Wifey B: The price of a boat only matters at one instance on one day. The pleasure one can bring is infinite.
I believe in saving but not just "because." Our purpose was always for retirement with dreams of water, mostly targeting the TN River although some thought of Myrtle Beach. We didn't save to accumulate or to be misers, but with goals in mind. We didn't deprive ourselves but enjoyed ourselves as much as possible while working and using our boat on the lake where we loved being.
Plan A was retire when hubby turned 60. I'm 9 years younger.
Dream and Plan B was to retire when hubby turned 55.
Actually, Plan C had recently given us thought which was retire at 50 and enjoy our home and boat on the lake.
It was always known to us that when we reached the point we would enjoy the lifestyle we wanted, it was goodbye to jobs even though we both loved our jobs. Our ultimate decision didn't really surprise hubby's boss as he knew us both well and knew living came above job.
So, in 2012 we take our first Florida vacation. (Him 41 and almost 42, me just turned 33). We love Fort Lauderdale, enjoy Disneyworld, and on Saturday night at the end of the first week, we're laying in bed in a hotel near Tampa and checking emails and other things and suddenly.....
Some good news and it hits us and hubby calculates and I say yes yes yes yes yes and right there around midnight we decide to retire. We didn't wait a month or a week or a day to decide. First moment we saw we could, we did.
We called and gave notices on Monday. We met with a realtor on Sunday. We looked at all the aspects of moving over the weekend. We were all in. Now are we fully retired? Well, hubby's little business hobby got way out of control but except during pandemic we only work on average 2 days a month and I do a lot of free education consulting plus we ended up directing a school. Still, we're free to do mostly what we want, when we want. Life started anew at that moment and we've embraced it all. New place, new friends, new family, new.
It's nothing as we imagined it being, not even where, but it's better. However, I think the two things that we can share are 1-Have a plan, a dream, a purpose behind the saving. 2-When the opportunity hits, grab it and ride it forever.
We dreamed of boating up and down the TN River. We dreamed of being able to visit in Myrtle Beach and not having to get back home to work. Our savings always had a purpose. We never deprived ourselves to save but we did think. I remember when we lived in a house on the water we paid $180k for and renovated for another $40k or so, a steal, people pushing homes in a country club development to us at $2 million. We laughed, then hubby calculated and we laughed harder. He would say something like "would you trade 5 years of retirement for that house?"
But when the epiphany and good luck hit us in 2012, the question was do you want to work or retire, want to save more or go now? The answer was clear. We're active, we work at different things, but we control our lives. See, the 9 years since, we have in our bank of life. We don't know the future. If anything has become apparent the past two years, none of us know. But we can't lose the last 9 years and it's been wonderful. He's now 51 and I'm 42 (omg I hate typing that) and we're healthy but we don't know about our plans for 60 or 55, whether we'll even reach those ages. We may have 40 more years or 0. You've got to grab hold of life and all it offers when you can. We did that when we worked. We had jobs we loved and loved where we lived and turned down all sorts of "opportunities" elsewhere, that might have even moved retirement sooner but sacrificed our enjoyment of life along the way. Most can't retire at the ages we did, but way too many stories like Judy wrote about. Can you retire and afford boat A now but work two more years and get boat B, well would you rather enjoy the next two years on boat A or work? Boat B might never come.
You only control the present. You build for the future but don't control it, sadly. But the present you control and there are always choices. Make the one that will bring you happiness and think selfishly of your happiness, don't do what others think. Omg can you imagine the questions we got. "You're retiring? You're too young to retire." I worked with so many teachers who targeted full teachers retirement. 30 years or 25 years and 60 years old or 5 years and 65 years old. So many were so close when illness or tragedy hit their families. Now, it's part of life and most people must work until 65 or even older. Most people don't have the choice. Most people aren't as blessed as we are or others in this discussion are. I love my life as it is but had we had the choice of waiting another 15 years for this or just retiring and enjoying our boat on the lake, we'd have both chosen boat on the lake.
Ultimately, pursue happiness. They need to teach that in school. Do what makes you happy in life. I loved teaching and he loved business. But we both love whatever it is we do now as well.
