Another Day 11 - Life Goes On

 

Today is day 6 of being unemployed, because holidays and weekends don't really count. Considering I'm getting paid, am I really unemployed ? I guess so. It's going to continue to be a scary place until I have a job, and hopefully I clinched that yesterday ! For now, I consider this time off to be a vacation. I got paid for 12 vacation days and today would be day 6 of that.

I was awake before 6 and got up shortly after. Even though I was tired and wanted to sleep until the alarm at 7, I knew that wasn't going to happen. I fed the cats, had breakfast and then got myself ready to go meet with the financial planner. That went really well and we took the first step by having my 401k liquidated. They will send me a check to give to the planner, who will establish an IRA. I should get about $377k and the annual management fee is 1% of the balance, so $1000 for every $100k. That is more than I pay now, so I'll have to pay attention to the rate of return on my investment. He said based on what I have and what I spend, I won't have to worry about money when I retire and I won't spend it all before I die. He's going to put together a plan that includes my pension, so I'll probably be meeting with him again soon. I also mentioned the fact that I don't have a will and have been thinking of putting my assets into a trust. Now is the time to do that because of the 5 year look back if you have to go into a nursing home on Medicaid.

After that meeting I went to Turning Stone to spend that $100 free play. I stayed until nearly 6 pm and spent more than I should have. No surprise ! This is why I do not go there often. I enjoyed some Chinese food for lunch and stopped for strawberry shortcake at the farm stand on the way home. I actually really enjoyed my day and I don't regret the money I lost. I may be working again soon and that will mean longer hours for a while, so I need to enjoy this down time. I say longer hours because if I get the job with Accenture I will need to learn new things and I'm going to work hard at it. I did the same thing when we took on international work in 2021. I worked until 9 pm many nights and often on weekends. 

In other news, my lawn mower guy texted me today to say he might become my neighbor ! Apparently my next door neighbor passed away and his house is going to be auctioned on 7-6. Doug is going to bid on the house, hopefully he is successful as I think he'd be a good neighbor. I am sure the people who own the funeral home will be there to bid, as they own several properties on the street and when Alex died they asked me if I was staying here. I'm pretty sure they were waiting out the old lady I bought my house from, trying to get the house dirt cheap. I only paid 63k (asking price was 69,9k) and by today's standards that is dirt cheap ! Of course, thanks to the fire and the siding the value is likely double that now. I guess the funeral home wants to own the whole street. I wonder if they had anything to do with the building across the street being demolished. The excavator is still sitting on the site but there has been no activity for several weeks. I'm wondering if they are going to build something on the site. Should be interesting ! I haven't found any online records to indicate the property was sold yet.

I haven't heard anything back from Kurt and he didn't reply to my thank you email. I really hope I get this job. I'm just trying to be patient but I plan to follow up with him next week if I don't hear anything.