Plans, long and short term

Money is currently showing up as “pending” in my bank account, but it is included in my balance, and Stripe is not withholding anything. See? Sometimes it pays to wait a minute before going all aggro. Like I used to tell myself when I was pregnant, there’s nothing to worry about until there’s something to worry about.

The hurdle of opening night behind me has freed me up to think about the future. I’ve started asking myself if, various contingencies aside, I might actually be able to sell this place and have a kick-ass house in my golden years. I always sort of imagined I would die here; and I may still. But at the moment I’m on track to pay the house off in eight years. A couple more years after that and my old Katrina debt could be paid off. If I saved some for a couple of years after that, the kids would be grown and I could sell this place and buy an awesome place in the hills behind me with no mortgage (or hardly any). And I wouldn’t even be 60 yet. I had thought this would be impossible due to property taxes, but a friend told me here in CA as long as you are 55 or older you can keep your old property tax rates in a newly bought home. That was a huge game changer. So I may just get that dream home in the hills after all!

Of course, this is all dependent on many things. That I continue to make this kind of money. That I don’t get sued, nobody gets sick or injured or addicted, don’t end up in a spiteful divorce, or, most likely, end up on the hook for kids’ higher education costs. There are so many things that have to go right for this to work. But it’s nice to have a dream, even if it never comes true (or gets delayed).

Short term, I have plotted and paid for a week long trip to the Big Island of Hawaii for the week of my birthday in July. I found an Air BnB in a crazy hippie compound in the jungle that can accommodate us and hopefully my sister and her husband and maybe another friend. It’s going to be a total adventure. I am so excited about it I can hardly stand it. The idea of watching my little sunburned boys running around wild and barefoot makes my heart sing with joy. The thought that they could grow up with memories of unfettered Hawaiian summer vacations - a luxury unthinkable in my cash-strapped family growing up - makes me almost want to cry.

Oh, but we remember their first trip to Hawaii, don’t we? ((Shudder)). We’ve come a long way from those days-!