Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Retirement

Meet Baby G

Sweet Baby G and Grandma

This is the reason we came the two-hundred plus miles to the California Desert: our new grandson!

His Mama is staying at the home of the baby’s other grandparents while his Daddy is back in town (the Pasadena, CA area) completing the room addition to accommodate the baby. This is good for us that he is in the Palm Springs area, since making the trip this far cuts off 120 miles of pretty aggravating driving if we were to go to the baby’s parents home.

He is only just over a week old and is the cutest little thing! I held him and fed him about two ounces of milk. While we were there, he was very alert for a newborn and was quite actively stretching and moving about. He didn’t cry or fuss at all.

He is small, still just over five pounds, but perfect in every way. He has a nice round head, long fingers and toes, is gaining weight and, of course, pooping and peeing his fair share. I hated to say goodbye for now when we headed back to our campsite.

The other set of Grandparents told us that the new little guy will be visiting them often and said we’re welcome to come here whenever he’s in town. We will probably be back in September when we are planning to take our next California trip.

08 Aug 2015 by California People Retirement

Announcing New Grandson Baby “G”

GLG III

Late last night, the newest member of our family arrived to the outside world. “Baby G,” is the firstborn to our son and his wife. He was born at 11:02 PM last night in California, weighed in at a petite 5Lb 2oz and is healthy, cute as the dickens and already developing his personality. We can’t wait to meet him.

We are planning to visit with the family out there in September, with other stops planned in order to see the rest of the extended clan. We can hardly wait!

Update: We decided we couldn’t wait to see the new little guy since if we go this weekend we can see him while he is at his other grandparents place in the Coachella Valley, i.e. we don’t have to go into the LA Area swamp.

03 Aug 2015 by California People Retirement

Summer Sunset

Summer Sunset

Our monsoon season isn’t just about thunderstorms and rain, although those are welcome and mostly pleasant, but also about how the setting sun illuminates the clouds of summer. We were taking the dogs for their dusk walk and we saw this beautiful array of textures and colors in the evening sunset.

I did not have my camera with me, but Bob had his pocket Canon Power Shot 140IS and managed to capture this image. Click on the image to enlarge.

09 Jul 2015 by Arizona Environment Photography Retirement

Summer Traffic in Town

Main Street

Damsel took this photo of the main drag through town today on our way to an appointment at the clinic. There is only one car in motion in the two block long main part of town and most of the roadside parking is available. Just the way we like it.

The summer weather has always been abusive for the Snowbirds, who have largely vacated to their northern enclaves and is also a minor deterrent to tourism in town, but not to the extent of most businesses shutting their doors. People still come here in the summer, but only the hardiest of the road warriors. We still get a lot of biker traffic on weekends, even through summer.

These are the days, in the absence of the Snowbirds, where there is abundant parking at the supermarket and in the tourist district. After our visit to the clinic this afternoon, we were able to park curbside in front of a local merchant where we were making a purchase and when we stopped at the supermarket to get a couple of things, the parking was ample, the aisles in the store clear of the winter zombies and there was almost no waiting at the one checkout stand open today. How sweet the summer is . . .

24 Jun 2015 by Arizona Environment Photography Retirement

Considering Retirement Alternatives Planning

IRA Calculator (click on the image to enlarge)

Hmmm . . . I guess the acronym for the title of this post is CRAP. Oh well, that is not important.

I was thinking about the eventuality of me not being here for the Damsel or vice versa. We each have our own IRAs and have each other as beneficiaries. I wanted to see what would happen to my Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) amount should I not be here or what the withdrawal implications of hers would be if she were to be gone. Hard stuff to think about but it’s gotta be done.

I looked around on the (insert famous savings institution here) website and did not find much information on my specific concerns. Next, I used an on-line search engine with appropriate keywords and found several links. One link to the Charles Schwab IRA Calculator proved to be the exact information I needed to know since it was specific to the beneficiary of an inherited IRA.

I needed to enter several relevant items: the balance of the account as of 12/31/14, date of birth, date of death, type of inheritance (spouse), beneficiary’s date of birth and an estimated annual rate of return. The calculator itself updates immediately with each new entry. I actually like this calculator better than the one found on my IRA holder website.

The answer to my original question of “what happens if . . . ?” is – nothing! When I go, she inherits the IRA just as it is and will continue to have the required minimum distributions just as it does today. If I should inherit her IRA, RMDs won’t be necessary until the year where she would have turned 70½ and the distributions would be based on her date of birth, not mine. The IRA distribution scenarios are identical whether we’re here or not.

17 Jun 2015 by Money and Business Retirement

Tempus Fugit

clock.gifIt is really difficult to believe that it has been a year already since we were agonizing over the water damage to our old house in the (formerly) golden state. All of the difficulty of making numerous 300+ mile six-hour each way trips to the old homestead were happening, starting just over a year ago. There were myriad chores: external property maintenance, insurance claims and adjustments, undamaged property disposal and repairs to the plumbing which was the original cause of the flood.

And now, we’ve been out of the old place for over nine months and couldn’t be happier about it. We have had our minds on getting our Arizona home improvements completed and are nearly finished. Best of all, we’re doing well in the financial end of things, having liquidated the excessive obligations of owning the “albatross” in California. You know, property tax, mortgage payments, utilities, gardener, road trips out there to do “whatever” and all that.

Tempus Fugit translates from the Latin to “time flies” and it certainly feels like it has since those desperate days. The best part about the passage of time in this case is that we don’t feel any older because of it. Damsel and I are glad that we’re in a position to get on with our retirement unabated by fixing up the old and improving the new.

06 Jun 2015 by Arizona California Retirement

More Lemon Blossoms

Lemon Blossom

Although there are many lemons already established on our lemon tree, there are bunches of new lemon blossoms popping out. I guess that there are bound to be even more lemons than we originally thought might be the case. This is fine with us – we will be harvesting the lemons for ourselves, our neighbors and a local seniors and disabled persons care center. The more the merrier.

We had a wonderful weekend. The temperatures for both days exceeded triple digits for both days and we’re glad to see the summer season finally starting after an unseasonably cool springtime. We ate a couple of very good weekend meals, including a tasty chicken Marsala entrée on Saturday, followed by grilled flat iron steak sliced on Sunday. The menu was an embellishment to our excellent retirement routine.

31 May 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography Retirement

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