Early Retirement Week 1: The Freak Out

by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement, Early Retirement Updates, Fitness, Food, Hobbies, Keto, Musings, Relationships
This post may contain affiliate links. For more info read my disclosure.

Here is a sampling of the thoughts that have been swirling around my head the past week:

“Oh god what have I done…”
“Waking up without an alarm clock is HEAVEN!”
“What if those ‘job gap’ people are right? What if I end up needing money and no one will ever hire me again?!?”
“I haven’t looked at my phone for hours – this is magical!”
“I’m going to die alone eating cat food in a ditch.”

…so obviously early retirement is going great 🙂 .

The OG Plan

Originally, I was going to be sipping champagne in a travel hacked first class seat on my way to the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately, because of the global pandemic, I am not experiencing the baller retirement send off I had planned, but we’re making the best of it and I’m starting to think this slow, local approach might actually be better for me in the long run.

Instead of living the high life, my partner and I flew across the country and moved back to my home state of Georgia. We are living in a shed turned tiny house in the backyard of my partner’s brother’s house, and enjoying a commune type situation for the foreseeable future. Look at this cuteness:

My days are slow and focused on figuring out this new life stage and our new nomad life. It’s basically the opposite of the distractions of constant travel and exploration of new things, which may have delayed the realization of what I’ve just done hitting me.

I’m currently happy with my new life. I’m focusing on what’s important and fleeting (the people I love) and will visit places that have already been there a million years later when it’s safe to do so.

Why Weekly Updates?

For the first 4 weeks of early retirement, I’ve decided to give y’all weekly updates that will then switch to monthly (if you would prefer another cadence, let me know in the comments below). The reason I’m doing frequent updates in the beginning, is because there are so many of us on this financial independence journey, but so few blogs that talk about what specifically happens after they retire – some stop blogging all together (I understand – you’ve got shit to do!) and others give less frequent updates.

But I want you to know the nitty gritty! I wish I had a blog I could have read to prepare me for the imminent emotional rollercoaster that is the first few weeks of early retirement. So I am here to provide that! I enjoyed providing monthly updates on my countdown to early retirement and the updates will now continue on the other side of the curtain.

What Did I Do This Week?

I actually noted on my Google Calendar what I did during every hour of this week because *cough* nerd *cough*, but instead of subjecting you to way too much detail, here is an overview of the productive things I did this week:

And in between all of that, I hung out with my Mom outside for several hours a day, read a massive amount, made our new tiny house a home, tanned, walked in nature and settled into commune life complete with group meals and bonfires. Actually, reading through all of this, I seem to be failing at my early retirement goal of lying facedown on the floor…I need to try harder next week!

Physical

Sleep

One of the first questions I wanted to tackle in retirement was: “Will I ever not feel tired?” I can’t remember the last time I didn’t feel at least a little tired. Maybe elementary school? Seriously, I don’t know how people with jobs, homes, partners, cars, kids and pets do it…Cocaine? I was barely holding it together with 2/6 of those things. The energy I gave to work and time I needed to decompress basically took all of my creative energy. The small bit that remained, I channeled into this blog!

In addition to that low level tired feeling, I suck at sleep in general. So I was curious to see if and how my sleep would change in retirement. As I mentioned, we recently moved across the country, which involved getting used to a new home and bed, which caused me to strangely awaken at 3:50am on the dot for the first few days we were here…Weird.

But after we got our new, fancy and affordable mattress and got used to our new space, I started sleeping like a baby. I would close my eyes and open them to see the sun rising. Sleep is getting better and when I’m still tired, I have discovered another retirement luxury that helps immensely:

Naps

Napping involves a weird balance for me. Because my life was usually jam packed with activities, I would have to plan my naps and set an alarm for a set end time. But, if a nap window is too short, sometimes I didn’t actually fall asleep and if a nap is too long I was bleary eyed and irritable after I woke up.

And because I am a neurotic overachiever, I didn’t allow myself to even attempt the shortest of naps during the work day despite the fact that I worked from home for 4 years (and even though week days were when I felt most tired). Now in retirement, I have time to nap without restrictions or obligations and I have taken advantage of it!

I’ve taken several afternoon naps this past week and they’ve been magical. Being able to listen to my body and rest when it wants – even in the middle of the week – has been amazing. Another side effect of lowering my tiredness level, has been a renewal of that creative energy that was sapped out of me when I was still working. I have new energy and curiosity about the world around me, which I’ll get more into below. Naps to the rescue!

Food

I suspected I would have a hard time balancing staying keto and not gaining a lot of weight with trying all the new foods in our nomad locations, and so far I’ve been right 🙂 . I love food and trying new things and I have been able to do both in abundance.

But doing so, paired with the fact that we quarantined when we got here until we got a negative COVID test result, meant I have been either eating the (delicious) food my brother-in-law cooks up, or enjoying local delicacies, and neither have been on my keto approved list 😉 . And if I don’t stick to keto food my body quickly balloons – it does not handle carby foods well.

I’m starting to wonder if I really CARE though 🙂 . Previously, my wish to keep my weight steady was the desire to fit into my pants – and not have to buy new ones. But now that I’ve gotten rid of most of my clothes, the only ones left are comfortable and stretchy 🙂 (In pandemic times leggings are pants and bras are illegal 😉 ).

Anyway, I feel healthy and think I look good most of the time (get out of here societal hang ups!) so I’m thinking about re-evaluating my goals around my weight and the role of food in my life. It might be a reaction to this wild year, but I’m all about enjoying myself instead of trying to fit into our society’s beauty ideals right now…and after writing all that out I think I definitely need to shift my focus here.

Alcohol

As I’ve mentioned before, alcohol and I have a complex history. I used it to cope with my stressful work days and quickly decompress in the small time allotted between work and sleep. I had a theory that removing work from my life would help eliminate that urge since I saw it as my main reason for enjoying wine at home. So far, that theory has proven correct, but since alcohol is by definition an addictive substance, I’m going to continue keeping my eye on it.

Instead of feeling tense and frazzled after a long workday and knowing I have 3 hours to not think about work before having to go to bed and do it all over again, I now have the time to properly deal with stressful situations instead of turning to wine. Life isn’t instantly rainbows and roses in retirement, but it has been HUGE that when something shitty happens, I have the time to feel my emotions, analyze them, properly deal with them, and then move on – instead of trying to stuff them down or brush over them with a substance or other distraction.

Fitness

I don’t have grand plans to get an eight pack in retirement, but I would like to get back to some of my fitness loves, such as heavy lifting, now that I have the space and cement foundation needed to do so 🙂 . We’re looking to buy a used squat rack and weights to put in our carport in this new place. In the meantime, I’m looking for other ways to have some fitness progress.

My brother-in-law has one of those portable pull up bars in his house and I’ve created a goal of doing at least 1 without assistance in the next 6 months (it sounds easy, but it’s really not for me – all of my strength is in my legs). I have also been trying to be more conscious of my posture and correcting myself when I feel myself slouching. Gotta undo all that computer hunching I did for the last 9 years!

In addition to the above attempts and plans, I have been continuing my love of walking even though it’s not been to the grocery store. I’ve found some lovely nature trails nearby that I’ve been enjoying with my sister-in-law and my Mom. Last Monday we saw a Great Blue Heron just hanging out on a pond and on my first day of freedom we had this adventure:

Tanning

My entire adult life has been spent in the north – first New York and then Washington. Whenever I came home to Georgia my Mom would say I looked sick – that I needed some color. So I’ve been working hard to get some sun and Vitamin D. I’ve been sitting outside and enjoying the Georgia fall (aka 80 degree weather). I’m finally able to lean into my belief that I’m solar-powered like Wall-E or Superman 😉 .

Mental

Learning

I’ve had several years to think about what I want my ideal day in retirement to be and to experiment with my ideal rhythm of life. I wanted to be more ‘one with nature’ and watch the sunrise, sunset and stargaze whenever the weather allowed. I also wanted to follow the rhythm of the Earth, such as reading inside when it’s raining and going to the beach when it’s sunny.

I felt so disconnected from the world when I was working because my entire world was staring at email on a screen and having a strangely Pavlovian response to email pings (see below for the lingering effects).

In addition to being more in touch with the world around me, I also want to learn about our world. I absolutely love the subreddit Nature Is Fucking Lit and am constantly surprised by creatures and phenomenon on our own planet that I had NO idea about.

There is so much to learn and discover and I’ve always been curious about the world, but felt so run down that my curiosity was snuffed out, but no longer! I’ve learned more about my surroundings in the last week than I have in years, so here is a list of some of the fun things I learned and saw this week – or as I like to call it Fun Facts Nobody Asked For!

  • We heard a Barred Owl in our backyard and I learned how to make their hooting call – you basically say “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all” and they respond! It’s wild
  • I’ve been stargazing every clear night since we arrived and have seen with my naked eye: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, countless constellations and the Harvest Moon with the help of this amazing site and the Star Walk 2 app (it’s free!). Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible after sunset for the foreseeable future so check them out if you can!
  • I’ve expanded my bird watching to include Georgia locals and have seen Loggerhead Shrikes, Cardinals and even that Great Blue Heron I mentioned – their wingspan is longer than I am tall. Ridiculous
  • I’ve also identified the butterflies that flit around outside our tiny house – I’ve seen a Pipeline Swallowtail Butterfly, Cloudless Sulfur Butterfly and a Gulf Fritillary
  • I’ve started trying to learn how to identify trees and found that in our yard, we have a Silver Maple, a Magnolia Tree, an Oak Tree and a Eucalyptus Tree (that smells SO good!)

I already feel like I know my home state better in two weeks than I did living here from birth to 17. I feel like a part of my surroundings and it’s as amazing as I suspected it would be.

Creativity

Unsurprisingly, I am also feeling WAY more clearheaded and creative. Previously, the time I would use to write my blog and random things like Tweets or Instagram captions was totally sporadic with long amounts of time in between when I wasn’t feeling inspired to write.

I may write an Instagram post every day for a week, for example, and then go dark for a month. My writing follows the rhythm of my mind. Well, now that my brain isn’t overrun with solving corporate problems for 8-12 hours a day, it seems to be going into overdrive. My creativity is at an all time high – besides writing more than ever, I’ve even been using the stylus on my new phone to practice my calligraphy. All the creative pursuits are coming back!

Money

I expected to be watching my budget and expenses like a hawk, but shockingly, I’ve actually been doing the opposite. This is possibly because my retirement is already going better than forecast monetarily.

I had $533,030 instead of my $500,000 goal on the first day of retirement. Also with COVID, my projected expenses are way lower than I planned since I’m hanging in relatively cheap Georgia instead of gallivanting around Australia and New Zealand. Also, I’m accidentally making a little money (full details to come on that in my year end finance recap).

I think this combination of having more money and spending less than expected has made me almost unrecognizable to my former self. I’m still money conscious, but I no longer check my budget before transactions (even big ones). If I want to splurge on takeout, I do (see below). If I want to give a gift to my loved ones, I do so without checking YNAB, and if I decide I like a $200 desk better than a $80 one from Ikea I click “Buy” without question (like I did this last weekend).

Upon reflection, this might not be a completely new mental space for me. This seems to have been a slow progression as I’ve grown my net worth. When possible purchases were a larger slice of my net worth pie, I analyzed them more, but now that they’re small percentages, I feel more freedom to just not worry about it. It’s wild. Is this how rich people feel?!?

Emotional

Calm

Despite the quick flicker of negative thoughts that I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the main emotion I’ve been feeling is a weird sense of calm. It’s a feeling I haven’t had often in my life and it usually occurred about a week after vacation once I had shaken off the yuck of corporate life. Unfortunately, most of my vacations were exactly one week long so I didn’t have a lot of time to enjoy the feeling 🙂 .

The contrast between how I felt while working (or even seeking work) and now is stark. Comparing how I felt even my last week of work while in Georgia to now makes me realize that I was constantly tense. I felt a weight in my chest often and my mind was always racing, trying to solve work problems even when I tried desperately to turn it off.

I already don’t really recognize who I am now and I have to say, I love that. I’m calm and able to see and enjoy life in a way I had glossed over when I was so focused on doing a good job at work. I notice birds in the trees and enjoy little things like crunching leaves on my walks. I’m becoming a new person.

A Lack Of Depression

In addition to the stress of work, I was diagnosed with depression in high school and that’s a lifetime battle. I was curious how removing a large stressor from my life would affect this aspect of my brain. Despite the many changes that have happened recently, I’m glad to report my depression hasn’t flared up at all. However, it usually gets worse during the winter when there’s less sunlight, so we’ll see what happens with that, but for now, my hormonal imbalance seems all good despite the life changes that are happening!

Professional ‘Masks’

I have had some family drama happen this week and I am so very grateful that I don’t have a job I have to pretend for right now. I hated that feeling of being depressed or feeling sad about something and then having to make my voice or face be chipper on a conference call. It was more draining than usual for this introvert.

I’m so grateful that now I can just feel my emotions instead of trying to cover them up or push them aside to do my job. I have the time to acknowledge what I’m feeling, analyze it, deal with it and then move on – what a concept 🙂 .

Conclusion

I meant for this to be a short update, but it seems like I’m incapable of writing short posts of late. It might just be true that the longer you write, the more you have to say 😉 . So that’s what I got up to my first week of retirement! Let me know if this is a series you want me to continue or not and for how long. Thank you for being here!

If you’re interested in the other weekly retirement updates I’ve written, they’re all here:

Weekly

  1. Early Retirement Week 1: The Freak Out
  2. Early Retirement Week 2: The Vacation
  3. Early Retirement Week 3: The Whiplash
  4. Early Retirement Week 4: The Heartbeat
  5. Early Retirement Week 5: The Election
  6. Early Retirement Week 6: The Trophy
  7. Early Retirement Week 7: The Train
  8. Early Retirement Week 8: The Challenge
  9. Early Retirement Week 9: The Question
  10. Early Retirement Week 10: The Game
  11. Early Retirement Week 11: The Recharge
  12. Early Retirement Week 12: The Holiday

How was your week?

63 thoughts on “Early Retirement Week 1: The Freak Out”

  1. Hi Purple,

    I love the idea of regular updates on your post-work life. Weekly, monthly, whatever fits your mood and life. I’m still finding my way post-retirement. Covid threw a huge monkey wrench in the works of my plans so I had to pivot too. My pivoting included getting a part-time job. I actually always wanted to work part-time but needed a full-time paycheck for many years. And working a job you don’t need, but want, is so much more relaxing on many levels. So blog on girl, love hearing it all!

    Reply

    1. Thank you Kathleen 🙂 . And that’s exciting about your part-time job – so happy to hear it’s relaxing when you don’t need the dough!

      Reply

  2. I love this whole post, it’s so exciting to imagine what retirement life might actually be like once we get there. Daytime naps! Nature walks! Creative time! Family bonfires together! Sounds like heaven.
    I also love the idea of taking a sleeper train, I didn’t even know they existed any more, definitely try that and report back!
    Thank you for continuing to post into your retirement phase, you’re so right that there’s not much info out there about it, especially the nitty gritty of the emotions and what you’re spending your time on, and especially from such a relatable person. It’s so helpful and inspiring 🙂

    Reply

    1. Yeah it’s been sweet and YES sleeper trains still exist! I took my first one from Seattle to San Francisco and it was an interesting experience – not comfortable 😉 , but interesting. I was in awe of the older people who were taking that train all across the country. My back was yelling at me after one night, BUT that train was the oldest running one on the west coast so maybe they have updated beds on other ones 😉 . And yay – so happy to hear you’re enjoying it! I’ll keep it up 🙂 .

      Reply

  3. Loved this update, do keep them coming!

    Also I need to confess, when I saw on Twitter you’d bought $100 for takeout it didn’t occur to me it was for you and others. I admittedly thought it was just for you and your partner and thought “wow, they like to eat!” 🤣🤣

    Reply

    1. Alrighty – will do! And to clarify: That $100 of takeout was just for me and my partner LOL. But when we moved to GA we started buying takeout for everyone to pay them back for being our quarantine chefs (if that’s what made you think it was for more people). So: can confirm, we do like to eat 😉 .

      Reply

  4. Ah, I remember a lot of these thoughts. Get ready for life to start to just seem to move slower!

    Regarding sleep, it took me about nine months of tinkering before I fully reprogrammed my body to sleep. A decade and a half of professional sleep deprivation didn’t reverse itself overnight.

    The tiny house build looks fun!

    Reply

    1. I’ll look out for slower – right now it seems to be flying by…maybe because my idea of ‘a long time’ is lengthening. I just said to my partner “that’s in only 3 weeks!” A month seems short now – we’ve been discussing staying in new locations for at least 6 weeks instead versus when I was working a week vacation was infinite (in a good way). I will be patient with the sleep changes – thank you for the heads up! And yeah the tiny house has been going really well. I’m enjoying it 🙂 .

      Reply

  5. Hi Purple, thanks for keeping the blog going post retirement. I think it’s absolutely right, when we work we miss all the things you talk about above.
    I have been feeling guilty recently about the decision to retire “early”. Hell at 55, I have been working for 25 years longer than you, and I really want to experience the same stuff. I’m going to suppress the guilt.
    Best regards Jon.

    Reply

    1. I want to currently 🙂 . Thank you for the vote though – that helps solidify my conviction to keep it going.

      Reply

  7. Love the continued blog posts. Keep them coming! So inspiring to hear about your transition. Looking forward to your future updates and how you are navigating these new waters!!

    Reply

  8. Thank you, thank you, thank you for these insights and vulnerability! I lived in GA from 10-22 and it is nice to hear about your calm life there for now; I may be living through you vicariously a bit until I can legally leave and return to China. (My brother, sister-in-law and mom are still in GA). More than that, though, I am so glad to hear how this process is going! I look forward to future updates.

    Reply

    1. You’re welcome 🙂 . And hello fellow Georgian 😉 . Happy to help you live vicariously and I hope your family here is well! I’ll keep the updates coming.

      Reply

  10. I smiled the whole time I was reading this! I love that you will be updating weekly for the first month and then monthly. What a change in just one week and look at all you’ve been up to!!

    The main thing I think you keep hitting on is this idea of having found back the time to properly deal with your emotions before moving on. What a difference from just having to hold them or burry them in the back of our mind and put our masks on to keep going in the crazy rhythm we collectively decided *should* work for everyone!! I think that just this specific aspect will have compounding benefits in the long term.

    I’m so excited to continue following along this transformation.

    Reply

    1. Woohoo! And to clarify: the ‘update posts’ will switch to monthly, but I’ll still be posting weekly – just about other topics…or maybe I’ll change my mind and keep posting stream of consciousness about my days past by 4 weekly update post plan…who knows 😉 . I’m really enjoying them though and might extend. My blog, my rules!

      And you noticed that huh lol? I actually repeated that point a few times and had to delete it in editing. It was indeed a recurring theme! Completely agree to the compounding benefits. I’m excited to see who I become 🙂 . Thank you lady!

      Reply

    1. Hi Tara! So glad you’re looking forward to it – I’ll add ‘commune info’ to my future topics list.

      Reply

  12. Funny thing is I haven’t even been treating my days off like days off. I felt like I worked on various things all day Saturday before biking to a belly dancing show (outside) with friends. Sunday I started again, patronized my sister’s micro-restaurant and ran some errands.

    When I came home, I took a quick break on the couch and turned on a random football game – and fell asleep. When I awoke all the teams had changed uniforms (or maybe it was a different game lol). I decided it was a sign and did jack squat the rest of the day.

    I think a lot about what my retirement will be like. I don’t think it will look much like “retirement.” And I don’t really want it to. I like staying active and busy in things, and I like the feeling of making a difference in the world. But, I hope to have days and maybe even weeks where very little is accomplished and I just randomly explore interests or even just do a whole lot of nothing.

    Enjoying these post-FI posts and look forward to more!

    Reply

    1. Haha you’re hilarious and that sounds like a lovely time. And yeah your retirement doesn’t have enough not moving and golfing to count 😉 . I’m actually surprised how filled my days have been – maybe I need to schedule uninterrupted time or something 🙂 . And yay I’ll keep them coming!

      Reply

  13. I would like to keep reading your posts now that you’ve retired, but understand if you need to scale it back. I’ve just started my 4th week as a retired person. My sleep patterns have been getting out of whack a little, so I may set my alarm so I don’t sleep in too long. Lots of walks and time hanging out at home. I’m just enjoying this transition time to see where life takes me next. Enjoy.

    Reply

    1. Woohoo 4 weeks!!! And sleeping too long sounds like a wonderful problem to have. Let me know if the alarm helps or not – I’m curious 🙂 . Thank you and you too!

      Reply

  14. “I have also been trying to be more conscious of my posture and correcting myself when I feel myself slouching. Gotta undo all that computer hunching I did for the last 9 years!”

    I felt personally attacked by this line 😀

    Congrats on your first week of retirement! You live tweeting the event was quite the thrill.

    Don’t worry about short posts, we’re living vicariously through you!

    Reply

    1. Haha I’m sorry. If it makes you feel better – while I was reading your comment I realized I was slouching and corrected it. Work in progress! And thank you! So glad you enjoyed the live tweeting as well. I’ll keep the posts coming (regardless of length 😉 )!

      Reply

  15. Wow, that’s a busy first week. Sounds like you’re loving it so that’s awesome.
    You’re right about this too – Life isn’t instantly rainbows and roses in retirement. You just have more time to deal with stuff which is very beneficial to most people.
    Enjoy!!
    ps. The weather is rainy now in PNW. The long dark days are back. 🙁

    Reply

    1. Yeah I’m really enjoying it and yep – awesome takeaway. Having more time is a blessing. Thank you!

      P.S. And oh no! I’m sorry the long dark days are back. Is there at least Pumpkin Spice around to liven the PWN up??

      Reply

    1. Haha it’s adorable – I’m enjoying living in it (I wasn’t sure before we moved in – it was going to be a trail period haha). And I think I didn’t explain that properly – I’m still writing weekly, but the ‘early retirement update’ posts would be switching to monthly. There would be still be random posts in between those every Tuesday. However, maybe I should change from weekly early retirement updates to monthly…I’m currently enjoying them a lot and reserve the right to change my mind at anytime 😉 .

      Reply

  17. Reading this post was like a morning meditation for me. I could feel my OWN breathing calm when reading about the owl calls and time spent in the sun and nature. I am so happy to read all the positives that this first week has brought you. One piece that particularly stuck out to me was:
    “I’m all about enjoying myself instead of trying to fit into our society’s beauty ideals right now.” Yessss!!! Everything about this post signals a healthier, happier you, and I love the focus on doing what you want for you, whether that is heavy lifting, eating more carbs, and getting insanely creative. I’m so glad these updates will be weekly because I love this one!

    Reply

    1. That makes my heart warm!…and also makes me realize my new business scheme: Purple Meditation! I’m totally kidding. And yaaas thank you for your support lady. Next step: unlearn stupid shit from society and learn to love my new body instead of constantly trying to change it. Working on it! And yay I’ll keep the updates coming!

      Reply

  18. Am on week 3 of my early retirement (@52 YO) and can totally relate to SO much of what you wrote. I feel odd (did I think this thru ALL the way, what will people think of me if I tell them I retired early, etc) AND exhilarated all at the same time. Look forward to reading your posts

    Reply

    1. Woohoo week 3!! Odd and exhilarated seems like a fair assessment 🙂 . So far so good on telling people though – no one really cared, though one member of my family called me a “lucky bastard”, which made me chuckle 🙂 .

      Reply

  19. Hi Purple — it’s your FI/RE-Date Twin again 🙂

    I totally agree, the 12-hour sleep I was hoping for has not materialized yet! We are in our last push to get the COVID-camper van ready to head south before the snow flies… I’ve had to declare “weekends” where I allow myself to laze around, eat things, stomp in leaves and nap like I used to on Caturdays.

    I LOL’ed when you talked about not knowing what the heck day it was… Same. I had to reconfigure my phone so it has a weekly calendar widget on the first page. Also thinking of getting a day-date watch, so I can be outdoors without worrying about dropping my phone in water. Old-school. (Maybe that is why a watch is the traditional retirement gift??)

    Cheers,

    d.

    P.S. Yay for LivingAFI re-readers bookclub!!

    Reply

    1. Hi Again Twin! And haha – let’s keep working on the 12 hours of sleep. One day! And woohoo COVID-camper! Declaring weekends is a great idea – maybe I’ll do that.

      So far I just started created ‘blocked off’ days so I don’t have social stuff every day. I’m not sure how that snuck in, but it became too much for this introvert 🙂 .

      And oooh that weekly calendar widget is a smart idea…And lol I would totally drop my phone in the water so might want to look into a watch as well 🙂 . Let me know how you like yours. And THAT would be an amazing reason for watches to be retirement gifts.

      Reply

  20. I stop by every Tuesday! I will be bummed if you go to a less regular posting schedule, TBH. Plus, if insight into the adjustment to retirement life is a goal of posting, I’m not sure whether a month is sufficient…. how long does it take to get into the habit of being retired, if the habit of working all the time is so well-established? I don’t know the answer, but it may take more than a month. Or less than that, but at least from the perspective of MY neuroses I could see it taking longer. That said: this is YOUR retirement, so dictate your schedule to your own comfort. And speaking of that — CONGRATULATIONS, because I did not comment on your “I’m retired” post. And finally, good luck with the pull ups!!! They are an awesome and worthy exercise, and definitely pandemic ready with access to a pull up bar. As someone on the other side (who can do a freestyle pullup, more than one) I totally feel tough and badass each and every time and wish you the same positive feelings as you progress.

    Reply

    1. Hi C! That’s amazing – thank you for stopping by every week 🙂 . Good to know about your thoughts on the posting schedule. I won’t be slowly down from every Tuesday before next October at the earliest, but I’ll keep that in mind regardless. As for the monthly updates, I was going to do those indefinitely and they would recap basically what would have been in my weekly updates at a higher level…maybe I’ll just keep the retirement updates weekly though. It seems like I have enough to say to not consolidate them 🙂 .

      And thank you!! And ahh the pull ups – such a challenge lol, but I’m excited to be able to do them again. Time to be badass!

      Reply

  21. Went over to your twitter and saw a request for eyeliner recs. Not sure what your situation is but I have very oily eyelids and wear contacts and have allergies (so lots of eye watering). For liquid I have found stila stay all day or kat von d liner are good. For pencil urban decay 24/7 glide on. The liquid stays better but obviously pencil is easier.

    Reply
  22. Pingback: Women’s Personal Finance Wednesdays: Week 105 Roundup - Tread Lightly, Retire Early

  23. I have a question. Would you have extra-thin FIRE’d with $300K if you kept working part time? I have that opportunity as soon as I get rid of my debt this coming January or Feb. But I’m a little scared. And the part time work is a dream job, so I need to work hard at it and spend my extra time honing my skills.

    Reply

    1. I wouldn’t have been able to FIRE on $300K personally – that would not at all cover my expenses. I was planning to still quit my job when my portfolio went down to $315K in March, but I wouldn’t have been FIRE, just on a sabbatical. Totally fair being scare about a serious life change.

      I don’t give advice (I’m not a finance professional 😉 ), but it sounds like this part time job is something you really want to do. I’d weigh that with how much you’d need the money from that job and how long it would take to get your portfolio to an amount that could sustain you indefinitely if that’s your goal.

      Reply

  24. Hi Purple! I didn’t think I could be more inspired by your blog than I already was, but this post was the most inspiring yet. I have many years to go until I get to retire, but this gives me the motivation to stay on track. Our jobs affect our outlook and well-being so much more than we realize and it’s easy to get habituated to all the stress. Thanks for sharing your experience!!

    Reply

    1. Oh wow – thank you so much for saying that!! So happy to help and yeah it’s kind of ridiculous how much a job changed seemingly everything about me. Anytime 🙂 !

      Reply

  25. This is brilliant! Yes please keep posting these up, it’s a very nice reminder of what normal should look like. I have a massive silver maple in my back yard, gorgeous tree. You made me think of it when you mentioned identifying trees.

    We get so wrapped up in our corporate lives that we forget there is a world around us filled with nature and life that is amazing.

    Reply

    1. Yay – so happy you enjoyed it and will do! And woohoo Silver Maples! It really is easy to forget about the wonders of the world when we’re going a million miles an hour 🙂 .

      Reply

  26. I didn’t find your blog until you were almost reaching retirement, so I really hope you continue to blog regularly. I enjoy the post retirement updates!

    Reply

  28. Hi Purple,
    That sounds amazing!
    I’m a little bit older than you and just discovered FIRE and your blog a couple of weeks ago. It’s really good to see you transitioning from corporate to free life. I’m inspired by it, and it helps me to take my very first steps towards FI. Because if we can imagine things, we might be able to do them.
    Therefore, I’m very much in favor of you posting every week 🙂
    Best,
    Laura

    Reply

    1. Hi Laura – well you convinced me 😉 . I’ll still be posting every week for a year at least. Totally agree if we can imagine it we can do it. Good luck on your journey!

      Reply

  29. Thanks for the insights into your retirement! I’m not retired yet but can relate to so much of what you’re saying.
    I’m also dying for a tour of the inside of that tiny home. It looks beautiful!

    Reply

    1. Of course and that’s so awesome you can relate! And dying for it eh 😉 ? We’re still getting it set up, but I’ll add “include pictures” to the tiny house post I’m kicking around in my head.

      Reply

  30. This makes me so envious! Perhaps disconcertingly envious given that I am only 1.5 years into my career and have a longggg way to go before FI. What struck me most about this post is your detailing off all the nature around you – birds, trees, etc. I have been wanting to learn how to identify the plants and animals around me for a while now. It makes total sense that you are doing so now because your mind is much more open and relaxed. I’m sure I can set a goal to do more of that even while I am working, but I just love how you are able to follow your curiosity and your body’s rhythms! It sounds so amazing!

    Reply

    1. Haha I’ve been there – envious even in the beginning. Hang in there – it’s worth it I promise. And yeah I always wanted to do this while working too, but really didn’t have the mental energy (and then took mental energy to beat myself up for not having that mental energy lol…Please learn from my mistakes). Let me know if you do find the time to identify stuff around you though – I’m curious to hear about it 🙂 .

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *