Where to retire?

Well I haven't said much in 6 months, not much to say. I have just had my head down charging ahead, paying into investments and futilely wishing the housing market will recover. But, plans are coming together... Next step, get my home in good working order and ready to rent. Refinancing helped make payments a little more manageable and my realtor thinks my house could do well on the rental market. Then I will look at a cheapish rental near work. My primary duty location is changing in a couple of months so I won't be staying there long unless I find the perfect place location with stupid reasonable rent.
Rolling into the next year after tax returns I'm going to pay off the land in the mountains and start saving to build. I have been neglecting it pretty badly (not that it needs upkeep), but it would be nice to start doing some landscaping and driveway work to get things started. I'm going to try to get out one day a month starting in the spring time to work on improvements around the property.... Time to start earning that sweat equity!
Why is this titled where to retire? Oh yeah I'm sitting in Costa Rica, swinging in a hammock listen to an afternoon shower in a rain forest. My thought on costa rica? I'll stick to a retirement perspective... San Jose is a big dirty crowded city that isn't that cheap. Monteverde is lovely mountain town that is secluded from civilization by 3 hours of rough dirt roads, but is a lovely mountain town much akin to a dozen I can think of in Colorado. Puerto viejo (Caribbean coast) is beach covered with hippies and my hotel is a lovely open abode in the middle of a private farm. There are ant swarms like I have ever seen, tons of mosquitos and a constant battle with termites that are trying to eat your house. Why am I pissy? I'm not, it is a lovely place and overall it has been a great trip, but I'm trying to see the benefits of retiring here and it isn't currently in that category.
On the plus side, the currency is stable. The water is potable. Roads, not great roads, but roads just about everywhere. There is plumbing. There is some healthcare here, but Im beginning to wonder about the quality when med school costs $30k.
In other news, i did hear Bolivia is quite lovely and a very cheap place to live, downside, really third world, but I bet they have plumbing in the cities, even of you can't drink the water...
One lesson learned, I really need to learn Spanish, I hate being an ignorant American.

The long path to saving

It has almost been a year since my last post, I can't believe it! There have been many changes since then and they unfortunately haven't been overly productive towards my retirement goal. Losing a job for 4 month doesn't help the savings not to mention taking a 50k pay cut for the next job. But, I have been trying to get things on the right track again recently. How? Well I just refinanced my house, cutting my rate from a 6.25 to a 4.5%. This will save me over $400 a month, which will take very little time to recover refi fees. I have also been able to slowly rebuild up my savings again to a reasonable level (6 months or so of expenses). I also opened a high yield savings account with ING to sock that money into. It isn't the highest rate out there but the reviews fornthe company are really very good so I figure it is worth a try. I had a tax exempt money market I used to stash savings into, but it didn't seem like it was worth the hassle before.
I will add updates on new clever money making schemes and stocks as I find them. In the mean time check out BORK, SPIR, and BMWG.DE (yes the car company)... Happy investing!

Funemployment

Early retirement has taken a new twist. I’m retiring very early now, but only for a very limited time. Through unfortunate twists of fate I am without work now and joining the funemployed masses. Alright, there probably aren’t masses of funemployed, many people probably aren’t excited by the prospect. But it was pretty popular a year ago . There are even websites with cheap things to do and blogs that have helped popularize funemployment.

I crunched the numbers (as I frequently do) and it looks like I can avoid meaningful work until at least the end of the year. If we could get congress to extend unemployment benefits this time off could be much more enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong if I got offered a comparable paying position tomorrow I would take it, but why stress? I figure I have a number of things I need to catch up on and take care of in my life, why not take advantage of the time off and maybe even enjoy the short break. This little break is definitely going to put a dent in the savings and that is the only reason I would be anxious to take a job again so quickly.

So, what am I going to do with my free time? I’m of course going to look for a job, but now I have the slight benefit of time so I’m going to hold out for something that will be more interesting and hopefully pay well. I’m going to improve my diet, I detested the ridiculous frequency with which I ate fast food and now the old excuses aren’t valid so that should be easy to fix. I get to do more hiking; travel and life were hindering my 60 hikes in 60 weeks plan so now I get to play catch up and might actually get to achieve my goal and maybe even early. I also would like to squeeze in a little camping and travel but I need to get a little better handle on my expenses before I get too crazy with the cash reserves.

I should have much more time for updating the blog now, so look for frequent updates on my new adventures.

Life goes on.

Life has been very busy lately and I have been very bad about updating the blog. Christmas with the family was good and it was fun to drive around in the snow. I managed to pay off my car, unfortunately I had to total it out to do so. So buying a new car didn’t help me much towards the goal. I’ve had some fun adventures lately, off to Italy and Turkey and the summer travel is starting to ramp up. I should be another jet setting year.
So how am I doing pushing towards the goal? That is tricky; I have had some issues lately that have been a big money and time sink so it is getting hard to focus strongly on that goal right now. The housing market has been very slow to recover in my area, so I won’t be flipping the house anytime soon. I won’t be building up the mountain home without unloading the current abode. So, on the road to retirement I’m kind of stuck in a rut…
The funny thing is I have been really busy with work and exercise and adventuring around the outdoors, so I’m not too bummed about my goal sliding. While there are ups and downs at work, traveling is the best part of the job and I’ll get to see some interesting places this summer. I have a couple of more months before the drama in my life concludes and I should be finished with the three sites I’m working on so my current goal is just enjoy myself, catch up on my Cisco certifications, brush up on my Spanish, save a little bit when I can and work on a great plan for 2011.
What is the great plan for 2011? I don’t know, that is a long ways away… There are new options for get rich quick schemes overseas, the mountain land should be paid off so construction may begin on something and who knows perhaps with Italy as an inspiration Albuquerque may be introduced to a new gelato business.

Tis the Season

So we are winding down the year and it has been an interesting one. Looking back it really has been great and I have so many things to be thankful for. I’m now 4 months into my 10 year plan and things are progressing kind of slowly. But, I have managed to avoid making any additional poor investments lately. The Bronco mentioned in the last blog had a rough time driving on the freeway in second gear (don’t ask), so I managed to throw a rod and pretty much ruin the only part of the bronco that was working. So I unloaded it for $500, and effectively saved myself about $20,000, I’m estimating. Currently, I’m pondering clever ways to achieve my goal, working out a lot and snowboarding as much as I can. So if nothing else, I’m very busy and content. I’m also getting ready for a little trip up North to Michigan to see the family and then shortly after I get back I will be headed up to Italy for two weeks. Don’t worry this is for work so I won’t be cutting into my retirement funds and even if it wasn’t, after all of the travel this year and stockpile of frequent traveler rewards I won’t have to pay for a vacation for quite some time. My latest get rich quick scheme has been looking at jobs in Afghanistan, at this point it looks like the most likely way I can achieve my goal, but it is really hard to justify the risk. Really, I will have to ponder that one for a while and feel out the family on their thoughts, but it definitely seems like an option. Let me know what you think and also let me know if there are any other clever schemes out there to help me reach my goal…
Happy Holidays to all my readers and I hope you set some great goals for next year, that you can achieve and I’ll work on mine too.

Speed Bumps

Since the last post I have had my birthday and turned 30. Well, I officially have less than 10 years to reach my goal now. I had a good birthday but I do officially feel like a grownup now which doesn’t make me happy, but thankfully this crazy summer is finally coming to an end. So I have ran into a couple of challenges on the retirement front lately, nothing insurmountable, but definitely speed bumps I need to avoid in the future.

The first challenge, my new clunker. With the property in the mountains I decided I needed to add a more versatile vehicle to the inventory for winter access. I happened upon a 1979 Ford Bronco at what I perceived was a value ($2800). It looked tough, definitely had some wear, but I was told it was in good mechanical shape. After a month or so of not finding the time to fix the brake lights and reverse lights I resigned to taking it to a mechanic. Of course, that day the truck wouldn’t start, so I had to tow it to the mechanic. Long story short, the truck is back at the mechanic again this week and we are at about $5k in repairs. This doesn’t include the shocks I need and probably tires, so let’s add another $2k for that. Moral of the story is to figure out how much you can afford to spend on a vehicle and buy the best you can for the money, so you don’t end up with a $10,000 30 year old rust bucket that can’t pass emissions. The painful part is that all of this money I throwing at this problem should be going towards my retirement goal.

Second challenge, I had to inactivate my real estate license. There was an issue with the MLS and my broker being a member and me not so unless I coughed up $600 (a pittance really compared to the Bronco) a year to join, my broker was going to have issues. So the easiest solution was just to let my license fall to inactive status. This doesn’t hurt me too much, since I wasn’t really practicing, but I did like picking up referral checks here and there. But, I wasn’t making enough to make the membership worthwhile.

Now the final challenge… the housing market. My original plan was to sell my house (back in April) and start construction on the mountain house. Unfortunately, home values in New Mexico are down and not going to get better anytime soon. According to an article in BusinessWeek they are predicting an 8.5% drop this year and 6% drop by 2012. I think they are saying it will be down 6% on top of the 8% we are currently sitting at. I haven’t applied these numbers to my house, but I have been evaluating listings in my area and it doesn’t look good. Currently, my house is worth about $40k less than I owe, which isn’t good, but it is actually worse than that because for me to break even (just loan wise) I have to charge about 110% what I owe. This mean I need about a 28% gain to get out of this house and if the market isn’t picking up until after 2012, I better get used to living in my current residence.

Even with these recent challenges I’m still pretty upbeat and just trying set the right path forward from here. It looks like I will have some time to save up for the new house, in the mean time I can pay off my car and hopefully get the Bronco in working condition. Only problem is I like to keep my momentum going, but right now looks like it is the time to pause and catch your breath before the next ascent. I can use a little pause right now, no complaints.

The Journey Continues

So, it has been mentioned I have been very bad about updating my blog. That is true, but with good reason. I really am just on the long journey of paying of the land to begin the first phase of the plan. Travel has been ridiculous this year which hasn't helped, but there isn't much for me to do but keep making payments. But, I have been scheming about the design of the place in the mountains and there are so many options. The biggest thing I'm trying to keep in focus on is building house to maximize the value of its resale. Choosing comparable size and type to the neighborhood, finding appealing styles and features that will lend to a short time on the market (green, energy efficient and pretty fixtures) and something I won't mind living in for two years.
I think I can endure anything for two years so that is the easy part. I'm actually kind of excited to face the challenge of the other factors, but I'm not expecting to be perfect on the first time out. Current basic layout is 4 bedroom, about 3000 sq. ft, 2.5+ bathrooms and definitely needs a home theater. Well the home theater is a concession for me, but I think home buyers will appreciate it. I would like to add some alternative energy features into the plan also but it is hard to say what the most viable option (passive solar, wind, geothermal, who knows) will be when I am ready to build, but I hopeful there is something out there that really will be good for the environment and a good return on investment. Only time will tell.