It's mid-January and I still don't have a lot of focus on where to go or what to do without Monk here to fill my world. I miss him so much, and I am most sad when I think about how he won't get to go on my adventures with me. Sometimes my gut tells me that's okay, and that he wouldn't have liked living out of a truck anyway. But I miss him, and I think he is probably somewhere missing me and trying to figure out how to make new friends. Neither one of us was ever any good at that. The job search hasn't turned up anything full-time after four weeks, but I seem to have found a nice little stride somewhere between the hotel photography route, a few hours at the YMCA, and a new part-time position I picked up working the weekend overnight desk shift at the Marriott Courtyard. I always wanted to get into hotel front desk work, and I think I'm really going to like this. It's certainly easier than the Y and the sometimes-brutal treatment those members put us through. I'd love to follow some of those people to their jobs and treat them as they do me. (of course, half of them have no interest in jobs) Anyway, I finally have a hotel job, and that means I can find work anywhere in the United States once I hit the road. A very necessary move in the overall scheme. All the shuffling of finances has led me to one outrageous oversight which had to be addressed, and if you are reading this with the intentions of retiring early and wandering the country yourself, now is a good time to pay attention. I mistakenly built my exit strategy on the notion that I could tap into my 401k at 55. Yes, the law does allow this without penalty, BUT - you have to be 55 when you leave your job and then ONLY that 401k balance is available to you. If you have other 401k's sitting at other companies they are not treated penalty-free - ONLY your current employer. If you leave your company before 55, NO 401k money is available to you penalty-free. And you can't touch an IRA until 59 1/2, so there's nothing to talk about there. Ultimately, I never was going to be able to tap that 401k money penalty-free until 59 1/2. Glad I figured it out now. What a dufus. The good news is - it looks like $21/day is very do-able. Thus the question becomes: How do I support myself from day I drive off until the day I turn 59 1/2? At the moment, that's going to take about $62,000 in the bank, so the sale of the house is now the major chess piece in this game. The good news in all this is that I will have a lot more money in hand once I get there, eight years from now. I'm still going to shoot for Spring 2013 to list the house - 2012 is pretty much out of the question. Money is going to be harder to save for awhile, so I just have to hope for a positive housing market by next year, and a good chunk of money from selling the rest of my things this year. I guess it's time to focus on the expensive guitars. * * * I got the full-time job inside Accounting at the YMCA, and even though it pays less than I have been making for the last twenty years, I will manage it. It seems counter-productive to take a 25% pay cut, but I'm working, and my budget will accept this, especially when supplemented by the Courtyard hotel job. Since I survived (or...emerged from) the layoff, I feel safe paying down a gigantic credit card balance with my Emergency Funds, and now I only owe about $3500 of personal debt. That is insane in my world, and I've never been this close to debt-free since I left for Hollywood in 1985. My Zero remains the same calculation - it will dwindle down a little slower since there is relatively little debt left to pay - and My Dream Sale Price has been recalculated to reflect the new savings balance necessary. * * * My Zero is $243,969.83. My Dream Sale Price for all my possessions is $298,436.04. February 2012 |