Jumping Off The Cliff

What the world thinks I am doing........

What my friends think I am doing......

What I am actually doing.....

The BIG NEWS here at Chez Sluggy is that Hubs has decided to retire from his job effective June 30th.
Hubs turned 59 earlier this week and his goal was to retire before 60.

I had to wait until he actually told his bosses he was leaving to let the "cat out of the bag" on my blog however.
And you know, since I've known the definite date for over a month now, that has been killing me.  ;-)

So this changes everything here at Chez Sluggy.
Well not everything.
But everything concerning money, day-to-day living, money, shopping, money, our relationship and money.
Did I mention it changes our money situation yet?!?  ;-)

July 1st I stop expanding our Net Worth and transition into depleting it.
**Gulp!!!**

I have been counting down the paychecks left until Hubs leaves work and then paychecks are no more(that count is currently 7 left).  Thinking about it in terms of paychecks just makes it seem even scarier.  8-O

7 more paychecks and then there is no more pay coming in.
Now that doesn't mean we have no money coming in, just no paychecks.

Our "paychecks" will now start coming out of all that money we've put aside for this time in our lives over the last 33 years.

Hubs company is top notch when it comes to taking care of your employees in my book.  Not only did he make a good salary over the years but we got good medical bennies(though we paid A LOT for them out of his pay)and the company matched a part of every dollar we put away for retirement.

Now that he's retiring, they even have a dedicated retirement counselor to help guide him through separating from the job and filling out all the paperwork and setting up all the support systems we'll be needing.

He had his first session with the counselor earlier this week and we found out two very good pieces of information--A)The retiree medical savings account the company funded is larger than we had anticipated(if you have a spouse/domestic partner you get another 50% of whatever if in the account) and B)Hubs company does have a health plan for retirees(meaning we don't have to worry about having to navigate the ACA-or whatever is out there in it's place-for healthcare until Medicare kicks in).

His counselor was impressed at how much planning we had already put into place over the last few years.  We know our basic numbers on all our accounts and know pretty much what we will do with them and when.
The only real big unknown is how much he government will tax what we withdraw, which affects how much of our own money we actually get to live off of or just how much we need to withdraw each year.

I have heard/read that the transitioning period from working life to retired life is a stress all onto itself.

So we are into this period and yes, it's stressful.  But I guess any period where you are letting go of one way of thinking and living and stepping into what for you is the unknown can't help but be nerve wracking!

But beside stressful, in other ways it is exciting and rife with possibilities.


So, here goes nothing, or should I say, everything.........

Sluggy