Celebrating Retirement

Some of you may not have heard that we've retired and moved to Florida. That's right....RETIRED! Actually, we both just decided to pull out our money from our retirement accounts to have a little cash to live on while Stephen is in school. Also, there was NO way I was going to ACTUALLY retire as a teacher with TRS (the dictators who control Texas teachers' retirement accounts.) My age plus years of experience has to equal some crazy number like 80. I'm only at 33 now!
Anyway, I had all my paperwork in to take out my money and they sent me ONE LAST LETTER, a chance to back out of the deal. The letter asked "are you SURE you want to give up your retirement?" And, as if to sway my crazy decision, they put in the BIG selling point: "You could be eligible for early retirement benefits starting on August 31, 2034. You would receive a monthly amount of $164.93." WHAT? I couldn't live on that per month in 2008, let alone in 2034. Needless to say, I signed away my rights, yet again.
As for Stephen, his retirement account was with a county hospital. They take care of everything there. So, unless he was planning on working in Odessa, Texas, for the rest of his career (which we all know isn't happening) it wasn't worth it to leave his retirement money with them. We got the check yesterday and put it in the bank. (Not that we can access it because our bank put a hold on our account. I guess they don't want someone depositing a fake check and then taking all the money.) We did decide to celebrate our "retirement" this evening and we look forward to living out our days in "Sunny South Florida!"