Background

We’re moving home

In 2012, we’ll have been married 30 years. During that time, we have never lived anywhere longer than 4 1/2 years, and several times we moved from temporary to permanent housing within a very short period of time. Yes… we are making our 19th move of ourselves and belongings when my husband retires next year.

This time, we are moving back home. Along with our two boys, dog, two leopard geckos, and accumulated paraphernalia gathered as we, like gypsies, moved along to new ground periodically, we plan to make a new life for ourselves in my hometown.

The Decision

So… how did we decide to take this road? How did we choose where to put down our roots and spend the last years of raising our boys? In the end, it all came down to relationships and family. We didn’t choose our chosen locale based upon tax rates, local government, climate, inches/year of rainfall, employment or educational opportunities, cost of property, proximity to a major airport or good medical care…

The big draw for us was the grandparents. Yep, my parents have lived in the same town since 1961 and they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. My in-laws also live only a couple of hours’ drive away. We want our boys to grow up around them. It’s as simple as that. Once that decision was made, the rest was easy.

It’s been only a couple of years ago that we made the decision for my husband to take the earliest possible retirement opportunity. Before that, we had envisioned continuing on for several more years working within the system and moving as required. We began to look at things a bit differently and focus more on preparing for our personal future more than on career. At that point, we began making a few changes to allow this early retirement to happen.

Making it Happen

Saving our nickels and dimes, eliminating all forms of debt, reducing our monthly costs ( in order to save more nickels and dimes)… this was a big factor in making this possible. We figured out that, in order for us to even have a chance of living on the monthly retirement income we’ll receive, we can not have any debt.

We calculated the amount of gross income we will have as retirement income, deducted our ‘off the top’ expenses, including healthcare coverage and taxes. Then, when we saw what was left over to live on, we were at first a bit dismayed. That number was about 25% of our current net income! Scary, right?

Well, we took a look at it and were wondering if we could actually live on it if we didn’t have any of the typical debt that most people have. Could we have a decent life on 25% of the amount we currently earn? We decided to try it out.

For the last year, each month, we decided to see if we could live on just what we would have at retirement, not exceeding that amount on any of the day to day living costs. We found out that, not only could we do it, we could actually live on less than the monthly income using a few simple techniques. I’ll put a post together on simple cost-saving methods that allowed us to live on less without sacrificing our quality of life…

Thanks for reading…