February, 2021
Actively Retiring…..that continues being the case, at least the “actively” part! We continue talking and planning, but work continues to call us back.
COVID made my health food store manager unable to continue working which put me back in the saddle again for awhile. That was 4 months ago, but things are stable there again. Whenever things like that happen, it always comes back to me to pick up the pieces, which is fine as long as I own it…ooh, that’s what I have to do, not own it! Now that’s a novel idea…who would I sell it to?
In our continued retirement discussions, it looks less and less like we will be living on a boat for the next few years. Counting the many costs opened our eyes to the magnitude of the expenses to really do that! So we looked at other options to see the Great Loop and many other parts of the United States and we decided to get a smaller camper to more easily travel around the county. And then this discussion continued into “what will we do with an empty house most of the year while we’re traveling?”
And then I left my husband alone too long by himself while I was working at my health food store…after 6 hours I get a text with a photo attached of a floor plan for another B&B for our current business. Now, we had been looking at a few that were for sale, but as I looked at this floor plan, it started looking rather familiar. I quickly typed back “is this OUR house”? And his response “you shouldn’t leave me alone so much!”
Well, as the idea started sinking in, it started to make a lot of sense. We wanted to expand our B&B business, but nothing had opened up for us to buy yet. Our house layout makes it easy to add some bathrooms and have 5bed rooms with private baths and it’s all on the same land as our current B&B and where our staff already is. Many weekends we are booked full and another 5 rooms would really be nice to offer. The best part is that we don’t need to be here anymore, so the house is available! It is surreal, but it has been our dream since we started this business, to grow it so someone else can run it, and now it’s all coming together!
Now, I’m not only planning for our retirement, but also packing up our home, boxing up memorabilia the kids want, and giving lots of stuff away. It’s a lot to process, but I am good with it all and it is very well with my soul. Who knows where God will plant us when we’re done traveling, but I am not concerned with that at all, His timing and plan is always best.
Yes, we will still own it, and yes, there may be times we have to drop everything and come back to pick up some pieces, but for the most part, we are moving rather quickly into our active retirement….once Denny finishes building another Inn!!
Actively Retiring 