The winter of 2014-2015 was a bitterly cold one, the second one in a row in the Chicago area. Phil constantly asked Jan to explain why we were living in the north and she had no good answer. By that point, both of us were working as contractors. Phil had been working for the Internal Audit department of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) since May 2014 and Jan was still working from home. Phil spent many hours analyzing whether we could afford to quit working and begin a life of full-time RVing. Although there were many assumptions that had to be made in the analysis, the figures consistently showed that we were financially prepared to begin the dream now, rather than waiting until normal retirement age. Ultimately, we decided that we would put our house on the market the next time we were both unemployed at the same time. That date arrived in April 2015 when, due to the election of a Republican governor in Illinois, the CTA’s budget was cut and they could no longer afford to keep me on as a consultant. Although Jan went back to work from home in May 2015, the decision was made and we began to take the necessary steps.
GordonsOnTheGo 