Flat as a Pancake... and Solvitur Ambulando!

Tomorrow is the last day of the year.  I have put this off for awhile – but it is time to check, time to check the balance in my retirement accounts.  As I expected, this year’s rate of return was basically pretty flat (as a pancake).  I do not check too frequently, it is just been depressing to do so in the past few years.  This is a piece of the puzzle for when I can actually retire and it only feels good when the numbers are going up.  Of course that last few years “going up” was not a phrase used too often when describing accounts such as these.   This has impacted all of us and I am beginning to believe this is the new reality. 

On the home (equity) front there’s more not so good news.  We had great neighbors next door, a young couple.  The guy was laid off from his job and it took months to find a new one – yes he was lucky to find a new job – except it was in another state and they had to move.  The problem: they bought their house when the market was still climbing and now it is depressed, the value of their house was way below the amount they paid (mortgaged) for it.  They wanted to rent it and had a three (3) year lease agreement in hand.  But the HOA would not allow them to rent their property (there is something really wrong with this) as the HOA covenants only allow a certain percentage of homes to be rented out at any given point and that percentage had already been exceeded.  The house has been for sale for months.  Yesterday, a man came to the house and posted a bank authorized note basically saying that the house is being declared empty and abandoned.  It went on to say that they would change the locks and…  You get the picture.

Both of these things will have direct impact on when I can retire.  Hoping for a better 2012...

I think I need to get outside and go for a walk…  It really does help me see things differently.

I did go for that walk and it was a good one.  Since it was still morning when I finished I headed over to my favorite, local ‘diner, drive-in, dive’ type place here in town – the Rexall Grill (with counter service : )

So I went in and had, you guessed it:

Solvitur ambulando!

(When I first saw this, had to look it up, solvitur ambulando is a Latin phrase that basically means “it is solved by walking”.  Well for me, it does not actually solve these problems, but it sure does help me deal with them.)

Happy New Year and hopes of a better 2012!