Ready to Retire - Really!

My name is Cheryl – but everyone who has known me for longer than 5 minutes calls me Cheri.  Today I turned 56.  One year ago today I began blogging about my journey in getting ready to retire.  Today I can say with certainty that I am in fact ready to take the leap into retirement.

I have seventeen business days to complete at work.  I expect them to be action-packed.  I wondered aloud to a former manager if I would really be able to get everything done before I left.  She gave me the sage advice that I would not – and not to let that bother me. 

It will take nine people to replace me.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. J  In reality, my position is not being replaced.  No surprise there – many businesses are scaling back and my employer is no exception.  I sincerely hope that my retirement will make it so someone else stays employed. 

I see retirement as both an ending and a beginning:  A new job and lifestyle as a campground host.  A new career as a writer.  And a new look for this blog.  I AM ready to retire – really!

The journey begins…

Health Insurance 103

I thought about opting out. 

My medical insurance premiums will cost me 4 times as much as a retiree as they do as an employee.  This was expected.  We planned for this; we budgeted for this.  But now that I’m seeing the numbers face to face and realizing that for the next 10 years I’ll be paying this bill directly – no more having it deducted from my paycheck before I had a chance to miss it – it’s given me cause to reflect on the state of health care in our country.

Reflection #1:  Health insurance is truly a benefit.  A benefit that, according to 2010 Census Bureau data, 1 in 6 Americans does not have.  

Reflection #2:  I am fortunate to have access to health insurance as a retiree.  Many corporations are not offering coverage to their retirees, no matter the cost. 

Reflection #3:  From May 31 to June 1, the only thing about me that will change is that I will be a retiree instead of an employee.  Why are retiree health benefits so much more expensive?  It’s all about risk, and the numbers don’t lie.  People my age and older have more illness and tend to recover from accidents more slowly.  Insurance companies have to mitigate their risk by charging more to everyone in the “pool.”  Once again, I did the math, and it would be a lot cheaper to skip the hefty insurance premiums and just pay for the preventative services that I use every year.  But I won’t opt out.  I’ll buy health insurance – for the same reason that I insure my cars and my house – to protect myself and my family from catastrophic loss.

Reflection #4:  As I ponder the debates over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, I realize that “affordable” is a relative term.  I am choosing to afford health insurance, and I refuse to feel guilty because I can make this choice.  But wouldn’t it be wonderful if nobody had to choose to go without health insurance because they couldn’t afford it.

So aas I hear about the indiviual mandate and why the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act won't work without it, I think I see what all the fuss is about.

Easy Being Green?

Our “summer home” site at Hoop Lake will have no electricity except for what we bring with us.   We’re on our own to power all the creature comforts we’ve come to know and love.  The fifth wheel is set up to run lights on battery power and to run the refrigerator on propane, but it depends on plugging in to a power source to run the television, the stereo and the microwave.

Laptops and cell phones and iPods – oh, my!  How are we going to keep these charged?  There’s an app for that!  It’s called an inverter.  An inverter takes battery power and converts it to the 120v power we’re used to plugging into.  Quite literally, it’s DC-AC.    Paul installed an inverter the week we brought the fifth wheel home, and wired two powers strips – one to the inside and one to the outside. 

Later, in May, we’ll install solar panels on the roof.  The solar panels will keep the batteries charged – keeping that DC flowing into the inverter and powering my small appliances.  The inverter will power the coffeemaker, the satellite radio, and the curling iron – in addition to charging our electronics.  

Running the television, the microwave, and of course, my hair dryer will take more power than the inverter can provide.  If we want to use these, we’ll have to start the generator.   We don’t anticipate using the generator very often.  It is gasoline powered and it’s very noisy, and we’d hate to pollute the pristine environment at Hoop Lake.  If we get a streak of bad weather we’ll have to use the generator to charge the batteries, but otherwise we’re hoping our solar panels will generate enough power to keep the batteries charged.  

This is a great opportunity to prove our ability to use green energy and minimize our carbon footprint in our high mountain home.

Facebook 101

Facebook was founded in 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg and his college roommates.  It was probably founded in their dorm room since I doubt there are many garages on the Harvard campus.  Why I am telling you this?  You’ve probably already seen the movie. 

I haven’t yet seen the movie, but I’ve finally gone onto facebook.com and set up an account.  Before I did so, I took the time to read all the privacy information and learned how I can control what is on my Facebook site.  This was a good thing.  The security geeks that I‘ve worked with for so many years worried (and continue to worry) about how easy it was for hackers to get personally-identifiable information (PII) from Facebook pages.  Turns out I didn’t have to put too much PII in at all, and I don’t have to display any of it – even to my “friends.”

And friends – wow!  The algorithms that Zuckerberg and company created are just amazing.  I had found 19 friends in the half-hour it took me to set up my profile!  As of today, I have 74.  In contrast, it took me weeks to get 16 followers on Twitter. 

I didn’t even have to consult the kids.  My daughter signed up right away to be my Facebook friend.  I don’t expect to hear from my son, though.  What self-respecting 25 year old man wants his mother as a Facebook friend? 

This could be scary time consuming.  In fact, one of my new “friends” warned me not to become obsessed.  I’ll do my best.

Being Social

My good friend Charlie once wrote, “Be social or be irrelevant.”  While I was busy working for Corporate America, being irrelevant didn’t seem too bad, but now that I’m about to reinvent my life, I’m thinking relevance may be a good thing.  

While I’ve always enjoyed being “found” in LinkedIn, I haven’t really focused on promoting myself.  It’s time to change that.  I updated my LinkedIn profile a few days ago.   Finally completed my profile, added a photo, and joined a couple of groups focusing on writing.   I’ve even posted the links to both my blogs!

Back to Charlie, who taught me the ins and outs of Twitter over margaritas in St. Paul.  Of course, after the salt and lime wore off I realized that I wasn’t ready for any of my friends to know just how close I was to retiring – yet, so the Twitter account I’d created for this blog was out.  No problem – I’d just create another one.  I sent my first Tweet using the new account from the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport.

 

I’ve been maintaining two Twitter accounts for nearly a year.  I say maintaining because in reality I didn’t do either of them justice.  Compartmentalizing myself made me seem shallow – dare I say boring – in both places.  It’s time to pull myself together and consolidate my Twitter accounts.  I’ll be inviting all my followers @cherylrtrr to follow me @cheri0429.  

Sigh – I guess I’m going to have to join Facebook next.  Good thing I have children to show me the ropes!

Maiden Voyage

We picked up the fifth wheel on Friday, March 9 in Hinckley, Utah – which is just about five miles west of the middle of nowhere.  After a short visit with Ray and Patsy, the real work began.  It’s quite a production to hitch the trailer to the truck.  Patsy recommended we make a checklist.  Not a bad idea.

Off for our first road trip to get the feel for driving, parking, and living in the “coach.”  Hooked up to the truck, the “rig” is about 45 feet in length, and the coach itself weighs 12,500 lbs.  The truck sang as we drove along – it was finally doing what it was meant to do.  But the cost of gas was not a song – pulling hills we only get 7 miles per gallon.  Ouch!  We decided then and there that we would not be doing any cross-country road trips.  

Our first destination – Ely, Nevada.  Why?  We’d never been there before and it was a good stop after three hours of driving.  Ely was founded in the 1870s as a post office and stagecoach stop.  The city grew with the discovery of copper in 1915; but suffered a significant downturn when the copper mines closed in 1978.  The town still looks like an old mining town.  There were few modern buildings and – unfortunately for us – even fewer parking lots that would accommodate a 50 foot rig.  We ended up doubling back to the KOA outside of town.  Did you know you can plug in cable TV at a KOA?  

Our second night was spent at Wendover, Nevada, where they had a parking lot just for us – well, for us and about 50 semis that rolled in an out all night.  There was plenty of room to spread out, and just a short walk from two casinos.  

I told Paul that I would be happy to drive the rig – going forward!  I have been the subject of much laughter as I have attempted to back other trailers.  In the end, he wasn’t comfortable letting me drive – just yet.  I’m sure my opportunity will come.

The final challenge came when we brought the rig home.  As we knew before we even investigated buying a fifth-wheel – our driveway just isn’t big enough.  It sits there as I write, leaving me barely enough room to pull my car into the garage.  

It’s too big for the driveway.  It’s too much work for road trips.  But it’s just right for spending a summer in the mountains.  Can’t wait to take it up there – and get it out of the driveway!

It's Official

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That was the first word out of my manager’s mouth when I told her that I planned to retire at the end of May.  She proceeded to congratulate me and made it very clear that she was supportive; just as I made it very clear that I was available to do whatever needed to be done to transition my workload.

I have to tell you – I was really nervous about telling her.  I’m not sure why – maybe I was afraid she’d tell me to pack up and leave immediately.  The next several calls were a bit easier – although the initial reactions of most of the people I told were similar.  I heard from each of these people that my work was valued and that I would be missed.  I felt good.  

Word travels fast.  Within minutes of “the announcement” email going out, I was barraged by well wishes, usually prefaced with expressions of surprise.  My favorite read, “I didn’t know we allowed people to retire at age 21 J”  Other favorites included “Congratulations!  Sucks to be us!” and “Have you hooked up the trailer yet?”  

Hooking up the trailer on Friday. :)