Early Retirement Week 6: The Trophy

Welcome to Week 6 of my early retirement journey! If you want to catch up with previous weeks, they’re here. It’s starting to settle in that this might be my actual life instead of a strange extra-long vacation 🙂 . Let’s get into it!

What Did I Do This Week?

I won the Plutus Award for Best FIRE Content!!! If you haven’t heard of the Plutus Awards they’re the Oscars of Personal Finance and I was SO honored to be a finalist for 3 awards this year: Best FIRE Content, People’s Choice and Blog Of The Fucking Year (expletive mine 😉 ). And I took one of the trophies home!

How is this real life 😍😭😍?!? I'm so, SO honored 🥰🏆🙌🏾. Thank you! https://t.co/BHFNhn08fl

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) November 14, 2020

Writing that out is making me realize that I’ve not mentioned the Plutus Awards on this blog since I won Best Personal Finance Article last year…Oops. So seeing that I was a finalist without having mentioned it to any of y’all and without asking you to vote for me, was an extra shock. Also I have officially failed at my 2020 goal of asking for recognition.

Despite that failure of mine, y’all turned out and it warms my heart that you thought of me and nominated me and voted for me. I’m still in disbelief that you thought of me at all let alone as the possible best at, well…anything 🙂 . It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside, so with that, I would like to say a delayed THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!! If you’re interested in how I celebrated with my family in Connecticut, swipe through the pictures below – it was a delicious time:

I kept writing for NaNoWriMo. After an amazing start that I talked about last week, I stalled out and wasn’t inspired to write because of election week. When I looked up from that whirlwind, it had been a week and I had written 15,000 words…when I needed to be at 20,000 and counting. Shit.

Uh oh. Despite writing 10,000 words during the first 3 days of November I'm now behind on @NaNoWriMo. Time to make a plan and get back on track! Think my baby cousin I'm helping look after can assist? Us right now: pic.twitter.com/FzPgETjdvs

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) November 11, 2020

So I came up with a plan. I made a list of all the posts I want to publish before the New Year that I can start pre-writing, estimated how long they would be based on previous similar posts I’ve written…and those totals didn’t get me to the remaining 35,000 words I needed to complete this challenge by the end of November.

So then, of course, I got stressed about it. And then I remembered getting stressed about it was ridiculous because I CHOSE to do this 🙂 . So I contemplated quitting…and finally I told my type A personality to shut the fuck up and that I would keep writing when I wanted to write and if I hit the NaNoWriMo goal that’s cool too. What an emotional whirlwind…that I totally created myself 😉. So that’s the plan and here’s where I am now after a writing frenzy of a morning (luckily the inspiration returned):

I dove back into Facebook Marketplace. I used Facebook Marketplace to sell most of my stuff when I was getting rid of everything I own to become a nomad. It helped me feel safer than Craigslist since you can actually see who you’re talking to and allowed me to rake in $1,865 for my old, used stuff.

So as a part of helping my cousin move, she asked me to use my skills and sell a few of her items on Facebook Marketplace as well. I was happy to help, but as I got into it, I started to get flashbacks to the work I did to get rid of my stuff this summer and strangely – to my career. I think it was because when I’m selling something and don’t have a lot of time, I have to be glued to my phone (or my computer with a Facebook tab visible at all times) so that I don’t miss a message of someone willing to pay full price that wants to pick up TODAY after an item sits there idle for days (this happens surprisingly often).

Since I retired, I’ve enjoyed being a little separate from technology, especially after the deluge of it I forced upon myself last week, but I’m doing it and I’ve decided this will be the last time:

I've changed y'all. I'm trying to sell some of my cousin's stuff on Facebook Marketplace and just decided: I'm not doing this for myself again. People are too annoying 🤣. I'll just donate stuff instead. Me: pic.twitter.com/YAznrfSyXP

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) November 10, 2020

I’ll make my cousin some cash, clear some clutter and be reminded of another aspect of work I’m so glad to be rid of. This is my last Marketplace adventure.

We started planning our next adventure. Given how COVID is going in the US (Spoiler: Horribly. Absolutely horribly) I am no longer hopeful that any country would be silly enough to welcome Americans within their borders in the near future, so my partner and I started talking about our next (US based) adventure.

So far I’ve been retired for a month and a half and that time has included: Living in a tiny house in Georgia, visiting Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, road tripping up the country and staying in Connecticut…when I write it all out it sounds like kind of a lot 🙂 . Well, now we’re trying to decide what to do the rest of the year and early next.

I’m in Connecticut one more week and then I’m taking an Amtrak Sleeper Train back to Georgia (Check out the live tweet thread below where I go through the experience if you’re interested). After that, my partner and I have decided we’ll stay in our tiny house through Christmas and are contemplating getting an Airbnb in Georgia for part or all of January for a change of scenery.

THE "SLEEPER CAR TRAIN ADVENTURE" THREAD:
I'm going from CT to GA today. Pre-COVID I wouldn't have taken a train, but their protocols look legit and it's shockingly about the same price as renting a car. By popular demand I'll be live tweeting this experience. Let's do this🙌🏾! pic.twitter.com/pZvDNRisr0

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) November 22, 2020

After that, we had discussed heading west and road tripping to the Southwest US to visit a few friends and enjoy some warmer weather. Current COVID concerns might postpone that plan, but hopefully we will have a better national response by then. We discussed heading to the Northeast for the summer and then…who knows 🙂 . It’s all up in the air, but kind of fun to discuss even though my planner brain would prefer to know all the variables and be able to make set plans. I’m flying by the seat of my pants over here!

I continued helping take care of my baby cousin. The demotion I mentioned last week has been going really well! For those of y’all that missed it, I came to Connecticut with the aim of helping my Mom be a nanny to my baby cousin and helping around the house while his parents worked. Well, after a week of getting on a baby’s schedule and helping to take care of him and the house all day, I was worn out. And I felt horrible about it because my Mom was doing most of the work 🙂 . And yet I still couldn’t hack it.

So I demoted myself from assistant to emotional support and my Mom was totally onboard with that and it’s made me a lot happier. But good note to self: I am weak and somehow babies take up all of your time even though they seem to sleep all the time. I don’t understand it. One more week and then I’ll be gone and most likely miss his adorable bowling ball self though.

Physical

Sleep

Like I mentioned last week, I tried using ear plugs this week so I didn’t awaken at every noise the baby makes (I’m a light sleeper) and it worked really well! I’ve been sleeping through the night and getting a lot more rest, which has helped with my Mom and my ability to cope 🙂 .

I also had one nap this week! I fell asleep on the couch watching the fall leaves while my baby cousin took his afternoon nap. Finally, my beloved naps are back! I’ll see if I can keep integrating them into my routine because I do miss them so.

Food

Food this week has been delicious, but not all keto as I suspected it would be since that’s all my Mom and I cook when together. It’s not my fault my cousin brought delicious snacks from Maine and there are apples I never heard of at the grocery store 😉 . Kidding – I am purposely choosing new (and delicious) experiences over restrictions and loving it!

However, I have decided that after I’m back in Georgia and Thanksgiving is over, I’m going to make more of a meal plan for myself so I know vaguely what I’m having for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I want to see if that takes away from my happiness at all (compared to the flying by the seat of my pants approach I have now). I suspect it might, but what is retirement for if not experimentation?

Fitness

This is still basically nonexistent. I hold my bowling ball cousin and cart him around. We also take walks as long as it’s not pouring rain and pushing a stroller on uneven pavement is an interesting new experience, but nothing wild is going on over here fitness wise. I need to make a plan for when I get back to Georgia.

My Mom will still be in Connecticut when I leave so my retired walking buddy won’t be available and I don’t feel comfortable walking in the woods by myself. Maybe I’ll write down that pull-up goal and get more serious into that – there are several YouTube videos about build up exercises that help if you can’t even lift yourself to the bar…like I can’t 🙂 .

Mental

Learning

Now, let’s get back to my favorite segment: Fun Facts Nobody Asked For! Here’s what I learned and explored this week:

• While video chatting with my friends from All Options Considered and Financial Mechanic, I watched a ladybug walk across our porch and later discovered they’re actually called Ladybird Beetles. What?! Apparently we call them ladybugs in the US, but other English-speaking countries call them by their proper name, Ladybirds. I am shook 🙂
• Also during that video chat, I learned a new word from Alison of All Options Considered: a placket (also spelled placquet)! It’s the opening in the upper part of pants or skirts, or at the neck or sleeve of a garment that overlaps to help you get the clothing on or off easily. It’s also the extra fabric that overlaps on a button up shirt where the buttons go. Who knew?!
• I continued my bird watching obsession with the aid of our neighbor’s bird feeder and watched Blue Jays I identified fighting in a tree (trouble in paradise?). They actually might have a nest in our backyard – I really need to get those bird binoculars
• I found several Japanese Maples in our neighborhood during our walks. They’re originally native to Japan, Korea, China, eastern Mongolia, and southeast Russia. What are you doing here tree?!
• I had much better luck with my OG retirement goal of being outside and watching the Sunset this week. I was able to catch the sunset as we drove back from our weekend hike and the weather got up to 70 one day and I sat outside for 6 hours while chatting with various friends over video. It was lovely
• I learned from a baby book I was reading to my cousin that a baby rabbit is called KITTEN. WHAT?!? I looked it up to make sure it wasn’t a misprint, but it’s true – a kitten, not a bunny or anything you would suspect
• I might need a new segment called “Purple Tries Things!” After being inspired by fall and our new northeastern surroundings, my Mom bought 2 new kinds of apples neither of us had ever heard of to try: Autumn Glory and New Zealand Envy. Fun fact: “Envy is a brand of the Scilate apple variety and Scilate is the result of a cross between Royal Gala and Braeburn. It was developed in New Zealand and the Envy apple is a mostly red with yellow specks.” #Random 🙂 . It was super fun to try new things and realize there’s so much even within regions I’ve visited before that I haven’t experienced. I thought about ranking or reviewing these things, but thought that might be too much – even for a rating and review obsessed person such as myself 😉 . Overall though my favorite apples remain untouched: #1 for me are Granny Smiths (I love sour/tart things) followed by Honey Crisps (which we also got this week and were SO good).

Creativity

Creativity has thankfully still been coming on strong. My inspiration has ebbed and flowed like it usually does, but luckily, I’ve been able to ride that wave to get some solid writing done for NaNoWriMo. Also, despite being tired before I figured out my demotion idea, I’m still curious as ever about the world around me and keep wanting to turn it into something – be it new fun facts for these blog updates, photos I’ve been taking furiously of the changing fall leaves or dance moves I’ve been choreographing – inspiration continues to flow.

Money

Money continues to be silly. The market seems to like the news of a new president and the possibility of a 90% effective Pfizer vaccine and a 94.5% effective Moderna vaccine because, while volatile, it’s been going gangbusters. The market is once again higher than it was before the March crash and I hit a new net worth high:

I’m approaching $600,000 at a rapid pace despite not adding anything to this pile myself 🙂 . If the market goes up 1.5% more I’ll be there and that seems ridiculous. For that reason, money continues to be a non-issue. When my partner and I were discussing where to go next in the world, money didn’t even really cross my mind, which is still a large shift from how I used to feel. The streak of not caring about money continues!

Emotional

Stress

The only stress I felt this week was self-imposed and ridiculous 🙂 . It was of course around NaNoWriMo, but my Mom helped talk me off the cliff of quitting and was very supportive in reminding me about why I started this challenge in the first place: Because I wanted to 🙂 .

So after remembering myself and setting down my ego, I was able to crank out a shitton of words in three hours of concentrated writing with music blasting from my headphones…and it felt good 🙂 . It appears I’m already slipping into the retiree trap I call my Mom on – of making things more stressful or dramatic than they are because the stress and drama of work isn’t there anymore 😉 . Time to resist that urge. All is well.

Winter Is Coming

Yep – it’s true. It’s been raining for several consecutive days this week and while I like the sound of rain, it’s also a bit of a sad contrast to the sun filled fall I walked into two weeks ago. Daylight Savings Time also didn’t help by making the sun set at 4:30pm every night.

When I arrived, all the trees were full and bursting with color and now only a few weeks later, they are half empty and on their way to being barren. It’s a different landscape and fun to see after my winter-less 5 years in Seattle (it doesn’t really get cold there and mostly has evergreen trees).

However, usually when there’s a lack of sunlight, it darkens my days a bit, but so far that is not the case. It might be because my mind knows this is very temporary and that it’s different and should be enjoyed before I go back to the winter-less South, but I’m happy that’s the case so far.

Conclusion

So that’s what I’ve been up to this week! I’m getting into the groove of writing a lot, baby care and winter before I head back to my life down South in a week. Let’s see what this final week in Connecticut holds!

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? Did you learn anything new?