Why did I start this blog? Part II

So, I opened the Pandora's Box when I came to Florida. Slaving away on Long Island, going to work in the dark, coming home in the dark, driving through ice, snow, rain, etc.,  my husband and I had no idea we were the Morlocks, toiling under our mighty tax burden so that the Eloi could sit out the horrid weather in sunny Florida, sipping mojitos on the beach. What a wake up call that was!

Now, I always thought that old people retired and went to Florida. They lived in mobile home parks or modest houses. A small place to escape the arthritic cold. I also thought I would probably be one of  those old people too. 

In 2009, my husband and I went to Florida to purchase some real estate as an investment and get a  head start on our retirement. We felt pretty good about our position. We didn't fancy trips, we didn't remortgage our house in the wild times, we didn't buy new cars, boats, toys like many of our friends. We paid down our mortgage and put money away; and we didn't lose our heads during the crash of 2007-2008. We didn't pull our money out of our retirement accounts like many of our friends. It was nerve-wracking, but we held on, firm in the belief that things would recover. We also sold a home on LI in 2009. Everyone thought we were nuts, but we knew that if we wanted to get rid of it, we needed to act then and we did as well as if we sold the house today. We thought the market was nowhere near the bottom in 2009 and we were right. People still thought recovery was just around the corner. 

Most importantly, we had to be frugal because we had no pensions. I had a small 403b and a profit sharing plan with my company. The profit sharing plan was based on how the organization did financially each year. Some years, as in the post recession years, no money was put into the plan. At most, it was a modest amount. I worked for a small non-profit and the healthcare costs were really taking their toll. When I started, the company paid the entire premium for a very good family plan with $5.00 co-pays and prescriptions. By the time I left I was paying a large portion of the premium for a plan with a $15,000 deductible. Dental and vision coverage had been stopped years before. My husband was self-employed for 30 years, then he went to work for a small engineering company that offered a 401k with no match at all.

So off we went to Florida, thinking we must be successful because financial restraint and frugality were the keys to a secure retirement, right? 

MORE NEXT TIME, STAY TUNED!