Pulling my own ripcord, life changes. I sure as hell hope I packed the parachute properly!!

I can't believe this is even happening, but here I am.  I am about to pull the trigger and finish turning my life completely upside down...or right side up???

Rewind to Feb 2020:  I had my third hip surgery 6 years.  My marriage of 20 years had completely collapsed and divorce process started.  Despite the collapse, I was still living in the house and my kids didn't know.  To say that situation was miserable is an understatement.  While I loved the company I worked for and what I did, I felt stagnant.  Given the situation I was in I also had zero motivation.  That downward spiral also had me literally > < close to quitting my 24 Hours of Lemons team, whom I'd been with for 9 years.  I was ready to give up all motorsports.  COVID was a new thing and the world was shutting down.  Things couldn't have been any more bleak.

Fast forward to today.  I am now very happily remarried to the most wonderful woman I can imagine.  My kids handled the divorce great and they love their stepmother.  In fact, my daughter has really bonded with her and my boys text her more than they do me, LOL.  We just bought a beautiful historic home and own an investment property near Disney...my favorite place.  My job promoted me and I'm heavily involved as a senior leader.  I'm still fully involved with my Lemons team and have a hugely renewed energy for it...those guys and girls are truly my extended family. 

Not only am I still involved in motorsports, I am about to make it my retirement career.  That's the final and biggest pull of the ripcord.  Either today or tomorrow I will be giving my retirement notice and leaving the insurance industry within the next 4-8 weeks.  As I mentioned, the job is going great and I love it.  However, opportunities have presented themselves that I can simply can't turn down.  My wife and I have spent a ton of time providing every last bit of info to our financial advisor and spent hours with him going over plans and "what ifs" and we're comfortable that I can pull the cord now.  However, I'm not the kind of person who can just retire and sit around.  I need to be very active.  My wife is already retired from the restaurant industry.  We are both diving full time into motorsports and will have the income we need (in addition to the retirement funds we have saved).  So we are now going to travel the country doing something we truly love.  We can do it when we want, and go where we want to go.  I have several local job opportunities in driving coaching/motorsports that also allow me to pick and choose when I want to work.  

I'm utterly speechless that I'm here.  I'm nervous yet tremendously excited.  

Here goes nothing...I sure as hell hope that when I pull that ripcord I don't find out the parachute is tangled, ripped....or missing.  

Congrats!  You don't hear enough good side of the stories, nice to see things work out in your favor.  Happiness is definitely the key to life. 

I'm REALLY excited for you!

My story has been similar the last few years...  I'm hoping for a similar ending!!

Congratulations!

In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :

Dang, and you're still young enough to enjoy it!

Sounds amazing, so happy to hear things are working out! I definitely feel the retirement career pulling at me, hope to be in a similar position someday. 

I'm pulling for ya, we're all in this together. 

That's a remarkable turn of events.  How were you able to change your situation / motivation with work?  

That is incredibly great news! It will be fun to follow along (if you plan on including us), especially since you're diving into motorsports as your retirement career!

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

That's a remarkable turn of events.  How were you able to change your situation / motivation with work?  

Thanks!  It was literally one step at a time.  The despair and depression was so bad that I'd just lay on the couch and stare into space.  I had started therapy a little while before the divorce.  When I sank to this low, she literally told me to start by just forcing myself to get off the couch and take a walk around the neighborhood.  I rolled my eyes, but gave it a shot.  She was right.  I felt just the tiniest bit better.  So I did it again, and again.  From there it gave me the courage to try to "get back out there" and so I joined dating sites, started plugging back into the kids lives (I was never literally absent, but I was emotionally gone).  From there it was a snowball effect, in a positive way.  I was energized at work because of the other things happening around me.  The fire for racing reignited.  That train kept rolling to lead me to where I am today.

Yes, I will absolutely include GRM on following along.  At the moment, the plan is that my retirement career will be split between 24 Hours of Lemons, Xtreme Xperience and Porsche.  Xtreme and Porsche are the key centerpoints.  I also have two teen driving schools chomping at the bit for me to work for them, but I don't want to overextend myself.  I want to make this retirement career what I want, and not wind up working 60 hours a week.

Congrats. I'm glad to hear you have come from a dark place to such a good place and important life step. Very happy for you. 

Congratulations!  Sounds like you put in a lot of work - both internal and external - to get where you want to be.

My very best wishes to you for the future.

Very cool - in for details on what these new paths look like.  I also sent you a pm. Let me know if you don't get it. 

Congratulations sir!  Can't wait to hear about how the new chapter progresses!

This is awesome to read - enjoy it!

Sounds cool - congratulations 

Congratulations!  

In terms of your financial stability, after about a year of doing what you want, you will have a really strong idea if your  model was right or not.  But the first year is both exciting as heck and a little nervous as you learn what it costs to retire.

Have fun!  And enjoy doing what you want to do!  

Also, remember that you are helping the employment situation, as someone has to fill your spot, which opens another, etc.  Someone is going to get a job they didn't have before.  

Very cool!

I just started with XX last year.  I'm still a ways from retirement (if they still have that when I'm of age), so I only get to do two or three events a year, but I hope to meet you there!

Enjoy life!

Good for you, man!  Look at you... blooming where you're planted.  Give yourself a hug.

Good luck, man!  Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm hoping to escape from the insurance business myself in about 4 years. I can't fully retire, but will have enough years in at a good income level with SS I can leave and do something 'fun' for another 3-4 years. I like my employer and the job isn't terribly hard (and pays well) but after 30-ish years I just want to be done with it. Having attained an instructor license with NASA some years ago, your trajectory intrigues me. 

ddavidv said:

I'm hoping to escape from the insurance business myself in about 4 years. I can't fully retire, but will have enough years in at a good income level with SS I can leave and do something 'fun' for another 3-4 years. I like my employer and the job isn't terribly hard (and pays well) but after 30-ish years I just want to be done with it. Having attained an instructor license with NASA some years ago, your trajectory intrigues me. 

Just reach out to me anytime.  As I mentioned, I'm not the kind of person to retire and just sit on a porch in Florida.  Hence my "retirement" looks different from others.  There are enough motorsports organizations out there that you can make at least respectable money.  My wife and I are going to use that + tapping into saved equity/resources which will carry us over as long as we live...even if we decide to 100% retire in our mid-60s.  

And so it begins.  Winding down my insurance career and slowly ramping up with Porsche.  Rough job but somebody has to do it 

And here I go jumping out of the plane hoping my parachute will work.....my last day.  Packing my office, time to go....

Who makes a Monday, and the first day of the month, their last day?