I gave notice yesterday!

[disneysteve]

I guess it's time to share this. I met with my lead physician for our monthly one on one on Tuesday and told her that I was set to drop to per diem status. I had to then send in written notice which I did Tuesday night. Our contracts require 120 days notice so that takes me to August 10 (which coincidentally is my birthday - nice gift). Most likely, it will take effect a few days before that as the pay period ends on August 6, so my per diem status will likely start August 7. They could decide to let me out of my contract earlier, but that's entirely up to them and I'm not counting on it.

My plan at this point is to continue to work a minimum of 4 hours a week and probably 8 hours a week. That would provide a nice cushion to our retirement budget and two 4-hr shifts each week keeps me active and up to date with stuff while still having loads of free time to do everything else, run my ebay business, travel, etc.

So as of early August, I'll be essentially retired. No more schedule or required work hours.

[corn18]

Congrats!

[ua_guy]

Congratulations on the next step! Do you feel good about it? Excited? Or do you find you are having a hard time letting go of work?

[james.hendrickson]

Woah, big step Disneysteve!

[kork13]

That's fantastic, congrats Steve!!

[Snydley]

Good for you!!! CONGRATS!!

[myrdale]

It sounds like a great plan! Well deserved.

[bjl584]

Congrats!

[Fishindude77]

Good deal, congrats !

[jenn_jenn]

Congratulations!!

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Congratulations! What a journey. I can't believe how many members of the board are sailing off into retirement.

[QuarterMillionMan]

So disneysteve at 57, if you don't mind me asking, where will you get your medical insurance? And cost? I wish that I could go too at 56 but medical insurance is a major obstacle for me.

[Petunia 100]

Congratulations, DisneySteve. I hope you enjoy your retirement immensely!

[disneysteve]

So disneysteve at 57, if you don't mind me asking, where will you get your medical insurance? And cost? I wish that I could go too at 56 but medical insurance is a major obstacle for me.

ACA plan is going to run around $1,100/month initially. Next year income should be less so subsidy may be higher but I've planned for more than that anyway so we should be fine.

[disneysteve]

Congratulations on the next step! Do you feel good about it? Excited? Or do you find you are having a hard time letting go of work?

I'm certainly looking forward to it. It's a little hard since we have the 4-month lead time so nothing really changes quickly. Since I went part time at the end of November I've been prepping for the next step though. My daily routine has evolved and I've been ramping up my ebay sales so I'm spending a lot of time shopping for merchandise, listing items, packing, shipping, etc. Not that I really doubted it but I think I needed to convince myself that I still loved doing that and could make decent money with it. Just doing it as a side thing, I've already done around $2,000 in sales YTD and about $1,400 profit. Once I have more time, I should be able to maintain $500+/month profit which is actually more than the number I used in my planning so that's good too.

My wife is still dealing with her back troubles so we're not currently able to do much as far as travel or other activities but hopefully she'll get better soon so we can be out and about enjoying ourselves.