It's Never Enough

I'm curious. At what age does someone care more about retiring than working? I feel like I'm teetering on that time. God knows we're nowhere near retirement. We have many, many years of work to look forward to. I'm not sure if mine is a symptom of introversion - because I'm not crazy about people all around me - or a sense of defeat that says it's not going to get much better than this. i.e. I won't be retiring as a multi-millionaire.

I want to chuck it all and go live in the country, but old age would be pretty scary. No doubt, we'll live a long time, and that means outlive our means. Maybe Trump and Kim will destroy the world as we know it with sophomoric mouthiness gone bad, and then we'll be richer than most because we have a nice little patch of land.

We happily talk about what to do next. Put new floors in the Austin house? Clear another acre in the country? Landscape the backyard? None of those things will happen for at least a year. Why? We just got a whole new HVAC in the Austin house. I knew it was going to happen because the existing system was failing when we bought this house. Some freon and a new capacitor gave it a few more years of function, and then reality came a callin'. I guess we can call the new HVAC our first major improvement to this house.

I'm pretty sure we're living the real American Dream. You know. The one where we race forward at breakneck speed while sliding backwards an inch for every mile. Lately, I've been trying to figure out how to get the inch back.

A side hustle that doesn't wear me out more than I already am each week. A side hustle I can do by myself because my wife is beyond worn out each week. I haven't figured it out yet. I thought I'd add a few commissionable links to this blog, but it's the wrong kind of blog. Small readership. Older. Not particularly swayed by the impulse buy. Not reading this for advice. So, that's not the solution.

Spend less money. Let me tell you. I am not a frivolous person. Neither of us are spendthrifts. HVAC. That's where the extra money goes.

Save more money. HVAC.

All in all, I KNOW how blessed we are. It's my personality- my close resemblance to a goat - that makes me want to achieve just a little bit more. Make things happen a little bit faster. Climb a little bit further. Because in my mind, that next financial plateau is what makes retirement come sooner rather than later.