State of the Union

I spent my lunch hour today going through our financial accounts and conducting my own state of the union. This included checking out my pension with Travis County.

When I first started working here, back in 2000, I used to be upset that they took 7% of my salary out for something I couldn't control. Especially since I wouldn't ever seen any value from their matching if I didn't vest, and the vesting length was so far off into the future (eight years) that it was impossible to comprehend. Well, it took almost nine years (thanks to two maternity leaves), but I finally did vest. And now that pension is actually something to think about.

Apparently I can retire in thirteen years and six days. Not that I'm counting or anything. But its such a nice thought. Thirteen years isn't that far away. Alex will be in college, I'll only be 51, I can have a second career doing something completely different.Travel all I want... oh wait... I'll be about to have two kids in college. At the same time. Who am I kidding? Those 529 college savings plans don't seem to be growing as fast as I thought they would.

So I ran the numbers a different way. If I hold out just three additional years, I'll have an extra $3000 a month. An extra six years, an additional $3000 a month. Soo... to retire in 2024? 2027? 2030?

At this point, I've settled on January 31, 2027. Let the countdown begin.