I went driving around town last night with my best and oldest friend. We both grew up here. We were pretty amazed by how the place is changing so much lately. It seemed like this place was frozen in amber for the longest time. No change at all for better or worse. Now it's changing fast, and almost none of the change is for the better. We had some fairly bad flooding two or three years ago, and some entire neighborhoods were condemned, and a lot of them have been torn down. Otherwise, the place is continuing to slowly die. It really makes me feel good about digging up my roots, and transplanting myself into a movable pot. I'm ready to go now.
I just increased the rate that I'm saving by 25% which makes my five year plan a four year plan. One down, three to go. Somebody keep a late model Monk 36 in really good shape for me for a few more years.
Wifey B: I think people err in two ways. Some are way too scared of change, but then that fear makes them handle it poorly. On the other hand there are those who fall victim to the "grass is always greener over the septic tank" routine.
In our case, my hubby had lived all his life in a 30 mile area. I'd lived since marriage so 11 years there at the time. We liked where we lived on Lake Norman near Charlotte, NC. However, we always knew when we retired we wanted something different. We didn't know anything about coastal boating even though we had "family" in Myrtle Beach. We'd always figured on retiring to the TN River, probably Chattanooga, as we loved and still do love it there. Our only boating outside our home lake was with an acquaintance there and led us down the TN River and even part way down the TN Tom. The idea of being able to go from lake to lake to lake was incredible to landlocked us.
We'd never traveled on vacation, just enjoying the lake in our back yard, other than the one TN River trip. Then we decided to take a FL vacation. Two weeks, starting in South FL, flying in to Fort Lauderdale, then Disney World and then the West Coast and then back to South FL and the rest of it. We fell in love with FLL and did rent a boat for a day our first stop there. It was a small boat but "On a Clear Day, You can see Forever." We saw all the boats there, cruised mostly the ICW that day but did go outside and to Miami. Suddenly, we were thinking maybe not Chattanooga. However, still figured years away but we had hopes for sooner. Then during our trip there the hopes turned into reality and one night in a Tampa hotel, we decided "Let's do it Now and in FLL." The moment we realized we could, we did and we've never looked back and never had any regrets. We were exceptionally lucky or it would have been years later. We called and extended our vacation and gave our notices to our employers and went house hunting. Now, Fort Lauderdale is home like NC never really felt. We just felt it.
Now, had it not turned out as we hoped, we would have changed course. But it felt right from day one. It also made us realize how little social life we had in NC. Mostly, we saw daily those we worked with but we didn't have a lot of other friends. We were reserved in what we did due to our work positions. You don't realize how it limits you plus we still had restrictions making it essential we maintain our privacy on top of jobs where doing anything questionable in public would have been serious. He was a CEO and I was a teacher. I had a teacher friend get fired over kissing a girl in a restaurant. Hubby got her reinstated. In FLL, we're nobody and free to just enjoy our retirement. Our extended family has widened and brings us so much joy.
We didn't move because we suddenly disliked where we lived, but we just knew there was somewhere else we could like more. There are no guarantees change will work out like you hope, but if one is too scared to try, they'll always wonder "what if." I think also because you do look forward to it, you'll find it to be great. Now in the four years your lust may change from the Monk to something else and find you like it even better. You don't sound at all indecisive, never did, just sound like someone wisely thinking it all through. Huge change.
We never felt terribly restricted by the seasons when we were working and only had vacations in the summer. Some people are very happy with winter activities. Not us though, we like warm weather recreation. Just having year round fun as opposed to half the year is worth the change. Oneida is beautiful but just being able to boat year round will double or triple your pleasure. Being able to move where you want to at any time is such freedom. I think you'll be very happy in four years or whatever it turns out to be.