Before I fly headlong into chunking cookie jars and bundling extra pots and pans off to Goodwill in a flurry of downsizing, I should hit the brakes and put on a new set of glasses.

This set is all kinds of practical. I'm going to need this set a lot.

I will admit that I keep lumping "retirement" into a jar called "being able to afford to live". I think now is a good time for me to really see what that is going to mean.

First off, no roof over my head sounds scary. However, I am blessed with two daughters who I know would not allow me to become homeless. Or even to live in squalor (if they know about it). So it's not the roof over my head that's scary - it's not being able to afford an INDEPENDENT roof over my head that's scary. So yes, a lot of my thinking has been going into how to solve this one. 

Next - my health. I'm not young. At least not in body. In mind and soul I'm a lot younger which makes for interesting daydreams. I also have rheumatoid arthritis. So far I am blessed in that the pain only becomes truly cumbersome about three times a year. So I'm not strapped by constant pain. I am, however, ruled by both the massive fatigue that comes with RA and the loss of strength and range of motion I now have. This inconvenience affects two things - I will need access to specialists and decent medical care and I can't take on the renovation of that massive Queen Anne Victorian that's for sale for a steal and retire there. 

My health means I have to have decent insurance coverage. Yeah, yeah - there's Medicare. But will that really handle what my possible health issues might become? I keep jamming this one into a very deep closet in the back of my head, but RA can cause other organ systems to malfunction. So I'll need to be able to afford some type of Medigap insurance. 

The body issues also affect two other things, if I'm going to be honest.

I can no longer even decently clean my house. A mop is likely to skitter across the room out of my hands because I can't grip the handle tightly enough. The bottom of my bathtub may as well be the chasm of the Grand Canyon for how I would reach it. I have reluctantly become accumstomed to having twice monthly cleaning help. I wonder if I can get a prescription for a maid? 

I also struggle with grocery shopping. Getting around the store is fine. Getting the groceries into the car is fine. Getting the groceries into the house - not so fine. It is either a two-step process (car to porch two bags at a time; porch to kitchen two bags at a time), or it is an ordeal that leaves me in tears. So, I've gotten used to a grocery delivery service. This one may have to fall to the side. I'm still trying to think outside the box on this one. Daily shopping?

There are probably several other things that will requre consideration, negotiation, and possibly a grieving process as I continue this journey. These alone, as I really think honestly about them, may mean this journey may be a little longer than I want. Like target date may not be this year but next year. 

The question is - can I make it that long?