Hello! I hope that you’re enjoying this Summer. In Houston, there’s been a lot of rain, but not nearly as much as my friends to the West, where there have been catastrophic floods, and many lives lost. My heart goes out to all of those affected by the events in the Texas Hill Country. It’s such a special place to me, and it breaks my heart to see the death and destruction that has happened there over the last few weeks.

Studio Update

Closer to home, I am still working on getting my studio set up in a way that works for me. It doesn’t help that I’m seriously considering adding a new sewing machine to my current line up, but I’m getting closer to a workable solution. Part of that solution is some storage that I’m thinking about putting in the living room. It will be closed, so it will look like furniture but I’ll use it to store some quilting and sewing items. It’s still a work in progress, so I’ll update as I get things done.

Work Update

I think I may have mentioned the idea of retiring this year, but I can’t recall if I did. I’ve gone back and forth on the idea, because it will mean a pretty big lifestyle change for us, but I think I’m ready for that. I haven’t been able to decide what to do – stick it out a little longer, or pull the pin.

Things at work have shifted, and I’m at the point where I think it’s time to retire. What’s changing that would cause me to consider pulling the pin? When I went to work for this company, I was hired for a specific location, and I go to that location every day. I haven’t worked from home for this company on a regular basis, and I haven’t been “remote” so I never thought I’d get caught up in the “return to office” movement that’s going on now (for the record, I don’t necessarily disagree with return to office in theory).

I work with the Operations team at my site on a daily basis, and I enjoy the close relationships I’ve built with them. I also interact with my work group team on various messaging services and through meetings, but I don’t sit in the same location with them. In fact, we’re scattered across the country, supporting the sites where most of us sit. Finally, this job was meant to be located with the Operations team, as we have always been considered part of “leadership” in the building.

Corporate Office?

Now, however, the company is urging us to move to corporate offices. Not any corporate office, of which there are many, but to one of a handful of sites that are specific to our organization within the company. The closest such site to me is Dallas. The idea is to get all of our functional work team in these “hubs” so we can “collaborate” but I feel like I get more from sitting with the Operations team. I’m not the only person in my position who feels that way, either.

Also, Chris works in Houston for the same company, and his position requires him to be here in Houston. He is also more senior than me in both time with the company and level. So yeah, Dallas – not in the plans. We might consider moving to Phoenix, but not Dallas. That’s a long story, but it involves opportunities within the company for both of us.

Artificial Intelligence

There is also a push being made toward artificial intelligence (AI). I have mixed feelings about AI to begin with, but at this point it feels like we’re being pushed to replace ourselves by coming up with AI scripts to do our jobs. I’ve trained countless real people to take over my job in the past when I got pushed out; I’m not inclined to train a robot to do the same.

When I was younger, I used to wonder why people in the office who were in their 50s couldn’t embrace technology, but now I get it. The brain changes as you get older, and it becomes more and more difficult to understand new things, at least in the technical world. It takes me a very long time to accomplish anything with AI, and it isn’t really where I want to expend my efforts.

Based on all of this, I’ve decided that the end of the year is it for me. A few changes to the way we spend money and we’ll be fine. For example, we spend far too much on eating out because we work long hours and we are exhausted when we get home from work. When I retire, I will be cooking most of our meals, and we’ll save a ton of money not eating out twice a day (lunch and dinner). I also won’t be commuting back and forth to work every day. It’s a short commute, but I won’t be driving every day once I retire.

Retirement Plan

Let’s be honest here. I’ve been collecting projects and fabrics and patterns for years that I can finally work on when I retire! I am considering one more sewing machine purchase to round out my machine line up – a new Bernina 735 Pro. I wouldn’t even be interested if not for the fact that it has the Pro embroidery features I wanted last year when I bought the 770 QE Plus Kaffe Edition. They are also coming out with a 770 Pro, but since I already have the Plus, I thought I’d go for the 735 with the 5.5 mm feed dogs.

My plan for retirement is to keep house, take care of the pups and my husband, and spend as much time in my studio as I possibly can. Honestly, I can’t wait to get started. The only thing holding me back right now is that I want to pay my truck off before I leave the company, and that will be done in November. If not for that, I’d be turning in my resignation next month (I have some restricted stock units that are vesting soon that I want lol).

Staying until December would allow me to put more money in the bank. Chris makes more than enough to support us, and like I said, expenditures will go down. Fortunately, I don’t have to dress up for work. My usual outfit is jeans and a t-shirt, and I love the casual style of it. What else do you wear when you work in a warehouse full of dusty things that can rip your expensive clothes?

So I’ll be wearing my blue jeans and t-shirts around the house instead of the warehouse, and I’ll be planning meals and quilting/sewing/embroidery projects instead of labor by the end of the year. I haven’t chosen a specific date yet. I keep thinking the end of November, but then I think, why not finish out one more month and make it the whole year? But having my first month of retirement be December seems perfect. I could get so much done that month!

Have you retired early? Do you regret it at all? Let me know in the comments!