Thinking Beyond the Box

It is funny how sometimes you stare at the same thing everyday, it sits in the same space and then one day you say, "why is it there??" That is what happened with my kitchen TV. In the old days, BC (Before Computers), I think everyone had a kitchen TV that sat on valuable counter top space because well, since we spend so much time in the kitchen, we needed it for diversion from the hum drum.
One day whilst I had a High Definition moment with another bedroom TV which is used because that bedroom also doubles as my exercise room, I decided why not put the HD box that was in the kitchen in the bedroom. That left me with the ah ha moment. I not only got rid of the "box", I got rid of The BOX, the TV. I realized I am no longer tied to the TV. I have replaced that special relationship with my computer, followed closely by my iphone.
I am totally loving my new box free space. Now if I could so easily get rid of the bar sink in my island that is never used except to house the dog toys. Why oh why did I want two sinks in my kitchen???

Rental Property is it really worth it?

We've owned one rental house for about 5 years now and acquired a second one last year. I don't think there are any really good "rent house" tutorials out there and I find myself gravitating to other landlords for my info and solace. Would I attempt being a landlord if I wasn't retired......I haven't thought about it enough to say yea or nay but it is more work than probably most people realize.
I'll start with saying we bought the first house more out of a desire to protect our own residence. These properties abut each other and are in an older part of town. The pattern here has been to raze the old house and put up a "much improved and, of course, bigger house" for the expanding family....translation...about 3000sf for maybe 3 to 4 people, some are very small people. If this had happened on the property behind us, it would have been tragic for us. In the past 25 years, I've gotten used to the view from my back door. I put in a swimming pool (a necessity in Houston) and it was situated in such a position that if anyone built a large home on the lot behind us, they would almost certainly have built something which would loom over that pool. We don't need that much privacy. We aren't skinny dippers but we do like the view of the trees and birds from the pool. We aren't really swimmers. We are floaters and therefore admirers of nature as we serenely float and marvel at nature around us.
The first couple of rental experiences were sublime. I befriended my tenants and had the passing thought that being a landlord was, "a piece of cake." That changed and, in the interest of brevity, I will save that for later posts.
Suffice it to say, I realized I needed to be a smarter landlord and I would have to work at this situation as hard as any other position I wished to be successful. If this interests you, stay tuned for later posts. Like I said earlier, there aren't a lot of resources out there to prepare you for the landlord experience and I am not sure why that is the case except it is a complex issue and there aren't easy answers. Are there ever???? Thanks for reading.....

What do you do????

I have been retired for five years now and I still don't have a good answer for those people I meet who ask me what do I do with my days. Retirement is a strange state. A lot of people dream of it and plan for it but really don't give it much thought as to what they will do when they are actually there. To some it is terrifying and they shun the idea entirely. Retirement can be confused with growing old so I can understand why people are afraid of it. The two states should be thought of as different. Growing old is a condition of the body. Retirement is something you have earned. The latter doesn't mean you stop doing anything but working at what you did before you retired.

I am lucky. I got to retire when I was 50. My former employer was willing to give me a generous pension and I realized I had been working non-stop for someone else since I was 16 years old and had enough of it. I decided it was time to start doing things I wanted to do. Even so, when I say this to those curious souls who want to know what I do all day, it doesn't seem to satisfy them. I have concluded they don't really want to know what I do all day, they are more concerned with their notion of retirement and want to know if I have the answer. I guess I don't have their answer, only my own.

Retirement is a wonderful thing. Embrace it, cherish it and don't be afraid.

This blog is just my ramblings but I hope to include more about early retirement or just retirement in general and I would love to hear from others about their thoughts. Thank you for reading.