6 Month Update

 The first six months after my "retirement", we were in a bit of a holding pattern.

After the trip to The Villages, we thought about retiring to Florida, but the weird letter about a Chinese person owing a home there gave us pause and we decided to take a bit more time with the decision about where to live long-term.  (Note... we are fine where we are for now.)

We focused on staying relatively fit (keeping at the weights and walking), reading and reviewing the retirement literature.  There are also many decisions... what to do with 401Ks, COBRA vs. Obamacare, how to set up withdrawals, etc. that had to be made.

I also began looking at retirement living options back in Lebanon County, PA (Where I grew up and where all of the family except my son still lives).  We saw some homes we liked, but nothing that caused us to start the moving process.

....

Then in mid-autumn as Vicky was getting ready to return to China for a few months, she noticed a lump.  She had that checked out while back in China and we received the bad news... Cancer!

It turns out that China had a much shorter waiting period for cancer surgery so she quickly had the surgery over there and then returned to the USA in mid-December to have the followup treatment which has just started.  

Retirement life is going to look a little different than we expected - at least for the near term.

Vacation - Checking out The Villages, FL (again)

This will be a longer post.

We are on vacation (planned before the layoff) in The Villages, Florida, which we are checking out as a possible retirement home.

We went down to The Villages last year in late August/early September and found it appealing as a possible retirement home.  We wanted to experience it a bit more before committing.  We had planned to spend a month there in April, but my first grandchild came along and we skipped it.  The week of July 4th might not be the week that most people think about heading to Florida, but we wanted to experience the place in the "heat of the summer".  Boy did we succeed in that! 

You can see from these two weather charts that we have about an hour or so after sunrise where we can walk or exercise outside (but with high humidity) and it starts to get pleasant again in the evening.  (I'm generally OK when the "RealFeel" temps are in the low to mid 90s or below.

This time we decided to drive down to Florida.  We wanted to get an idea of what the trip would entail for visiting grandchildren in NJ.  We broke it down into two days for heading down... taking the DelMarVa peninsula down and crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

We spent a night in Norfolk, VA and then a day-long drive to Savannah, GA, before reaching The Villages on Saturday.  

It was a weird vacation.  Essentially all of our activity took place first thing in the morning or last thing at night.  We did do some house hunting during the day - coming close a couple of times to making an offer.  

Walking along a walking path which goes along Marsh Bend Trail (the main road in Marsh Bend).

First night at Brownwood Paddock... right after a T-storm.

We found a really nice 2.5 mi walking trail around the Hogeye preserve.

And also an elevated but shorter (0.33 mi) nature trail at the Fenny rec center.

The paths in and around the Fenny rec center have these wonderful old trees with spanish moss.

We did an additional sunrise walk at the Hogeye preserve trail.

And an occasional evening at fancier restaurants.  Wednesday evening we ate at Prima at Brownwood square (note the souped up golf cars).

Several of the rec centers also have the outdoor style of fitness equipment. 

And we spent a little time Wednesday evening at Edna's On the Green listening to a guitarist/singer and enjoying some well-earned junk food.

On Thursday morning we had gone to tour one of Cindy’s (our Villages Real Estate agent) homes and found it to be so close to perfect.  It was a “Winslow C” model with an enclosed Lanai that seemed to have space for everything we wanted to take to The Villages, but (there’s always a but) it was about 500 feet from overhead power lines and 450 feet from the Florida Turnpike.

So on my walk on Friday morning, I was at the Hogeye Preserve next door and took a db reading… in the mid-60s, the turnpike was the same loudness as a bar with lots of people talking.  So for now we decided to pass on that particular home.

I will say that on Friday (and Saturday) mornings, the humidity had climbed to 99% right after sunrise and I finished both of those walks totally beat.

Friday afternoon we went to the Sawgrass Sales office to meet with Cindy again.  This time we were supposed to begin talking about building a new home.  Unfortunately, at the start of the meeting Cindy gave us this form below and wanted us to know that we would be expected to sign it at the start of the process.  It seems that FL had passed a law (which we were aware of) limiting certain foreign people from buying real estate in the State of FL.  The law’s wording (I looked it up) specifically states that it does not apply to “lawful permanent residents” and Vicky is a green card holder.  Still Cindy checked with her management and they stated that “a green card is not enough”.

So… we wrote her a letter later Friday afternoon asking for a lawyer from The Villages to weigh in on it.  We think it was just a management misunderstanding.  So we will see… the decision on wether or not to move to The Villages might have been made easier. 

With all that completed, we went to Brownwood Paddock Square for Friday evening, having dinner at City Fire and then watching the band for a while - even slow dancing briefly in the rain before hitting the golf car for a ride back to our house.

Saturday morning was one last walk at sunrise.  This is where I learned that I was going too late by waiting for sunrise before starting the walk.  I really should have started about 40 minutes before sunrise and would have avoided some of the heat.

We checked out mid-morning and then headed down to Tampa to have lunch with Vicky’s friend LeRan and her daughter, Niu Niu.  This visit has always been a highlight in my trip since first meeting them a decade ago.  Niu Niu (who also goes by Anastasia) is quite intelligent, having just graduated from HS and heading to University of Florida in Gainesville in the fall… for MATH!

After lunch, we continued down to Sarasota, FL to visit Ken and Susan (and Andrew) which included a fabulous dinner at Nokomo’s Sunset Hut (which lived up to its name).

There was a key reason to visit Ken and Susan.  They are one couple (the first so far) with whom we are going to share detailed knowledge of our retirement plan.  Joe (one of the YouTube retirement guys) really recommends having a few people who serve as your retirement "board"... people whom you can bounce your plan off of and will (lovingly) look for flaws.

So it felt a bit like my PhD defense.  I was "defending" a project I've been working on during evenings and weekends for quite some time.  In the end, I think I passed.  That evening Ken shared his work on their own plan.  

So... what's the decision?

Well, there isn't any... yet.

We both felt that the heat in Florida wasn't that bad.  Yes, it (and the humidity) is truly oppressive, but we can do things early in the AM and in the evening and even traveling around during the middle of the day (especially by golf car) isn't too bad.  (Golf cars don't overheat like regular autos do when out in the summer sun... so they are preferable to autos for short trips.)  Summary:  This trip did NOT rule out FL as a possible retirement destination.

We expect to talk a lot about this decision over the next few days.  I'll provide a summary later.

Alimony - There, I said it (negotiations)

 I've been told that I'm supposed to stop talking about alimony.  I've never really listened to that advice very well, and I don't intend to start now.

Yes, I had a prior marriage and it was a marriage where I provided income and she stayed home to raise the children.  When that marriage ended, she was "awarded" permanent (lifetime) alimony which has been garnished from my paychecks since the divorce.  

With no paychecks coming soon, and therefore nothing to garnish, we have begun negotiations on how to end this.  I wish I could say that the negotiations are going fairly, but they're not.  You see, I have a gun to my head.  Not being able to meet the alimony obligation means possible jail time, loss of passport and driver license.

Still, I have to resolve this so we go forward.  But it feels like she's taking advantage of us (Vicky and I) again, especially while the chips are down.

Fitness - Getting Ready for Florida

 

We are going to The Villages in Florida next week.  

Why on earth would we go to Florida over July 4th week?  Simply because it will be hot as hell down there.  We are considering moving there because the place seems to encourage us to get outside and be active… and maybe that’s just a psychological, but we want to check it out and make sure we can still be active down there during the summer.

I’ve been stepping up my workouts and - downstairs in the AC - I have worked myself up to 2 miles on the treadmill.  So this week on walking days, I went across the road to White Clay Creek Park and did my two mile walk there.  We are having a heat wave, so I can treat it a little like Florida… get my walking in during the morning.

Tuesday morning the heat wave started and I noticed on the AccuWeather app that 10:00 in the morning (white graphic) would be similar to a typical summer morning in The Villages (blue graphic).  The real feel shade at 85 would be like early morning and the real feel temp of 93 would be like later in the morning.  I’ll tell ya… the heat kicked my butt!  The shade was tolerably pleasant, the sun was bearable, but not fun.

I repeated it on Thursday, but left a bit earlier in the morning… with the heat index in the high 80s which was a nice compromise.  I plan to continue with the walking in the heat for the next week until we leave for The Villages.

Except for this weekend!  The heat wave reached its zenith and although we went down to the boat, it was SOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOTTTTTTT (heat index reached 108 on Saturday).  We basically were slugs in the salon watching movies on the big TV.  When I captured the weather screenshot (around 5:00 PM Saturday) I had merely popped my head out of the companionway and it was so horrible we just stay below, not even venturing to the pool bar for dinner.

By sunset both Friday and Saturday, it was tolerable enough to sit out and enjoy being outside.

Sunday was predicting another (worse) day with violent T-storms, so we packed up early in the morning and headed home.  I did venture out to drive to Phoenixville, PA to hear Ian Fraser at the Colonial Theater.

This is more like I would envision Florida life during the hot season.  Travel to indoor activities with some exercise in the morning.  It was really hot (heat index mid 100s) walking from the car to the restaurant to the theater (and I was a bit underdressed in shorts and polo shirt), but it was a fun concert and I expect I can get used to this somehow.

One Week In

This week is my first week of retired life, but it doesn’t really feel that way since it was also the week work was going to have a shutdown… nobody was going to be working.

Originally, the plan was to depart for a sailing vacation for this week and next.  However, Vicky needs to work at night and we were hopeful that the boat would sell and therefore did not renew the T-Mobile hotspot.  We decided to wait on the sailing (I may take a single-handing trip after she returns to China) and I got started working on my fitness (double workouts most days), reading (working my way through Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi) as well as other odd jobs around the house.

On Thursday I did go out to drop the car off for some repairs and ended up at the mall for the first time since the pandemic.  That experience felt weird… almost like playing hooky from school.  The nearby mall was not dead like a lot of others these days but was fairly empty being a Thursday morning at 11:00 AM.

On Saturday we headed down to the boat.  It became evident during that trip that Vicky is REALLY worried about several aspects of my retirement, especially the sequence of return risks I spoke of earlier.  Of course we both worry about settling my alimony and selling the boat, but those will resolve themselves in due time.  This will take some time to work through.  (We ended up not going out sailing.)

On Sunday (Father’s Day), we headed up to John’s house and had a surprise invitation to Jess’s father’s house for a cookout.  Joe has a really nice home on the same farmland that John rents from and it was a beautiful afternoon with Levi and the extended family.  Vicky seems to greatly enjoy her time with the little one.

The BIG Decision - Where to Live

Where do we want to live in retirement?

We have been thinking about this for a while.  We have identified two main options.

Staying in NEWARK, DE

We have a nice house.  But I have to acknowledge that we're living here because of my job - we even purchased it through the company's relocation benefit when I first started.  Furthermore, Newark, DE ranks an "A" on Niche.com for places to live.

Our house is large and nicely appointed.  We have space for both my library and organ and plenty of room for guests.  Since moving here we have redone the roof and patio, replaced the HVAC units (all three) and put in a customized kitchen.  

It has some cons... we do still get water in the basement fitness room immediately after extreme (2+ in.) rains.  And I swear that the stairs will someday kill me... they're kind of steep and slippery.  (A problem I've noticed when folks build a house and opt for additional height in the rooms.)

So it will need some work... egress windows and water proofing in the basement and maybe some carpet on the stairs in order for it to work long term for us.

Finally, it's biggest draw is that it's only a two-hour drive to go visit our son's family.

Staying put is definitely an option.

Moving to THE VILLAGES, FL

It was about a year ago when YouTube suddenly decided that I needed to know about The Villages in Florida.  This is a MASSIVE retirement community built over the past 30 plus years by stringing together what seem to be a huge number of "active 55+ communities".  They share amenities across the entire complex, so villagers have access to something like 110 pools, dozens of rec. centers and 700+ holes of golf and more than 3000 clubs & activities.  All of this is connected by miles and miles of golf cart pathways so you can essentially live your whole life (if you wanted to) using only a golf cart for travel.

We went there for our "lifestyle visit" last year.   I have to say that the place is designed to encourage activity.  I have been guilty of leading a relatively sedentary lifestyle apart from my sailing hobby.  While down there, I started talking long walks, played a couple of rounds of pitch 'n putt (the most golf we could hack at the time), rode a bike for the first time in 15 years, and even went swimming!

There are some (serious) cons... mainly that it's a two day drive from John and his family.  It IS quite centered around the senior lifestyle, and while I'm fine with that, Vicky is 9 years younger than I am, so she's still coming to terms with this.

Also, it IS in Florida.  And it gets hot down there.  We had previously planned to go down there for the July 4th week... just to see how bad the heat gets in the middle of the summer.  I figure as long as I can be active early in the morning and it cools off so you can enjoy the live entertainment at the town squares in the evening, we would just hang indoors in the afternoon (or by the pool).

So time will tell.  I do feel we shouldn't keep this hanging over our head too long though.  The goal of the July trip is to rule it out if the heat is intolerable.  Beyond that, I hope to know by the end of the year what we want to do.

As a final note, I'll add that I understand that the decision to be active or sedentary is in my own head.  There are plenty of opportunities to walk, bike, even swim locally.  Free live music each night and golf cart travel, however, doesn't exist around here.

Major Risks - Medical Coverage and Sequence of Returns

I have been focusing on the positive so far.  There are a couple of major risks with retiring (slightly) early at 59.  Vicky and I were discussing these last weekend.

They are medical coverage and sequence of return risks.

Medical Coverage Risk

Because I have moved around from company to company, I have no company promising me medical insurance coverage from 55 through "life" (whatever that means these days).  Earlier this year, when I was working with NewRetirement.com to plan my retirement, I went looking in the HR pages for my company and there I discovered that having started there after 2014 (I started in 2015), I qualify for nothing after retiring.  That was both scary and freeing... I was on my own, but also I had no reason to continue working until some magic age (e.g., 65 or 15 years of service) because it wouldn't make any difference to me.

The main reason for my original plan of waiting until the end of the year to retire was to get past the 2024 election.  I'm going to have to rely on COBRA and Obamacare.  While Obamacare is more and more an accepted government benefit, I have heard the one candidate mention a couple of times in the past few months that he still intends to undo this program.  If that comes to pass, I may have to deal with 3.5 years of getting health insurance as a person with pre-existing conditions.  We'll cross that bridge if we have to.

Sequence of Returns Risk

This is a risk that EVERYONE has to face these days as they enter into retirement UNLESS, the have a fully funded pension that doesn't require savings, OR they are retiring on SSI only.

Without going into a lot of financial details, the basic thinking is that for someone relying on investments to retire, the magic of compounded interest will serve you greatly as retirement progresses.  BUT if you have a series of bad years early in your retirement life, that is hard to recover from, and indeed, looking at the worst of the Monte Carlo simulations confirms that.

There's not much one can do here.  At some point, you just have to jump into the river and see where it takes you.  The best way to handle some early bad years is to have as much flexibility in your plan (especially the spending).