Hoping for a Year of Travel and Change

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While I had hoped and expected to be further along in the downsizing process by now, I am confident that it will happen this year. Mr. PFL’s work goal is to make it until the end of February and then retire; this deadline is rapidly approaching. It would be comforting to have a new place lined up before he is done with work. To that end, I do search for a place to live every single day. I also sent out a letter to another property owner of a duplex that we are interested in. The duplex is a block from where we live now and has been in the process of renovation (and thus vacant) for about four (4) years. I actually toured the property when it was first on the market about five (5) years ago, but at that time it was extremely overpriced and needed a complete renovation. It sold to the current investor for about 2/3 of the original asking price. Duplexes in our neighborhood (the few that have sold) are going for about $315,000 (just over $150,000/unit), so they would make money if we paid market rate. I hope to hear from him.

I’m still following up on BD’s sister buildings. It has been more than two months since I first contacted the owner. I’d give up, but I’m intrigued by the potential of adding another $50,000-$100,000 in gross rental income each year. The value of the land should continue to rise as well, which may open up some selling options in the semi-near future.

My number one goal this year is to travel more. We are off to a great start. Since Christmas, we have visited my aunt in Denver, skied in Utah, and are heading to the Florida Keys tomorrow. We have another family trip planned for Florida next month when we’ll be staying south of Tampa. We’ve talked about heading back to Hawaii (I’m hoping for a coffee farm starting in 2017) and we’ve seen some very inexpensive flights to Europe. We have also discussed a road trip through some new states on our way to hopefully watch Ohio State at Oklahoma. To help accomplish all of these dreams, I recently signed up for an IHG Rewards credit card. Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) is the parent company to Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, and my personal favorite, Holiday Inn Express. With this rewards credit card, I earn one free night per year automatically, plus I get bonus points each time I use it when we stay. With the sign-up bonus, I already have enough points for at least 3 free hotel nights. I continue to use my Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card for every day purchases; I get multiple free flights every year. Mr. PFL and I also signed up for TSA Precheck after waiting in those lines at New Year’s. It was a very easy process and we were approved in about a week. We will be testing it out for the first time tomorrow.

Now if only we had won the Powerball…

The Challenge of Flight V

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Oh, how I’m tired of flight delays. Nearly every single time I have an issue. I really haven’t flown that much this year (for me, anyway). It has been pretty uneventful. I was stressed out getting through security at the end of September; I made it to the plane with nine minutes to spare before the door was scheduled to close.

I’m currently on my way home from a solo-trip to Minnesota to meet our newest nephew. I was delayed a few minutes on the way here, after the plane had already pushed back from the gate, due to the captain “working on a little problem up [t]here.” Really? Because we had technically “taken off” after pushing back from the gate, we didn’t show up as late, so my sister and nieces circled the airport a couple of times before I made it out.

Today, it is the weather. Snow in Denver and rain everywhere else. While I love the convenience of air travel, being delayed gets old. I just want to get home.

Downsizing is a Family Affair

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I’m tentatively scheduled to see a cute little (under 1,000 square feet) house this afternoon in one of our new preferred neighborhoods. Mr. PFL’s brother and his family are imminently placing their home on the market and also looking to downsize and move to a better school district. They have our three nephews now, so 1,000 square feet isn’t going to work for them, but they are looking to minimize the absolute amount of space they need. Mr. PFL’s other brother has one kid left in high school and then plans on extreme downsizing so they have more freedom to travel. Mr. PFL’s parents went through their downsizing process in the Summer of 2011 when they decided to move to Florida permanently; we all ended up with a lot more stuff as a result of that first downsize, most of which will get passed along again.

The whole process is a bit overwhelming. My mother-in-law (MIL) said she has no regrets about what they gave away and what they kept. They did end up buying some new furniture while settling into their permanent Florida home, but, overall, they are making due with much less. They knew where they were moving to, so I think that helped a lot with planning what to keep.

Every time I’ve moved, I’ve always needed to buy something. I’m sure that will happen again, even if it is just blinds for the windows. What I want to avoid, though, is buying something because I prematurely gave something away. I hope I can find our new house soon so we can start taking action.

Gotta Get Outta Here

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Delaying gratification has never been an issue for either of us. But, our current “plan” is self-imposed and somewhat arbitrary, so we are struggling. Technically, we could be done working at the end of the week and we would make it. I know this. Mr. PFL knows this. We realize that we have more money than we might be able to spend in our lifetime. We don’t need stuff, but crave experiences. But if we did just call it quits, how much would we restrict ourselves in the future? Would that cause more stress than it alleviates? Will I be more comfortable taking this risk at this time next year? How much will an extra year of working really change our position?

My head tells me that waiting is the right thing to do. My heart aches to move on. My gut knows that time=money and when we have more time on our hands, we won’t want to be restricted by a lack of money.

My immediate short-term goal is to compile a list of everything that needs to be done in order for us to live paycheck-free. The list will need to include, at a minimum, selling or closing my law practice, moving, health insurance, possibly power of attorney/estate planning, statutory agent for our LLCs, property management, a plan for our cat, a plan for our cars, and probably selling our house. It is like a graduation checklist; we just need to decide on our commencement date.

Post-Hawaii Update

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Where to start? Mr. PFL and I came home a day early from our vacation (we were supposed to be back Tuesday, but arrived home Monday night instead, cutting out one day in San Diego) and we (or at least I) am still feeling jet-lagged and off-schedule. The jet-lag and the ridiculousness of Hawaii roads are really the only negatives I have to report about the trip. Hawaii was as amazing as I had hoped.

Condo Update: So, just before we left, I signed a contract with a handyman service for our rental properties. The day before we got home, while we were hanging out with Mr. PFL’s college roommate in San Diego, the furnace broke, again. I advised the tenants to contact the handyman service; they did; he provided a temporary fix and emailed me for permission to get the new part (the same fan broke in the same way, again!); I told him not to since it was under warranty; and I got the invoice yesterday where they charged me $0 for the service call. Wow! We also now have a brand-new furnace as of yesterday for $2,500. I left the tenants a couple of bottles of wine and a thank you note; hopefully they will forget this ever happened and will live there forever…

Duplex Update: After a ridiculous amount of drama over the past couple of months, the duplex that we are selling on a land contract basis seems to have stabilized again. I nearly fainted when the purchaser actually showed up at my office with a money order like she promised. Hopefully she will get caught up over the next few months and everything will be okay. I also just received confirmation yesterday that my application to buy the vacant lot next door has been approved by the City. We will be getting it for the low, low price of $705 (yes, seven hundred and five dollars) plus $100 processing fee.

BD 6-Unit Update: Unfortunately, between the holidays, the weather, and all of the traveling we have done in the last six weeks, I haven’t cleaned and listed the empty unit yet. I also received an email from one of the other tenants a couple of days ago telling me that she will be moving out on the 26th. I was getting ready to evict her, anyway, because she was so behind in her rent, so this was actually a blessing and saves us both a lot of trouble. So, I’ll have two 2-bedrooms ready to list next week (I hope!). I also need to reach out to the two 1-bedroom units to see if they want to upgrade to a 2-bedroom, sign a new one-year lease, go month-to-month, or move-out. I had a lot better luck renting the 1-bedrooms, so I’m hoping one or both will consider upgrading.

TEFL Update: I haven’t done any courses since before the holidays. Mr. PFL is nearly done.

Travel Agency Update: Right around Christmas, I had a group planned. Then it fell through. Bummer. And a lot of work for nothing, except experience. I am working on a couple other projects now, though, and I should get some commissions from our trip to Hawaii (hotel, rental car).

Real-Job Update: Ugh. We still have them. As I told Mr. PFL when he was getting anxious to come home: I’m not looking forward to dealing with difficult people and therefore I don’t want to go home. It would be amazing to live in a world where nobody needed a lawyer; I’ll settle for living in a world where I don’t have to be a lawyer anymore.

Life-Plan Update: I want to have a small coffee farm near Kona on the Big Island, Hawaii. I know this sounds totally insane, but it is actually a practical possibility. Mr. PFL and I have been doing some research since we got back, and it just might work. I’ll share more about this soon.

For now, I need to get to work on some lawyering and travel planning.

Let me just leave you with this picture of sea turtles. Aloha!

 

Hawaii!!!

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First post from my phone… Started this once already and it disappeared when I was looking for a link. And, I don’t know how to add pictures. So, maybe I’ll just make this short.

Hawaii is amazing. Mr. PFL and I have agreed that we are making the right choice by trying to get done working and travel more. Hawaii will hopefully be a home base for us someday soon.

Oh, and The Ohio State University’s National Championship isn’t too bad either.

Millionaire Christmas

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It is nice to be home. It has already been a productive day. I fixed the furnace, again (don’t get me started - same part went out as last time - part supplier was perplexed, but gave me a replacement without a hassle). I’ve run a couple errands, and updated some items on my computer. Now, I’m trying to process and decompress from the whirlwind that was family-time last week.

On the surface, everything seemed about the same. But, I know I felt different, or at least more aware of certain things. Mr. PFL and I haven’t declared our “status” to our families, although I did send a link to the very first post to my younger brother. I think it is safe to say that neither set of our parents has a net worth over $250,000. And, based on the drama that surrounds any job loss, I think it is safe to say that none of our other family members likely have a net worth in our general vicinity. Many of our family members are set up with long careers at the same companies, so I assume that they will be okay in retirement, but there isn’t anyone I can think of that is even remotely close to quitting full-time employment. But, I don’t really know, since “net worth” isn’t Christmas dinner conversation appropriate.

With all of that in mind, I know people were amazed that we are now planning a trip to the Sugar Bowl to watch The Ohio State University beat Alabama on New Year’s Day and then leaving for Hawaii a week later. I could almost see the math turning in their heads. I do see that this isn’t something an average American could pull off. I’m hoping that the total cost of the Sugar Bowl experience, including all travel, lodging, food, game tickets, and beer, will stay under $2,000 total, and hopefully closer to $1,600. Hawaii, including everything, should stay in the $5,000 neighborhood. But yes, we will be spending about $7,000 on travel before January 20th. That just isn’t something most people, including most of our family members, could ever pull off. So, I felt like I could feel them wondering how we could make this happen. Then I started wondering what they think/say when I’m not around - but, I’m not going to get sucked down that rabbit hole.

When my dad was giving me a ride to the airport yesterday, he made an offhand comment that I probably wouldn’t have even noticed last year. He was trying to tune into the Catholic radio station, but it was all static, so he was telling me about the two radio hosts that he likes to listen to on that station. He summarized a recent message from one of the hosts as something like: “You shouldn’t hate millionaires because they aren’t all bad/greedy/flashy/taking advantage of the little guy.” The way he said it seemed like 1) this was a revelation; 2) a millionaire is something he knew he would never be; and 3) he assumed we had both 1 and 2 in common. I know my mouth starting forming the words: “Dad, we are millionaires!” My brain stepped in before I got it out and I contemplated some of the possible outcomes of this declaration. I know I almost said it twice. I finally gave some noncommittal response and he moved on to another topic. I’ve been stewing on this for more than 24-hours, though.

What, exactly, have I been stewing about? I don’t actually know. I guess it all boils down to our relationship with money and our expectations. On the one hand, no one will ever be able to say that Mr. PFL and I didn’t “earn it.” Clearly, I’m still paying off a hefty student loan bill; Mr. PFL paid for the strong majority of his college as well, including five figures in student loans. Neither one of us has received an inheritance, loans from our parents, nor had someone else pay our cell phone bills. I can think of about $10,000 that I have received as cash in my whole life, including high school graduation presents, $625 from my aunt in Denver that she’d saved up for about 20 years, $5,000+ for our wedding/honeymoon, and about $4,000 that I received right before college that I “earned” because I turned 18 in November of my senior year and the Social Security death benefit that my dad had been receiving (since my biological mother died when I was 5) switched to my name until my graduation in June (then it stopped). While this is much more than many, many, many people ever receive, there is no way this can explain our success, and for that I am grateful, I think, because Americans appreciate a self-made man more than one that didn’t “earn it,” as do I, I think. Although, I really don’t begrudge anyone their success, or their family’s success. And maybe that is the “eureka” moment I’ve been waiting for! In a nutshell, because I recognize that my relationship with money/success/jealousy is different than the average American’s, and more like Will Smith’s (real or fake) response to Occupy Wall Street, I don’t want to accidentally ostracize myself from my family because of my values. This is what I’ve been most worried about, but didn’t realize it. I don’t feel that different, but I know they will see me differently, and maybe not so kindly, based on their own values and stereotypes about money. Things would change.

I’m relieved I kept my mouth shut…

The Challenge of Flight IV

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Coming to you live from Salt Lake City, Utah.

I now have photographic evidence that checking apps for flight status is superior to waiting to be informed by the airline. I first discussed this “rule” in my first post about the Challenge of Flight.

I’m not surprised that I will be delayed today. I made it into Denver an hour early on my direct flight on Friday. I was only delayed about twenty minutes yesterday on my direct flight from Denver to Salt Lake City, even with de-icing. So, I was due for a delay. This is how it goes for me. As you can see, I realized my second flight was delayed at 9:53 a.m. local time today.

I did a quick search to see if this was a resolvable issue, but there really isn’t anything I can do.

Okay, time to board. As you can see below, I finally got a text from the airline at 11:10 a.m., more than an hour after I knew about the delay. If there was anything I could have done, I would have been way ahead of the crowd. Can’t wait to get home!

UPDATE as of 3:07 p.m. Phoenix Local Time:

So, after I sat down in my seat in Salt Lake City, I received a new text that my flight was now delayed until 4:50 p.m. After taking some beautiful pictures of the mountains,

I settled into a pattern of obsessively updating the flight status thanks to the free wifi on the plane (well, it is free as long as I just search on the Southwest app or webpage). About halfway through the flight, the new time was moved back until 5:30 p.m. This was unacceptable. I saw that I could probably make a 2:55 p.m. flight to St. Louis, and then go to Columbus from there. As soon as the flight landed, I called to see if they could make the change for me; she said I needed to deal with it at the airport since I was in mid-itinerary. I deplaned and rushed to the gate (it was directly across from where I deplaned). I was put on stand-by. Within the five minutes I was standing there, the flight from St. Louis to Columbus went from a 30 to 45 minute delay, AND the flight from Phoenix to Columbus went backwards to a 4:35 p.m. departure. So, I got off stand-by and am now patiently (ha!) waiting for the 4:35 p.m. departure. Of course, I am still obsessively checking for changes. Unfortunately, there really isn’t anything I’ll be able to do if this flight doesn’t leave. All of the other flights to anywhere east have left already. Time to scrounge up some dinner and hope for the best.

Live, From Denver

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Good Morning from the Mile High City! I arrived yesterday to visit my Aunt. She invited me to a meeting at 7:00 a.m. this morning (yes, on a Saturday), and I accepted. The sunrise was worth the early wake-up call.

I’ve been very lucky to have the freedom and financial resources to visit with family this year. I’m also grateful that Mr. PFL is supportive of these trips, even though he stays home for some of them. At least he has Norman to keep him company.

(As an aside, I’d never bought a cat bed until about two months ago - Norman LOVES it. Who knew?)

I’ve felt more “aware” of my trips to visit with family this year than I have in the recent past. Realizing that we are so close to having the ability to do anything or go anywhere we want has made me focus on being present in these visits. I’m savoring the time we have together, because I am anticipating a time when we might go several months or years without having face-to-face interaction. This year has also been laced with loss, including my grandfather (who I was lucky enough to visit with the week before he passed), and Norman’s “brother,” our other cat (who was also Mr. PFL’s best friend). These losses have caused us to grieve, but also to be committed to what is important. Speaking of which, the theme of the meeting from this morning was “Re-Dedication.” Therefore, I hereby re-dedicate myself to the goals of financial independence, paycheck-free living, and enjoying all of the experiences life brings my way. I also re-dedicate myself to my family, especially Mr. PFL, and will do my best to enjoy the time I am able to spend with them through this holiday season.

Forward Progress Update

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We are on our way home from Minnesota. Just sat through a bit of de-icing at Chicago Midway, but we should only arrive about 15 minutes late (which is basically early for me). I’m looking forward to getting home after two straight weekends in Minnesota, but I’m not looking forward to the expected weather. We are likely going to be dealing with our first snowfall of the season by the time we get up tomorrow. Thankfully I was proactive enough to leave messages for a couple snow-removal companies on Thursday to get a quote for BD (the 6-unit building). One company finally called me back this morning and we agreed to a one-time trial service. It is much more expensive than I was anticipating, but it is a necessary expense (unless I did it myself) and required by Ohio law due to the number of units. Since I failed to reliably get my car out of the garage when it snowed last winter, a snow removal service makes the most sense. We only had two tenants in the building for most of last winter and they were used to shoveling and salting; the new tenants will expect the snow will be removed.

A couple weeks ago, I reached out to our real estate agent and a contractor regarding our current home. Our real estate agent finally got back to me with some comps and a projected listing price for our home. The comps varied dramatically, from about $200,000 to almost $700,000. His opinion is that we could list our house, as is, for somewhere between $550,000 and $575,000. This is more than the projected value for our net worth purposes. It is also $120,000 to $145,000 more than we purchased the home for in October 2011.

I reached out to the contractor we had used for some exterior work to get an estimate for adding a full bath. Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten together yet. He called me when he was about 3 minutes from our house one evening, and I was in the middle of making meatballs for dinner, so I asked to reschedule. I haven’t heard from him again. Our real estate agent sent over the name of a contractor last week, so I’ll need to call him soon. Our agent also warned me that adding another bathroom isn’t likely to affect our sale price much, if we decide to sell. He said that, generally, you only get back about 70% of what you spend on a bathroom addition. I am hoping that, if we do decide to add a bathroom, we can just pay to have it roughed-in and pass any inspections. Mr. PFL and I should be able to do all of the finishing work (tile, attaching the sink and toilet, painting, etc.) since we have plenty of experience now after working on BD. I’d hope this would save us a lot of money, but I still have no idea.

Speaking of experience, a 5-unit apartment building I had my eye on this Summer is back on the market. It is only a few blocks from BD in the same general neighborhood. I see a similar potential in that the grand home directly across the street is in impeccable condition. The 5-unit is currently listed at $149,000 (and was when I saw it a few months ago, too). I’ve asked our real estate agent to look into it and to try to set up a showing this week. I’ve also already reached out to the lender we used when purchasing BD last year. The bank that we worked with was a small, local bank, and was purchased by a regional bank a few months ago. Thankfully, the lender that we worked with last year was still employed there. She seemed pretty impressed that we were able to get BD fully rented; I invited her to stop by at the end of November last year when we were in the middle of the renovations and two units were still completely empty; she seemed a little underwhelmed at the time. When we were talking to her about financing last year, there was also a police-involved shooting only a couple blocks away, so she seemed a bit skeptical of my plan to market the apartments to young adults with jobs. I reported that I was able to rent the five renovated apartments for $550/month for the 1-bedrooms and between $625 and $675/month for the 2-bedrooms. My expectation for the 5-unit building would be similar. We haven’t been actively looking for another rental real estate project, but if the price is right, the neighborhood is right, and the timing is right, it should be worth the risk.

But first, it is time to check on the washer and dryer at the Condo. I’m hoping appliances are on sale somewhere this week…