TEN Years Retired

 

December, once it ends, represents TEN FULL YEARS that my wife and I have been retired.  At first my wife was concerned that it would be difficult to pay our bills with our combined working salaries reduced by 50%, but after the first year, she started to realize she needed not to be worried.

During the last 15-20 years of our working careers, we managed to save a substantial amount of money by watching how we spent our money and making sure we remained debt free.  It also helped that I had a side income from my consulting business.  You would be surprised what businesses will spend when you call yourself an EXPERT.

However, I more than had the experienced credentials to back up all of my claims, especially in the areas of:  PROJECT and QUALITY MANAGEMENT and STRATEGIC PLANNING.   There were not many people who could teach and audit the ISO National Quality Standards if you wanted to sell goods in Europe.

Rather than invest those extra monies into the STOCK MARKET which can be volatile at times, we invested in CDs.  

Fortunately, during the Biden administration, inflation was high, so we were able to invest in HIGH INTEREST CDs that really helped our savings grow faster than normal.

We were also fortunate to have a family who was moving into East TN to avoid the high crime in Chicago who was willing to pay a substantial amount MORE for our house than we were asking.

Consequently, our investments grew to the point where we are now at a level of income that is greater than our income when we were working...  TEN YEARS AGO.

Now, were we in the right place at the right time?

Yes...

as a matter of fact we were...

But, we were also in a unique position to take advantage of being in the right place at the right time.

PLANNING, caused that position to happen.