Spring\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Awakening Moon<\/p>\n
When we drove over to our financial consultant this morning, I looked up and saw a crescent Awakening moon tucked in behind three wispy rows of cirrus clouds.\u00a0 The moon, faint and slightly out of place, added a moment of mystery.<\/p>\n
It was an omen.\u00a0 Ever had a really pleasant surprise?\u00a0 I had one, Kate and I had one this morning.\u00a0 We sat down with Ruth, our consultant, and began going over this and that as we always do.\u00a0 She got caught up on matters personal and physical like Kate’s back surgery and asked questions about Kate’s impending retirement at the first of next year.\u00a0 That was why we were there, to make sure about our resources after Kate leaves full time medicine.<\/p>\n
We tossed ideas around and looked at a 2011 budget Kate and I did last week.\u00a0 It was,\u00a0 in my view, tight but manageable.\u00a0\u00a0 Ruth made a comment about the amount of money we had coming in from social security and pensions and then how much more we needed from money in Kate’s retirement account.\u00a0 Wait?\u00a0 What was that?<\/p>\n
We add the money from the retirement account to the social security and the pension?\u00a0 My mind went blank for a minute as parts of me processed what this meant.\u00a0 It meant I’d viewed our post-retirement budget from a very restricted perspective.\u00a0 I had, for reasons I no longer understand, folded the our social security and pension payments into the total from the retirement account rather than adding them all together.\u00a0 This means our available cash after Kate retires just went up by about 50%!\u00a0 50% is a big number.\u00a0 That means our budget goes from being adequate to pretty damned good.<\/p>\n
A pleasant surprise, indeed.<\/p>\n
Afterward, we ate lunch at Spoonriver, Brenda Langston’s place by the Guthrie.\u00a0 I saw Brenda there and complimented her on her class and the restaurant.\u00a0 It was a great, healthy and damned expensive lunch.\u00a0 But, what the hell?\u00a0 We can afford it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spring\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Awakening Moon When we drove over to our financial consultant this morning, I looked up and saw a crescent Awakening moon tucked in behind three wispy rows of cirrus clouds.\u00a0 The moon, faint and slightly out of place, added a moment of mystery. It was an omen.\u00a0 Ever had a really pleasant surprise?\u00a0 I … Continue reading Life Is a Cabaret<\/span>