Day one of mid-life retirement
I woke up this morning and went to my phone...had nothing to check but my addiction to facebook! It was weird but not missed. I did miss the responsibility of work though. I didn't have the normal anxiety like who's gonna call in sick or where do I need to be. Now my day is filled with personal responsibilities that I have been putting off. I now know why people say retirement often feels more like work. Do'ers will always do! I dropped the RV off to get some last minute maintenance to prepare for the trip(oil change, tires aired and checked, some lubing, small leak at the toilet repaired and the brake lights for the CRV we are towing repaired). It's gonna run about $500 before it's over. Erica met me and then we went to Verizon in Mira Mesa (great service btw) to buy a Jetpack mobile hotspot device. We needed more data so we upgraded to unlimited data and have heard great feedback from some other full-time RV families that the Jetpack is the way to go to boost your speed and signal when out in remote areas. We need that for the kids to complete their homework. We also inquired about getting the kids a Gizmo Gadget watch that our friends recommended with GPS monitoring so that we have a way to keep better tabs on the kids. We didn't do it yet due to the expense and so we will sleep on it. The product is $169 each and then a $5 monthly line fee each. Maybe we will just do what we normally do and keep a close eye on our kids:) Every dollar spent is mattering more than ever now that we are 100% living on savings and passive income. I plan to do a blog about this later.
Two weeks from today we will be on the road. As I was driving the RV this morning I felt the freedom it will bring. I was totally in the moment and almost missed my exit off the freeway. I didn't turn the radio on like I always do in my truck and it felt peaceful. I knew then that I was really going to love this break from work and all that the next year would bring to us.
We have already experienced our first trip diversion. Luckily we can make what ever last minute changes that arise. We have told the kids for the past year that June 15th is our bon voyage. Since school was out on the 14th it made since. Boyd was selected to the Rancho Penasquitos Little League allstar team for his age group and we knew that we needed to let him experience this honor. The tournament will be on the 15th, 16th and 17th in Scripts Ranch and we have paid up rent through the 15th so we booked a few nights in Descanso, CA at our Thousand Trails property to suffice. We will began on the road on the 18th and head toward our first destination in Napa Valley, CA.
Our Big Box storage units will be here any minute and we will begin loading only our heirloom property into them. We have been donating and selling anything that can be replaced easily and has no sentimental value or real value (less than $100 in value). Storage expense is ridiculous these days and any savings per month to stay small in our strorage cost is that much more we can spend on the road. I will be doing a blog about expense management and give real life figures for folks to better understand how we are financially prepared for this retirement. Obviously the less you have in fixed costs every month the further your cash stretches to do spur of the moment experiences. We find these experiences to be so much more satisfying then the acquisition and maintenance of stuff. Of course the hot weather would arrive right about the time we have to spend our days loading a hot box!
Peace and Love,
Kris