I'm Becoming an Empty Nester

They grow up and they leave. We know the day is coming, but it's something we put off thinking about. Then one day we look around at what was once a bustling household and realize it's a lot quieter now.

Now that the kids are out of the house, we have so much more time on our hands. My husband and I are finally getting back to doing the things that we love to do. And even though we’re helping our youngest son through college, we’ve found that our monthly expenses have really gone down.

So, we’re meeting with our financial advisor at the bank to make sure we’re making the best use of our monthly incomes as we think about our future.

He advised us to reduce our life insurance policies since our kids are less dependent on our income. This will reduce our monthly premiums and give us more money to put toward retirement.

Now, don’t get me wrong, retirement is a few years off, but I know that we could have done a better job over the years of setting money aside.

And we’re definitely in a better position to save money and catch up on retirement contributions, now.

Not only that, we’re ready to have a little more fun! After paying off our higher interest debt, we booked a week-long get-a-way to Miami. I love the shopping and my husband, well, he loves vacations.

Of course, the honey-do list will still be waiting for us when we get home. We’re taking advantage of our home’s equity and making the improvements that we’d been putting off while the kids were still at home.

I’ll admit, having an empty nest is going to be bittersweet. I’ll miss the bustle, and seeing the kids every day, but it sure is nice getting quality time back with my husband. This new chapter is shaping up to be pretty exciting and I can’t wait to see what’s next.