Save More, Spend Less

Today, in short succession, my manager interviewed 3 candidates to share my job with me. Two males and a female.

At day's end, I peeked in his office and asked if he'd found someone. He shared some of the pros and cons of each: one had a nearly 2-hour commute, and another had a background as a marketing writer, not a proofreader (that was actually my situation, but perhaps he's afraid they might consider proofing a step down from copywriting and not stay long).

Bottom line, he wasn't thrilled with any of them but said he decided to take one of them on for an interim period, allowing me to begin my abbreviated work weeks, and tell the recruiter to keep looking.

He asked me what my preferences are in terms of my new work hours, and we agreed:
1. I will start the new hours next week.
2. I will work a full day Monday and Tuesday and a half day Wednesday. The full days would be 10:30 to 7 pm, OR, if things are busy, up to a 10-hour day, or 9 pm.

The schedule is actually a little different than what I anticipated, but in some ways it's better. I had been thinking I'd be working 3 full 8 hour days. But by working later for the 1st 2 days, I can work just a half day on the third day, giving me even greater flexibility with my time off.

The 2 longer days will be harder to do, but just knowing I'm only doing that for 2 days will probably help a lot.

The new person will have the same schedule, except he'd work a half day Wednesday and all day Thursday/Friday. There will be some overlap in our hours on Wednesdays and my manager is expecting me to train the new person in my company's style. We follow each pharma company's style, but absent that, we go by AMA style, but even then, the company's own style does at times veer from AMA, so it takes some time to get used to the idiosyncracies.

So if things were always maximally busy and I always worked 10:30 am to 9 pm (with a half hour for lunch), I'd get in a 25-hour work week, which is the most I'd want to work. At the least, I'll get in 20 hours, which is also acceptable to me.

Depending on whether I can take a week or two (unpaid) vacation, I'll be grossing somewhere between $32,000 and $40,800 (with the net ranging from $26,000 to $32,250), which should cover most of my annual living expenses, so my retirement nest egg can continue to grow.

I calculate that by working p/t, depending on the exact number of hours I work, I can cover between 70% and 86% of my average annual expenses this year. (My average annual expenses are based on my last 5 years.) Next year, the percentage of covered expenses should be 80% to 98% as I have just one remaining pricey home improvement I'm thinking of doing this spring (redoing my back patio).

Another thing to consider is needing to bring in enough food to keep me going for lunch AND dinner on Mondays/Tuesdays.

I'm sooooo excited, and I feel so much better about having a pretty well-paying p/t job I can keep for the next few years, if all goes well (and importantly, spend little to none of my retirement nest egg on my ongoing expenses), rather than trying to "retire cold turkey," in the face of a rather turbulent stock market.

This particular job is much easier and less stressful working as a proofreader than what I did all of my career, working as a copywriter. It's just the kind of job I was hoping to have toward the end of my career. I have no responsibility other than ensuring that everything we write/create is PERFECT. Meaning, No frequent, long or boring meetings, no phone calls and relatively little office politics. Yet the rate of pay is respectable and quite a bit more than I would have ever thought I could find if I were looking for part-time work on my own.

So I've succeeded in considerably shortening the amount of time I must spend at work, making more room for my dad, my friends and hopefully, letting me become more involved in different community groups, something I've wanted to do for a long time.

None of this would be possible if I hadn't so zealously prepaid my mortgage all these years, and then paid it off, because with a mortgage, my monthly expenses would be so much higher and probably make it impossible to even consider getting by on a part-time income.

I really wasn't sure I could make this happen, and I think I owe my success at least partially to my manager, who in the short time I've worked here, has always treated me fairly, and is a real straight-shooter, meaning, he says what he means and means what he says.

My dad will be thrilled.

A local high school kid here in Connecticut was arrested after he was overheard making another mass shooting threat. The school was closed. The cops found weapons at his home.

Meanwhile, in Parkland, Florida, one kid's mom is shopping for bullet-proof backpacks.

Insanity.

The stock market
I took a little peek at my investments, the first time since the correction. Things have recovered since then, anyway, so the drop was not too bad. Not enough to change any of my plans, although I heard at least one pundit, generational author Harry Dent, predicted the Dow would drop big:

"I think this is going to be a stock market peak of a lifetime followed by a crash very similar to the early 1930s. This happens once in a lifetime," Dent Research Founder Harry Dent recently told CNBC's "Futures Now."

He added: "I think this is the last rally in this bull market."

Work
Every week my dad asks me if I'm still working. Supposedly 3 interviews are happening this week; I haven't seen any candidates walk in though.

Otherwise, the beat goes on.

Food
I made an excellent mushroom soup, which I'll be finishing up today at lunch. I think the big key is using top quality broth and a variety of mushrooms.

I also made a quick apple crisp, modified from my grandmother's recipe with a great deal less butter and sugar, to use up some old apples that were well past their prime.

Just hearing of an expected nor'easter on Friday. High winds, tons of rain, snow, power outages. Maybe a good day to work at home.

Health insurance
Well, it's official. I'm on the healthcare exchange now....or more correctly, my state's exchange, known as Access Health. I got my ID card yesterday and paid for the first month of coverage.

I'm considerably worried about how long it may last, given the most recent lawsuit by 20 western states led by Texas to do away with Obamacare.

On my list of things to do this weekend is researching and then selecting a new neurologist and scheduling an appointment, a necessary step to switch my MS meds to a generic drug. I planned to do this anyway but I remember someone from my new health insurer (Conncecticare) saying if a generic drug was available, I'm required to take it if I want to be covered. So, yeah, once I pick a new doctor (my old one is not in network with my new plan) and schedule the appointment, I'll have to arrange for all my medical records to be transferred to the new doc.

This will all take some time. Luckily, I've been deliberately stockpiling my meds for just this kind of scenario, temporarily caught in between health plans, and it was actually during times like this when I was able to stockpile the med. I believe I have about 5 months of meds in the fridge.

Retirement planning
I went ahead and registered for the continuing ed class on tax-effective income strategies in retirement. It will be in early March, and I'm looking forward to it. I also registered for a free class on things happening in my town of interest to boomers and seniors. They are building a new senior center with a big pool and all, and there's also some national initiative the town has just joined that's supposed to focus on quality of life issues and support/resources for older people. Again, an interesting subject as I march toward my 6th decade.

Life advice from a dear friend
My oldest friend has started chemo treatments for his prostate cancer. He told me the other day he has detected a pattern, where on about the 5th day following the treatment (once every 3 weeks) he is incredibly exhausted and can barely drag himself out of bed. So he plans to rearrange his p/t work schedule around those bad days. He still wants to work p/t as a driving instructor for teens.

My friend is rather stoic about it all. He'll tell me very frankly and in detail what is going on at any given time, but he has no self-pity and doesn't dwell on it. It breaks my heart. He often urges me forward toward my semi-retirement, telling me it's time to smell the roses and enjoy life more. This, while he's facing his own mortality.

It's just part of a continuum of financial and life advice he's given me during the past 30 years. For many years, his advice was usually, "Save your money." "Don't waste your money on frivolous things." He was the most frugal person I know. I thought he would always say those things to me, but now, during the past year, he has encouraged me to start the new chapter in my life that is less involved with work and more about pursuing my personal interests and happiness. I am sure his cancer has something to do with that, but fortunately, he has lived a full life, fuller than mine. He says he has no regrets, just as my father says.

I'm feeling so thankful. I was almost involved in an accident last night, but I avoided it. I credit my Michelin tires and my antilock brakes for avoiding it.

I was driving home from work around 7 pm on a local highway known as Rt. 58. It's a two-lane road (one lane in either direction) and it twists and turns and is really pitch black.

I was making my way north doing about 40 mph. During the day, I do drive on it faster, but at night I worry about hitting deer all the time so I tend to go slower.

I saw the headlights of a car in the opposite lane, so I had my low beams on. I didn't know it yet, but it had come to a complete stop.

My eyes are on the road in front of me, and all of a sudden, my headlights pick up the glint of metal, and I realize, there's a car directly in front of me. But it was nearly invisible. It was almost disorienting, because I couldn't figure out why I did not see it until I was practically on top of it. I realized it was sitting perpendicular to the roadway, so I couldn't see the taillights, nor the headlights.

My first thought was that there had been an accident. And I was about ready to plow into it and make it worse. These were all my thoughts in just a few seconds' time.

I swerved to the left and jammed on the brakes. I was sure I was going to hit the car's back fender, but amazingly, my car came to a stop just INCHES from the other car, without hitting it.

I was so stunned. The 3 of us drivers, all sat there in silence for about 30 seconds. (This was also not a good idea, as I had put myself in the same position as the other car; now we were 2 cars, side by side and both of us perpendicular...and invisible... blocking both sides of the highway.) I was just trying to recover from the shock. Then the other driver pulled out, and I followed.

I realize now what happened. The other driver had backed out of a residential driveway onto the highway. Really not a smart move at any time, and much less so in the dark, on a rural highway with no streetlights.

Inexplicably, the car had stopped in the middle of the road and was blocking both lanes. Maybe they weren't familiar with the driveway or couldn't see where it ended in the dark, but instead of turning the wheel as they backed out, they just pulled straight out. Then maybe when they saw my headlights approach, they stopped. Which IMO, was really stupid, because as mentioned, they were practically invisible in that position on the road.

Aside from really wanting to know what caused the driver to do this (was it a teenager? An older driver? Something else?) I am so relieved I'm okay. I actually wrenched my shoulder just from yanking the wheel left as quickly as I did. Even going just 40 mph.

If I had been driving any faster, I doubt I would have been able to stop.

In other news, the IRS deposited my $1484 refund in my checking account...nice.

I've been feeling so impatient waiting for the wheels to churn with my pull-back in work hours. I raised the subject with my manager late January, and they finally will be discussing candidates, and who to call in for interviews, no doubt, this Wednesday. I had hoped to begin abbreviated work hours sometime in February.

I suppose it's still possible if they meet on Wednesday, schedule interviews Thurs/Fri, and have someone start on Monday.

I've recalculated some numbers to make sure I could still safely work full-time into March without exceeding the $45,000 cutoff for healthcare exchange subsidies. I think I can.

There are things I want to help my dad with. He's been talking about getting one of those mattresses where you can adjust the height and he saw TV commercials for a certain store that seemed to have a lot of these. It's in New Haven, and I don't want him driving there alone.

My friend R. had his 2nd chemo treatment. I have not seen him lately, but he said probably 25% of his hair is falling out and he is feeling more fatigued. I feel so bad for him, and I started calling him more often, just to talk and be a support if I could, but he seemed to not want that. I don't think he wants any pity. He actually asked me why I called him last time when we had exchanged emails that morning. So I guess I need to back off a little.

I have not checked my portfolio balances since the market downturn, and I'm glad it's recovered somewhat since then.

We had a 4 or 5-inch snowfall on Saturday but it was in the 40s yesterday and much of it has melted. I took the occasion of warmer temps to do some winter pruning of a large azalea bush I have in the backyard.

The weekend, especially Sunday, was pretty nice. Dad and I went out to lunch at our new favorite haunt, Connecticut's oldest inn. I also squeezed in some more buys at BJs in advance of my membership expiring at the end of the month. I filled up the gas tank, shoveled the driveway Sunday morning, did my state taxes (I owed about $185, only because they eliminated the property tax deduction for residents under age 65!) and I caught up on the last episode of Victoria on PBS after the Winter Olympics displaced it.

In the past, the maximum deduction for property taxes (which here in CT includes your home and car, which is taxed) was $200.

There was part of the Victoria episode i really loved, where Victoria and Prince Albert take a trip to Scotland to get away from all their worries at home, and they accidentally get lost traveling the countryside on horseback, relishing their time alone, away from their guards/militia.

While the palace mounts a search party, Victoria and Albert stumble upon a small cottage at nightfall and ask to spend the night there. The old couple living there have no idea they are entertaining the Queen of England and her husband, but the queen and prince are delighted at the simple fish dinner and sitting by the fireside as Victoria learns how to darn socks.

Somehow, I could really relate to the whole experience of wanting to get away from life's responsibilities and to reacquaint myself with life's simpler pleasures.

The forecast is calling for warm temps in the 40, 50s and 60s this week and next, so I'll have great walking weather. I do a half-hour before work and another half-hour at lunchtime.

When it comes to cost savings, I like to focus on the big ticket items like home mortgages, car and homeowners insurance and so on, rather than spending too much time on the little stuff. People like to say well, it all adds up, which technically may be true, but in the long term, you're better off focusing on your biggest expenses. We all have limited time to spend on this stuff, so might as well make it count.

Now that my mortgage is paid off, I'm applying the same logic to areas where i see potential for substantial savings in retirement, and the other day I pulled together the details of several opportunities I can take advantage of now, and in retirement. All 4 of these are income-based programs that either provide a generous tax credit, rebate or just plain NO tax if you meet the income guidelines.

Now until age 65:

Less than $38,600: 0% long-term cap gains tax
Less than $47,520: Healthcare exchange subsidy

From age 65 on:

Less than $35,300: State of CT property tax credit of up to $1,000
Less than $38,600: 0% long-term cap gains tax
Less than $45,000: Maximum town property tax credit of $2,525; income up to $55,000 = $1,750

The most stringent income guideline is the property tax credit offered by the state of CT which provides an additional $1,000 in property tax credit on top of what my local municipality offers.

These look like awfully low income guidelines. Can I do it? Yes, I'm actually pretty sure I can.

Here's a look at my actual annual expenses for each of the 5 last years:

Historical Total Expenses

2017 $35,994
2016 $42,972 ($30,305 w/out new driveway)
2015 $40,866 ($31,066 w/out front entry redo)
2014 $28,918
2013 $37,832

If you don't include a very large capital expenditure I had in 2015 and again in 2016, I never spent over $38,000 in the past 5 years.

Just organizing the info together in one place helps organize my thoughts and makes it easier to consider aiming for a low income specifically to take advantage of these savings.

See, this is just another reason to track your expenses every year, all year long...I'd never be able to project my expenses nearly as accurately if I hadn't been tracking my expenses all along. Once it becomes a habit, it's easy to do.

I've created a simple spreadsheet to do that so I can see YTD income in any given month.

There will be a few unknown sources of income, of course. Job income is the easiest to predict, but I will also build in possible income of let's say $1500 in any given year due to art sales.

In addition, I have just 2 taxable mutual funds; one reports its capital gains distributions in December, the other one, quarterly. But I can still estimate them based on what cap gains/dividends were in previous years.

If I get too close to the income threshold for any given tax credit program, I can also leverage my ability to lower my reportable income by making $6500 in traditional IRA distributions.

After the frenetic pace of activity yesterday, I am relishing a bit of down time here in front of the computer with cat and tea.

Thinking ahead, I still have most of a 5-gallon container of kerosene stored in my garage that must be used up by spring. Barring any major storms that cause a power outage, I will want to start burning that kerosene to heat the house; it's actually more efficient than burning oil.

So I thought I might start doing that in late February (though we've had plenty of big snowstorms in March, so I'll keep a reserve on hand).

I finished my first survey for my local community bank and answered just a few questions about my drive-up window experience. Not sure how exactly I'll be paid, but $10 a survey ain't bad.

Yesterday I found some water under my electric hot water heater that had dribbled across the concrete floor in basement about 5 feet. I sprung a leak.

First thing this morning I called a plumber, assuming I'd have to replace it. Got the ok to work at home to deal with it. It's 5 years old. Called the manufacturer as my paperwork indicated it was still under a limited warranty.

However this morning, the wetness surrounding the hot water heater had mostly dried except for one area near the back wall.

The plumber came, but concluded the hot water heater was not leaking becus, he said, it wouldn't start leaking and then stop like that; He said the water was seepage from outside; we had a lot of rain all weekend, and actually, this would not be unusual if it did. Duh, me.

I asked him to go ahead and give me prices for 1) upgrading to a longer warrantied hot water heater and 2) upgrading to a heat pump and 3) to determine if my current model allows you to replace just the anode, which is the first part to corrode.

I ran out at lunchtime and got a replacement wiper blade for the car.

I also finished my tax return and after 3 tries, was finally successful at filing the federal return. Will get back about $1400. (The gallery's accountant will be sending me a revised 1099 form.)

I don't have the energy to start my state tax return tonight but will do that this weekend.

I also applied/enrolled to a new health plan on the healthcare exchange. I should get the welcome kit in about a week.

All in all, a lot of important tasks done. I had no time for lunch today, nor my lunchtime walk!

I started working on my taxes around mid-afternoon and, 5 hours later, I am "almost" done.

The little glitch I ran into was how to report Miscellaneous Income reported to me by a gallery that sold some of my mother's work. It appeared to be a choice between lumping it in with my freelance income or putting it on Line 21 ("Other Income").

Dido very kindly advised me that it would be better to put it on Line 21 (Other Income); if it was added to my self-employment income, it would increase my self-employment taxes by an additional $200 or so.

Anyway, I'll have to wait til Tuesday to contact the gallery and see if they would be willing to amend the 1099 MISC form by putting the income under another box. Seems reasonable, and I'm hoping they will do it.

I decided to assume they would do this and forged ahead with my return. I was happily surprised to see that I overpaid my taxes and should get a $1484 refund.

Given my hodgepodge of income sources last year (2 W-2 contract jobs, 4 months of freelance work, the above-mentioned art gallery sales, taxable interest and dividends and some unemployment compensation, it was impossible to accurately predict what I'd owe. I did also make some quarterly estimated tax payments for the 4 months of freelance work, and I see now I could have skipped that entirely and still not owe anything.

I am hoping 2018 will be more straightforward.

If it turns out on Tuesday that the gallery won't amend that form, my refund will still be about $1200 and I will just need to redo the SE form and then recalculate on the 1040 form from Line 57 onward.

Once I determine that, I'll proceed with filing my federal return and then begin work on my state return. That one should be in decent shape because I also made quarterly estimated payments for the state when I did the federal tax payments.

So while my AGI was over $45K (that's before itemized deductions of over $11K), my taxable income came out to just $30,418 and my total tax was $3,986. So does that mean my personal tax rate was 13%?

I think I'd also better follow up next week with my benefit administrator, as the form they issued me indicating my health insurance coverage was wrong, stating I had insurance for 11 months of the year when in fact I had it for all 12 months. I talked to them a few weeks ago and she left me a message saying they'd amend the form.

Oh, feeling relief. I hate filing my taxes but would still rather save the money and do it myself. It's just a real burden and I try to do it as soon as possible each year. I also really try to avoid freelance work because I hate filing the extra forms for that.

I decided to scrutinize my projected expenses in retirement once again.

Because I was very conservative when I estimated health insurance premiums under Obamacare (at a time when the website was down), I later determined I overestimated monthly costs.

On a Silver plan, my costs this year will be $318/month.

The bottom line
Even after readjusting my heating oil and electricity expenses upward by 33% (accounting for the additional 8 hours at home, or one-third of a 24-hour day), my total estimated monthly expenses will be lower than I first projected, at $2,577 a month, or $30,924 a year. In theory, anyway. Unanticipated expenses will always come along.

Still, this is very nice to see since I've been saying I needed an income of between $40,000 and $45,000 in all of my retirement scenarios using various online calculators and Dido's and MonekyMama's expertise.

I found it helpful, this time around, to lump my ranked expenses into 4 "tiers," so I can more quickly see how they line up. I simply homed in on my ranked ANNUAL expenses and created individual tiers for those expenses that were clustered closely to one another.

Here they are:

Tier 1

Property taxes: $492 monthly/$5904 annually
(Senior tax credit at age 65: Max $2,525 refund with income up to $45k)

Major home improvements: $417/$5,000 annually
(Allowing $5,000 annually for discretionary home improvements) To do:Attic insulation, back hall shelves, upstairs bath vanity, mouseproofing basement, garage door, LR/DR walls.

Health insurance: $318/$3816 annually
Access Health silver plan with subsidy

Food: $273 mthly/$3,276 annually

Tier 2

Household expenses: $115 mthly/$1380 annually

Electricity: $93/mthly/$1116 annually
Adjusted up by 33%

Heating oil (inc tuneups): $87 mthly/$1044 annually
Adjusted up by 33% due to more time at home

Vacations/trips: $83 mthly/$1,000 annually

Phone/Internet: $78 mthly/$936 annually

Lawn mowings/gardening: $73 mthly/about $800?Mowings every other week

Tier 3

Homeowners insurance: $57 mthly/$684 annually

Cat: $50 mthly/$600 annually

Clothing: $50 mthly/$595 annually
Adjusted down by 33%

Entertainment: $49 mthly/$591 annually Adjusted up by 25% due to more free time

Out of pocket medical: $45/mthly/$540 annually

Car maintenance: $45 mthly/$540 annually
2018: new battery

Car insurance: $45 mthly/$540 annually
(Dropped collision last year)

Gas for car: $41 mthly/$492 annually
Adjusted down by 25% due to less daily driving

Tier 4

Car tax, license, reg: $32 mthly/$384 annually

Home maintenance: $28 mthly/$336 annually

Gifts: $20 mthly/$240 annually

Water: $18 mthly/$216 annually

Dining out: $17 mthly/$200 annually

Dentist: $16 mthly/2 cleanings at $254 on Dr. S’s plan

Borough taxes: $13 mthly/$156 annually

Sewer: $9 mthly/$108 annually

Dump sticker: $8 mthly/$95 annually
$85 for seniors renewing online at age 65

Haircuts: $5 mthly/4 haircuts at Great Clips at sale price

Total: $2,577 monthly/$30,924 annually

I enjoy squeezing my budget wherever I can to save a few dollars. So looking at the 4 tiers, it just helps reinforce that more effort spent on the top 2 tiers will result in greater benefits than getting distracted by stuff in tier 4, for instance.

So being sure to take full advantage of the senior property tax credit once I become eligible, and wrapping up my major home improvements in a few years time will really free up a lot of cash down the road, although health insurance costs could continue to be a big question mark, depending on what, if anything happens, to Obamacare.

It will be well worth my efforts to continue placing an emphasis on shopping at Aldi's whenever possible.

Looking at my Tier 2 expenses, I'll continue to keep a close eye on electricity offers here in deregulated Connecticut (they change all the time) and carefully timing my heating oil purchases. It has occurred to me in the past it could be helpful to either replace my current tank with a larger one, or buy a second tank. This would make it easier to take advantage of low prices when they occur; I can't always do this now because many suppliers require a 150-gallon minimum purchase.

That phone/Internet expense of $78 monthly includes both my landline and TracPhone cell phone. I am still wanting to ditch AT&T.

And, believe it or not, I don't like seeing such a relatively unimportant thing like lawn mowings in Tier 2; I've been toying with doing maybe some of the mowings myself (?), perhaps by having him start later in the year and end earlier, with myself doing a few mowings during the cooler part of the summer season, since I'll be home? It just seems like a lot of money, for what it is, when you look at the annual cost. He charges $45 a visit. I have a big lawn, but they finish in about 10 minutes time. It takes me 2 mowings to finish both front and back, and probably over an hour, but it would be good exercise and I enjoy being out in my yard.

I emailed my manager, who is traveling this week, asking about the help wanted ads for my job, and why the 2 I've seen say "Full time."

There were some here who were quick to say he plans to replace you as soon as he finds someone, it's too much trouble to accommodate your needs, etc.

That really didn't sound like my manager.

He responded back to me yesterday that he had not asked for that and that he would contact the recruiter to tell them to add the part-time part of it. I sent him 2 of the ads so he could see them.

My guess is that, busy as he always is, he never took the time to check out the ads, and I'm also guessing the recruiters make more money for a full-time placement than a part-time placement. It's probably the reason my manager had told me earlier he'd never had much success finding a part-time person!

I sent a note to the recruiter and heard back from him almost immediately. He did not see on the links to the ads I sent him where it said full-time; I had to send him a screen grab; once I did that, he quickly said he would fix it.

As you may know, I spoke to my manager a week ago about pulling back from full-time to 3 days a week. He said that would be fine, IF he could find someone who wanted to also work part-time, the other 2 days of the week. He also told me up front that he told 2 recruiters to look for candidates, and that he wanted to see people interested in either part-time OR full-time, as he wouldn't want to turn someone away just because they wanted full-time. I understand...he needs to cover himself.

One of the recruiters is a friend of mine, the one who got me this job originally, and the one, as a favor to my friend, I urged my manager to contact to help look for a part-time candidate.

So I've been seeing the ads posted by my friend the recruiter, and he's posted the job as a full-time job. Which means they won't likely get people interested in part-time work.

This is a little upsetting to me as it would appear there's no way I'll be able to stay at this company part-time as part-timers won't be applying.

I'm wondering if I should say something to either the recruiter or my manager. Probably not the recruiter as I don't want to put him in an awkward position. While he's a friend, his allegiance, and the one who pays him, is my employer, not me.

But I am thinking of expressing my concern directly to my manager. He seems like a pretty honest guy. If he's planning on moving me out entirely, I guess I need to know about it.

Dad and I saw Darkest Hour at the brand new cineplex in his town. We both liked it, and we sure were pleased with the recliner seats, too. They have 8 screens there, but because all the seats recline, the total number of seats is much less, yet the ticket prices were $10/$8.

I was leafing through my town's continuing ed offerings and saw an interesting one-time class on strategies you can use to "get closer to a tax-free retirement."

For the $29 fee, I figured it might be worth checking it out; the firm, USA Financial & Tax Services, LLC, is part of, or a partner of, Capital Asset Advisory Services, LLC, an RIA.

I became very interested in this subject after hearing a few things Dido said about the desirability of doing some Roth conversions during low-income years to lower my RMDs once I hit 70.5. My town's property tax credit is also tied to a lower income below a certain amount, so it would behoove me to do this since RMDs, combined with Social Security payments I would be collecting at that point, would bump me into a higher bracket.

I was never able to project that far into the future before (me, 70??), but I can see what Dido means that for early retirees, you can coast along through your 60s not paying too much in taxes, perhaps (e.g., if you're not working but not yet collecting SS either), but then once you hit 70, the government wants to start getting its payback on all those tax-deferred years you held your traditional IRAs.

There was another continuing ed class ($39), also in March, more generally addressing "Financial Strategies for Successful Retirement." They promise no products/investments will be offered. This one is for 3 weeks (3 classes and rquires an additional $30 materials fee, so it's a bit more of a commitment. Hmmm.

I had hoped to get into my taxes more deeply this weekend, but I still am missing one important 1099, and while I have a pretty good idea of what I grossed, I'd rather not have it be off even a few dollars since that number will then mess up all my other numbers on the tax form.

What will you be doing when the Superbowl is on tonight? Will you be watching? I won't, but there was an interesting PBS show on about red foxes I may tune into, since I have seen red foxes here (very rarely) on my property.

Since I spent yesterday afternoon at the movies with Dad, I didn't get all my grocery shopping done,and so I have a choice today: lounge around at home or run out the door to Trader Joe's, BJ's and Aldi's?

I counted 8 44-lb boxes of cat litter in the basement, so now that I have just the one cat, I think I actually have a 16-month supply. Thank goodness, those things are heavy.

I had the weekend to finalize the wording of an email I've been planning to send to my manager today. Yet I hemmed and hawed when I got into the office, feeling very nervous about the whole thing because so much is riding on it...like my subsidized health insurance.

And if my manager said NO flat out, then what?

I finally sent the email around 2 today, and not long after that, we talked. He's receptive to letting me work 3 days a week, provided he can find someone interested in working part-time (about 16 hours). He has already reached out to my friend the recruiter and another recruiter.

He said he hasn't had much luck in the past finding people who want to work p/t, and that everyone wants to work f/t. Surely there are some moms or others out there who for various reasons would love a steady, but very p/t job?

There is still much to be done. He would have to contact the agency that hired me and put me on the company's payroll. I would still be paid by the hour, but I'd be a W2 employee, and they would need to make me an offer. I expect to get what I'm earning now. I need to talk to him about vacation time; I've heard from others that they only provide 1 week of unpaid leave; I really want to have at least 2 weeks.

I told him I'd continue working f/t for another 2 weeks, or until they found someone. I told him I could be more flexible about when my day ended if I was only working 3 days a week, and he understood that, but he also tossed out the idea of having me work from noon to 6 pm daily. Now that happens to be 6 hours, not 5, so that would be a 30-hour week. I'd really like to work 25 hours. I'm not sure if he was suggesting that as a compromise in case they can't find another part-timer?

A 30-hour week would be problematic for me, mainly because at my current rate of pay, I would gross $48,960. The maximum income you can earn and still qualify for the ACA subsidies is $47,520. I could make $6500 in traditional IRA contributions this year, reducing my pay to $42,460, but then for 2017, for instance, I have about $3,000 worth of interest, dividends and cap gains, so that would bump up my AGI uncomfortably close to the ACA income break-off for subsidies.

I would rather work the 25 hours weekly, which would end up putting me somewhere closer to $40K, well below the ACA subsidy threshold and toward year's end, I could possibly even make my contribution to a Roth IRA (my preference).

Just thinking this through, I'd probably want to wait til December to do that, because if one of the galleries that has my mother's work sells something, that could be another thousand in taxable income. So I'll have to be careful. And also remember I've been working f/t for January and will do so for the early part of February. I'm going to have to track my YTD income.

Can't imagine what I'd do if anything happened to the ACA. What a mess that would be.

Anyway, it feels a little premature to feel "excited," but I am...this could be the start of a whole new chapter of my life; let's call it "semi-retired." It's something I have daydreamed about for YEARS.

I was looking over my reported Social Security earnings today and noticed they only counted 1 of the 2 contract jobs I had in 2017. I'm guessing it's simply a matter of their not having received the earnings report from my current employer, but I'm going to call the Social Security Administration tomorrow anyway.

Higher reported earnings help boost your Social Security benefits in retirement. (Note that they do not count unemployment benefits for purposes of calculating your retirement benefits.)

The SSA calculates your benefit based on the average of your top 35 years' worth of earnings, so I've been aware that retiring early could negatively impact my 35-year average.

I'm happy to see that with each passing year of work, I've been able to eliminate some very low-earning years from the 35-year group. This includes my later high school years and college years when I worked part time, making at most $1,500 in a given year.

Currently, 7 of my lowest earning years are not being counted, and I can see that my overall average will gradually become higher the longer I work; I still have a total of 4 years in my work history (all in my 20s) when I made less than $10,000.

For example, the next lowest low-earning year I'd like to eliminate (at the end of 2018) will be 1985, a year when I entered law school and earned just $4,008.

So here's a worst case scenario type of question: Let's say my current employer doesn't want to let me work p/t. I leave that position but can't find another W2 employer in 2018. I convert $20K worth of traditional IRAs into Roth IRAs and pay the taxes due, mainly to ensure I remain eligible for ACA health insurance (not Medicaid).

I'm guessing SSA would not consider the $20K as earned income, to be used in their benefit calculations? Or would it?

I got clobbered with unusually high expenses in January, which hasn't made for a great start to the New Year:

* $405 for heating oil (unavoidable, of course, but combined with the other expenses shown here, it adds up)
* Out of pocket medical: $745. My new eyeglasses were $400, no bargain there, and the rest was 7 copays and med costs for my scratched cornea. Which by the way is still not better. I may have to go back to the doctor.
* Electrical work was $200, which is not in itself painful, but combined with everything else...
* Umm, groceries were way more than I care to spend in a month: $362. I blame this on 2 BJs trips. After stocking up on cat litter, walnuts and frozen fruit, I will drop membership, which expires in February. I already have about a 6 mth supply of the cat litter, and I'd like to have a full year's supply. It's such a bargain.

So total expenses for the month were $3455; total income was $3200, so I'm in the hole $256 for the 1st month of January. Not exactly confidence-building as I prepare to approach my boss Monday about reducing my work hours.

I also keep thinking of all the home improvements I want to do. Sigh. I'll still be able to do them, but maybe not all at once. I've allowed for $5,000 this year for home improvements.

So this is where the "WOWZA" comes in. I just did my February investment report a few days early and my fairly conservative portfolio mix is up over $26,000 compared to the previous month.

This means, my friends, my net worth excluding the house is $993,984. I am very, very close to being a you-know-what. Barring a correction, I expect that will happen by March 1.

This is something I have literally been saving for, for decades. I am at the doorstep of FI, or financial independence. Which to me means not being tied to a 9 to 5 job.

When I look at my records that show my net worth (sans house) in January, 2009, it was just $315,226. In 9 years, my net worth tripled. It was a combination of making large contributions (made possible since I paid off the mortgage), my mother's inheritance and the bull stock market.

This boggles my mind. Especially considering my current portfolio mix is only 45% stocks, with 45% bonds and 10% cash. I won't go lower than that. And of that 45% stock, only 35% of it is US stock; the other 10% is international stock.

For the 2nd time, I clogged my vacuum cleaner with the very fine diatamaceous earth powder I sprinkled on carpets when Luther had fleas. I shook out all my rugs except one large rug in my bedroom, and the family room wall to wall carpeting. I don't know how I will vacuum these rugs in the future without ruining my vacuum! Would a shop vac do any better?

I dropped off the vacuum at the repair place this morning.

It used to be 1.30% interest for their online money market; now it's 1.50%. It's welcome news....every little bit counts.

I never had much interest in bank deposit accounts (either CDs, money markets or savings accounts), but as you get older, these definitely have a greater place in your portfolio. I think of it as "ballast" for the riskier portions of my investments.

Today's pay day. I only worked 30 hours last week, so I netted $738 for the week.

It's about 20 degrees outside so I guess I'll work in a walk this morning before leaving for work. Strangely, the cold no longer bothers my ears. Used to be (for many years) I found it difficult to walk or spend time outside when temps dropped much below 30 degrees, because without ear protection, the cold hurt my ears. Now I don't really notice it.

I'm going to return a sonic jewelry/eyeglass cleaner to Amazon for a $28 refund. I bought these as kind of a last resort thing to help me better clean my old eyeglasses. I had scratched them so much (using those little cloths they give you) that I thought just dunking them in the cleaner for a minute might be a good alternative. Eh, I wasn't impressed, and the cleaner took up valuable space on my bathroom countertop.

The woman at Target Optical advised against using the sonic cleaner as it might mess up the anti-glare coating on the lenses. Luckily I thought to do this before the deadline for returns, just 5 days away.

This morning...1 day after telling the eye doc my eye felt 100% better.....my eye has felt some pain 2 or 3 times when I shifted my eye in various directions. This is really upsetting me because I thought I was healed and done. Now I'm wondering if I should continue 3 more days of tapering down off both the antibiotic and the prednisone as doc advised.

I guess I'll monitor the situation today and see what happens. I really want to be done with this. PLEASE.

This week's been very slow at work; most of the senior level people are out at meetings.

So I left the office at 1:30 pm and decided to head directly for Target to pick up my new glasses. Wow, what an improvement over my old glasses. The real test will be at work tomorrow seeing how well I can read the computer monitor. I'm pretty happy with them though.

After Target, I called my eye doc's office just to see if they might have an opening today so I wouldn't have to arrive late to work tomorrow morning. Turns out, they did, but not til 3:45 pm, but that gave me enough time to fill up the gas tank and buy a few things at BJs.

The eye doc said my eye looks fine but wants to see me AGAIN in a month! I protested. Gosh, this is my 7th visit. She said they just want to make sure it's fine, that sometimes it can open up again, etc. I'm not sure if I'll go. I mean, certainly I'll go if it starts feeling sore again, but I'm not sure what the point of going again is when it looks and feels fine now.

I still have to continue both meds for 4 more days so I can taper down on the steroid.

Anyway, I'm glad I had an unexpected free afternoon, which allowed me to take care of some chores I would otherwise have to do on Saturday.

The other day, while leaving a morning eye doctor appointment and heading to work, I passed by my mother's car mechanic's place. I wanted him to put in a new battery for me.

Except now it's a car dealership. Say what?????

I spent quite a bit of time googling the mechanic to see if I could figure out what happened to him. He was a few years older than me, so I figure he probably retired. He was one of those rare people with next to no Internet presence. I did discover he used to live in a very nice house which was sold in 2016. So I suspect he retired and then moved, possibly back to the old country. Which would be Portugal.

It made me inordinately sad, though truth be told he only worked on my car 3 or 4 times, mainly because it was inconvenient for me to leave my car there, and he didn't have the posh customer waiting room the Honda dealership has. My mother liked and trusted him, and so I used him too. Once I brought him tomatoes from my garden. I guess it's the loss of that link that makes me so sad. Another person who knew my mother is now out of my life more or less permanently.

The demise of the teacup
Between Christmas and New Year's my father and cousin came over one day and I entertained them in the dining room. I wanted to use the darling little dessert plates and teacups I inherited from my grandmother.



I love these dishes but rarely use them. It occurred to me that the dainty little teacups were so quaint and old-fashioned. No one drinks out of them anymore. Still, I love them. The set was made in Bavaria, though my grandmother was Czech. The pattern on each is different.

There are some changes I welcome. Like, my eyes are 100% better. One more trip to the eye doc on Thursday, just to be sure. I'm tempted to skip it and thus save the final $40 copay, but I suppose I should go.

And then there's GPS. I love it, though it's not 100% reliable, and the time it takes to "recalculate" a route means I'm probably skipping past the next turn. A few times it just indicates an approaching road, but doesn't explicitly say "Turn!" so I drive past it and then it recalculates. What the ????

It is raining hard and very dark for 8 am. I guess I won't be walking this morning. I'm anxious to get back on my regular walking schedule, an hour a day.

I have the potential of 2 dates this weekend. Yes, sneaky Patient Saver has let her profile linger on a singles dating site for many months, largely a waste of time, and now 2 dates this weekend.

I don't even pay for it; I went to remove my profile and the site offered to keep my profile up there another year, gratis. Guess they like to hold onto females.

One guy is an eager retired lawyer 9 years older than me (pushing past my age preference limits) and the other a working car mechanic, a year younger than me, bruised from a divorce, who emphasizes he is looking for a friend. Both live nearby. I'm trying to keep an open mind, and really, a friend only would be fine.

I took a quick peak at my investments, given this extraordinary market, and saw that my balances are now up to $985,000, just $15K away from the Big One. Which is all the more amazing considering I've lowed my US stock exposure to 35%. Of course, a correction could erase that quite quickly, too.

I got a ton of stuff done this weekend. Or at least it feels like it. Still, although I made an effort to do errands before the weekend, when possible, I still had so much to do I didn't really just chill, which I like to do on occasion.

Saturday
1. Saw dad for lunch yesterday.
2. Had my electrician over and he installed 3 lights. I really like how the exterior lights look when on.

Sunday
1. Washed the car.
2. Put my mother's handmade window shade back up on a window in dining room. I took it down last spring (!) when I had the built-in shelving done. I had to saw off about an inch on the wood block base and readjust some other things, but the shade is up and now looks great. I admire what a good job she did on these shades and could not throw them away.
3. I shredded or tossed a pile of my mother's old paperwork from decades ago, to make some room in a cabinet.
4. Did a load of laundry and hung-dried it in the house without using the dryer.
5. I changed my whole house humidifier filter, a chore I procrastinated about because I have to read my directions for doing so each time since I only change it once a season. It's really very simple but I'm a klutz, so it takes more time.
6. I vacuumed, and realized I have again messed up my vacuum by picking up the very fine diatamateous powder still in my bedroom rug. I regret ever using the stuff. Will have to bring back to repair place, which is very cheap, but it takes them weeks to do it.

6. I calculated that if I COULD work just 25 hours weekly at my present job, assuming current rate of pay which it likely won't be (but I have no way of knowing what they'd offer me once I got off the payroll of the recruiting agency and onto my employer's payroll), my weekly net would be $630 a week, or $26,25 a month.

$2,625 would cover most of my typical monthly expenses, so this would be very nice. To work just 3 days a week and cover most expenses. I could do this indefinitely.

7. Just as it was getting dark tonight, I got a call from Target telling me my eyeglasses were ready for pickup. Excitedly, I ran out the door a few minutes later and drove 10 minutes to Target, only to find the iron security gate down in front of the optical center. The woman was there but she told me she couldn't "dispense" once the system was down. I was really disappointed as I would have loved to have gotten my new glasses. It was probably 5:10 pm and they closed at 5 pm.

They don't open til 10 am weekdays, so I guess I'm stuck waiting til Thursday morning after I go to my final eye doctor appointment.

Also am thinking that a good strategy for lowering my taxable income, if need be, is contributing to a traditional IRA instead of a Roth.

So for this reason, I'm going to hold off making my 2018 IRA contribution til I know what's going on. So many balls up in the air right now.

Upcoming talk with boss
When my boss returns from travel the week after next, I plan to request a sit-down to discuss my status. I will send him an email briefly outlining my desires so he has some time to think about it before we meet to discuss.

i'll request 1. A reduction of hours to 25 hours weekly (ideally, 3 days a week), and 2. Fixed hours, so I know exactly when I'm leaving at day's end.

I'd like to get both items, but will settle for just #1, since it will be easier to deal with if I'm only working 3 days a week.

I really don't know if he'll go for it since it will require him to do some work to make that happen. Namely, finding and breaking in a new proofreader.

To otherwise prepare for my transition to semi-retirement, I've also done the following:

1. Recalculated my "Retirement Readiness Score" via T. Rowe Price's Future Path software.

Retiring now, taking $45,000 in income annually, buying a new car in 4 years and dying at age 95, my score is a 94. This measures how likely I will hit my goals.

2. Perhaps more importantly, I also decided to recalculate my annual projected expenses.

Now I could simply average out my last 5 years of annual expenses and see that my average is $37,316. But from one year to the next, these expenses are all over the map. One year they're fairly high, another year, very low. Partly because when I'm not working steadily, I tend to really tighten my belt and rein in discretionary spending. I tend to loosen the purse strings when I have a steady job.

The other big factor is how much I spend on capital home improvements, which I define as any purchase for the home/property over $500. One year it was over $12,000 when I got new vinyl siding; in 2016 it was roughly the same amount when I got a new driveway with the lovely paver "courtyard," but in 2014 it was pretty low, at $2,617, when cap improvements included a tree take-down, a new dishwasher and a plumbing repair.

In the past, whenever I was laid off, I would calculate my absolutely minimum necessary expenses; I would eliminate things like dining out, entertainment, clothing and such.

Now, for the first time, I want to create a new "budget" with what I believe are reasonably comfortable monthly expenses in retirement. Not a tightening-my-belt-as-much-as-I-can-and-still-breathe austerity budget, but one that allows for some fun.

I began by taking my average 2017 monthly expenses for all my different spending categories and then making adjustments up or down as I believe they will vary during life in retirement.

I was pleasantly surprised by my totals. My typical month of living in retirement should require just $2,620 a month, or $31,440 annually. This is far below the $45,000 I've used most recently in retirement projections with T. Rowe Price, for instance. So I have plenty of breathing room for unexpected expenses and unforeseen costs.

So, for example, things like food ($273) and electricity ($70/mth) won't change much in retirement, so these budgetary line items are based strictly on what expenses I incurred last year.

But other line items will change. I chose to increase my budget for heating oil by 25% ($81/mth) since I will be staying home more and not lowering the thermostat when I leave for work. (Hope this is enough of an increase.)

Gas for my car was adjusted down by 25% to $41 a month since I won't be commuting daily. I may be taking more pleasure trips, but it won't be on a daily basis.

My budget for entertainment was adjusted up by 25% and my clothing allotment was adjusted down by 33%.

I'm allowing $5,000 annually for capital home improvements and I'm adding a brand new line item of $1,000 annually for travel, for now. I certainly wouldn't hesitate to increase it if an opportunity arose to go abroad. But at least this way, it's factored into my budget.

Not every expense will increase in retirement.

In 2024 I'll be able to take advantage of a substantial senior property tax refund program. As long as I keep my total income under $45,000, I'll qualify for the maximum refund of $2,525. Which is pretty darn good for my #1 biggest expense.

If I made between $45,000 and $55,000 in income in retirement, I would still qualify for a small discount of $1,750. In either case, I would have to reapply for the refund every year.

This is just my town's program, intended to keep seniors from leaving the state due to high taxes. I understand there is also a state program offering smaller discounts.

I'll also qualify for a small $10 discount on my dump sticker/permit when I turn 65.

The budget I developed is really just a working budget for 2018; in future years, I may want to budget more for anticipated car repairs or dental work or any sort of thing. But this does help put things in perspective and assures me I will likely be okay when I leave full-time work.

If a horrendous correction did occur, I would go on auto-pilot and put myself on an austerity budget for a year or more, if necessary, to minimize withdrawals from brokerage accounts when prices were low. Actually, I would probably start withdrawing from my bank accounts (either maturing CDs or my money markets), which aren't affected by market fluctuations. Right now I've got about $60K there, with about $28K readily accessible now in money markets and about $18,000 in CDs maturing in 2018.

3. I also went back on CT's healthcare exchange a few nights ago and saw that with a subsidy, I could get on a Silver plan for about $375/mth. I wanted to check those costs exactly when calculating my expenses, but their website is down for the moment.

4. Finally, I got in touch with my friend the recruiter, who got me my current job, and told him my latest plan to pursue p/t work more local to where I live. He actually has something in nearby city (would cut commute in half), has to do with writing internal communications and pays better ($40+ an hour compared to my current $32/hr). However, it's a contract job that could last just 3 months or a year. Perhaps I would gamble on it despite the uncertainty since the stakes for me aren't really quite so high.

Because my T. Rowe Price calculation did not factor in any further income, period. So whatever I can make will be icing on the cake. I just have to make sure I make at least $17K annually so I don't get stuck with Medicaid for health insurance. Or as I think Monkey Mama pointed out, if I saw toward year's end I hadn't made $17K, let's say I made $10K for the year, I could always cash out $7,000 from a taxable brokerage account, which would then be counted as taxable income. If I withdrew $$ from a taxable money market, would that also be recognized as taxable income?

I hope I'm not forgetting anything.

When the healthcare exchange website is back online, I want to try to pick an HSA-eligible policy to take advantage of tax-free contributions.

What is it about the dead of winter that makes one want to purge, clean and declutter?

I had a thoroughly enjoyable day at home today and part of it did involve purging.

It was snowing steadily when I awoke, and to be honest, I just didn't feel like driving to work in it, especially knowing I'd have to leave early anyway for my eye doc appointment.

And my eye had been positively killing me most of yesterday, which was really frustrating since doctor #1 told me yesterday it was "90% healed." It sure didn't feel that way.

When I went to doc #2 today, she said yes, it is healing, and the reason you're still feeling pain is this: think of an open wound on your hand and what it would feel like, and how long it would take to heal, if you were brushing your hand over it every few seconds, the way you do when you blink your eye.

OK, got it.... Now they've added a steroid to the mix; am still taking the antibiotic drops 4x daily. I've created a spreadsheet to ensure I don't skip doses.

On the way home from doc office, I stopped at Aldi's, dropped off a donation at the library and picked up my new med.

Here in my office, I spent my time at the computer or watching my new office TV (so convenient) to keep an eye on the weather.

I shoveled the driveway and later began going through a small cabinet containing my mother's old papers. When I was cleaning out her condo, I threw out a ton of paperwork I knew wouldn't be needed for anything, and this is basically what's left. I have a lot of records related to sales of properties (homes, condos and a coop) literally decades ago, so those I will shred.

I came across an old photo of the house in NJ when we purchased it, the MLS listing, actually, and that I will hold onto for sentimental purposes. I also found my grandfather's death certificate, which I never found on Ancestry but will be helpful in my family research.

I also found a sweet poem my mother had written to the realtor who helped her find the last condo she lived in. In the poem, she offered them a piece of art as her way of saying thank you for all their help. This I will keep. I know the realtors; they became friends of my mother's, and the wife of the husband/wife team also helped me buy my house.

Then there are quite a few of her old tax returns. If I'm really ambitious this weekend, I'd like to scan them and save them to a computer disk, then shred the hard copies.

My electrician is coming this weekend to hook up 2 new exterior light fixtures and 1 inside; there is more work I want him to do, but I doubt he'll get to it this weekend.

Ugh. I learned yesterday at eye doc's that I do now have a "small infection" in the eye with the abrasion. So they switched my medication and want to watch it closely.

I am feeling a little anxious about this and just want to get this under control. Infections in the eye can't be good, and they seemed a bit concerned as well.

So I'm going back today. Totally necessary, of course, but I'm wondering what my final tab will be. So far I've paid $160 in copays for 4 visits, plus $40 for the new med. Since I haven't paid my 2018 deductible, I'm guessing this will cost me at LEAST several hundred dollars. At least the deductible (on a COBRA plan I'll be losing next month) is just $500.

Update: Well, I'll be. I just check my Cigna account online and the 1st 2 of the 4 visits were there, and I don't owe anything beyond the copay I already paid. This is a mystery but I'll take it. (I will miss this health plan.)

So far, then, $200 out of pocket, and I'm sure there will be at least 2 more visits beyond today's. I will never take my eyes for granted again. Interesting how kind of a fluke medical event can put things in disarray.

Once I get on the high deductible healthcare exchange plan next month ($5,685 deductible), I would love to open an HSA. I guess I would fund it myself and the contributions would not come from my employer, and I can get a tax deduction at tax time? Never had one of these before but I imagine I can do it with a Vanguard money market account? I can easily transfer cash from one of my online money markets.

We're expecting 2 to 4 inches of snow tomorrow morning. Not a lot of snow by New England measures, but certainly enough to make the morning commute a mess. I will work at home tomorrow. It's just not worth the risk of an accident to be a hero and get to the office.

There may be some benefits to being a somewhat older employee, because I've already established that I don't drive in snowstorms, regardless of what fellow employees do. Used to be, this kind of decision would just stress me out; now i feel there's not as much at stake here so I'll make these kinds of decisions myself.

I will also hopefully avoid having to go back to eye doc tomorrow and having to drive in the bad weather. I will learn that at today's appointment.

My friend keeps urging me to be sure not to quit my job or I'll lose the opportunity for unemployment benefits. I don't see how that's possible if I tell manager I want to scale back hours and work part-time and he says absolutely no, we need you f/t and it would be too much hassle to find another part-time person.

My friend says, let them fire you if need be, but don't quit.

I still have this week to think about it but I'm inclined to just have a talk with manager, tell him I would very much like to continue working there but that I want to have more time with my elderly dad and I want to scale back my hours to about 25 hours a week, or 3 full days, preferably.

If he says no can do, I would probably then just say I'm sorry it won't work out then, and that I would probably start looking for a part-time opportunity elsewhere, although it may take me some time to find the right fit.

Truth be told, I HAVE been looking all this time and not found anything.

And if he then says, fine, and finds someone new to replace me, I again don't think I'd qualify for unemployment since I said I wanted to reduce hours. So I'd sacrifice 6 months of income that would be nice to have, but not much I can do about that.

I could not bring myself to do something stupid enough to get myself fired, either.

It's 5 am. Once again, my best thinking takes place in the early morning hours, at a time I'm not even aware I'm "thinking." Thoughts just appear.

And these are my thoughts.

In the next 5 years, I am going to suffer some pretty significant losses. I am concerned about how I will cope, and the toll these losses will take on my emotional health, but at the same time, I want to be there for those who are important to me. For someone who has no spouse or children, what is most important? Close friends and extended family.

My oldest and closest friend R. has advanced prostate cancer. It's been a long journey, but last night he told me, after wrestling with a choice between starting chemo and entering a clinical trial, that he's going with the chemo, ASAP.

He has spent much of the last few years preparing for his death and over this time, he's divested himself of much of his material wealth, probably giving about $200,000 to his younger niece. He's rearranged his condo so his bedroom is on the first floor, prepaid for his funeral and has gotten his ex-wife to agree to nurse him toward the end and look after his dog when he dies.

In short, he has done what he does best: plan and prepare.

I know I will take his death hard, for though our relationship has always been rocky, we've stuck with each other since I met him in my late 20s. He probably knows me better than anyone else, and I know him pretty well too.

The prostate cancer, which he has talked about often, has been a part of his life for years, but maybe it never seemed real to me because outwardly, it didn't affect his life too much; he takes various drugs that kept it at bay. But now, things are getting real. The cancer has progressed. They have found little tumors all over his body. Hence the chemo.

Still, in recent conversations, R. always wants to know what's happening with me, and what my trials and tribulations are. He's ended the call with encouraging words; he's always been good at reminding me of things I have to be grateful for, my accomplishments, and what I've done well in my life.

Then there's my father, who will turn 85 in a few months. His health is stable now, but he has a variety of health challenges, and anything could happen in the next few years.

And finally, there is my cousin J. J. has 2 things in common with my friend R: they are the same age (70), and they both have prostate cancer. J. is still in the phase where the medications he takes keep the cancer at bay, so he is not as far along as my friend.

J., too, is dealing with his prostate cancer (and other health issues), but instead of preparing for death, he is preparing for the best life he can have in what time he has left. He is doing this by getting serious about his health. He told me he wants to get back in as great shape as possible, thru diet and exercise, so that his quality of life is as best it can be and then he hopes for a quick, not lingering, decline leading to death.

He lost 20 pounds in recent months; part of it is, I think, that he wants to look attractive for the 20-something with baby he plans to marry soon. He, too, is grabbing the bull by the horns, pursuing a relationship with a young woman most would think is foolish, doomed or even disgusting. But for a man who stuck it out with an unhappy marriage to an alcoholic for much of his adult life (he was asking my father for advice not long after my own parents split up, and that was when I was 6), I understand his desire to wring some enjoyment and happiness out of life before he goes, and this is what he wants.

He told me last night a probation officer was scheduled to do a home visit of his house prior to the release of the woman from jail, which could be in as little as 2 months time (she was arrested/jailed for drug possession and resisting arrest). Two of the conditions for the home inspection are no alcohol, and no firearms.

So my cousin spent this weekend emptying his house of guns and ammo. He's a huge gun enthusiast and owns many extremely valuable weapons. (Something I personally abhor but I just overlook it for the sake of our friendship, which I enjoy.) He and his friend brought them all over to his friend's house, but after seeing how much space they took up in his friend's garage, they then moved all of it to a storage locker. My cousin estimates he has some 15,000 rounds of ammunition.

This brings us back to "the writing on the wall." I see that I will probably lose 3 very important people in my life in the next few years. I want to enjoy these people while they are still capable of doing so and are still here. I want to spend more time with them and lend as much support as I can when they the going gets tough.

Because they are the most important thing in my life.

I also want to build a stronger social network. While I'm working these crazy hours, I don't feel I can do that. I always pictured myself getting more involved in the many clubs and groups in my adopted hometown community, but I just don't have the time or energy to do that while I'm working full-time.

I want to build that stronger network to help prop myself up after I lose 3 key people in my life.

Which leads me to thinking about leaving my current job, at least in the form it exists now.

Last night I did another quick check of where I stand with retirement savings. I used the T. Rowe Price calculator, which reassured me I should be in reasonably good shape, whether I stopped working now or in 2 years time, whether or not I collected Social Security at 62 or later.

So I'm thinking of telling my boss I don't want to work full-time anymore. I've been there for about 4 months and haven't really been happy, mainly because I don't have control over the length of my workdays.

I'd been planning to talk to him about my future there, hopefully next week, after they return from some national sales meetings our company has been planning for, for months. My plan was to grit my teeth and tell him I wanted to become a "permanent freelancer," which would mean they'd make me an offer *right now the headhunting agency is still writing my paychecks) and pick up half my health insurance premiums on a healthcare exchange plan. And then I would stick it out for 2 years and see how I felt about retirement, or not, after that.

But now the probable short time remaining for some of those close to me has me rethinking things a little. Of not working for 2 more years, because I'm not sure my father, cousin and friend will still be in good shape by then, or even alive.

This is one reason why I've worked so hard to save for retirement (aka, "freedom"). To be able to make decisions that truly are best for me. Now yes, my financial well-being may also be "what's best for me." I do still hesitate a little bit, mainly due to the uncertainty about high health insurance costs until I can get on Medicare in 7 years time.

I'm also feeling a little pressured to make a decision very quickly, because ideally, I would make up my mind about what to do before committing to anything like the arrangement i described at my company, unless i was really going to stick with them. And I'll need to decide that quickly because my COBRA ends Feb. 28 and I'll need to know when I choose a healthcare exchange plan whether I'll qualify for subsidies or not.

When I used the T. Rowe Price calculator, i factored in health insurance costs based on 2018 premiums on the healthcare exchange of about $775 a month, leaving full-time work at age 59 (the software wouldn't allow me to set it at my current age) and making just $16,000 a year. (Presumably I could make at least that at some kind of part-time work.)

I DO want to have some kind of part-time work to lend structure and balance and a sense of productivity to my life while at the same time not allowing work to dominate my life, as it does for most people.

I keep thinking about this one woman at my office who has been there since the company started, around 2009. She's just 2 years younger than me, married with no kids. My guess is that because she told me once her husband works 2nd shift, he is not home when she gets home, usually around 10 pm, and so she must
figure, why not work late at the office since she's going home to an empty house anyway?

It just seems to me she's essentially sacrificed much of her personal life for this job. And I think others have too, which made me understand better why they mostly seem willing to regularly work very long hours, because casual friends have probably dropped by the wayside a long time ago and so their only real "friends" are the people they work with. I noticed this in observing how much they seem to enjoy each other, and how, whereas I generally love to bolt out the door when I know I can, many of them tend to hang around talking and having extended conversations with others before they leave, or on their way out the door.

Anyway, that's just a side note. My experience has been that you usually end up losing friends after leaving a job; it's just too hard to maintain friendships with someone who may not live near you, and with most people being busy raising kids, etc. So I never wanted to rely so much on workplace friendships, because they seemed ephemeral to me.

These are just some of the thoughts swirling around in my head. I think I would do alright, financially, if I left full-time work now. My hope would be that if I told my boss my desire to scale back to a strictly part-time role, he would make that happen, while having to hire another person to pick up the slack. That's what I would hope.

I would pay for my own health insurance, continue a frugal lifestyle, work part-time somewhere, if not where I am currently, and spend a lot more time with family and friends. Not to mention, enjoying my own life more and feeling more relaxed.

What do you think? Would you still stick it out with work for a while longer? I could do that. I just wonder if it would be the right decision.

I hit a home run with a recent class action lawsuit. I subscribe to a newsletter that consolidates all the class action lawsuits and periodically scan and/or file a claim for items I may have purchased.

Usually the check you receive is a few dollars. This time, because not as many people filed claims, more $$ was distributed to those who did. It was the Blue Buffalo lawsuit, and I got a check for $81!!

I am quite pleased with that.

A jean that fools the eye
OK, I admit it...I like to watch TV shopping channels while I'm making dinner or something. I recently bought some boot-cut pants for $21, which includes shipping. They are super comfy pull-on KNIT pants even though they look like JEANS with a regular zipper and button and the same pocket/styling as a regular blue jean. It's almost like trompe l'oeil, especially with the ones that look like blue denim.

I liked the one pair I got in the mail today, so I ordered them in another color. I am always looking for comfortable clothes to wear to work since I sit all day. These pants feel like a sweat pant but are lighter weight, and they should wash well as a knit.

(If you are looking for a skinny pant, you won't like these, because they don't hug the leg.)

Don't ripen bananas in the microwave
Just so you know...it doesn't work.

I had 2 bunches of bananas purchased from Aldi's that were quite green. I do not like to eat mushy bananas. But these were hard as a rock and would NOT ripen after 2 weeks of sitting around. I read online you could zap them in the microwave for about 30 seconds after stabbing them with a fork a few times. Didn't work.

Putting them inside a paper bag also did not work.

I have finally gotten success (slowly) but putting them in a warm area, upstairs, near a heat vent.

I'm on track for retirement
I used T. Rowe Price's retirement calculator to gauge where I stand. If I make no further savings/retirement contributions, retire in 2 years and include Social Security income starting at age 62 (I plan to defer) and based on my estimated monthly needs of $3300 (I could get by with less, but I added a cushion for expensive health insurance), T. Rowe calculates I should have an income from my current investments/savings of $4,560 a month until I'm age 95.

If I include NO Social Security, I would still have a monthly income of $3,130, which also makes me happy since that tells me I should be able to defer taking SS until full retirement age of 66, for a higher subsequent monthly payout.

So far with my scratched retina I've spent $120 on 3 office visit co-pays and all of $1.12 for the generic antibiotic drops.

But I haven't paid my $500 deductible for this year so I expect to see more bills coming my way. I'll also be incurring another $40 co-pay when I return to doc Monday to hopefully get this thing out of my eye, which is uncomfortable. Two more days and nights to go til then.

I was really looking forward to the weekend but was asked late Friday afternoon if I could work on some hot project that "had to be done" this weekend. It's kind of hard to say no when the owner of the company and my manager are standing there looking at me. At least I can work at home. It's just that I don't know when I'll get the work so, umm, I can't go off hitchhiking to Utah or anything.

Next week many people will be at the meetings we've all been preparing for, for months, so the office should be relatively quiet and maybe I could even leave on time.

This morning I went to local optician to look at eyeglass frames. Only because Cigna said they participate in their Healthy Rewards program that offers discounts on frames. Turns out they don't. It still came out to just under or over $400. .

The markup on eyeglass frames seems to be similar to the amount some people for mattresses...meaning, a lot, and way in excess of what it's actually worth. Just my opinion.

I decided to try Target, and found a better selection of frames there. I chose one and again the price was about $400. I supposedly "saved" $160 with my Cigna Healthy Rewards, .

I didn't really feel like investing more time in eyeglass shopping, so I bit the bullet and ordered a pair. Depending on how they work (they're progressives), I may wind up getting another pair just for use with the computer, because that's what I'm having trouble seeing right now. I keep having to use the lowest portion of my current glasses to read, and even then, my vision's not great. They are quite scratched up, too and I never liked the frames much. (Got them at BJs 5 years ago.)

So I'm really looking forward to the new pair of glasses, which I should have in 1-2 weeks. If I do get the 2nd pair of computer glasses, I will definitely try an online place like Zenni Optical. Seems like it would be harder to mess up a single strength lens.

Heating oil price mysteries
I've been checking oil prices daily on my usual go-to heating oil delivery company website. When temps are warmer, prices drop, and vice versa. The worst possible time to order heating oil is when it's exceptionally cold.

I've got about a quarter tank left; this is when I like to reorder, because there's usually a lag time of at least 3 days before they can deliver. So this week I've been waiting for the extreme cold temps to pass and was hoping to snag a lower price today, as temps will rise to 50. (They will drop again tomorrow to more seasonal temps, so today was my slim window of opportunity.)

The price did fall yesterday, but today remained the same. The advertised price on their website Was $2.83 a gallon, considerably higher than this time a year ago when it was $2.05 a gallon. (Yes, I track oil prices all year long, looking for patterns.)

Once, over a year ago, I came to them with a lower price from another company, and so they gave me a .05 "price match" discount. I thought this was a one-time deal, but surprisingly, they haven given me this .05 discount ever since.

Yet for some reason, today they gave me a price of $2.75, which is .08 cheaper than their standard offer. I didn't want to question it in case they got it wrong!

And then I learned that if I paid by check, I'd save another .05 a gallon, or $7.50. Hey, it's something. So I will get my 150 gallons for $2.70 a gallon. Note to self: Always pay by check.

My eye issues
The pain from my scratched retina has eased somewhat as the antibiotic drops have kicked in, but it's still feeling uncomfortable since my doctor inserted a "shield," much like a contact lense, to protect the eye. I can feel the edges of this thing in my eye, and I have to sleep with it and keep it in my eye til I return to the doctor's on Monday.

I wasn't even sure I'd be able to sleep with it in last night, but thankfully, I did.

So when I went to see doc yesterday morning, he had another doctor, a dry eye specialist, look at my eye. I asked her if it was a very deep scratch and she said no, it was not, but it was fairly large, and that's why I was feeling as uncomfortable as I was. Yet I am not allowed to keep doing the eye drops for pain that my regular doctor gave me.

On top of that, the shield thing they inserted in my eye causes my vision to be blurry. You can imagine how difficult it is to perform my job as a one-eyed editor. I had a good laugh about that with someone I work with at the office.

I sure will be glad to put all this behind me, soon. It's amazing how much we take simple things like our vision for granted, until something goes wrong.

We're expecting lots of rain today. Instead of my morning walk before work, I may go out there with a shovel instead and try to shovel away snow from my foundation to avoid a wet basement.

TGIF!

My local hometown bank, the one I just switched my checking account to, sent me an interesting offer, which I've taken them up on.

It's a kind of mystery shopper program where they'll pay me $10 a survey, up to 3 surveys a month, where I answer questions about my contact with the bank; I have to visit the bank once a month, which I usually end up doing anyway.

The programs will last for 12 months, so there's potential for me to make an extra $360! This will be a nice addition to my long ongoing Communispace credit card surveys, where I usually earn $20 a month.

Headed to my eye doctor in about 10 minutes to check on my eye. I'm not sure the pain eye drops are doing much, but for now, the eye feels "ok." Thank god for drugs, when you need them.

I hope I can do my job without too much trouble. When I woke up, I did not even feel like going in, to be honest. My eye was all filmy/smeary from all the drops I put in and it made me think my vision had gone blurry before I realized it was all the drops

OK, I have very dry eyes to begin with. It often feels like I have something in my eye, and I don't.

I woke up this morning with my right eye feeling very sore. I found an eyelash in my eye, which I promptly removed. I'm guessing it was in my eye all night. Normally, your eye would wash it away, but with my eyes being so dry, that didn't happen. It no doubt just stuck there, causing irritation all night long while I slept.

I applied some drops (free samples from eye doc from last week's visit) and off to work I went. Eye started feeling really sore now, almost intolerable. At lunchtime, went to buy more drops. (The pricey pharmacy in the town where I worked charged me $16 for the tiny bottle, and only after I used it did I notice it was 8 months past its expiration. (I will be returning this for a refund.)

Now my eye felt even worse. I called my eye doctor; he had one appointment time available at 3:05 pm. I flew out there with hurried explanations to 2 coworkers since my manager was in a meeting.

I was 20 minutes late but did see the doctor, who confirmed I have an abrasion on the lens. He gave me eye drops for pain and for antibiotics and I have to see him again tomorrow morning, before I go into work, to make sure there is no infection.

I expected the pain meds to work, but they have not, and I am still in a considerable amount of discomfort. It hurts to close my eyes. It hurts to open my eyes. It hurts to move my eyeball in any direction. I can only apply 1 drop of the pain med a day.

1. Made a batch of granola, which should last about 2 weeks.

2. My turmeric capsules were running low, so I filled another month or so's worth by filling them myself with organic turmeric I bought in bulk and store in the freezer.

3. My new Samsung TV is now fully working, both with the antenna and Roku, though I still get just 2 channels with the antenna. The room it's in faces north and east, and that just isn't the right place, I guess. Come warmer weather, I'll likely move the TV down to my family room, which is closed off now for winter.

4. I donated $25 toward the purchase of 30 farmland acres in town that will be developed for housing if $600,000 isn't raised by mid-January. It's a scenic area with an old farm I've hiked past many times.

They have only slightly surpassed the $300,000 point, so it seems doubtful they will reach the goal unless some angel contributor steps forward. This is actually why I delayed contributing til now...they were so far behind.

I did grocery shopping at Aldi's, BJs and Big Y, stocking up At BJs on 2 heavy boxes of cat litter. I'll get as much as I can before my membership ends Feb 28.

Filled up the gas tank.
Stopped at Tractor Supply for some birdseed.

Tidied up, here and there.

Tomorrow it's back to my normal work routine. I hope to raise the subject of my future work status with manager some time this week. I need to know, if only so I know whether or not to claim subsidies.

Has anyone had success buying eyeglasses from somewhere other than a typical retail optical center and saving money?

I'm not a Costco member so can't go there. I confirmed that. I used BJs last time around and don't feel there were much of any savings. (I wear progressive lenses.)

There's a frame shop associated with my eye doctor that had nice frames at $180. More than I'd like to spend but I am truly sick of the glasses I've worn now for 5 years.

The frame shop is having a special package deal where the lenses and frames are $350, but I don't know yet if they'll offer frames I like for that deal. That deal doesn't start til end of January. I do also have a $50 off coupon for them; not sure if I can use the coupon on their package deal, but I would try.

I'm tempted to try an online place, but I'm worried if the glasses aren't quite right, I can't very well have someone adjust them for me. So I don't know.

I may return to the optical place tomorrow and see if I can find any frames cheaper than $180.

Next up: Replace car battery?
Today I stayed at home to work again for a 2nd day. I tucked the car in the garage as I was worried these frigid temps might make it hard to start the car. It hasn't yet, but I realized recently i still have the original battery in my 2013 Honda, and it should be replaced soon rather than waiting for something to happen.

I'm now a 3-TV household
I bought a new TV (26" or so) to replace the one in the kitchen as I wanted to hook up an HD digital antenna to it so I could watch local news/weather stations on it. I did this successfully with the Samsung in my bedroom.

Unfortunately, while I measured to make the sure the total length of the TV would fit under a kitchen cabinet, I neglected to check the height, and the TV is in fact just 1 inch too high to fit under there. No way, no how.

That stinks. Dumb mistake. So this means the older Sanyo (2005) I had in the kitchen will stay there and I won't get local stations.

So I put the new Samsung (identical to the Samsung in the bedroom) in my office. But interestingly, while the bedroom digital antenna, which faces south, picks up an extra 13 stations, the antenna in my office, which faces east and north, only picks up 2 channels, and reception for those are iffy.

Wondering if it might be worth trying a different HD digital antenna.

I also programmed the Roku for the office TV but now after viewing the 2 over-the-air channels, i can't get back to Roku. So I'll have to call Samsung or Roku for assistance. Frustrating.

Car needs a wash
My car is so filthy from road salt. I had hoped to wash it last weekend, then this weekend, but that won't happen due to the extreme cold. I'm too frugal (cheap?) to pay for a car wash. So I'll wait another week.

Running low on heating oil
I have a little more than a quarter tank of heating oil left. I noticed oil prices jumped to $2.85 where I usually buy it, so I'll wait til mid-week next week, when temps should moderate and hope prices drop again. Otherwise, I'll just have to bite the bullet and pay the going rate.

I need to declutter
I'm looking around here and still feel stifled by so much "stuff," my mother's stuff. I need to begin again to focus on either disposing of things or finding the right place for them because I'm constantly walking over or around things for which I have no room. I have to start "letting go" of more stuff.

The first item will be a handful of wood weaving tools which I will never use. I know a weaver in town who would probably like them. Still, it's hard to let them go. I may keep the 2 hand-hewn sticks to display on my shelves and let go the rest.

Weekend plans
Aside from routine grocery and gas errands this weekend, and lunch with dad, I also hope to change my furnace humidifier filter, stop at the eyeglass frame shop and put away Xmas decorations.

My prayers go out to Thriftorama.