8 Months from Retirement, or: Trying not to live in the realm of “if only”
Last weekend, I met up with some of my best girlfriends from undergrad. There are four of us- one in Spain, one in Baltimore, one in Atlanta, and me, in Charlotte. Even though we live so far apart, we do our best to get together at least once a year, and I cherish these trips.
As we were sitting around our Airbnb enjoying a glass of wine, one of our group started sharing about her recent meditation class. In it, she learned about the different “realms of existence” in Buddhism. Apparently, there are six- and one typifies the feeling of “if only,” as in, “If only I had a million dollars.” “If only I were younger.” “If only I were older.” Etc.
Sound familiar? As humans, we are super great at delaying our happiness until conditions are perfect. Since I learned about financial independence in 2019, I have been in and out of some version of this “if only” realm. In practice, it has looked like incredible (excessive) amounts of financial education content consumption, worry, and way-too-frequent account checking. There is no world in which my net worth matters more today than it did yesterday.
It’s been a bit crazy-making.
What I noticed inside my body when she told me about these Buddhist realms was a sense of gratitude. It makes a lot of sense to me that I would seek to control every outcome of this financial independence journey, and I give myself a lot of grace for how I’ve handled it.
I’ve also noticed that this year I’ve started letting go of the financial podcast consumption, opting instead for content about history or science. I’m checking out books from the library about astronomy and herbal remedies. I’m getting back into crafting and baking. I’m more focused on my health.
All of these things might sound small, but what they mean to me is that my life has come back into more of a balance. And sure, sometimes I still live in the realm of “if only.” But much less so. Today is pretty amazing too.
And yet! This is still a post about being just 8 months from retirement. So with peace in the here and now, let’s get into what the picture looks like today:
What We’ve Done & Learned in the Last Month
Three years ago, Ryan and I sat on our back porch, pulled up a LegalZoom account and created our wills. Three weeks ago, we actually got them notarized. #divinetiming
Things are feeling much better with that item checked off the list. We’ve had several friends go through the wildness that is navigating paperwork after the death of a loved one who had no estate plan, and that was the last thing we wanted to leave for our families. So here’s a small plug for completing yours- it may feel morbid, but really it’s a show of love and care.
The big learning for September was… drumroll please… guardrails! Financial guardrails were really the last piece of our early retirement puzzle, and I happened upon a podcast (that I don’t even subscribe to anymore!) featuring a born-teacher of a really intuitive way to figure these out. I’ll link that here if you’re interested, but the 10-second version is this: when the market is way up or way down, guardrails help you know how much you can spend and still have enough so that your portfolio outlives you. Magic!
Ryan also attended an online retirement webinar for state employees this month, and found out that our original give-notice date of March 31st is woefully late by government standards. They’ve asked for 120 days notice to complete retirement paperwork, which has us making the big final decision on February 1. Yowza.
Where Our Finances Stand Currently
As you may recall if you read the 9 month post, we were 92% of the way to our full FI number in August. With these strong market conditions, we are now 94% of the way there with 8 months to go. Does that feel anticlimactic? Or exciting? It’s hard to tell at this point. Still, I feel awash in gratitude.
Next Steps
Now that we are officially in Fall and all of the fun holidays are coming up, not to mention mountain trips to see family and the general pumpkin spicy-ness of it all, my gut is telling me that there really aren’t a lot of next steps right now. The big goals for the last quarter of 2025 are just to enjoy, I think. Be present, and try to stay out of the “if only” realm as much as possible.
Plus, it feels like things will really start speeding up re: getting ready for retirement after the first of the year. It feels pretty nice to love where we are now AND be excited about what’s coming next.