Focus on Finances

It didn't escape me that i spent a significant amount of time yesterday thinking about retirement. As in do I have enough money to do so? And so as I am sometimes susceptible of doing, I started to play games with numbers. For starters, it looks like I already have enough banked away right now to sustain my current lifestyle for an entire year without any more income coming in. And that is without touching my 401K <which by the way I am eligible to withdraw without penalty September of NEXT YEAR!> That does FEEL good! I KNOW I am in far better shape than most Americans financially already. And I have to bask in that gratitude for a bit, not to mention today is payday too.  Still, I want to not have to worry about money for the rest of my life. I want to live off dividends and returns from investments, stock market, etc. And in order to do that, I have to do something with the capital that I have OR to create something. Create content that I will be paid for. And so I posted a picture of Mar Vista Park in the setting sun. That's what I want to do with my mornings and afternoons. Hang out at the park maybe. Exercise. Play tennis, run, etc. Oh wait... if I were home all day, I would still need to look after Johnnie don't I? Still, it will be great to do that without having to check on my work emails. Oh wait... I'd still be checking on emails wouldn't I? Communications from people at least. Well in any case the goal is FINANCIAL FREEDOM. FREEDOM being the key word. To do what I want when I want, not because I have to in order to get paid. That is why I need to set something up where I am getting paid even without working. And yes I do realize I still need to put in the work in order to get there. Otherwise, I am already doing some of the stuff I'd be doing at home now. Look at that beef and cabbage fry I'm working on for my lunch? A little noodles in it and it became noodle stir-fry and a good one at that. I did manage to put in about a couple of hours worth of work today, which would be ideal for a daily thing and still get paid what I'm already getting paid. And then I realized that the reason I attracted that tense discussion with Lisa was that there was a part of me I need to work on to let go. A sense of not-enoughness. It's still a pretty good start to know what I need to work on. And I am truly grateful that I get to work on it at this time. And keep up with the routines I already do. I managed to get to 5500 steps by 5 PM, even though I was stuck at 1000 after lunchtime. Hey I did need to take a 10-minute nap too didn't I? That was part of the routine right? I was perfectly fine to do nothing but internal work the rest of my Friday evening. Until...

Of course Lisa would call asking if I wanted to come over and have dinner, which really was her asking if I'd watch Johnnie while she played the piano AFTER dinner. I was ok with that actually. I could still work on the internal stuff when I got home later. And if the price of admission is to spend a couple of hours with Johnnie on a Friday night, then of course I think it's worth it. Lisa has this thing that she has to make dinner. But candidly, she is not an instinctive cook. I think I am far better. The dover sole fish was battered but the batter wasn't cooked well. Fortunately the fish was. And then the squash/onion was too overdone because she put in the onions first which cook very quickly in the high heat she uses. And then later on she declared she screwed it up with too much salt. And her stomach was protesting. Still, I did get a free dinner and it's not like I wouldn't have eaten whatever she made anyway. I did the dishes after and played with Johnnie. Look at him doing that tickle thing under my neck in the picture. I gave her almost 2 hours of uninterrupted piano practice. And since we ate fairly early, I managed to get home by 8 PM. Plenty of time to finish my 11,000 steps. But I did not get to my internal work. Rather, I watched the Dodgers post-game. They were down to their elimination game tonight, as in they were about to be eliminated. But they staved it off and kept it alive for at least one more game by winning tonight. Honestly I was not as emotionally invested because the Lakers had already won the title. I mean it would be FANTASTIC if the Dodgers did too, but if they didn't, I wouldn't be as disappointed, certainly not devastated as I would have been had the Lakers lost to the Heat. And so with that, watching episodes of Tehran on Apple TV and of all things, the Big Valley (?? I know ??) I slowly drifted to sleep on the couch. I think I managed to keep my vibration high on this Friday. And tomorrow I get to try to do the same WITH Johnnie on a Lisa workday. It's all good.