What a Week!
My golfing buddy, George, says that retirement is not for sissies. He's got that right!
In the last week I've played in a two-day golf tournament, contracted to buy a townhouse, converted non-cash assets into cash assets to buy the townhouse and begun refurbishing same. And, that was in addition to my regular househusbandry duties of cooking and cleaning and keeping the flatlands house in proper order for realtors to show to prospective buyers. Each evening I've gone to bed running on empty!
As for the golf tournament, it was the Hummingbird at High Meadows, a Ryder Cup format with guys against the gals. The guys got smoked this year as the result of some points gerrymandering. But, it was fun and made the gals very happy and that ain't all bad, you know.
The townhouse, located a few block from the flatlands house, is a two-bedroom, 2.5-bath, kitchen, dining area, living room, foyer, porch, deck affair built 25 years ago. It's a "fixer upper" and I've already started with tile flooring for the foyer, main hall and baths, hardwood flooring for the kitchen and dining area, and carpeting elsewhere. After we close next week, it will be time for some walls to disappear and a rebuild of the fireplace chimney to get underway. I will, of course, gratefully accept free labor for you, dear readers!
Turning non-cash assets into cash was an interesting exercise. We will use the equity in the flatlands house we are selling to buy the townhouse, but the townhouse purchase is a cash deal and we needed a short-term "bridge" loan in the interim between buying one and selling the other.
Seems that if you are unemployed you cannot borrow a dime against your 401K, regardless of how much you might have in your account. The options were to get a job or cash out some of the 401K. Neither was an attractive option.
So, off I go to the Smith Barney folks who put me in touch with someone from The City. It's obvious in short order that he is not accustomed to dealing with an Appalachian-American and his assets atop the Blue Ridge Mountains, and can do what I want done in a week in about a month at interest rates just shy of usury.
So, off I go the Wachovia who can do what I want done in a week in just two days, and by the end of next week we'll be the proud owner of three houses, hopefully for a very short period of time.
Time for me to go visit my new friends down at Home Depot and Lowe's. We're on a first name basis these days, you understand.
In the last week I've played in a two-day golf tournament, contracted to buy a townhouse, converted non-cash assets into cash assets to buy the townhouse and begun refurbishing same. And, that was in addition to my regular househusbandry duties of cooking and cleaning and keeping the flatlands house in proper order for realtors to show to prospective buyers. Each evening I've gone to bed running on empty!
As for the golf tournament, it was the Hummingbird at High Meadows, a Ryder Cup format with guys against the gals. The guys got smoked this year as the result of some points gerrymandering. But, it was fun and made the gals very happy and that ain't all bad, you know.
The townhouse, located a few block from the flatlands house, is a two-bedroom, 2.5-bath, kitchen, dining area, living room, foyer, porch, deck affair built 25 years ago. It's a "fixer upper" and I've already started with tile flooring for the foyer, main hall and baths, hardwood flooring for the kitchen and dining area, and carpeting elsewhere. After we close next week, it will be time for some walls to disappear and a rebuild of the fireplace chimney to get underway. I will, of course, gratefully accept free labor for you, dear readers!
Turning non-cash assets into cash was an interesting exercise. We will use the equity in the flatlands house we are selling to buy the townhouse, but the townhouse purchase is a cash deal and we needed a short-term "bridge" loan in the interim between buying one and selling the other.
Seems that if you are unemployed you cannot borrow a dime against your 401K, regardless of how much you might have in your account. The options were to get a job or cash out some of the 401K. Neither was an attractive option.
So, off I go to the Smith Barney folks who put me in touch with someone from The City. It's obvious in short order that he is not accustomed to dealing with an Appalachian-American and his assets atop the Blue Ridge Mountains, and can do what I want done in a week in about a month at interest rates just shy of usury.
So, off I go the Wachovia who can do what I want done in a week in just two days, and by the end of next week we'll be the proud owner of three houses, hopefully for a very short period of time.
Time for me to go visit my new friends down at Home Depot and Lowe's. We're on a first name basis these days, you understand.
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