Posted on

Road Gremlins

The bell is supposed to keep the bike and rider safe from road Gremlins. Doubly effective if a gift, which it is. Best if mounted close to the road. I mounted it on my brake padal. I think it scraped the ground on a few right hand curves. I love the Alps.

I tried to get a picture of it mounted on the bike with scenery in the background but it just didn’t work out.  This looks good though.

I have lots of pics and videos. None capture the beauty of the area or the great roads but I will get them posted at some point. What I need is a day or two of rain sitting in a cheap motel to figure out how to easily post from on the road. Unfortunately the weather has been perfect 8^)

Posted on

Of Death and Taxes

It’s a weird feeling. For 30 plus years I have always saved. There was never any question that funds were never taken out of savings, only put in. Sometimes there was not much left over from expenses to put anything into savings, but money never came out. Those were the rules. That is all about to change.

I think a large part of my stress is not so much about money, but about the new way that money has to be thought of. Before I had to think about how much, if any, was left over to put in savings. Now I have to think about whether there will be enough money in my accounts to last until I die. That means you have to start estimating the time of your own death. A weird feeling indeed.

When will I die? All planning and assumptions of the future revolve around this unknown. Sure, in the past while saving up for retirement I had to make an educated guess at how much I would need in retirement. Sure, that number had some assumptions as to how long I would need my funds to last. But that was different. That was a way to look at a target retirement date. Now, I have to look at a target final day. Add in estimates about future health problems and you have a very morbid line of thought.

Posted on

Holy Crap, IT’s almost here

2 Months and 8 days to go and I am freaking out. As excited as I am about retirement, as it approaches I am getting stressed. It is such a permanent decision, and any mistakes multiply over time, that it is hard not to be stressed.

I worry about money, about where I will live, HOW I will live, what I will do. I am worried about everything.

I had even decided to pull my papers and not retire this year. That lasted about 5 seconds. I AM going. There is some possibility of changing the date a few weeks later. This was always on the table, as I had chosen the current date of May 10 for two reasons. 1) it was the earliest I could possibly walk out the door if I used ALL my vacation time instead of getting a payout at the end. and 2) I originally planned on heading out of the country early June and wanted about a month to settle things here.

I have been thinking that I might want to change my plans a bit, partly because I have not actually done any planning yet, and partly because my initial plans were a bit too costly. I was going to get rid of almost everything I own, buy a new to me bike and fly it to Germany, then ride for 3 months or 3 years, staying at hotels and Airbnb mostly.

I am now thinking that I should ease into retirement a little slower. Move into a smaller apartment, plan on going to Europe for only a few months, then see what happens. This is not really so much a change in plans as a change in attitude.

But, as anyone that has talked to me in the last month knows, my plans are changing minute by minute depending on my current stress level.

Posted on

PERMANENT ADDRESS

Even if I am on the road for years, I need a permanent legal address in the US. Some of the full-time RV campers get a registration and address in South Dakota as it is still an easy place to do that. In fact, you can do that without ever visiting South Dakota. The best way is to get a family member to let you use their address. My family all live in places like Connecticut and Massachusetts. I really would rather have an address in what I consider the United States. Those other states would cost a fortune in taxes, not to mention a bit of my soul. I am looking in New Hampshire. It is a lot to ask of someone.

Continue reading “PERMANENT ADDRESS”
Posted on

GETTING RID OF STUFF

I have started to get rid of “stuff” and plan on how to get rid of the rest of all this “stuff”. I am naturally a pack rat, but I am also naturally a minimalist. These two conflicting natures often collide in a small storm in my head.

Getting rid of “stuff” is harder than I thought. Part of the issue is the realization that I may not actually like being without a home. I have read many stories and blogs of people who hit the road for what was planned to be years, only to find out that life on the road kinda’ sucks. Not everyone likes continuous motion. Not everyone likes to have all their possessions with them at all times. The problem is that you don’t find out for sure until you actually do it.

Continue reading “GETTING RID OF STUFF”