Shaz's journal

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shaz
Posts: 420
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

I’m starting a journal to keep track of progress, keep myself accountable as I set goals, and also think through various things such as a withdrawal strategy for when I retire. I have found others’ journals to be tremendously helpful and hope to provide the same to someone else.

November 2021 Update

Financial Overview

Mortgage - PITI 41% of total expenses
Groceries 14.5%
Personal Care 7.5%
Gas 7.3%
Gifts 5.9%
Horses 5.4%
Utilities 4.8%
Cats 3.4%
Communications 3.2%
Vehicles 3%
Eating Out 2.3%


Debts = $107k remaining on the mortgage

Savings rate = 39.9%*
*Note that this does not include pre-tax savings. DH and I both max out our 401(k)s. Neither one of us is in a high-paying field but we have been at it for enough years that we do have considerably more income than the average American household.

SWR = unknown. I don’t bother to try to track this as a single number because the impact of healthcare/health insurance is too much of an unknown right now. If DH and I were both to retire today, we have between 18 years (worst case estimate) to 35 years (best case estimate without reducing any of our current expenses) of expenses in liquid assets. I think that we would be fine either way because we are in our early 50’s and it isn’t all that many years before Medicare and then Social Security will kick in so I mostly view SWR as a non-issue. If we get roped into supporting family members this will change and I will start tracking it closely. This may sound selfish but I am not inclined to provide financial support to family members, even elderly ones, who either spend their money in what I think are ridiculous ways (cruises, multiple trips to stay in a hotel someplace warm during the winter, cable bill = 10% of monthly income, mortgage = 75% of monthly income, eating out for every single meal, getting a new credit card any time one maxes out, buying a new $40k thing because it is easier than reading the owner's manual for the old $40k thing, etc.) or just refuse to work while having no assets and mooch off of family for financial support for things like rent, groceries, and cigarettes.

Expenses Narrative

Mortgage—This is the same every month. I also am making additional payments on the principal (which I don’t include in this category) and intend to have the mortgage paid off by the end of 2023 (earliest contemplated retirement date). I will do some of it as a lump sum at the end so each month I put some extra on the mortgage payment and some in an investment account that I plan to use for the lump sum payment. I’m aware of the arguments in favor of keeping the mortgage and using the money to invest instead, but I think making a push to pay off the mortgage for retirement makes sense for 2 reasons. 1) This is a financial goal DH understands and supports. In the past, if there was “extra” money in accounts he could access, he felt free to spend the money. Since we set the goal to pay off the mortgage, all I have to do is remind him “that’s mortgage money” and he doesn’t spend it. Paying off the mortgage will drop our monthly expenses by approx. 30%. 2) We are getting close to our retirement date so I want to decrease our need for realized income as much as possible. There is a good chance that our best option for health insurance will be through the ACA marketplace in which case we will want maximum subsidies. DH is a state employee and will be collecting a pension once he retires so there is a limit to how low we can keep our income, and also we may end up getting our insurance through the pension program, but I want to keep our options open.

Groceries—There is a lot of room for improvement in this area. I prepare almost all of our food from scratch but I don’t use bulk foods or legumes as much as I should. I do use rice, oats, and quinoa pretty heavily. I have not had success at finding a local source for bulk staples. There are some ethnic markets I need to check out. One of them is on my way to and from the office so there really is no excuse for not having checked it out already.

Personal care—This was very high in November. I take advantage of holiday sales to stock up on a year’s worth of most of my personal care items (lotion, sunblock, shampoo, conditioner, soap). Sunblock accounts for more than half of my personal care spending through the year because I live at 7,000 feet above sea level and spend a lot of time outside. I do cover up with a broad-brimmed hat, wild rag, long sleeves, and long pants as much as possible but that is too uncomfortable for some sports.

Gas—November was a pretty typical month for gas, although the percentage of total spending was lower than usual due to personal care and gifts being unusually high. I work from home 3 days per week and DH works from home 1 day per week. We commute together on the 2 days I go to the office.

Gifts—I have been trying to get all the family on board with minimal obligatory holiday gifting but some gifting has to take place or cause lots of drama and hurt feelings.

Horses—This is typically one of my highest expense areas and also drives some other expenses such as the mortgage because the house comes with a barn and 5 acres of land for the horses. Even the basics such as hay and vet care add up. I will go into more details on the horse situation in later journal entries in hopes others have suggestions about how I can reduce the expenses and environmental impact of horsekeeping.

Utilities—This includes electric and trash service. We are on a well for water, have a septic system, and most of our heat comes from a woodstove + passive solar design.

Cats—Cats are another very non-frugal area for me. I have 5 of them; expenses most months are food and litter but some months expenses are very high due to vet bills. The oldest is 16 and the youngest is 11 and expenses can be expected to rise dramatically as they age. The oldest already needs special kidney-care food that costs 2 – 3x as much as regular food.

Communications—This is the cost for a landline that is the only option for internet at our house.

Vehicles—We have a car for most usage and a pickup truck that we use almost exclusively for hauling hay or towing the horse trailer.

Eating out—We ate out 2x in November. This is typical.

Healthcare/health insurance—My financials don’t include health insurance or healthcare expenses. I have a high-deductible health insurance plan and a HSA through my employer. My employer contributes an amount equal to the entire deductible into my HSA. I don’t bother trying to break out these costs right now because it will all change so much once I have to make my own arrangements for health insurance. I was being treated for cancer over the past year which did cost me about $10,000 out-of-pocket over and above my employer’s contributions. The total that my insurance company paid out was roughly $250k. It would have been extremely stressful if I had to pay all of that out of my pocket so I have come away with a greater appreciation for health insurance. Previously I had very low medical expenses (annual checkup and screenings and no medical issues) and did not appreciate how complicated health insurance and healthcare expenses can be. One big reason for me to stay employed for now is that having health insurance through my employer makes things MUCH simpler. I include this note in case someone else reading this journal is thinking about healthcare/health insurance options or is curious about the impact of serious illness.

Other Areas for Improvement

Health and Fitness—This should be a big area of focus and improvement over the next year. I was being treated for cancer starting in November 2020. Chemo and radiation left me feeble. Resuming a more rigorous fitness program, improving my health in general, and also resolving or lessening various side effects of treatment are goals for the coming months. I’m not sure yet what I want to track on a monthly basis. In November I got back into the gym for the first time since July for a total of 7 sessions. I expect to make it to the gym 2x per week most weeks. Over the summer I SUP’d or rode my bicycle 3 days per week; that won’t be happening during the winter. I do ride horses 1 – 2 times per week year round, and walk most days that I don’t do more strenuous exercise. I also want to lose some weight. Much to my surprise, I actually gained weight while doing chemo because of all the steroids I was given to combat nausea, plus I wasn’t strength training (hello muscle loss!) and many days the only foods I could keep down were simple carbs.

ERE projects—

1. First attempt at insulating a water tank for the horses. Keeping water for the horses thawed during the winter is one of my biggest sources of electricity usage. 5-gallon insulated water buckets are readily available but they don’t serve my need well because each horse drinks approximately 15 gallons of water per day. I can’t always refill a 5-gallon bucket often enough to ensure the horses have a constant supply of water. Also during very cold weather the insulated 5-gallon buckets tend to lead to a lot of water waste because they freeze and the ice has to be dumped out multiple times a day. I attempted to make a large insulated tank by putting a 35-gallon barrel inside a larger barrel and using foam insulation between the two. We will see how well it works. One area of difficulty will be getting the inner barrel out to scrub and empty it.

2. Finished spreading the year’s worth of composted horse manure on the pasture. This is a process that takes place through the entire spring, summer, and fall and is always a bit of a rush to finish before it freezes or gets buried under snow.

3. Had the first go at trimming my short hair myself. It is growing in from bald and figuring out how to do that gracefully is a challenge. Also the hair has decided to grow in curly instead of straight so now I need to figure out what to do with curly hair. I used to cut it myself when it was long and straight but that was much easier than fighting with the short curly hair. I watched YouTube videos to learn the basics of how to shape it up while it grows out, and then did a bit of trimming using the horse clippers.

4. My SIL has agreed we won’t exchange gifts for the holidays this year. This is a significant win because traditionally she has insisted that everyone has to exchange large piles of gift-wrapped items that none of the recipients actually want or need. I’m not sure yet if she will adhere to this agreement. I presented the idea to her as a way for us all to have more money available to help out my MIL who is in a bad situation financially. As mentioned above, I am not thrilled about helping out because the troubles are of my MIL’s own making plus she hasn’t actually stopped many of the behaviors that led to the problem so “helping” just seems like “throwing money into a bottomless hole” to me. But I do think it is better than buying and wrapping a lot of worthless crap. If nothing else, it minimizes the gift wrap waste. So we will give a sizable gift card to MIL as the only gift exchanged on that side of the family.

5. Built social capital and also cleared some space in my pantry by giving 3 unopened bottles of vodka to a friend.

6. Rebuilt some bad steps at my back entrance using salvaged wood donated by a neighbor.


Goals for Next Month

* Put some cash into i bonds.
* Close a stray savings account and move the money remaining in it into DH's Roth IRA.
* Go to the gym at least 8 times.
* Get my squat up to 50% bw.
* Check out the ethnic market on the way to/from the office.

shaz
Posts: 420
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

I put our electricity usage for the past 3 years into a spreadsheet yesterday and was happy to see we have been able to reduce our usage by 20% since the start. Hopefully the insulated water barrel will bring it down more.

When DH and I were both working from home 100% during the covid closures, electricity usage increased. That has gone back down as we have returned to the office (4x per week for him, 2x per week for me) but gas usage for commuting has increased.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Looking forward to following along. Curious as to what your plans are for pulling the plug at work? Money is clearly a solved problem at this point. How many years until your DH is able to retire with his pension?

shaz
Posts: 420
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

Fair questions, @2Birds1Stone. First I will say that there will probably be a lot of vacillating on this topic in future journal entries.

The state just updated its retirement formula. Previously, DH was eligible to start collecting his pension in 2025 so that is when we have been planning to retire. Now he is eligible to retire and start collecting his pension immediately. Yikes and hoorah.

I don't think we are ready to retire immediately for reasons I will list below, but we might be ready to retire in 2023.

1. We are both mentally and emotionally exhausted after the madness of the past year. I don't trust myself to make big decisions until I bounce back.

2. I still need to do a lot of expensive medical stuff until mid-2023. It's less complicated if I continue getting health insurance through my employer.

3. We had everything planned out to have the mortgage paid off in 2023 and then use the rest of the time until 2025 to build up a cash cushion. Most of our liquid assets are tied up in retirement accounts and we would need a new plan for how to handle that if we retire before 2025. Not that we can't make a new plan but we haven't yet.

4. My "retire to" is not very compelling right now because I am too weak to do a lot of what I enjoy. Spending time at a desk is not a bad option. Also going to my office is good for building up strength because I get to use a gym and have coaches who will encourage me to use it and also write my program each day. That's a lot easier than relying entirely on my own willpower.

5. It's scary. My tolerance for scary things is low at the moment.

6. I can't quit working until spring because I hate being trapped at home during the winter. If I don't have a good routine established heading into winter I will curl up in a ball and be depressed.

So to summarize, the plan is to exit paid employment in 2025, unless we decide to jump sooner. In 2025 it will look a lot like traditional retirement just a little early. We have started thinking about moving the date up to mid-2023. We don't have a solid plan for that yet.

shaz
Posts: 420
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

I'm trying to sort through and manage the thoughts and emotions driving me toward retirement and also holding me back.

Driving me toward are:
  • More time with horses
  • More time to spend on other things I enjoy such as paddling (kayak, canoe, SUP), cycling, hiking, gardening
  • Dive deeper into interests such as rockhounding that I have barely started
  • Try new activities
  • Less time in the car
  • Freedom to always be outside on nice days
  • Make the most of whatever time I have left with my husband
  • Travel to visit family I haven't seen in years
  • Free to move somewhere with less expensive land so I can have more pasture for the horses
  • Life is short, I want to do something different
Holding me back are:
  • It's easier and a lot less expensive to let my employer provide my health insurance for at least another year and a half because there are expensive medical things I know I need to do every few months
  • What do I do about health insurance on my own?
  • What will I do on stormy winter days when I don't want to do things outdoors?
  • Will I get enough human interaction? How will I build a new social circle?
  • Ego - at the office, I am high-status
  • Where can I direct my competitive impulses if not at work?
  • If my cancer recurs and I feel too sick to ride horses/paddle/etc., will I just sit at home and brood?
  • Where will I strength train and will I keep up with it without a coach?
  • More pressure to care for family members if I am not tied down with work

disk_poet
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Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2020 3:33 am

Re: Shaz's journal

Post by disk_poet »

@Shaz: Really interesting journal. I am really sorry to hear about cancer. I have a case of cancer in my friend circle and it sounds really scary and exhausting. I wish you all the best and strength!

One thought that immediately comes to my mind is some kind of reduced hours/semi-ere. Having a chronic disease myself that is what I landed on. Health care in Germany is different but I still need to be "in the system". It's something I can't walk away from. I also think that (hopefully) for me it will help with some social issues like my tendencies to become a hermit. I'm sure it's something you considered but I wanted to point it out because your list seems like an all-or-nothing situation.

Best wishes from Germany

shaz
Posts: 420
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

@disk_poet Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, most employers in the U.S. only offer health insurance to full-time or close to full-time employees. Some insurance companies even refuse to include part time employees in group plans.

That doesn't mean I can't work part time in order to solve some of the other "holding me back" issues such as socialization. If I get things resolved (even if only in my head) to where the remaining concerns can be resolved by working part-time, I need to remember to try that.

I could resolve the health insurance problem by retiring while DH continues to work because then I could be on his health insurance. I'm sure he would agree to do it but I wouldn't feel right about it. I want to find a way for both of us to retire. I am resolved that we will both retire in 2025 at the latest even if I have to accept a more stressful health insurance situation at that time.

Right now I am learning more about medical tourism and ACA plans/subsidies. I located some clinics outside the US that seem to be reputable and could have done the treatment I received over the past year for about 10% - 20% of what my insurance company paid in the US. That brings the cost down from ruinous to bothersome. A big downside for me is that DH would have to stay home to care for the horses so I would be alone.

Worst case scenario, DH and I could both get health insurance through DH's pension plan but current year cost for both of us is $2500 per month. That is a lot of money so I am saving up as much as I can just in case.

I have enjoyed your reading your journal and find it to be helpful. It was nice to see when you mentioned a few months ago that your health issues had lessened (even if it turns out to be temporary). Maybe medical tourism is something that could work for you when you are ready to exit the system.

shaz
Posts: 420
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

Where to live once we are no longer tied to our location by jobs? For a long time I dreamed of selling the house, and traveling around for a few years with the horses in a living quarters horse trailer. We could test out different locations to see if we want to settle down there.

What seems ideal is if we could drift around the mountain West during the spring, summer, and fall, and then go somewhere warmer for the winter. We have a number of friends near Steamboat Springs, CO and Jackson, WY that we'd like to spend more time with and those are both great locations for summer riding.

I tried to convince DH to move into a LQ trailer 20 years ago instead of buying a house. He wasn't ready to even consider it then but now he thinks it sounds good as long as I do all the planning.

I have done a fair bit of research into long-term traveling with horses and there are ways to do it reasonably affordably.

A used LQ trailer that would suit us can be obtained for $25k and can be resold in a few years for close to the purchase price if it is well-maintained. I can offset some of the cost by selling our current trailer for about $5k. As long as we don't go too big with the trailer we should be able to use our current truck to tow it. The truck is a 2003 Dodge diesel that can be expected to be good for another 200k miles.

One downside to the plan is that travel can be stressful for horses, and I would want to have someplace where I could give them pasture turnout at least 1 week a month. I do think there is a place in the mountains where I could work out a deal to lease pasture for a cost I could afford during the summers. There is a lot of National Forest land nearby where DH and I could stay in the trailer.

I vacillate about selling our house. It is a nice passive solar setup, which can be difficult to find. It has a well in a good aquifer, and a healthy septic system. If we add solar panels, we could go completely off-grid easily. It's 1400 sf which is bigger than we need but not uncomfortably so. The barn is also a good size for us and both house and barn are oriented correctly for the prevailing wind patterns. On the other hand, I'm tired of doing maintenance. And I hate cleaning house so the less the better. (Oddly, I don't mind at all cleaning the barn or scooping horse poop.)

I think I would like to at least have some land with fenced pasture and shelter for the horses. That way we know we always have a place we can stop and relax if things get crazy on the road. I'm not sure if that is actually rational or just fear talking.

I think once we retire, keeping the house will lose all appeal. I will have more time to figure out the complications of my dream to travel with the horses, and also this location doesn't make any sense once we are no longer tied here by work. Housing prices have gone up a lot since we bought this place and now the market value is over $500k. That can buy a lot of pasture in a different location.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Sounds like a very cool plan!

You may have already thought of this, but I was wondering if there would be some way to prototype your on the road with the horses lifestyle before selling the house? If you could acquire the used trailer (with fairly easy resell) with your current truck set-up you could spend increasing time away from the house (maybe rent it?) for a season or two before fully committing. If it were just you and your husband maybe not as big of deal, but there might be some unforeseen complications with your horses that are hard to anticipate in advance. In my (very brief, 1 season) time riding horses with a friend for Ride-and-Tie races, I remember the horses being the limiting complicating factor for distance from home (drive time), temperature, race selection, time away, recovery time, on the road emergency vets, etc. It was very hard to plan all of that in advance because there were so many interacting factors, but we always put the horse well-being first and foremost (as you will do).

To ask a different question, what is the 1 week, 1 month, and 3 month versions of this lifestyle to problem solve ahead of full-time?

shaz
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Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

@mountainFrugal yes I think a lot of prototyping will be necessary before we commit too far. And you are right that ensuring the welfare of the horses is both difficult and of utmost importance. I'm impressed you have some experience with this.

We currently haul the horses up to 2.5 hours into the mountains to ride in remote areas almost every weekend during the warmer months (as long as it isn't too hot to have the horses in the trailer). Luckily we live high enough that it doesn't get very hot most of the time.

Our current trailer has a front compartment where we have a futon over the gooseneck. We do occasional overnight trips at places where the Forest Service or BLM have corrals.

We also do a longer trip of 5 or 6 nights typically once a year. We haven't tried longer than that yet because the logistics get much more difficult once we need more hay than we can haul with us. You are correct that I should practice longer trips before committing to selling the house.

When we do overnight or longer trips, I have to identify local vets, alternative places to stay, places we could get away from a highway to unload the horses and let them rest if the trip gets prolonged by traffic delays, etc. Finding gas stations that I can use with the trailer in tow can also be difficult. It takes a lot of planning.

I think what will work best is to have a small range for travel where we get to know the roads, camping locations, and amenities well and then slowly expand that. I found a group on Facebook of people who travel with their horses fulltime. It has been very helpful for learning where we can stay with the horses because the group members constantly post details about where they are staying including where to buy hay, how long if a trailer you can fit into which campsites, etc. It is very informative.

Generally every county west if the Mississippi has a fairgrounds with horses facilities. These are useful for overnight on longer trips or emergency stops. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a directory that lists all of these so I have been putting together my own spreadsheet of fairgrounds locations, contact info, and rules. Some of them you have to call ahead of time to have them unlock stalls. At almost all of them you are supposed to pay fees if you overnight.

It sounds like one of the most complicated aspects of longer travel will be learning the regulations for entering each state and getting the required health certificates. A number of states require a health certificate with vet inspection within 24 or 48 hours prior to entering the state. That means you need to find a veterinarian in an unfamiliar location to do the inspection.

When I think about all of it at once, I get scared off from the plan, so I am trying to figure out small pieces at a time. I do think it will be easier to figure out once I don't also have to think about work.

white belt
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by white belt »

Great journal! I'm following along closely about the horses because DGF loves them and competed in eventing in college. If we stay together, our future will probably include two horses. I'd love to see a detailed breakdown of your horse-related expenses and any tips/tactics/strategies to save money related to horses that you've gleaned over the years. My understanding is that the ongoing expenses for horses can be hefty, along with the fact that transporting them requires a powerful vehicle and trailer. It sounds like with 5 acres you are probably able to let them pasture for most of the year, so that probably saves some money on horse feed.

One crazy project idea I have is to attempt to use a lot of the horse manure to feed a biogas digester that provides cooking and maybe heating fuel. What do you do with all the horse manure in the winter when it's too cold/snowy to spread across the fields?
Last edited by white belt on Tue Dec 28, 2021 3:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by Western Red Cedar »

shaz wrote:
Tue Dec 28, 2021 6:51 am
I think what will work best is to have a small range for travel where we get to know the roads, camping locations, and amenities well and then slowly expand that. I found a group on Facebook of people who travel with their horses fulltime. It has been very helpful for learning where we can stay with the horses because the group members constantly post details about where they are staying including where to buy hay, how long if a trailer you can fit into which campsites, etc. It is very informative.
I'd encourage you to build on and explore this idea. I recently read Running with Sherman by Chris McDougall which is a well-written and entertaining story about rehabbing a miniature donkey and running a 15 mile burro race in Leadville, CO, but also gets into the details of keeping animals and the importance of community in those endeavors. The author talks a bit about how impactful horses and donkeys are for kids on the autism spectrum, as well as other humans.

I know next to nothing about caring for or traveling with horses, but I bet there could be a large network of people that would give you a place to stay in exchange for meeting and interacting with your horses. This could be a really meaningful way to travel, and to do so cheaply. You'd just need to figure out how to tap into that network.

My sister and her kids are one example. They have 35 acres of land and their girls love horses, but they've only ridden a handful of times for birthday or Christmas presents. I'm sure they'd jump at the idea of hosting a traveling couple with horses.

shaz
Posts: 420
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

Thanks, WRC, that's not something that had occurred to me. I'll have to look into it. One of my horses actually enjoys interacting with people and we frequently stop on trails to let children pet him and learn more about him. He is a mustang who started out as part of a wild herd in Wyoming. We adopted him from a prison program where one of the inmates got him used to being around humans. Too bad there isn't some sort of Harvest Hosts deal for horses!

The book sounds interesting too. I will check to see if our library has it.

mooretrees
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by mooretrees »

I think there is a horse version of "Warm Showers" in your future Shaz. Or you could start the blog/zine with all of the research you're doing? Energy permitting of course.

My sister is considering becoming a traveling nurse and taking her horse on the road with her. You're not the only ones thinking of it.

Hope to read more, even if it's a lot of vacillating! Work out the thoughts in your journal, it's a great option to hear from others and just get the thoughts down.

shaz
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Location: Colorado, US

Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

@mooretrees Hi, thank you for the suggestion.

Tell your sister she should look up the Road Apple Gang group if she uses Facebook. That's the group of full-time travelers with horses that I mentioned above. There are a number of traveling nurses in the group - it seems to be a good fit.

I'll think about your suggestion to create a blog or zine or something. Creating new trade journals and magazines is something I've done professionally and enjoy but ... One thing I've learned about myself is that I love creating and launching a new publication, and then I get bored and am ready to hand it off to someone else in about 2 years so I would need an exit strategy before I start. At work I just find someone more junior and say here you go, this is a great growth opportunity for you. It might be more difficult to find a willing volunteer in real life.

I maintain an online equestrian trail guide but that's just because I can't remember how to find all of the lovely trails I've ridden if I don't document them somewhere. Between age and concussions and chemo, I'm lucky if I can remember where I left my shoes much less how to find a trailhead on an obscure Forest Service road 300 miles from home.

I hope you'll let me know if your sister does end up taking her horse on a traveling assignment.

Married2aSwabian
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by Married2aSwabian »

Just reading your journal now after searching the forums for health insurance (ACA). So sorry to hear about your cancer diagnosis and hope that you are well again soon.
DW is an animal lover and we also had a five acre farm with 100 YO farmhouse and barn for 14 years. We had one horse: a Norwegian Fjord. We also had goats, chickens, dogs, cats, bunnies and probably a bunch of other animals I didn’t even know about! It was fun … a lot of work, but fun. We never did invest in a trailer for the horse, as we also didn’t have a vehicle with enough HP to pull it, so he was on our pasture and my wife loved having him, but didn’t have enough time to ride and train him…he was also a mellow, somewhat stubborn and very strong horse, who was motivated to eat a LOT of hay, but not jump through many training hoops. :D

I hope that your able to figure out a plan for traveling with your horse - sounds awesome!

Have you considered doing this as part of a small group? Might make it easier for planning, logistics, finding a vet when needed, etc…

I should add that my main job on our farm was to build shelters for all the animals and keep outbuildings in good shape. My knowledge of horses is limited enough that whenever we’ve gone somewhere for a trail ride, I get a VERY well-broke horse named “Fancy”, “Lunchtime” or the like. :lol:

shaz
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Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

Hi @Married2aSwabian. Your farm experience sounds like a lot of fun. I lived in a pre-Revolutionary War farmhouse for a while as a child; it scared me off from old farmhouses. Was your 100-yr-old house a money pit?

My husband has said no to chickens and rabbits because he disliked taking care of them as a child and also he knows I get too attached to each animal we have.

The truck and trailer along with the horses are our main recreational expenses. We actually did pretty well purchasing the truck and trailer - we got them for a combined $12k about 15 years ago.

Our social circle mostly revolves around horses. We travel to trails with friends and meet up with others at the trailhead most weekends. I worked in the equestrian world when I was younger but eventually decided to go a different direction for employment.

So far I have an area that includes most of Colorado and Wyoming where I feel comfortable traveling with the horses. It should be easy to add Texas and the Dakotas because we have friends who travel with their horses to those locations. Beyond those areas, you are right, I should try to find new friends to travel with.

I wish I had more ACA info to share. It's helpful to plug your info into your state exchange web site and learn more about what is available. However, I suspect that all the reading and info-gathering you can do will still leave gaps in your understanding of how it actually all plays out. If health insurance were a solved problem I would retire today.

shaz
Posts: 420
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

December 2021 Update

Financial Overview

Mortgage - PITI 35.3% of total expenses
Groceries 14.3%
Gas 8.1%
Cats 6.6%
Gifts 5.9%
Household 5.8%
Communications 5.7%
Horses 4.8%

Debts = $104k remaining on the mortgage

Savings rate = 45.92%*
*Does not include pre-tax savings. DH and I both max out our 401(k)s and I max out my HSA contribution. DH does not have the option for an HSA.

Months to planned retirement - 24. Holy crap.

Expenses Narrative

Mortgage—This is the same every month. I also am making additional payments on the principal (which I don’t include in this category) and intend to have the mortgage paid off by the end of 2023 (earliest contemplated retirement date).

Gifts—We purchased a large gift card to give MIL for Christmas per the agreement with SIL. We also had some small gifts on hand for SIL and her boyfriend just in case SIL disregarded the gifting cease fire. In happy news, the cease fire held and there was no exchanging of worthless things.

Communications—This includes the annual fee for my cell phone service, which increased from $99 to $109 this year. I have a prepaid plan that I pay for once a year. I use the phone/text service infrequently and mostly rely on wifi because there is no cell coverage at my home so the cost increase is annoying even though it isn't really all that much money.

Cats—Cat food has gotten more expensive recently because our oldest cat is 16 and had to go on special food. I found some of the special food on sale so stocked up. Hopefully next month will be less expensive. I don't plan to replace cats as they pass on but it's not something I'm looking forward to; I'm just ridiculously attached to them. Cat-related expenses will probably rise steadily over the coming years as they age.

Gas—Gas was high this month because DH made some trips to help MIL move.

Other Areas for Improvement

Health and Fitness—I don't enjoy riding horses when the temperature is below freezing so rides this month were shorter than usual. As compensation, I did lots of trotting to maintain the horses’ fitness. A happy side effect of trotting is that it is also a lot of work for me. I hadn't done much trotting for about a year. But the trotting in December went well so I hope to keep up with it.

I also don't enjoy riding a bicycle in the cold and the bicycle doesn't suffer from lack of riding so I didn't cycle at all in December.

We don't get enough snow here to do snow sports at home except on rare occasions. I miss being able to make a cross country ski course in the pasture. I miss having an office 5 minutes from the ski lifts and being able to get in runs every day at lunchtime. I miss ice skating and hockey. I am in a sulk about winter.

I should ask someone else to do my programming at the gym. I don't include enough variety when I write my own program. I have been holding off asking anyone else to do it because I wanted to work back up to training like a normal person. I was worried someone else would either be scared off by training a sick person or baby me too much. Yesterday I talked to the woman who used to do most of my programming and it sounds like she will be willing to resume next month.

Chemo damaged nerves in my hands and feet. The numbness in my fingers makes me clumsy and also I can't feel when I am injuring myself. As a result I regularly cut or burn my hands when I cook. I am not sure how to fix this. I don't want to stop cooking.

Finances—In an effort to reduce ongoing healthcare costs, I had my maintenance medication refilled through my insurance company's home delivery pharmacy. The insurance company suggested this as a way to reduce expenses. I don't know yet if it is actually less expensive than picking up 30 days' worth at a time from my local pharmacy. Due to the insanity of how healthcare pricing and insurance billing is handled, I was unable to determine prices either by calling the insurance company or the local pharmacy so it is all a mystery but at least I won't have to drive to the local pharmacy if the meds are delivered to my house. Ultimately a lot of the medication expense is covered by insurance so I have found the insurance company is generally correct when they say something will save $. I should be able to compare prices on my first refill after Jan 1 when my deductible/max out of pocket resets.

Getting my meds delivered turned out to be quite stressful so I am not sure if it is worth it at any savings level. The online pharmacy sent me an email saying they were shipping the meds and I would have them by the date I needed them. But then the meds didn't arrive when I expected them to, and when I contacted the pharmacy about it, I learned they had never shipped the meds (and couldn't provide an explanation as to why). It took hours on the phone with customer service to get them to overnight the meds so that they would arrive before I ran out of my supply on hand. As this is medication that I need in order to STAY ALIVE it was very stressful.

We bought I bonds with some of the cash cushion. I have been increasing the cash cushion in anticipation of retiring in 2023.

Reducing—
  • Emptied out some binders and put the binders in the supply room at work.
  • Donated under-utilized winter clothes to the homeless shelter.
  • Dropped off some throw pillows at the thrift store. Why did I ever think that it was a good idea to clutter up the house with throw pillows? What a stupid idea! I should have gotten rid of the pillows a long time ago and instead kept them in a closet because it was hard to admit I never should have bought them in the first place.
  • Started reading up on what I will need to do to start selling old comic books on eBay. It seems like way more hassle than I want to deal with but I need to unload a couple of boxes worth and lighting them on fire probably isn't the best solution.
ERE projects—Do things I think about doing but don't actually do count in this category? No? Then there's not much to report.
  • Repaired a broken mop by using a dowel inside the handle.
  • Tried planting the root end of a green onion to see if it would grow. So far it has not.
  • Glued my butter dish back together after I dropped and broke it.
  • Made red beans and rice for the first time. It was quite tasty and will go into the regular rotation of bean dishes.


Social—Helped MIL sell her too-large house and move into a right-size apartment. Eliminating the maintenance demands of the house should relieve stress on the whole family. DH and I owe SIL some future work as she handled most of the downsizing of possessions for MIL. A happy side effect is that the effort involved in downsizing seems to have curbed both SIL's and MIL's enthusiasm for shopping as a hobby.

We have been getting eggs from a neighbor whose chickens are currently producing an overabundance. In return I share some of the baked goods I make using the eggs. They say they are happy to just give the eggs away with no expectation of anything in return, but I like to share the baked goods. Baking and cooking are creative outlets for me and DH and I should not eat as much as I want to bake.

Goals
  • Put some cash into i bonds. - success
  • Close a stray savings account and move the money remaining in it into DH's Roth IRA. - success
  • Go to the gym at least 8 times. - fail, went 6 times
  • Get my squat up to 50% bw. - success
  • Check out the ethnic market on the way to/from the office. - fail, current health situation is keeping me out of stores
I don't have any goals in mind for January. I have been feeling mentally and emotionally exhausted. I will try to think of goals later and add them.

Married2aSwabian
Posts: 265
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2021 7:45 pm

Re: Shaz's journal

Post by Married2aSwabian »

shaz wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 1:14 pm
Hi @Married2aSwabian. Your farm experience sounds like a lot of fun. I lived in a pre-Revolutionary War farmhouse for a while as a child; it scared me off from old farmhouses. Was your 100-yr-old house a money pit?

My husband has said no to chickens and rabbits because he disliked taking care of them as a child and also he knows I get too attached to each animal we have.
Wow, pre-revolutionary war farmhouse - that sounds amazing! Ours definitely needed it’s share of maintenance, but I wouldn’t call it a money pit. With the money we spent on improvements and maintenance, we just broke even when we sold it ten years ago, but a place like that is about more than just dollars and cents. We loved our time there and it also provided me with a baptism by fire type training for all things small farm related. It’s a good feeling having skills to use a chainsaw, tractor, wood shop, and be able to do carpentry, mechanical, roofing, plumbing or electrical. I suppose we’d be broke if I’d hired everything out!

With the chickens, just don’t tell DH … he’ll never notice. ;)

shaz
Posts: 420
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

@Married2aSwabian that is an impressive list of skills! I've never learned to use a tractor or a chainsaw because there have always been helpful neighbors who do tractoring or sawing when I need it. We don't till our land so my need for tractor work is very minimal. I have a small manure spreader that can be pulled behind a lawnmower but usually I just pull it by hand and call it a workout. Cheaper than a gym!

I'm pretty sure DH would notice chickens eventually. I borrow some from a friend for a few hours at a time to reduce the grasshopper population but then they go back to their real home. I suppose that is better than having to feed them through the winter anyway.

Why did you sell your farm?

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