My life right now

In many ways, I really started this process two years ago.

I had a job I loved for years and I really intended to retire from there.

Then, life intervened.

My boss wanted to retire and after 3 years of looking settled on a replacement that was, shall we say, lacking in fundamentals?

After about 4 years of increasing unhappiness, I bit the bullet and asked to be laid off.

Now it's two years later and I am still unemployed. 

Life is not bad though. I am in a fairly good situation, I own my home, and I have some money saved.  Not enough to retire, though!  At some point, I need to go back to work.

Every step along the way, though, in the last two years, the Universe had really provided for me.

First, I had unemployment for more than a year, than I relied on savings, along the way, I had a plumbing problem and the insurance money provided was actually more than it took to fix the leak. 

I had a small, but significant, amount of retirement money left at a previous job and the company asked me, out of the blue, if I wanted to take it as a lump sum.  I put it into a retirement account, of course, but it is there if I need it.

When things were getting tight last winter, two friends of mine lost their jobs and their house and ended up here with me.  Now they are footing two-thirds of the bills and, thankfully, one of them loves to clean.

While I had to take money out of my retirement accounts to live, most of it went to my medical insurance, which is deductible from my taxes.

Now, this year, since Obamacare, I am eligible for a tax break that will pay most of my medical and dental.

So, yeah, the Universe has been good to me.

But, like everybody, there is so much more that I want!

Let's talk about that tomorrow!