by Michele | Jun 9, 2014 | Preparation Stage
People on the west coast of Florida have the advantage of seeing the sun set over the ocean, but there’s something about an ocean sunrise that leaves me in awe. Maybe it’s because I am so rarely able to watch the sun rise or maybe it’s the reminder of my quiet early morning drives to work with Carter half asleep in the backseat. Sunrise may not always be as spectacular as the reds and oranges of sunset, but I love to watch the quiet beauty of the world waking up to the pinks and blues of the morning.
Last week was my first opportunity to watch the sun rise in our new marina in Lantana. While I’m not usually up in time to see it, I was glad to be awake on this beautiful morning.
by Michele | May 30, 2013 | Preparation Stage
Where we wish we were now
I have been told that there are people in the world that enjoy getting home after a vacation. I am not one of them. Nothing says “Welcome Home” like rainy weather, heaps of laundry, and a busy week at work. We’ve got some great stories and plans from vacation to share in the next few weeks, but those will have to wait until I can shake the drowsiness caused by no sunlight. For today we have a little business to catch up on.
First of all, congratulations again to our book winner Dyce! Dyce is currently from Wisconsin and sails a Pearson Ensign on Lake Michigan at home. He is planning to go cruising in the future, but is still in the early stages of the preparation. Best of luck to you Dyce and we hope to meet you someday on the open ocean.
Secondly, you may have noticed that the site has undergone a fairly major transformation. We recently decided to upgrade our WordPress theme with a product called Elegant Themes, which we think looks a little cleaner and works better on tablets and cell phones. Dan also brushed off his graphic design hat and designed a new logo for us which I absolutely love, but I may be a little biased. We hope you like it too.
Here is a sampling of our lengthy design process.
Finally on a more personal note, today is our 5th wedding anniversary. Some days those 5 years feel like they’ve flown by and other days I can’t believe it’s only been 5 (though to be fair we have been inseparable for more like 9), but everyday I feel truly blessed to be part of the beautiful relationship that we have worked so hard to foster and grow. I look forward to many more years of this amazing adventure with the one who holds my heart. Happy Anniversary, Honey!
by Michele | May 16, 2013 | Preparation Stage
As part of our new eating-at-home regimen, Dan and I decided to make a small garden in our backyard this spring to help get us some healthy, fresh food options. Last year, we attempted to solve this issue by joining a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group where we bought a “share” of local farmers produce crops that we could pick up once a week. As noted in our post Julia Who?, we didn’t do too well with making use of the many unknown vegetables that ended up in our kitchen so we decided to try out our green thumbs this year.
We started by picking out a spot in our backyard and tilling it with a borrowed gas-powered tiller. A few things came to our attention pretty quickly. First, the soil in our backyard is amazingly rich and black, as in potting soil black. A neighbor told us later that our house used to be the “manor” on a large apple orchard that encompassed most of the neighborhood in years gone by. Because of this, we didn’t need to add any additional garden soil to our bed but just added some tasty cow manure fertilizer. (Carter kept telling me very seriously “there’s cow poop in there, Mommy.” I think he was concerned.) The other thing we noticed was that one side of the garden is almost certainly located over an old gravel driveway which we didn’t realize until after tilling the whole area. Now we have some nice white rock mixed in with that row. Oh well, you win some you lose some I guess.
Next, we attempted to shop the local greenhouse by bike to pick up our preferred crops but unfortunately had to defect to visiting Lowe’s when we couldn’t find much more than flowers. I mean, flowers are nice and everything, but I’m more of a practical girl myself. If I’m going to be down in the dirt, I’d better be getting something delicious out of it. We returned with 3 tomato plants, 1 red bell pepper plant, 1 cucumber plant, a bunch of red and yellow onions, broccoli, arugula, and seeds to grow lettuce, spinach, and cilantro. Being the gardening noobs that we are, we weren’t quite prepared for the amount of plants that 1 little tray actually buys you. We are going to be eating a lot of broccoli and onions in the coming months, that’s for sure!
This week we had a bit of a frost scare (in May, seriously?!) but luckily didn’t lose any plants. Our seedlings are all popping up on schedule and we are looking forward to some fantastic veggies in the near future. Last night we harvested our first small batch of arugula and it was certainly worth the effort! We’ll keep you posted on whether the rest continues to produce such excellent results.
by Michele | Apr 4, 2013 | Preparation Stage
To start off a month of posts about finances, Dan and I need to make sure that everyone knows our baseline. We come from average middle-class families who have good jobs and provided well for their children in the sense that most middle class parents do: clothes, food, housing, low budget car in high school, etc. Dan’s parents paid for his college education, mine did not, but we still left school with only around $4,000 in student debt and no real savings to speak of. We got jobs after college that made cumulatively $70,000 and bought our first house (a foreclosure in Dan’s parents’ neighborhood) on the $8,000 new home-buyer credit in 2009 for $110,000 (for those of you who don’t live in Central Illinois, money goes a long way in our house market compared to other areas). Then we proceeded to buy a couple of new and almost-new cars with car loans for somewhere in the vicinity of $40,000 total. In 2011, we both got raises and now make a total of around $95,000. (You may note a conspicuous lack of credit card debt. That’s because we’ve never had any. Thanks mom and dad for teaching us that credit cards are good for only one thing…free rewards!)
So, we when started our retirement planning in 2011, it looked something like this:
Income: $95,000/year or ~$5,500/mth after taxes, 401k, and health insurance deductions
House: $150,000 value, $50,000 equity, $1200/mth mortgage, property taxes, and house insurance
Cars: $40,000 value, $0 equity, $900/mth car loans and insurance
Other Debt: $5,000 student loan debt, $50/mth payment
Other Spending (food, clothing, entertainment, etc.): $2000/mth
Savings: Income ($5,500) – Spending ($4,150) = $1,350/mth Savings (though in reality it was usually closer to $1,000/mth that would make it into the savings account)
As you can see, $1,000 a month into a savings account was pretty nice savings compared to most people, but $12,000/year was going to take a long time to turn into enough money to live on the interest and buy a boat, especially because we were starting with around $5,000 in the bank and whatever assumed equity we had in our house. So we needed to save more money and find some better investments that we could use to live on. As you can see above, we were spending a whopping 40% of our after-tax income on our house and cars. In America, banks will tell you that is perfectly affordable and it was…if we wanted to “afford” a 9-5 job for the next 30 years.
Here is what we have done in the last year and a half to improve on our savings rate and investment income:
- Sell our over-priced luxury vehicles and buy two dependable used cars with cash. This saves us money on payments and insurance, since now we only carry liability insurance. Cost: $5,000. Savings: $800/mth
- Eliminate student debt. The payment wasn’t high, but we didn’t want to have that liability while cruising. Savings: $50/mth
- Sell our house and buy a smaller one which will become a rental or get sold when we leave. Savings: $800/mth and $25,000 in cash (after down-payment and repairs on new house)
- Purchase 2 rental homes using cash from house sale. Cost: $18,000. Net Income: $700/mth.
- Moved $6,000 from savings account into Vanguard 80/20 investment account. Anticipated income: ~$30/mth
- Adjusting spending habits (still in progress). Savings: $500/mth
Current Cash on Hand: ~$22,000 New Rate of Savings: $3,000-$3,500/mth
Saving money is always a work in progress, which we will go into a little more later this month. Our goal is to purchase 2 more rental houses by the end of this year to solidify approximately $1,000/mth in net profit after expenses and vacancies. Then, we are off to the races to save somewhere in the $50,000-$75,000 range with which to purchase our new floating home. It will be a challenge, but I think we’re up for it!
by Michele | Feb 27, 2013 | Preparation Stage
I don’t think that smile could be any bigger.
Our son Carter has had an obsession with toothbrushes since he was six months old. Not trucks, helicoptors, or trains…toothbrushes. He wants to hold them and brush his teeth, carry them around the house, and he knows exactly which brush belongs to which person. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone say, “That kid is going to be a dentist someday.” Being a dentist would certainly not be a bad career path for my son to aspire to in the future, but my real hope would be not just that Carter would find a profession he wanted to be, but find something he loves to do.
I believe that our culture is a little too stuck on this idea of being. I am a Mom, Engineer, Waitress, Police Officer. I want to be a Ballerina, Teacher, or Baseball Player. What if instead of aspiring to be someone, we aspire to do something instead? What do you want to do? Teach, scuba dive, sail, help people, save lives, play baseball, dance…you name it. Now, instead of trying to fit your actions into your label, just forget the label and do the actions. When you are doing what you love, who you are to other people becomes a lot less important all of the sudden.
That’s all nice and fluffy to think about, I know. What about food, and house payments, and my student loans to get that label, you say. Well, the beauty is that usually the people who are really loving what they do are the ones who are the most successful at it. And, unless what you want to do is own a fancy sports car and million dollar yacht, you probably need a lot less money than you think. So let me ask you, what do you want to do? Then go do it.
Follow your Dreams. Follow the Horizon.
We are normal (well ok, not so normal) people that have a dream to see the world and live life as it was meant to be. We both have successful careers in the healthcare industry, even in this terrible economy. We want to break free of the current cycle of trading time for dollars and dollars for more and more things we don't need. So, we have decided to forego the fruits of our economic success and "retire" well before we are 30 and set out to see what is over the Horizon.