I can’t believe it.  I actually retired.  Yep, quit working at my federal career of over twenty years.  Left behind a nice salary, great co-workers, not to mention the health insurance.  Wrestled with Social Security, Medicare, all the federal bureaucracies that are part of the retirement process, especially for a federal worker.   Most importantly, I even talked my wife into it.  

I didn’t purposefully choose to retire during the COVID-19 pandemic.  I had planned to retire in the early spring of 2020, before the outbreak.  I hung on, due to the uncertainty of what the future would bring and to work with the team I was part of to get through the crisis.  It didn’t hurt that we were all working from home and the time-consuming commute that I hated was no longer required.  However, as the crisis continued with no foreseeable change, I decided to try to make a break.

I had gone over the bills, the retirement finances, and all other issues I could think of (or obsess over) many times.  I probably ran through all the scenarios once a month for a year, and the facts and figures held pretty true.  Luckily, that continues to be the case, but it is early in retirement.  In fact, I have yet to get my pension from the government, but I knew that would be the last thing to fall into place.  Maybe next month?

My wife has been very accommodating, even continuing to work while I take the three months or so to get all the retirement funding in place and stabilized.  This was very helpful, especially for the peace of  mind it brought both of us in this time of uncertain transition.  We are hoping she will cut back to part time in the near future, paving the way to retiring herself this year.  We will see.

Probably the trickiest issue of all of the retirement hoops to jump through has been that of health insurance.  I had good insurance for the family with the feds but it was very expensive.  It would be even more expensive in retirement with no job co-pay.  Even worse, I no longer needed the full family plan, but due to bureaucratic issues I could not cut it back for several months into retirement.  My monthly pension would be about completely consumed by my health insurance premium.  Not good.  The only way I could cancel my fed insurance and still have the ability to possibly reinstating a federal policy in the future (an option that I felt was worth hanging on to) was to take out a Medicare Advantage (MA) plan along with Parts A and B of Medicare.  Without going into a lot of detail about Medicare, MA plans, as well as plans known as Medigap, are designed to provide extra coverage for things like deductibles, copayments, possibly vision and dental coverage.  I decided that I could live with that, especially since it would save me over eight thousand dollars for three months.  I informed the feds that I would sign up for an MA plan.

However, there was only one Medicare Advantage plan offered in my county, clearly limiting my options.  No worries, I will live with that one plan and change to something else later if necessary.  Except, after applying, I was told that in my zip code the company providing the plan was not accepting anyone.  My MA options went from one to zero.  Problems.

Again, without going into too much detail, I decided to try to get the Medigap plan that I actually wanted all along.  However, I was told by the feds that a Medigap plan was not a substitute for a Medicare Advantage plan, even though it will probably be better for me (especially since I have no MA options).  I am waiting to see what fallout arises from the feds with all of this.  I just hope I don’t have to continue my fed insurance for several months, costing me that unnecessary expense.  I also have to sift through all of the ‘Gap options and select one.  Fun.

So here I am, retired.  What to do with myself?  Well, my dream for the last year or so, since I started to realize that I might actually be able to retire, is to travel the country.  I decided that I would do that by camping, dragging or driving my home on wheels with me.  After looking hard at small camper trailers, then slightly larger campers, I settled on the idea of a large van.  These are sometimes referred to as Class B recreational vehicles.  I started planning the construction/conversion of a large cargo van and actually was able to convince my wife to go along with the plan.

I looked for used vehicles.  There are three choices: Mercedes Sprinters, Ford Transits, and Dodge Ram ProMasters.  After working through all of the facts, figures, and opinions, I got serious about the Ram ProMaster, even thinking about a new one (gotta love a factory warranty).  I went to a dealer and test drove one, and liked it.  I dragged my wife along and she was impressed also.  In fact, she was so on board with the idea, that she suggested that we go all out and buy the largest one made.  We did.  We now own a humongous white cargo van.  Now, I just need to convert it to a home on wheels. No biggie.

Now my days are consumed by the conversion, and it is a slow, slow process.  Everything has to be hand-fitted, the left and right sides of the van are not the same, and the walls, well, don’t even ask.  I am working to get it in a state such that we can drive it to Colorado in late October.  This will hopefully serve as a trial run/dress rehearsal for van life, so I need to get as much of the systems done as possible to give us a realistic picture.  Gotta get busy.