Looking Around

Retirement is in the air, at least from my main teaching job. It’s not coming really soon, but it is definitely coming. I’ve been obsessively pushing numbers around, playing with figures. Should I or should I not pay off the mortgage? (As of today: yes, but only right before I pull the retirement lever.) When should I pull that lever? (Not altogether sure; I have some excellent financial advisors/retirement counsellors cooking up some scenarios for me right now.)

One question I don’t have is what I’ll do after that. I would be retiring only from my main teaching gig. I continue writing program notes, giving pre-concert lectures, and teaching courses in adult music education at the Fromm Institute. None of that changes. They’re close to being a full-time job already, and the fat extra income they bring in continues into retirement.

There are some incredible blessings. For one thing, consider California’s hidden superpower — its low, low property taxes that don’t change. My property tax bill is modest and will remain so. Once I pay off the mortgage, my monthly living expenses will be wonderfully low, low enough that I could actually get by just fine on Social Security alone, but I’ll also have three investment income streams and the second career income as well. I’ll be as snug as a bug in a rug.

But the main blessing is that I’m already so well situated for my day-to-day living. I have a lovely house in a pretty neighborhood in a charming and safe small city on the eastern edge of the SF Bay Area. I’m sitting on my back deck on the moment, looking over my fetching back yard with its trees and lush garden, squirrels doing their thing, birds doing their thing, trees murmuring gently in a light breeze, sunlight streaming through it all but with a comfortable temperature.

It’s an unmeasurable blessing to have this. I don’t have to move anywhere. I can retire in place. Maybe at some point I’ll need a stair-lift to get upstairs. Maybe not. If family history is any guide, I’ll be mobile right up to the end. My health is robust for a 71 year old. I could very easily make it into my mid-90s without major incidents.

And it looks like I’ll be right here. Happy in my suburban house with its lawns and gardens, with its four bedrooms and three baths and comforts. Oh, it will need occasional nips and tucks to keep it running smoothly. But I’ve done most of the heavy lifting already, and I can probably count on reliable service for decades to come.

So I’m looking around. And it’s good. Damn, it’s really, really good.