1 Month To Retirement: AHHHHHHHH!!!

…So I may be a little excited 🙂 This is starting to feel real, which it turns out is a good and a bad thing. I’ll get into why below, but overall here’s what I’ve been up to the last month:

A lot has happened since my last update. First of all, in case you missed it: I hit my FIRE number in July!

WAIT…That's…that's my #FIRE number…WHAT?!?! I didn’t think I’d see you this year. Well, that shows how much I know. Welcome to the party pal😍💰🙌🏾! pic.twitter.com/RLl3qbS7Cj

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

And I wrote a whole post about the experience here.

Earlier in the month I also did a fun little recap of my net worth through the ages to help ground myself and realize how far I’ve come in a relatively short amount of time:

And since then the market has been losing its bloody mind for some reason, and I hit a new net worth high:

In addition to all that excitement we also sold everything we owned and became nomads at the beginning of the month!

This also happens to be my last countdown to retirement update and I have 4 weeks left of work. Absolutely wild. This kind of contemplation has been leading to some fun and ridiculous tweets:

I’m quitting my career in 2 months and just realized I’ve never owned an iron🤷🏾‍♀️… #Adulting #Millennial #WheresMyAvocadoToast🥑

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) July 17, 2020

You know what’s wild?@APurpleLifeBlog is counting down her last 35 work days – when most people her age (+ income) have 35 years left to count down.

— Tread Lightly, Retire Early (@TreadLightly_RE) August 14, 2020

Me: This woman is 28 and she sings like an angel! What am I doing with my life?!?!
Partner:…Retiring?
Me:….😬…. pic.twitter.com/ktstODYgSx

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) July 27, 2020

A Summer Work Recap

June was a 60+ hour work week hell. July was (luckily) much better, which worked out well since most of my energy was concentrated on trying to get rid of all my stuff. It also reminded me how weird it feels to have a lighter workload while in client service.

Despite not doing something urgent at every second of the day, I was still stuck inside 9-5pm at the beck and call of email and chat pings. Even on days that I didn’t have that many requests I’m still tired by the end of it, which is so strange and fascinating to me. It’s also possible that being a human being is just plain tiring especially during this weird year…I guess I’ll have to check in in a few years to see if that hypothesis is true 😉 .

Then work became strangely tolerable for a week until it took the plunge off the deep end. Good try work – you almost had me fooled that you were innocent instead of a succubus of my energy and sanity (for a paycheck, but still 😉 )!

During those wild times when I was hunched over a laptop screen for 4 hours at a time without any breaks, I tried to remind myself “In a month you’ll never have to do this again – that’s no time at all!”

But I was once again reminded that the heart and the mind are different beasts because despite that very real and soon reality my heart refused to believe it. I got into that weird tornado of thought when your brain assumes that how you feel now is how you’re always going to feel and there is no end (even though there literally is one just over the horizon…)

It was super weird and not what I expected to feel. Though I guess the alternative was ending my career on “this isn’t that bad”, which I suspect would cause me to question my decision down the line.

Instead, the universe decided to viscerally remind me why I want the hell out of Corporate America. Thanks Universe 🙂 . Here are some examples of that:

Worked until 11pm and got up at 5:30am😴. What was that about jobs being wonderful and life's only purpose🤨? pic.twitter.com/TlzLVHyKLa

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) August 26, 2020

I worked until 11pm last night, got up to do it all again at 5:30am…and I'm still working now. If anyone ever asks me if I miss having a job I'm going to laugh in their face👿. pic.twitter.com/FIbb8L7TzZ

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) August 27, 2020

My project is due at 10am. You send me new information that will require me to change everything I've been working on for a week?…and still finish by 10am? #RageQuit pic.twitter.com/lqwY2x0AQW

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) August 28, 2020

Coworker: I've worked the last 10 weekends!
Purple Thoughts: That is not a badge of honor🙅🏾‍♀️. #TheFinalCountdown pic.twitter.com/EYRn9RXaWB

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) August 28, 2020

Impatience Skyrocketed

I’ve talked before about the weird dance impatience does on the path to financial independence. Work continues to be stressful and I can’t let go and truly not care (stupid, perfectionist nature!). Still, I do my best, which is good for my company but not great for my mental health.

I reached what I thought was DGAF status a few months ago, but it turns out that that (sadly) doesn’t mean I don’t care or that I can separate myself from my work and the stress it brings. Stupid brain!

Brains are dumb🙅🏾‍♀️. I'm closer to retirement than ever and my Impatience Level has reached 11/10. pic.twitter.com/lkecht5ez6

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) August 18, 2020

I Almost Quit

So, one morning this happened:

I don't know why this is the straw that might break the camel's back, but I'm thinking about quitting early and this was the catalyst🤔. My Mom (shockingly) says go for it. My partner says stay the course. What say you?

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) August 19, 2020

It was a close call, but after sitting in the sun, taking deep breaths and having a few friends (and my partner) talk me down, I decided not to quit a month early:

UPDATE: I'm not quitting today. Thank you for your votes and suggestions. Also thank you to the friends who talked me down🤣. I can do this. 44 days left.

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) August 19, 2020

I Changed My Quit Date (Again)

Something did change after that mini-meltdown though 🙂 . My quit date has always been an evolving beast. Originally, I was going to have my last day at the end of September when I was still going to FinCon, but when I cancelled my ticket and realized that I will need a stopgap health insurance plan (here are all the details on why), I changed my plan to ending employment at the beginning of October so I would (hopefully – my company is sketchy AF) have health insurance through October (though I wouldn’t even be on this side of the country so if it would actually cover anything is a little doubtful…).

Also, way back when, I was going to give a month of notice that I was leaving. At my favorite job to date, my “dream job” that I had in NYC (that also disappeared because nothing lasts forever kids…), I gave 4 months of notice. I loved my boss and the entire company was just me and her so I wanted to give her ample time to find and have me train a replacement.

So, originally, I was going to give my current company a month of notice given that I’ve been here 4 years and do a lot for them (including being the only person that knows the company social media passwords 😉 …). Then my company started going down the tubes and basically out of spite I decreased that to two weeks (even though that’s still common courtesy…my idea of spite is ridiculous 🙂 ).

So, I decreased to 2 weeks of notice because of how poorly my company was treating my colleagues, but now I’m realizing: I was willing to quit a month early. Doing so wouldn’t have negatively affected anything: I will have all the investments and savings I was aiming for, I have a health insurance plan that works regardless.

There is no reason to back away from my original plan of one month of notice. If they show their (expected) colors and tell me to GTFO that very day I’m financially good so BRING IT!

So, I’m giving 1 month notice TODAY and I’m live tweeting the experience if you’re interested. I’m planning for my last day to be Thursday, October 1st.

MY RETIREMENT TO DO LIST

It’s our final time reviewing this to-do list, but don’t worry – if you’re curious how all my monetary goals shake out at the end of the year I record them annually in my financial recap posts that I’ve done every year since the end of 2014 (see 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 here).

And if you’re interested in how my non-monetary goals went I review those in my annual accomplishments posts. Can you tell I like recording things 😉 ? So, for the final time in this forum, let’s see how I’m doing!

2020 Ongoing Monetary Goals

• Max my 401K ($19,500 + $400 match) – $17,686 SAVED!
• Set aside Year 1-2 Retirement money in cash ($40,000) – $28,033 SAVED!
  • I have $33,413 total in cash currently
• Max a Roth IRA ($6,000) – ON HOLD
• Overall save $52,000 – $45,719 SAVED TOTAL!

Overall, my monetary goals are too sexy to contemplate 😉 . Definitely not what I expected given how 2020 has gone, but here we are. Despite that wildness, I’ve stuck to the plan and with the paycheck I receive later this week will max my 401K and will have saved a cash buffer that I can use for the first few years of early retirement. Wowza.

As for my Roth IRA, I’ve decided to wait and see what will happen before deciding to max it or not. If my company tells me to GTFO when I quit today (and I don’t get another paycheck), I might not have enough to max this and that money would be better served going into my cash buffer, but we shall see.

As of now, it’s on hold. If, however, everything goes to plan I will receive many more thousands of dollars for my work along with my quarterly bonus and my unused PTO payout and I can use that to max my Roth IRA near the end of the year.

2020 Ongoing Life Goals

• Buy nomad gear – COMPLETE!
• Read books that have been sitting on my shelf forever before I donate them – COMPLETE!
• Get rid of basically everything I own – COMPLETE!
• Throw Comcast in the trash – COMPLETE!
• Play PC video games – COMPLETE!
• Fit into my pants – IN PROGRESS

The Final Comcast Chapter

I cannot escape these idiots. A month before we moved I scheduled my service cancellation with Comcast. They said cool, but that I should check back with them 2 weeks out to make sure it’s still on their books….WHAT?!

Ugh. So, two weeks later, I told the chat bot to get me a representative. They confirmed the cancellation was on their books and that “It seems that the completion date for the cancellation is on August 11, but the billing will be stopped already on the 31st”…whatever that means.

Then my bill was (again) incorrect – and they said I should ignore it. So I cancelled auto-payments and they asked me to pay a different amount than was listed (this company I swear…) and then I closed the chat before screenshotting it like I usually do (shit) so I didn’t remember the exact other amount I should pay (oops).

I tried contact them again, asking for a chat history or another rep to check my balance in their system and was told that no one is available to help me. So I guessed the amount and then had to check that I didn’t get charged late fees like the online portal claimed I would.

I wasn’t charged late fees, but I did receive a bill for August…the month after our cancellation…*siiiiigh*. I contacted them again and they fixed that. And, after all of that, this chapter of my life is finally at an end. Thank Fuck. If I ever have to get my own internet in the future I hope it’s after we’ve abolished these ridiculous monopolies. I hate Comcast, but the saga is finally over. Phew!

Play Video Games

Before we moved, I did all I could to enjoy the gorgeous graphics that the Sims 4 provides and this thread was the result of that:

This is a #Sims4 gameplay thread🎮! I took the below poll to decide what career to go into. Our Sims is a black woman with the random traits Erratic, Bookworm and Dog Lover…Erratic doesn't sound like a great trait for a detective. Oh well, let's go👀!https://t.co/22gHNfrLHj

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

August To-Dos

• Live in an AirBnB for a month! – IN PROGRESS

We’ve been living in an AirBnB for over a month now and a whole post about what that’s been like will be out in 2-3 weeks.

September To-Dos

• Give my notice today!
• Live in a (different) AirBnB for a month!
• Set up World Nomads health insurance – IN PROGRESS
• Cancel flight to LA – IN PROGRESS
• Cancel flight to Argentina – IN PROGRESS

October To-Dos

• Transfer my 401K from my company account – IN PROGRESS
• Change my taxable dividends to go into my checking account instead of being reinvested

Conclusion

And that’s it! This is my last countdown to retirement post. It’s been absolutely wonderful going through this journey with y’all. Stay tuned for further updates about what happens WHEN I QUIT TODAY (in a full post next Tuesday and live tweeted on Twitter in the meantime), details about my last day and finally on my journey through early retirement! But for now: 3 Mondays to go (thanks Labor Day 😉 )…

How has the last month been for you? Did you accomplish your goals?