General Thoughts Archives - Page 2 of 17

Holy Schnikes! Another Change of Plans for Us!

Another day, another change of plans! This slight change is going to add to our already exciting adventure! As most of you already know, we’re moving to Panama this summer. I retired from my job at the end of 2018 and we’re getting closer to making this happen. In the meantime, we have two reasons we’re waiting so long to leave: We need to wait for our daughter to finish out her school year. We have a vacation planned with Mrs. R2R’s side of the family at the end of July. When we head from Cleveland to South Carolina for the vacation, that’s about it. Our lease will be done at the apartment and we’ll have our two suitcases each

Finding Balance in Early Retirement with Kids

Finding balance in life is tough. Between your regular job, chores, time with spouses or people you’re dating, and going out to play with friends and family, time is limited. The fact is that we all only have 24 hours per day… 168 hours each week. Then you throw a kid into the mix… ha! Good luck! It’s like a turbulent hurricane of confusion every day. And the frenzied mess doesn’t scale well either. With each additional child you have, it gets even more chaotic. So finding balance between everything in life is tough enough, but with kids, you’re almost out of luck until you quit your job or your kids grow up. At least, that’s what I thought. I

What Did We Just Do?!! Thoughts from a New Retiree

So, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out what I wanted to talk about for my first post as a new retiree. I have all these things on my mind, but I’ve been struggling to figure out just the right topic. And that’s when it hit me… why not just talk about some of the random thoughts that have been floating around my head this week? Maybe some of what’s going on in this noggin of mine could be helpful for the next guy or gal planning an early retirement. One of those thoughts is that even though you may already know it, the transition from working a 9-5 full-time job to not working is impactful in your

What I’ve Learned Throughout My Final Year of Work

Well, that does it… I’m officially FIRE (financially independent / retired early). 12/31/18 was my last day of “working for the man” hopefully for the rest of my life. Whoa. Hang on – I just need a second to process that. Damn, that feels good to think about! Woo-hoo!!!! Ok, thanks for that – I really needed to get it out of my system. The idea is still a little surreal and will probably take a while to make it feel like more than a normal vacation. Let’s get back to why we’re here today though. I thought it would be interesting to talk about what I’ve learned throughout my last year of work. Some of the things that transpired

No One’s Asked – Here’s Why You Should…

No one’s asked. Not a one. Not one single person in my entire office. I’m now just days out from my retirement – December 31, 2018, is my last day of work. I gave my notice in early summer and we kept it low-key in the office for a little bit while we worked out the game plan. However, I officially made the announcement to my engineers in a meeting on August 13. And as many of you know, the grapevine in almost every office spreads like wildfire. We have just over 35 people in my office and I think everyone knew the scoop within minutes. That means it’s been well over three months and no one’s asked. Ok, Jim

A Moment to Exhale… So Now What?

Well, we’re finally over the hump. We actually had a moment to exhale. We sold the house and moved into an apartment. Everything should start to get easier and easier as we get closer to the big move to Panama next summer. I started this post while at the airport on our way to Miami to get our cruise kicked off. We booked this trip at the beginning of the year thinking we’d have nothing going on at this time. Yeah, we were wrong. Once we got through security here at Hopkins airport here in Cleveland, I got a text from my agent telling me everything just finished. The closing is officially done and they’re in the process of filing