I have decided to keep the countdown clock as is. I am not leaving or retiring in a month as discussed in T-2. The countdown simply marks a passage of time for me, and when it hits zero, it will still feel like a big day. It might not be quite the day I had envisioned, but it will be the right day. I will have changed my life in small ways that I hope to continue, and it will serve as a launchpad going forward.

For the first time in a while, life feels a little more stable—even if this is mostly just a mental state for me. I am looking forward. I have finally gotten down from straddling the fence. More importantly, I am looking to defeat the mental inertia and break the reinforcing patterns that hold me in one spot for way too long.

Small steps. I am in physio to try to fix my wonky knee. I am moving forward on spending money that usually causes me pain—like a new kitchen. I have a university boys’ weekend scheduled and am looking forward to it as a chance to reconnect. In fact, I have three solid weekends of friends and travel planned over the next six weeks. To top it off, I have been selected to attend Camp Mustache this fall. I am even wondering if I can put together a presentation for the crowd on the struggles of transitioning to retirement.

I am also getting more comfortable with my role at work. I used to fight the guilt of feeling like I should try to do more. Realistically, if I am lucky, I might move the needle 1% to 2% on these programs. No one is asking me to do more; it’s just my own head telling me I should. My actual focus should be on building my team and mentoring my replacement over the next 12 months. Everything else is secondary. Yes, it means I have a lot of downtime, but the company is happy with my performance. I should be happy with that, too. I’m still working on it. ☺

My team felt like a real TEAM to me this week for the first time since I started here. They were in the office, joking around, and having a good time. They were doing everything but work, which is exactly what is so important to building a cohesive group. We ate, we drank, and it was nice.

best team meeting ever

 It doesn’t change my timeline, but it’s a win. ☺

An old friend also reached out to get together. It feels great to have someone else doing the organizing for once.

With that, let’s look at the Checklist.

The Checklist

• Spouse (Mission Control) on board with changing work – B Vader and Padme both have a roadmap of where we are going. I am going one more year, and Padme is looking to pull back in eight months. She has given herself permission to leave, though nothing is written in stone for her yet. She is back at work and seems to be handling it okay.
• Physical Fitness (Engines) – B I am averaging about two days a week at the gym. I can’t say I am enjoying it, but on the flip side, I am not hating it either. Adding the bike back into the rotation this week.
• Hobbies (Writing) – A Wrote 12 draft articles in 30 days. It’s a bunch of shorter pieces compared to my usual style, and in my eyes, maybe not as deep as my older thoughts, but the output is there.
• Hobbies 2 (Anything else) – F No change.
• Social Life – B Lots of plans booked for the future; we’ll see how much I enjoy them when they arrive. I am really looking forward to meeting more of the FI crowd in September at Camp Mustache.
• Health – B Started physio to figure out this wonky knee/calf/back situation while I still have corporate benefits. On the downside, I’ve kind of fallen off the wagon with my eating lately and need to reel it back in.
• Stop Social Media Habit – F A little less rabbit-holing lately, but not intentionally—just passively due to being on vacation. I still need to put a concrete plan in place.
• Proactive Plans with Kids – C We go to the gym once a week, but it hasn’t led to what I would call “quality one-on-one time” yet.
• Connect with a Tribe – C+ – Booked a FI event – looking to meet and connect with some new friends
• Money – C+ Put more into equities as part of my dollar-cost averaging schedule. Consider this your last warning to sell before the crash—I have the touch of death. I am still not investing the purely “right” way; I bought some index funds, but also picked up some Netflix. Picking stocks is a hard habit to break. I also tried day trading a couple of times. I liked the feeling, which means I need to stop. A post on this to follow.

Overall Grade: B

My grade rose to a B-. I am roughly following the plan for a higher stock allocation. Starting physio and moving forward on the kitchen reno gets things done that I wanted handled before we both leave our jobs. With Padme now looking to cut back sooner than I originally thought, we need to get moving on these last big expenses.

I am still struggling with the fact that I won’t be retiring this summer (I’m 98% sure of that now). Once I fully come to grips with it and keep up this momentum, the grade will go higher.

good bye money – hello new kitchen