The Month Of Rest: Early Retirement Month 4 (January 2021)

by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement, Early Retirement Updates, Net Worth Update
This post may contain affiliate links. For more info read my disclosure.

Welcome to a new year! After tweeting about a lot of random thoughts and wildlife encounters, someone on Twitter called my life “excitedly mundane” and I think that is a compliment 🙂 . So let’s see what kind of ridiculousness I got up to during the first month of 2021.

What Did I Do In January?

I Rested

Overall my January revelations can be summed up like this:

I did my best this month to rest and be kind to myself. It’s the middle of winter and even though Georgia’s winter is way less harsh than a NYC winter or even a Seattle one, it’s still the time of year that is the coldest in the northern hemisphere and the one that has the least sunlight…and I run on sunshine 🙂 .

So I gave myself permission to take it easy, nap when I’m tired and listen to my body and what it wants, even if that’s lying in bed and reading for hours on end instead of taking a walk or checking anything off my to do list. Basically, I’ve gone into full hibernation mode and I’m loving it 🙂 .

I Kept Up With Current Events

A lot of crazy shit happened this month and as a result, I was glued to the news and social media way more than usual. Between the January 6 domestic terrorist attack, its continuing fallout, the inauguration and the new administration, I’ve been on my computer and phone more than normal, but overall I’ve decided it was a useful and necessary use of time.

For the 1/6 insurrection, I was doomscrolling, news watching and source checking to try and figure out what the fuck was going on, but for the rest of this month’s events, my interactions with media were a lot more healthy. I learned to take needed breaks while still being informed about what is happening in our world. I don’t want to become an out of touch retiree who doesn’t understand how the world is evolving around me, so this is a necessary balance I need to find.

Anyway, for posterity’s sake, here are a few good things that happened this month:

Also the meme game has been on fire lately:

I Read Non-Fiction Books!

I have had an annual goal to read 1 non-fiction book a month to learn about our world and expand my mind. Well, because of *gestures to everything* that did not happen in 2020. I retreated into the fantasy world of fiction and didn’t reach that goal. And then an idea struck:

So, I’m aiming to read 52 non-fiction books in the 52 weeks of 2021.

This month I read the below books:

  1. Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence by Esther Perel
  2. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas by Natasha Dow Schüll
  3. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
  4. Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being by Esther M. Sternberg

I also read the intro sections of the below guidebooks (though I’m obviously not counting these as books read):

So far, I’m more than on track for my goal of reading one non-fiction book a week. This didn’t feel like a stretch this month – maybe because I’ve been in hibernation mode, but I think this will be a fun challenge that will keep me on track and learning about a variety of topics, so it’s happening people! And if I ‘fail’ and don’t fully reach the goal, I would have still surpassed my previous one and learned new stuff, so it’s still a win in my book!

If you’re curious about what I’m reading and my ratings of these books I have a Goodreads account you can check out here.

I (Virtually) Hung Out With Friends

I had some lovely chats with Julien from rich & Regular, Ali from All Options Considered and (in person) Becky from Lifepothesis and TwentyFree. She parked her #VanLife van in our driveway for the night and we had a lovely pandemic-friendly bonfire hang:

I also chatted with my ex-coworker a few times about the madness that’s happening at my former company (which I go into detail about within this post) and had several virtual movie nights with some college friends. My Mom and I also decided to have a standing TV and vid chat watching date every week so I can complain about how the reality show we’re watching is garbage…and still continue watching it 🙂 .

And last, but not least, I was a guest at a Financial Book Club! Someone DMed me on Instagram asking if I could come to one of their virtual meetings and surprisingly I agreed. I’ve been turning down things that require basically any type of work on my part 🙂 , but just chatting with people didn’t sound like work to me. We hung out for an hour, I answered some questions and had a good time.

Writing out all the social interactions I had this month is driving home this thought even more:

I Wrote Some Posts

You might be thinking (duh!), but the first time I wrote this update, I didn’t include this section, which made me laugh because it’s the most ‘productive’ thing I did this month. In case you missed it, I published the below posts in January:

  1. Why Pursue Financial Independence? Because Nothing Lasts Forever
  2. Cancelling My International Retirement Travel: Credits, Points and Money Lost
  3. Early Retirement Week 12: The Holiday
  4. The Meta-Weirdness Of Making Money From A FIRE Blog In Retirement
  5. Lessons Learned After 6 Years Of Blog Writing

On a related note, Business Insider reached out and wrote an article about me: A blogger who retired at 30 shares 2 strategies that helped her leave full-time work in just 5 years, which led to this ridiculous interaction:

I Took A Mini Vacation

Staycation? Is it a staycation if you’re in your same state, but in a different house? Whatever labels. Anyway, my partner and I got an Airbnb nearby to give the commune a break from our (annoying I’m sure 😉 ) presence for a bit after the holidays.

So far I’ve been someplace a little different every month since I retired and this month was no different. In October we moved into this Georgia Tiny House, in November I went to Connecticut for 3 weeks, in December I re-acclimated to the Georgia Tiny House and in January we took this mini-vacay!

We are so grateful and happy my BIL and SIL wanted us to live on their property, but we wanted to give them some space and take a little break ourselves. Living with people is both awesome and tiring in a way I haven’t felt in a long time as an introvert. The last time I felt this mix of awesome tiredness was in college and during that time my partner and I had separate rooms. That is not so in a tiny house 😉 .

Anyway, I continue to be shocked by how much alone time I crave and am trying to just accept that about myself and thrive in it during this weird time of recharging during a pandemic. I used to exert energy dealing with people at work and in the real world.

Now luckily I only have to interact with people I choose since I don’t work and it’s usually virtually since it’s a pandemic, but I still love, crave and require my alone time for happiness. New revelation over here! In case you’re interested, here’s all the info on our Airbnb:

I Booked Our Spring Nomad Travel

This about sums it up:

Hypocrisy abounds 😉 . Originally we were planning our summer travel plans around our 10 year college reunion that would happen in the northeast, but I was skeptical this large in person gathering would happen. Luckily, the school got ahead of my assumptions and just straight up emailed everyone saying it’s not happening. No more guesswork needed!

So my partner and I were free to decide what to do for our summer. We booked an Airbnb for the month of April in downtown Atlanta so I can see my Mom after she’s back from Connecticut and after that we decided to still go to the northeast. We had a lot of discussions about if we should take a train sleeper car/rental car approach or just bite the bullet and fly up there.

My concern with flying is not the actual flight since there isn’t a lot of danger there of getting COVID, but of the Atlanta airport. It’s the busiest airport in the world and when we went through there in September, it was at capacity despite it being the middle of a work day.

There was no room to social distance and many people were not wearing masks properly – or at all. Waiting around in such a situation for the two hours before my flight (my partner likes to get there early) is anxiety inducing.

However, we’re going for it. Hopefully we would have vaccines before then (fingers crossed). If not, we are already planning to quarantine ourselves until we can get a negative COVID test after touching down in Maine (per their guidelines), so if we do get it in the airport we won’t spread it to others.

So we’re heading to Maine where post-quarantine, we will see another sister-in-law and then hop around the Northeast from there! It’s nice to have an idea of what we’ll be doing through mid-June and have some of it booked since we’ve been in limbo for many months.

Physical

Sleep

I’m starting to see patterns in my sleep and love that I have the brain space to focus on something like that. Overall, since I retired, my sleep has gotten infinitely better: I fall asleep easier, I stay asleep more often and don’t wake up begging an alarm clock for “5 more minutes.”

I’m also starting to identify events that lead to my sleep being less than perfect, such as:

  • The Full Moon: Someone mentioned in my comment’s section that they usually don’t sleep well around the full moon either so I guess I’m not alone 🙂 . However, I’m not sure if it has to do with my body having a weird reaction (latent lycanthropy perhaps 😉 ?) or just the fact that it’s so bloody bright outside is messing me up (it looked like a spotlight was shining on our tiny house). When I worked, I always wore a sleeping mask to bed but stopped in retirement, though next month, I think I’ll try it again during the full moon and see if blocking out that extra light makes a difference.
  • Wild Weather: Unsurprisingly, wild weather wakes me up. We had a thunder and lightning storm near the end of the month and the flashes of light and rumbles of thunder awakened me. Once it died down, I got back to sleep, but waking up with my heart racing as a result of a loud sound made the process take a while.
  • New Surroundings: When we took our mini vacation, my sleep was weird for the first two nights we were there. Both nights I woke up at 4am and couldn’t go back to sleep until about 6am. I also assume this difficulty was compounded because these were the two nights before the inauguration so there was a lot on my mind.
  • Early Mornings: We had to check out of our Airbnb at 11am, but since it was a weekday and my BIL was coming to pick us up, we had to leave around 8am to work around his and my partner’s job schedules. As a result, we set an alarm for 7am and when that time came, I was not having it 🙂 . I was a little sluggish and sleepy that day, which wouldn’t do because we had lots of stuff to do.

I am SO loving that I can figure out these kinds of patterns so I can mentally prepare for them in the future, such as not planning anything wild on my first night or two in a new location because I will most likely be sleepy from acclimating to it.

Food

As I mentioned in my last update, I’m back on Keto after doing group meals over the holidays. I also started Intermittent Fasting (IF) again. I’m on a 16:8 schedule so I’ve been eating for the first time (or ‘breaking fast’…get it? breakfast 😉 ) at noon and not eating after 8pm. 

I’ve enjoyed IF a lot more when I’m not working. Dealing with calls at 6, 8 or 9am without having eaten since 8pm the night before was a struggle. In contrast, in retirement I have slow mornings after getting up at basically whenever and then it’s noon before I know it and time to eat!

Anyway, this combination has led me to lose 7 lbs this month. Cool! And all while eating delicious meals like these:

Singing

We watched Moana earlier this month and since then, I’ve been belting out the songs. They were one of my usual karaoke go-tos back when I went places pre-pandemic. In general though, our commune likes to play music while cooking and hanging, which usually leads to dance parties or just me belting (probably) too loud and practicing my singing 😉 .

Nail Painting

I’ve continued to improve technique! Practice really has been making all the difference and my skills at ‘coloring within the lines’ is getting better and better 🙂 . I’ve also been experimenting with my approach to nail painting.

For example, I thought (1) nail paint, (2) top coat, (3) nail paint, (4) top coat was the best combo with waiting to dry each layer in between. But then I tried (1) nail paint, (2) nail paint, (3) top coat this month and it’s just as good and obviously takes less time!

I’ve also for once and for all, confirmed that I don’t need extra fancy nail polish base coats. I thought I needed a smoothing coat to smooth the grooves in my nails, but 2 coats of polish gets rid of any weird dents in my nails that have appeared with age (I guess I’m starting to fall apart).

I also thought I needed this protective coat that I put around my nails so I can easily peel off any excess I get outside the lines, but then discovered if I just shower or wash dishes a few hours after doing my nails it already washes away. Genius!

Mental

Learning

It’s time for my favorite segment: Fun Facts Nobody Asked For! Here’s what I learned and explored this month:

My partner and brother-in-law made Sausage from scratch and I provided emotional support 😉 :

Nature identification has been going well! I have a soft goal of identifying all the trees in our yard and my sister-in-law helped me in her infinite wisdom. So far we have: a Silver Maple, White Oak, Holly, a Magnolia, a Privet and a Eucalyptus Tree! I also saw and identified a Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, which is the same kind of bug we see in the kitchen scene of Parasite:

I also had some surprising wildlife encounters at our Airbnb, such as this White-Tailed Deer saga:

They visited most mornings and evenings and were super fun to watch. I also had quite a shock that week:

It turns out that is indeed a Coyote – my first sighting of one ever.

I also learned some new fascinating things about our world:

Stargazing continues to be awesome. The large yard around our tiny house really is great for it because it’s easy to see the stars is every direction. Anyway, January had a few fund astronomical events, such as near the end of the month when the Moon was within “The Winter Hexagon“, which is a hexagon of seven bright stars from six different constellations. They are: Rigel in Orion, Aldebaran in Taurus, Capella in Auriga, Procyon in Canis Minor, Castor and Pollux in Gemini and Sirius in Canis Major.

And finally, we had another meeting of the Commune Cheese Club! I tried new cheeses including: Gouda from the Netherlands, cheese from Kunik Nettle Meadow from NY, Jacobs & Brichford from IN, Milton Creamery from IA and Glacier Blue Cascadia Creamery. We also had some Salami from Milan (ugh I miss Italy!) and some Jamón from Spain. Delicious all around!

Birding

Yeah that’s right – birding was so wild this month that it gets its own section.

I’m getting much better at Birdspotting. I used to see just trees and leaves when looking out at the woods, but I think that after watching them so long, I’ve started to notice their small movements, so I more easily differentiate tree from bird which is cool. They can’t hide from me 🙂 !

Through the bird and plant guidebook I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I’ve learned that birds and plants look different at different times of the year. This made intuitive sense to me with plants since they flower based on the season, but I didn’t know this about birds! In addition to males, females and young birds of the same species at times looking completely different, they can also look different based on the season.

Some birds sprout bright colors around mating season that fade or disappear as they get new feathers throughout the year. So basically this is why bird identification has been so hard for me – there are like 6 variations of each species 🙂 . Super cool!

As I’ve mentioned before, I got a Bird Feeder for Christmas and it continues to be one of the presents I’ve gotten the most use of in my life. Seriously, it didn’t cost a lot of money and provides me with hours of entertainment daily. Here’s what I spotted this month:

Carolina Chickadees – This I had previously confused for a Black-Capped Chickadee, which I saw in Connecticut. Turns out they look almost identical, but those kind don’t fly down to Georgia. 
Carolina Wrens
Tufted Titmouse (Titmice?)
Cardinals – Apparently the family of cardinals we see grew up in a nest that’s right outside a window in our tiny house!
Bluejays
Northern Mockingbird
Turkey Vulture
Black Vulture
Red-Tailed Hawk – I’m getting better at identifying these versus vultures based on their wing shape. Hawks have more v shaped wings that tilt back.
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Woodpecker – This one was pecking on our tiny house. Rude!
Western Kingbird
Red-tailed Hawk
Black Vulture
Hairy Woodpecker
Yellow Bellied Sapsucker
Song Sparrow
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Red-Breasted Nuthatch
Downy Woodpecker
Mourning Dove – I thought my whole life that there were called Morning Doves…Well, that’s depressing.
House Sparrow
Pine Siskin
Red-Shouldered Hawk
Barred Owl – I heard this one outside our Airbnb

Interestingly our Airbnb is not very far from our tiny house, but had a completely different set of birds. I guess it’s a different ‘neighborhood’ of birds? I assume the ones I see every day live in the trees on our property or nearby like the Cardinals that were born here.

I also made this discovery:

And reminisced while watching this Turkey Vulture:

I also came up with a wild plan for the future:

Creativity

Creativity is still going well! It almost wasn’t though 🙂 . For the first time in a long while, I had less than a week until my next Tuesday post and none of my topic ideas were creating that inspiration spark within me that made me want to write about them. I thought “Maybe this is it – I’ll finally not feel inspired to write something like people talk about. Maybe this is the first Tuesday I won’t have a post”…but nope 🙂 .

A few hours after that thought, a conversation I had with a friend inspired me to bang out an entire post in less than an hour and the next day I was itching out of my skull to keep writing and ended up with another complete post written in the same timeframe. I guess I’ll have to wait longer to get that feeling (though I’m curious if it will ever happen – a weekly cadence does really seem to suit me 🙂 ).

Otherwise, I’ve been feeling more inspired to post on Twitter and Instagram as well. I’m going to continue to just do that when I feel like it, but if my frequency is an indication of creative inspiration, January was full of it!

Money

What even is money 🙂 ? I ask because despite everything happening, I hit another net worth high this month:

As for my thoughts on money, despite me booking future accommodations left and right, I am still nonchalant about it. I paid for our week in the January Airbnb, our monthly Atlanta Airbnb for April and our monthly Maine Airbnb for May all out of this month’s budget and had no emotional reaction to it.

In fact, I even spent extra money to make my life easier. I booked our April and May Airbnbs so they overlapped by a night. The extra $50 was worth it to me since our flight to Maine is at night and we’re obviously in the middle of a pandemic. All my usual avenues of “get to the airport early” or “hang out in a coffee shop” or “chill in a museum” are off the table so I paid a little extra for us to have wiggle room with our plans. However, I drew the line at paying an extra $40 to pick my seat on the 2 hour flight to Maine – that’s too much 🙂 .

Emotional

Anxiety

As a result of the increase in my media consumption, this month I’ve been reflecting on the balance between being informed and being mentally healthy. I care about what happens to the world around me and the people in it and I want to know what is happening so I can make informed decisions about my own life. I don’t want to be an out of touch retiree, which seems to happen if someone is too far removed from ‘reality’ and the plight of most people.

By the end of the month, I think I struck a good balance. I just want to keep an eye on that because the amount of information available to us at any time, can be overwhelming and cause negative effects on my mental health that I want to combat in advance if possible. All that to say, I have been liberally using the awesome “Do Not Disturb” feature on my phone when I choose to step away and think I’ll continue to institute that.

DGAF Status

This happened:

This is the first time someone has reached out to me specifically about a position. It’s a recruiter from an agency I worked with in the past (though they had never placed me) and I hadn’t interacted with this specific recruiter ever before. I decided to take this opportunity to do something I never had the balls to do while I was actually looking for work: I straight up asked her what the salary was for the position.

For background, it’s a contract, hourly Account Supervisor position at an ad agency in Portland, OR (though the position is remote). It asks for at least 4 years of experience and I have 9. I also usually apply for and get jobs that ask for more years than I even have. Anyway, I was shocked when the recruiter responded quickly and immediately just laying it all out there.

The position is budgeted for $55/hour, 40 hours a week and the person would get time and a half after 40 hours are hit. Now, I have actually never heard of this kind of arrangement – getting overtime in the ad world is basically unheard of because at least in my experience, I routinely worked 60-80 hours a week.

If  someone only worked 40 hours a week at this position, that $55/hour would translate to $105,600 over the course of a year. However, if I worked the regular hours that the job requires to do a good job of 60 hours a week, that would be $184,800 and 80 hours would net $264,000. I would imagine the real billable time would be somewhere in the middle there and THAT. IS. WILD.

I wish I had asked people point blank what salary they were willing to pay when I was looking for jobs. Instead I provided what I wanted and they often said that was too much and I moved on, which has a similar effect of making sure I get paid what I know I deserve based on market research, but this feels more like a power move 😉 .

Anyway, this was the ultimate example to me that there is another level of DGAF that I hadn’t unlocked. It feels good to have found it and have a tangible reminder that basically no amount of money is worth more to me than the freedom retirement grants me 🙂 . Instead, I reached out to a friend and ex-colleagues who wants a new job and asked if she wanted me to loop them into this hiring process. She responded with a yes. She and the recruiter are now in talks about the position 🙂 .

Conclusion

And that’s a wrap on the first month of 2021. Overall, it’s left me with a hopeful feeling for the future which I must admit is a welcome change 🙂 . And if you’re interested in the other weekly and monthly retirement updates I’ve written, they’re all here:

  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

What did you do last month?

22 thoughts on “The Month Of Rest: Early Retirement Month 4 (January 2021)”

  1. I LOVE the book ‘Bird by Bird’! There is a lot of great nonfiction out there. Have you already read the book ‘Breath’ by James Nestor? Super interesting and it changed my life with a tip for better sleep that has resulted in me getting Fitbit sleep scores of 90 fairly often which I did not even think was possible. 🙂

    Reply

    1. So glad you enjoyed it! I haven’t read Breath, but I just requested it from the library at your recommendation 🙂 . That’s so amazing about your improved sleep – I do struggle with that and would be open to any advice. Excited to read it!

      Reply

  2. I love that you watched the Parasite movie!! It was a fantastic and phenomenal movie and I loved it just like you.

    Congratulations on getting featured on Business Insider. I’m actually really struggling with balancing my want to retire early and pursue a lifestyle business vs seeing all the other financial bloggers surpass their money goals in every way imaginable and worried if I leave the work force will I feel like I’m left behind the dust…

    Why is life full of such hard decisions!

    Reply

  3. Excitingly mundane! Love that…

    Few things
    1. How do you find Keto? I simply struggled with that… I wasn’t planning on losing weight but wanted to see what ketosis is like… it’s so hard!! Any tips?

    2. We just watched Soul yesterday, how weird! What a great film

    3. 60-80 hours a week is normal for marketing? That’s hard core!!

    Thanks for sharing

    Reply

    1. Keto is easy for me personally. My body prefers it – I feel better and am rarely hungry. It’s possible your body doesn’t like it. We’re all different 🙂 . Cool on Soul! And yep – marketing pays a lot, but hourly you definitely work for it.

      Reply

  4. > By the end of the month, I think I struck a good balance. (news)

    This is something I’ve struggled with, and continue to struggle with myself. Some days it’s just hard not to doom scroll – especially lately when it’s tough to know if that day will be a historic one written about in history books or if it’s just Wednesday. 😂

    Any other things that have worked for you? I’ve setup a few rules for myself: no Reddit or news until after dinner (unless I’ve scheduled it on my calendar earlier). Add on reading feeds on Feedly and removing apps from my phone.

    Striking that balance between being informed and being anxious/outraged is an ongoing struggle.

    Reply

    1. Those rules are cool. I have learned that I like following how I’m feeling instead of a schedule (e.g. I originally was planning to only look at screens after the sun set, but sometimes I don’t want to at that time and instead prefer to early in the morning before turning them off and being present etc.)

      So I’ve been going with the flow and if I’m not actively doing something with technology (e.g. responding to a Twitter or blog comment 😉 ) I put my phone on Do Not Disturb and as a result it becomes a brick and I don’t even keep track of it. Then when I feel ready to ‘engage with the world again’ 🙂 I turn it back on. Have 2 completely separate modes of disconnected/connected when I’m mentally ready for it has been what’s helped me.

      It’s definitely an ongoing struggle though! I had to force myself to take those breaks on 1/6 after realizing I had just been frantically refreshing my Twitter feed for 4 hours. Like everything, it’s a work in progress 😉 .

      Reply

    1. Cool – I’ll volunteer to tell you if you become an out of touch retiree then 😉 . Prepare to be called out!

      Reply

  6. I’m glad you care to stay informed, and can find a way to do so that’s not going to burn you out.

    Sadly our month ended on an extreme low note so I’m putting off our month report for another week while I get my feet back under me.

    Reply

    1. Yeah – empathy is a weird thing 😉 . But seriously, I think a balance of it is needed – I see too many tone-deaf takes from people that espouse completely disconnecting yourself so I think they might be related. And I saw that – I’m so sorry for your loss. Obviously take all the time you need. We’re here whenever you’re ready.

      Reply

  7. Love reading your blog. As for the nails. I would use a base coat and then one or two coats of colour and then a top coat. The base coat will prevent staining on your nails. My Mom’s were very stained years ago. I’m not sure of the new technology on nail polishes as I never wear it. It just peels off my nails. I matter what I do.
    Thanks for all the inspiration!!

    Reply

    1. Thank you Jackie – that means a lot 🙂 ! As for staining, I’ve only experienced that with cheap/drug store polish that I then tan in. I’ve been a bit obsessed with Holo Taco polish lately and been sitting in the sun for hours a day and there has been no staining. Good to know about the base coat if I got back to cheaper polish though! I’m curious though if the cost of the base coast + polish would then resemble my new expensive polish though – I’ll have to cost it out! Thank you so much for sharing – and you are too kind 🙂 .

      Reply

  8. Wow you killed it this month! I love all of the thoughts you share because many are so relatable! Congrats on enjoying retirement, losing weight, and doing the things you love to do! I may even get into birdwatching because of you! As for your restless sleep, you may have a genetic variant on the ADA gene, which produces the enzyme adenosine, influencing our sleep. Keep up the great work!!

    Reply

    1. Haha thank you! And good to know I’m not becoming too unrelatable so soon 🙂 . Woohoo another birder – it really is a shockingly fascinating hobby. I can’t believe I used to ignore birds/think they were all the same. Endless free entertainment! Thanks for letting me know about that gene – I’ll look into it 🙂 .

      Reply

  10. Hi! I love your blog. I am doing my best to emulate you. One thing I don’t have a firm grasp on that I was wondering if you could explain in a future post (or if you could please point me to a resource that would also be appreciated): how does an early retiree like yourself access your portfolio? Are you collecting dividends? Did you always collect dividends or did you make that change once you quit your job? Are you using your 401k and other retirement account money, even though there is an early withdrawal penalty? Thank you and sorry for any stupid questions!

    Reply

    1. Hi and thanks so much! I’ll write a post about it when I actually do it 😉 , but that won’t be for a few years. Currently I’m living off of money I saved in a 2 year cash cushion, which I based on assumed vaccine timelines that we were given in March. I also switched my taxable dividends to go into my checking account instead of being reinvested after quitting so I get those quarterly. When I do take money from investments it will be from my taxable account and I’ll use a Roth IRA Ladder to access my retirement accounts without penalty before middle age.

      Reply

      1. Purple, thank you so much for your thoughtful response, and apologies for the delay in sending my thanks! On the plus side, it has given me time to come across a new question ; ) It seems from my review of your posts, that when you were woefully employed, you only contributed to a Roth IRA. What was your logic there? And how does a Roth IRA Ladder work if you already have money in your Roth IRA- i.e., do you only have to “convert” money if it was saved in some other retirement account? Is one able to simply withdraw the money already in the Roth IRA (assuming it’s been there for 5 years) and pay income tax on it?
        Thank you in advance!
        P.S. I’ve even started to emulate your keto lifestyle 🙂

        Reply

        1. I contributed to a Trad IRA until I made too much money to qualify for the tax savings, then I filled a Roth IRA. So all the money I had in my 401K and Trad IRA will be what I need to use to create the Roth IRA Ladder. I believe you can take your contributions out of a Roth at any time. After converting money from your 401k/Trad IRA you have to wait 5 years to touch it yes. And woohoo keto! I hope you’re enjoying it 🙂 .

          Reply

Leave a Reply

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