Wife's daughter us staying with us for a week. This is fine..... except she brought devil dog with her. My wife promised me daughter would take care of it. But Xmas Eve, the only day wife and I could get some us time this holiday, daughter left town and dumped devil dog on us. Combined with my crappy day at work, wife and I got in a fight about all this. Merry Christmas.

Today is my normal work from home day. However I chose to go into the office because it is more peaceful here. Go figure.

Ahhh.... A new day....

Everyone is out of the house and it sure is nice. It's great to have a bunch of people here but it's also great when they leave.

My sister and my niece stayed a couple of days. My sister has settled her divorce and has a big pot of money she is itching to do stuff with. She has been talking for quite some time about investing in real estate in this area. I sort of nodded my head and all for a while, but she is really serious and ready to go, and she wants me to go with her. I'm not exactly sure what my role will be but I'll do some management at least. We haven't discussed details.

I have to say I'm a little cautious about this. Mixing business and family doesn't always work but at the same time, the timing of this seems sort of karmic. I think this will be a perfect thing for me to make a little money, and keep just busy enough that I can do the other things I want to do.

My last day at work is definitely mid-march regardless.

I'm currently on a call where a bunch of people that have all been there over 10 years are discussing the ins and outs of something that might or might not be wrong that I have to fix and I am completely and utterly clueless.

2 more months.............

Haven't reported because there isn't that much to report.

Yet another retirement wrinkle. Because I'll be making more this year than the limit the government has for drawing social security, if I do draw on my birthday, I will actually lose any money I would draw this year (and maybe more). I haven't done the exact calculations. So...., this essentially means I won't be drawing any social security this year (one way or another) so at best I won't declare until next year. My monthly payment will go up a bit, though so there is that.

It also means I really really can't make much salary for the foreseeable future without being penalized. Ugh.

I'm not sure where that leaves me. I'm really ready to retire and I guess 3 months of social security checks won't make or break me but it kind of adds a bit of nervousness to my plan.

I'm really trying to figure out how to get alone time without making it an issue. I decided to take mondays off until I retire. However, biggerwife has decided to start working a 4 day week and guess which day she is taking off. Yep. My whole plan of getting a "me" day is gone.

She definitely picks up on the fact that I need some down time, but having her here and trying not to bother me is just as distracting as anything else. And, it makes me more self conscious about what I do and say.

I just want a few hours a week with nobody around. So far, that ain't happening.

Book 4 (actually, the first in the series) is coming along. The holidays sort of disrupted things and the illustrator has other projects. But she indicated she is full steam ahead on mine now. I'm hoping this gets done before retirement but maybe not.

I haven't looked at the text for the last book yet. It is the weakest of the series but I'm thinking there might be a lot there for the illustrator to work with to help the story out. I've been sort of debating whether to proceed with it at all.

Meanwhile, book 3 (hardcover and softcover) are now available on amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Loonee-Balloo...words=u.+burch

My sister is still full steam ahead on the real estate proposition. I've been scouting stuff out in the area. I think she'll have to be patient to find good deals.

She has a money guy she really trusts who hopefully can help us with the nuts and bolts. I can run the numbers ok, but I don't have a clue whether or not they are good numbers or bad numbers.

biggerwife and I had a long discussion about "me" time. At first it was a bit emotional because we are both really stressed. But after we talked through it I think we worked it out.

cliffs: she's awesome

What little time I actually do get (won't be much until I retire), I'm attempting to focus on the books. Right now my attention is to getting my website up and running.

I feel like I'm having to retool here. Most of my career I've dealt with the back end code. Now, it's front end and I hate it. I'm trying everything I can to avoid html/css stuff but there is pretty much no way around having to do some.

On top of that, I have to learn a whole bunch of new applications. Wordpress, Elementor, mailchimp so far. They seem to work pretty well together but just navigating everything has been challenging.

I did get a "contact us" form to work. Pretty happy with this. Mailing list functionality is proving elusive though.

managing her real estate may work but never ever go partners or invest in real estate that you dont make all final decisions that cant be challenged.
oh btw i did get through florida and liked your area but liked the east coast better and bought a vacation place over there north of jupiter... beach on one side of the street and indian river on the other.. now to learn the fishing there. and the kind of boat to get. ideas?

putting s.s. off adds about 8% a year to your benefits. especially important to wait until 66 years old as then your wife gets your higher benefits if something happens to you if yours are higher than hers.

so waiting is definitely the way to go unless you cant live without s.s. until then. or are sick and likely to die before.

Good advice (more on this later)

Jupiter is very nice. Say hi to Tiger.

I definitely can help you with boats.

First of all, you need to decide what you will be doing more of - offshore or bay. The east coast is much better than here for offshore fishing. It gets really deep close to the shore. Here you have to go 30 miles to be in 100' of water.

If you are going to fish primarily on the river and bay, you'll need a skiff or a bay boat. If you fish primarly offshore, I'd go with something specialized for that. I have a hybrid because I like both. Once you can give me an idea of what type of fishing you'll mostly be doing, I can give you a few pointers on what to look for in a boat.

Yeah, I've been trying to do the calculations on this and I'm leaning towards waiting as long as possible.

So, my sister came to visit and we talked in length about her real estate endeavor.

Previously, we had a conference call with her money guy and he filled her in on the best way to structure (LLC) and a few things to think about.

I did some scouting for properties and tried to do the math on what she would have to do to be profitable. We first drove around to look at different areas around here. Then we had a realtor show us several properties - all different. I think she got a much better feel for the area and what to expect.

Then we had a long discussion about where I am (in life) and things I would be willing to do and not willing to do. I stressed that the most important thing for me right now is to slow down. I don't want to be full time anything and I don't want to be in any sort of stressful situation. She got it. She is sort of a guns blazing person and I'm not. So, I told her I would be happy to find a good real estate agent, look at properties for her, manage books, etc. But, under no circumstances would I be a property manager. I do not want to deal with renters. I think she is OK with that.

Then we talked about her time frame. Initially she said 6 months to be fully invested and running. I think by the time we talked through this she realized that wasn't realistic. Part of what we decided was that I would pursue a real estate license and be compensated that way. I don't want to do this for a job, but if I represent here I can make a little money here and there. As well as doing other odd jobs for her company. I don't need to make much.

I looked into the real estate license and it is a class followed by a class test followed by a state test. Not too expensive. However, once you get the license you must be sponsored by a broker to actually make transactions. I don't think this will be an issue. I can find someone willing to work with me on this. Again, though, I don't want to be an agent. I just want to be "her" agent. If this doesn't work out - no harm no foul.

As Ray indicated, being a partner has pitfalls and I'm not willing to go there.

This is our game plan for now. Game plans can change.

I'm still on track to quit my job. Approximately 7 1/2 weeks.

Today, at least, I'm pretty comfortable with that decision.

No update on the books. My illustrator has sort of disappeared. She does this from time to time so I'm not concerned. But, it would be nice to have at leat the 4th one done and down payment on number 5 before I quit.

mostly by fishing in the indian river and st. lucie. of course i will sneek out in the ocean on flat days. i do that on the oregon coast where it can be real treacherous.
i want to keep it trailer-able so about 20 feet is fine . i am very experienced in boats and fishing just not the area.

i have a couple aluminum boats for heavier water out west here. but down there no one uses them so it a fiberglass show. and will get some kind of boat fitting what i may do.

i am more interested in the shape of the boat rather than brands. most in florida water use some kind of bay type boat. with lower sides and center console.

Yeah, you don't see many aluminum boats down here.

If you know what you want, I'd suggest just going to a boat show. They have them all the time.

My first bay boat was a skeeter 22. It was great for the bay - big casting platform and could get in really shallow water. But there just wasn't enough room in the back for offshore fishing and it didn't ride well in bigger water.

A lot of people have skiffs that can get in, like 6" or so. With the poling platform in the back. Not really the kind of fishing I do, but they are really popular with people that target redfish and snook.

I don't know the area there, but there is an incredible amount of "thin" water here. There are places where you can't run the big motor at all.

I am currently on a conference call about a super duper high priority project that HAD to be in production by the end of the year (last year).

We did the work and sent files to the state. State said they were wrong.

So, the smart people regrouped and made us change everything. We sent those files and the sate said they were wrong.

The smart people now have even less of a clue about what to do than they did earlier.

No matter what the decision will be, it will fall on me to make it happen in a day since we are already waaaaayyyyyy behind. Hopefully, this drags on until I retire.

The retirement decision yo-yo continues. As of now, I'm still targeting mid-march. Everything looks good on paper but I'm still uneasy about it.

Our company is absolutely kicking butt in every respect. I'm guessing bonuses won't really much different than last year, but here's to hoping.

you can also retire and offer them to be a private consultant for hire on projects you choose to participate. this way when they get in a spot and hire you , you get to get payed super well for your time.

Yeah, I've done contract work before. I'm not sure how feasible it is where I am now, though. But I get emails all the time from recruiters in the area.

I honestly just don't want to do this anymore. I've gone over the numbers about a jillion times now and I'm pretty sure I'm good to go without ever having to work again. I just have to get used to knowing that my savings will go down for a period of time until other things kick in down the road.

After today:

Weeks until bonus check hits - 4
Weeks until last day - 6
Working days until last day - 30*

* still have a few vacation days to burn

The illustrator is on the home stretch. She sent me a spread. The story is called "One Windy Day".