A New Day
I have had enough of corporate life to last me through this lifetime. I'm not going to go on a bash or rant here but as I began to go through the "Executive Outplacement Services" that were provided by my former company I quickly realized that they were not going to be of much benefit to me because as I was beginning to wake up and realize that I had given up so much for the past 16 years, I had no intention of getting myself or my family back into the same senerio again.
My desire is to spend time with my family, to be able to be a intergral part of the remainder if my kids childhood, what there is left of it. As we discussed what to do as a family, it was evident, our plan had really already manifest itself even before the life changing event.
A couple of years ago, while we were living the corporate executive life we, at one time were living in one "really nice house", in the process of building another "nicer house", and tossing around ideas about a retirement / summer home in Montana at the same time. The "nicer house" was closer to my office as our current home was a pretty long commute. The new house was looking like it was going to be a long project so in the interest of gaining a few more free hours a day we bought another home closer to my office as an interim residence while we built the "nicer home". This interim home was a little smaller and older but we figured we could live in it while we built the "nicer home", get the benefit of more free time, then use this one as a rental. Something changed in our thought process while we were making the interim home ready for our use though. As we remodeled this smaller home, we discovered that it was adequate for our needs! No, it was more than adequate, it was more comfortable than our current home. Not "nicer" in the keep up with the Jones' sense but more comfortable and usable and lower maintenance and less draining on the pocketbook. That realization, that we could be just as happy in this lesser home, may have been the true catalyst for our current life plan. We just didn't know at the time, that our perceptions and decisions were being guided in advance of our need.
Our thoughts began to change and we decided that the new "nicer home" was not necessary. Our fanciful thoughts about a retirement home in Montana came to the forefront. We decided that if we didn't build the "nicer home" we could get property in Montana and plan for real the retirement home. I wasn't sure, at just 39 then, that retirement was on the horizon, but a summer home in Montana sounded good and it would be ready when we finally got ready to retire so we shifted gears.
This was no small change in the midst of all we had going on. We were juggling three current properties and a demanding career but it actually lessened the madness. We stopped construction on the "nicer house". It was a beautiful five acre heavily wooded property which is quite unusual around Dallas, Texas. It sold quickly, so that was finished. Our prior home was another story. As it was also "very nice", it carried a very nice price tag in a market where home sales were soft, especially among higher priced homes. Our prior home took over half a year to sell during which we found and bought the retirement property in Montana and moved into our smaller home. We actually bought two different acreage properties in Montana but that is another story. Finally, in October we received a contract on our prior home. By early November were settled in our smaller, older, more comfortable home, we had rid ourselves of our two "keep up with the Jones' " properties and had our property in Montana that would someday be our retirement. This was November of last year. I had just returned from a trip to China...... Only a couple of weeks after we had removed basically all our debts from for lives by closing on the sale of our "nice home". D-day occurred. Who would have figured?!
Not wanting to get back into a corporate environment, our path seemed clear. We decided to pursue the current path of decisions that we had been guided toward. We are going home to Montana!
posted by Unknown @ 7:22 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home