Becoming Real in Everyday Ramblings

This shot with the light starting to slant towards the equinox and with ragged wildflowers suits my mood today.

I have been thinking about retirement from full time employment on and off for a number of years as mostly an intellectual exercise. I would run the numbers, see what was possible, how frugal I could be and still have a high quality of life because due basically to the fact that I am much more interested oh say, in poetry and for many years romance, and art instead of the accumulation of wealth I don’t have a big savings pool.

This week, like the Velveteen Rabbit, the whole idea has become real.

Ideally I would be able to take the offer, which amounts to $20,000 tax free in an account for health insurance and costs and that is it, separate completely from service at my current employer and be on my merry way.

The truth is I can’t really afford to do that. I will never be able to replace the income I am making now, including the benefits with income teaching yoga. The real money in yoga these days is either you become a rock star teacher and travel around teaching large groups of people at crowded conferences on carpeted floors or you teach people to become teachers.

And what does that do?

Flood the market with enthusiastic but inexperienced teachers that then teach classes that either lead to injury, (it happens way too much) or are too challenging or not appropriate for most bodies.

There are a number of truly good yoga teachers out there but we are a bit hard to find in the mix and it takes years to build a stable student base that can support a teacher and a studio. And most yoga teachers live with a significant other with a consistent income.

So anyway, whatever income I make teaching has got to me considered “extra”.

And I was born in the first year that doesn’t get full Social Security benefits until I am 66. I still get Medicare at 65. I have been in denial about this and was thinking I would get full benefits at 65 and was planning on leaving work in 2019. This is all good to know.

Yesterday I signed in for the first time ever to our expensive state retirement program website and ran some numbers and was astonished to find that if I do retire at the end of this calendar year and (this is a big and) continue to work part time at the job I have now and can afford the medical plans available to me I can actually do this thing!

I have been totally upfront about this with Nimrod. The evil Mrs. Quill is not even considering taking this package as she has a lot of debt so unless she has a health issue she will be there until I am like 67. She is younger than me and she is a huge factor is me wanting to get out of there.

Nimrod has investigated options in terms of getting me more income so I might be encouraged to stay but my institution really wants me to go. I am expensive to them as is.

Never mind the fact that my rock star project is starting to get a lot of impressive attention…

The part time work would be less than 12 hours a week. So that would mean I’d have say Monday and Friday off completely and only work four hours the other three days. This would be doable and not leave Saint Joe so much in the lurch. Twelve hours is much better than forty!

Most Honorable is going to continue to help me run the numbers. I am starting to make lists. It seems that retirement is all about filling out paperwork, endless seeming paperwork. I will have to completely separate from service and turn in all my equipment and then fill out an application for the job I have now part time. Oh and I will be required to take a pay cut.

But I will get raises after that. :)

The next few weeks are going to be an interesting ride. I am trying to imagine life as a person who doesn’t have a job that makes her miserable.

It is a high concept. Just think, I could find myself spending almost my whole week every week, day after day with people I actually like and enjoy, working on things that I believe in and am energized by.

I could write my memoir and my history book! And teach and teach and teach.

Wow.

Last updated August 08, 2015