in the medical field.
We own a rental free and clear and have less than a year left on our primary residence. We live in a small 2 bedroom home that is within walking and bike riding distance to services and work. This keeps transportation costs really low. Our net worth is $490K. Currently we are living well below our means. This allows us to save about 55% of our income. We take advantage of the pre-tax 18K, and utilize Roth savings as well. We lost some years of saving, due to being spend thrifts. However, we have done well catching up the last couple of years. It may be possible to retire in a few years, but the medical insurance issue is a real concern. I have a pre-existing condition (MS). If the medical costs aren't reigned in, I am afraid I may have to work until I can take Medicare.
I enjoy my jobs, especially the bike shop one. Although, I want to be able to retire and enjoy my life, before I get too feeble. We recently bought some retirement property in a sweet bike riding zone. It is only property, so we will need to put a home on it. This will cost some cash, cause building things aint cheap. I've got 15K saved in cash, and would like to have about 80K in cash, before I even think about building anything. I don't love the idea of going back into debt to build. Construction loans are expensive and the interest only payments are not a great idea.
Anyhow, this is who I am. I came here to continue to better myself and our family of 2.
