Two things happened in 2008: 1. husband was forced to retire 2. The crash. We have not recovered. Our debt is still way below most, but wish it was gone.
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I also lost my job but I got the cash moving again by starting my own business. It started slow but got better as the months went on.
Selling our home in Arizona to move and buy a place in Florida for retirement didn't go as planned. The housing market collapsed and we owed more than the value of the home.
So we went to Plan B. We rented the home to cover the mortgage and took money from our remaining retirement savings, to build a new home in Florida with cash.
Now that the housing market is back, I am selling the house in Arizona finally. I now have a nice equity in it. We own four homes, with only a small mortgage on the one we're getting ready to sell.
We retired as planned in 2011, and have done what our original plans were. It just took a couple of different routes for us to get here. We stayed flexible and didn't give up.
We retired debt-free and that by itself makes for the most peaceful, stress-free retirement.