The Month Of The Northeast: Early Retirement Month 10 (July 2021)

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

Somehow another month has passed and it’s time to record what I’ve been up to 🙂 . Time seems to be flying and I can confirm it’s because we’re having fun. So let’s get into it!

We Moved To Massachusetts and New York State!

We’re on the move once again!…and I also learned I don’t know how to spell Massachusetts on the first try = Oops! Anyway, we ended our month at the New Hampshire coast, hopped a ride to Boston and then took a $9 Amtrak ride across the state:

We chose Massachusetts and New York State to hang with my college friends and my partner’s family. During the trip I also visited my old alma mater:

After being here for a while, I’ve been having some revelations. I spent more than half of my adult life in the Northeast and am constantly shocked with how little of it I saw. My eyes were open, but I didn’t see 😉 . I was too preoccupied with difficult college courses and then a challenging career. It’s wonderful to see these states with fresh eyes 🙂 . They are much more gorgeous and full of life than I remember.

For example, I used to form conclusions about places because of what the towns looked like – and what humans created (buildings, shops etc). Now, I see them completely differently. I look to see what kind of birds live here that I’ve never seen before. I try to identify plants and trees I don’t know, learn where they’re originally from and try to imagine how they got here. The world is completely different to me now. It’s a lot more full and interesting 🙂 .

I Became A Disney Princess

Basically, this:

My new love of birds has made me discover some gorgeous places and wonderful activities that I never would have dreamed of previously. Next: to become fluent in bird 🙂 ! And yes, the sanctuary above is in Ipswich, MA – the location of one of my favorite ridiculous movies from my high school days, The Covenant (don’t judge me)! If it’s good enough for The Winter Soldier (aka Sebastian Stan), it’s good enough for me! Anyway, it was cool to drive through that town and think back to that silly movie.

I Read 4 Non-Fiction Books

This month I read:

  1. Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark
  2. How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North
  3. The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life by Katy Butler
  4. Bird Light by Elizabeth Cohen

As I suspected, I continue to be behind my book goal for the year as a result of all the awesome hangouts I’ve had that I discuss below. I’ve already read and learned more than I ever had the energy or time to while working, but I’m starting to suspect that reading a non-fiction a book a week in 2021 might not be possible for me given everything else I want to do.

So I’m going to keep this challenge on the books, but it might be a ‘fail’ at the end of the year while at the same time I will have read multiple times the number of books I have in recent years. So maybe it’ll be a ‘fail-ish’ 😉 . Good thing I don’t care about failing.

Anyway, my bookshelf was full of recommendations this month. My sister-un-law (a writer) recommended Writing Tools and I loved and devoured it:

How To Invent Everything was a recommendation from my partner and a reader actually recommended The Art of Dying Well after I mentioned that I was contemplating the inevitable in my last monthly update (not in a bad way). I love a good recommendation 🙂 .

Also, this month I listened to an audiobook for the first time in forever and it was a gamechanger! I never got into audiobooks because people suggested I do so while driving (which I can’t do because I visualize while reading/listening to books and don’t see the road in front of me – dangerous!) or while walking.

However, I prefer listening to the sounds of nature and being present while I’m walking. So this month, I started listening to an audiobook in one ear while sitting, looking at nature and waiting for birds, which was absolutely perfect! Doing so didn’t take away from the moment because I was just sitting in nature instead of walking or exploring it. So I suspect the number of audiobooks I ‘read’ are going to increase quite a bit.

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 wrote 4 posts

In case you missed it, I published the below posts in July:

  1. The Month Of New Hampshire: Early Retirement Month 9 (June 2021)
  2. Let’s Talk about “Lean FIRE” and “Fat FIRE”
  3. Bombas Review: The Best Socks In Existence
  4. Cheers To 3 Years Of A Purple Life: Blog Highlights and a Q&A!

In addition to those posts, I was asked to do an interview on Making Sense of Cents about my retirement journey. My name randomly showed up in two articles I wasn’t interviewed for on Business Insider and Business Insider Spain: 4 Ways To Save Enough Now To Retire In 10 Years and 9 Personas Que Se Jubilaron Antes De Los 45 Años Revelan Los 4 Pasos Para Lograrlo.

I was also interviewed by a Business Insider reporter for an article and after the fact was asked to provide a W2 with my legal name, my previous company and my financial information as well as proof I run my blog – none of which I am comfortable sharing with a random reporter 🙂 . So I told her that and assumed that I would not be featured in the article as a result. Well, shock of shocks, I still was. The power of “no” continues to pay dividends! Here is the article: Workers Are ‘Epiphany-Quitting’ Their Jobs. I was also surprised to be alerted that it was translated into Japanese and put on Business Insider’s Japanese site as well. A Purple Life has officially gone global 😉 !

I was also mentioned in a CNBC article about the Virtual Book Club I joined as a guest speaker in the fall: This Bronx-based Book Club Shows How Community Can Help Anyone Build Wealth At Any Age. And I was invited to be a guest to a summer class on finances for underprivileged high school and college students in Delaware. It was a fun time and I got some awesome feedback from the students. My Mom claims I was “giving back to my community” with this call and while I won’t take it that far, it was awesome to feel like I was making a little bit of a difference in the world.

I was also featured in the Friends on FIRE podcast. Check that out here:

It was accidentally a busy month for the blog, but I’m happy I said yes to the above opportunities when they popped up. It feels good to help get the word out about financial literacy and I hope it helps make our future as a world a little bit brighter 🙂 .

I Hung Out With People!

My time with others continues to ramp up as everyone around me gets vaccinated. However, on the virtual front, I continued having my bi-weekly chats with an ex-colleague. She brought up finance during our recent chat and we had this amazing interaction:

Virtually, I also continued my weekly TV show watching with Mom and my weekly call with my friend in Argentina. IRL I hung out with the college friends I have a weekly virtual movie night with and we went wild watching the below:

Films

  1. Tenent
  2. The Big Year
  3. Underworld (Re-watch)
  4. Arrival (Re-watch)
  5. Annihilation (Re-watch)
  6. Interstellar (Re-watch)
  7. Knives Out (Re-watch)
  8. Minority Report (Re-watch)
  9. Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (Re-watch)
  10. Smart House (Re-watch)

TV Shows

  1. Letterkenny
  2. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
  3. Community

Also luckily they forgave me after this debacle:

After that lovely week connecting with my college peeps, my partner and I went to see his family. I haven’t seen most of them in three years at this point, including not having met some of the newest nieces and nephews, so spending almost a month around them was absolutely amazing. Previously the longest I had seen them was a week while I was working and the difference in our quality of time and in my stress level was night and day.

Physical

Sleep

Sleep has been good this month! I’m getting better at sleeping in new places. It used to take me a night or two to become acclimated to the sounds of a new place. I would awaken to the slightest noise because I didn’t know what they were. However, now it takes max one day, if any, before I’m passing out like a Minecraft character in a new place. Nice!

It’s also possible that my love of pajamas as helped with this improvement:

Food

After a wonderful streak of keto last month, I intentionally went off keto for our last weekend in New Hampshire to eat the delicious goodies there (such as the below):

This aligned well with the week I was going to hang with college friends so I could enjoy nearby delicacies there too:

And after the above yummy times, I got back on the wagon. I’m once again keto, calorie counting, 16:8 intermittent fasting and hitting my protein goals to maintain muscle mass. Despite being off keto for about a week and a half this month I lost another inch around my waist. Sweet!

Nail Painting

After a brief hiatus because my nail polish exploded on the plane to Maine 🙂 , I am back with some badass designs!

As you can see from the above, my friend is a Holo Taco fiend and has basically everything they have ever released. I wanted to try absolutely all of it, which is why each nail has a different treatment above. It was super fun to play around with polishes again. My partner even asked me to paint his nails! Anyway, once the above started chipping, I removed it and inspired my partner’s family to have a nail painting party. Awesome and low cost fun 🙂 . Even with just weekly practice my skills continue to improve!

Calligraphy

I don’t know what inspired me, but I’ve been getting back into practicing my calligraphy! It might just be all the colorful pens I’ve found around 🙂 . There’s also a chalkboard in the room we’re staying in that I’ve been enjoying practicing on as well. Figuring out all the different ways I can write a word and the different vibes it has based on how I write it is fascinating to me.

Chef’s Knife Cutting

While in New Hampshire, my aunt taught me how to use a chef’s knife for the first time. Who knew it was all about a rocking motion? She also claims that there are less injuries with a chef’s knife despite them being large and super sharp…though I wonder if the intimidation level of one just helps ensure that only people who know how to use them step up to the plate.

Candle Lighting

After acquiring the lovely candle below in Maine in May, I became a bit obsessed with lighting it in every new place we went to help the Am-Beyoncé (yes I say that in real life…) However, doing so presented a challenge because I couldn’t figure out for the longest time how to light a 3 wick candle without burning my fingers off!

Well, finally, I found a solution. I have to rotate the candle to be perpendicular to the floor and then light the wicks with a lighter that is tilted as well. That makes my lighter stay away from my fingers. Feel free to laugh since I’m sure everyone else has already figured this out, but it was a revelation to me.

Mental

Learning

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

The Northeast

I’ve lived in the northeast for most of my adult life, but this time around I learned about something new: Bottle Deposit Laws. Basically:

I learned that there are 11 states that have bottle deposit laws, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Vermont. And as a result, my love of seltzer is not sustainable anymore 😉 .

Birds

Birding this month went really well! We were farther from cities and as a result, I saw a lot more than the sparrow extravaganza I was getting used to.

This month I also discovered a new free bird app that’s helped me with identification. It’s another app based on data from Cornell called Merlin. It was recommended by a reader and I absolutely love its Sound ID capabilities! It’s now my preference over my previous app BirdNET because it tells me what bird is calling in the moment instead of me having to stop recording, highlight a section, upload it and wait to see if they can identify it (and often they can’t and I just wasted my time).

In addition to seeing some wild things like a mama turkey and turkey babies crossing the road (everyone driving on the road stopped to let them pass!), an ornery rooster coming at me from across a field and a turkey vulture (their wingspan is 6 FEET!) fighting a red-winged blackbird, I saw these guys this month:

Great Blue Heron, Song Sparrow, House Finch, Red-Eyed Vireo, American Robin, House Sparrow, Gray Catbird, Belted Kingfisher, a Murmuration of Starlings, Tufted Titmouse, Eastern Kingbird, Red-winged Blackbird, Tree Swallow, Blue Kay, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Turkey Vulture, Common Yellowthroat, Eastern Wood-Pewee, American Goldfinch, Black-capped Chickadee, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, Carolina Wren, Indigo Bunting, Dark-eyed Junco, Chimney Swift, House Wren, Mourning Dove, Broad-winged Hawk, Northern Cardinal, King Eider, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Pileated Woodpecker, and American Redstart

Belted Kingfisher – Look at this weirdo
King Eider – Who knew birds like this existed?!
Pileated Woodpecker – Apparently Dinosaurs still roam the earth

In addition to all those new sightings I learned:

  • Turkey Vultures identify their meals by smell and can smell blood and death over a mile away
  • Crows hold funerals for their fallen brethren
  • Some Cockatoos in Australia have learned to open garbage bins (Next Step: World Domination!)

Birding has also started a few conversations while I was exploring the area, which was an unexpected surprise:

Flora

My flora identification game has been stepped up thanks to a friend recommending that I use Google Lens instead of iNaturalist. It is SO much better at identifying things and I am LOVING it! As a result of this new awesome tool, I identified these new (to me) plants:

Sumac, Chicory, Tansy, Hylotelephium cauticola, Plantain lily, Common pear, Scarlet beebalm, Orange day lily, Barberton daisy, Spotted knapweed, Milkweed, Scotch pine, Black-eyed Susan, Garden Nasturtium, Madonna Lily, Wild Carrot, Blue vervain, Black locust, Allegheny monkeyflower, Fly honeysuckle (heads up that red berry is poisonous), Bittersweet, Purple coneflower, Phlox, Morning glory, Shagbark hickory and Spotted joe-pye weed.

This looks like something out of Jumaji

In addition to those finds, I learned:

  • Bell Peppers change from green to yellow to red and get sweeter and more expensive each time. I thought green peppers were a different thing than red peppers!
  • Chicory Root can be used to make a coffee substitute (we’re planning to make it next month!)
  • A Margarita is a flower
  • Sumac can be used to make tea (this is also on our list)

Fauna

Also as a result of being farther from cities, the amount of wild life I’ve seen has exploded! This month I saw:

A Grey Fox, Guineafowls, a Chipmunk, Horses, Jersey Cows, Sheep, Deer, June Bugs (also called June Beetles), Fireflies (or Lightning Bugs), New England Cottontail Rabbits and a Grasshopper.

I learned that Fireflies light up because of a chemical reaction they create inside their bodies and that they likely originally evolved that ability to warn off predators, but that now it’s mostly used to find mates. The animal kingdom – showing off as always 😉 .

I also learned that there’s a Piebald Deer around here, but sadly no one has seen them this season so I’m wondering if his light coloring made him a target for hunters:

Piebald Deer

Astronomy

We’re away from the city lights once again and that means the sky is as bright as ever. Rural New York and Massachusetts also don’t have streetlights, which definitely helps the cosmos shine (though it’s terrifying for me when I’m driving at night 🙂 ).

This month included sightings of Mars and Saturn along with this month’s full moon called the Buck Moon. It’s called this because July is when male deer’s antlers are fully grown.

Words

MayDay – Apparently this phrase originated from “m’aidez” meaning help me in French. I had no idea!

Nitpicking – There was a lice scare when we visited my partner’s family and as a result I learned the origin of the word “nitpicking”. Apparently tiny lice are called “nits” so people literally nitpick to get rid of it. How this gross fact evolved into saying someone pays TOO much attention to detail will forever elude me 🙂 .

Creativity

Creativity continues to be amazing. Words are flowing out of me either into these posts or the mini-movie and restaurant reviews I do on Instagram. Getting my thoughts out of my head and onto paper has never been easier and I’m curious if that’s because of the constant practice I’ve been getting, the rest I give my brain, the energy I’m no longer spending on my job, or all of the above. Regardless, I’m very happy with my level of curiosity and creativity in retirement and it seems to be getting even better every month.

Emotional

Chill Bro

As I mentioned, we went to visit my partner’s fam and once we got there, I was told that they had been trying to figure out where to put us so that I’m as far away from noise as possible since I’m such a light sleeper. I told them that that was very sweet, but there’s no need and after I walked away I realized – I wasn’t just being nice, I was being serious.

I’m so much calmer and less stressed than I was when I was working. If I awaken early now because of noise, it doesn’t feel like my whole day is ruined – I can just take a nap later 🙂 . A few days later we were visiting our small nieces and nephews and this theory was proven correct. We awakened to a wild amount of kids screaming and I just laughed. My partner seemed surprised by my nonchalance and my amusement at the situation. Past Purple would have reacted very differently if I was working I’m embarrassed to admit.

Calm

I’ve been thinking about how to answer the question “How does retirement feel?” because a few people have asked me that and I don’t think I’ve provided a satisfying or accurate answer since these kinds of questions usually catch me off guard. So instead, I decided to plan ahead!

I’m realizing that how I feel 99% of the time now is the same as how I’ve only felt a few times in my life after a two week vacation that I spent reading silly books and staring at the ocean. I feel Zen AF – even in situations that would have stoked my anxiety previously. I have a sense of calm I can’t remember achieving for more than a day or two previously.

Music

I’ve found another way to discover new music: Spotify’s Daily Mixes! I didn’t realize, but they create 5-6 mixes of 1-3 hours each of music you might like based on artists you listen to. It’s wonderful and has been a great interim way to discover new music as I wait for Monday’s Discover Weekly.

Money

Ooooh money – you weird, weird thing. I originally thought this month would bring the market a little lower and back to what I deem ‘reality’, but after a mid-month dip, we’re back to all time highs. As a result, I hit a new net worth high this month:

Another fun milestone happened as well:

Spending wise, I’m still my usual self. We have booked the rest of our flights and lodging for the rest of the year and I’m currently at about $13,000 of spending, so way better than forecast. I highly doubt I’ll be spending my entire usual budget ($1600/month) just on discretionary items going forward to hit my $20K/year goal, but I guess I can try my hardest 😉 .

On other fronts, besides bottle deposits trying to bankrupt me because of my seltzer addiction, my frugal habits continue to sneak through:

Income-wise this year is going way better than forecast. I’ve been reading up on the confusing world of estimated self-employment taxes as a result:

And in true Purple fashion, I have continued to try avoiding making money at all costs and it’s going about as well as you’d expect:

No matter what the market does for the rest of the year, I still have more than enough cash to cover whatever comes my way, I’m currently under-budget and I’m making a little money. Basically things couldn’t be going better 🙂 .

Conclusion

And that’s what I got up to in July! It was wonderful to finally see family again and spend a lot of stress-free time with them. I’m still loving being a nomad and seeing all different kinds of birds, animals and flowers around the country. This summer has been absolutely lovely and I’m excited to see what August brings!

If you’re interested in the other weekly and monthly 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

Monthly

  1. The Month Of Rest: Early Retirement Month 4 (January 2021)
  2. The Month Of Birds: Early Retirement Month 5 (February 2021)
  3. The Month of Change: Early Retirement Month 6 (March 2021)
  4. The Month of Atlanta: Early Retirement Month 7 (April 2021)
  5. The Month of Portland, Maine: Early Retirement Month 8 (May 2021)
  6. The Month Of New Hampshire: Early Retirement Month 9 (June 2021)

How was your month?

24 thoughts on “The Month Of The Northeast: Early Retirement Month 10 (July 2021)”

  1. If you are in the Dutchess County (Poughkeepsie) area take a walk over the Walkway Over the Hudson. It actually part of our park system. And it’s FREE!!. Enjoy August.

    Reply

  2. Oooh! I downloaded BirdNet and iNaturalist at your suggestion and now I will switch to Merlin and Google Lens! I’ve also experienced many instances of Birdnet failing to identify a bird (due to poor quality recordings on my part I’m sure) but I didn’t bother to look if there was another app with that function.

    My new birds this month were a Brown Pelican, a Willet, and a Eed Shouldered Hawk on the coast of NC, and a Yellow-Throated vireo and a Louisiana Waterthrush in the Blue Ridge Mountains (those two heard but not seen).

    Are you using the Audobon app to keep track of your “life list”? I’m at 79 species since my start in February!

    Reply

    1. Haha I’m glad I mentioned it then! I love trading up when finding something better. And those are some awesome bird finds! I’m ‘only’ up to 77 species – I’ve got to step up my game 😉 . And yes indeed I use Audubon to keep track of that stuff and still for visual identification. I prefer their interface for that over what Merlin offers currently.

      Reply

  3. Thanks so much for visiting our class! The students were absolutely inspired by your journey (and I secretly hope some of them will consider early retirement in the future). At very least, you’ve given them the tools to get there!

    Reply

    1. Thank you for having me 🙂 . I’m so glad to hear that (and I secretly hope that too 😉 ). Even just knowing this path is an option should help a little I think.

      Reply

  4. You are living evidence for my theory that there is too damn much fun to be had, who has time for all that AND a job??

    I’ve never been able to do audiobooks either (same reason) but it’ll be fun to see someday if they fit a non working lifestyle.

    We’ve been debating the holes limit here: how many is too many for outer garments vs undergarments? I should take a pill 😹

    Love that $9 Amtrak fare. We are a two car family by necessity but I sure wish our country’s public transport infrastructure was family (and well behaved pet) friendly. I honestly daydream about being able to do some of our travel by train.

    TIL that there are only bottle deposit fees in 11 states! I thought it was more widespread. Who knew!

    I am guessing the injury with chef knife thing is more to do with the fact that you have less risk of injury with a sharp knife that cuts well than a full knife? Just my wild guess.

    Reply

    1. RIGHT?!? And there are still things left on my list at the end of each day – HOW? It’s truly ridiculous. And lol on the holes limit – to each their own 😉 . I also dream of more train travel – it’s so much easier in Europe and I know the countries there are obviously smaller than us, but I still wish our country was less car focused and more pedestrian and public transit friendly.

      And woohoo people are learning with me haha! And that makes sense with a chef’s knife – I like the theory 🙂 .

      Reply

      1. Hopefully at some point in future international travel will be possible again and you can come and take LOTS of trains across Europe 😀😊. I’d be happy to discuss routes !

        Reply

  5. The bottle deposit laws were introduced to reduce roadside litter. Either the $ would be enough for you to turn the bottles back in or it would incentivize someone else to pick up your trash to get the $.
    It’s a completely refundable deposit if you turn your containers back in; better for the environment to recycle the material.

    Reply

    1. Awesome! I love learning about the intent behind laws. Thank you for explaining! That makes sense 🙂 .

      Reply

  6. You picked up on the impact of those bottle deposits pretty quickly XD if there’s a deposit scheme like that, there’s usually a place to return the bottles/cans where they give you the deposit back, in coins or in credit for the store. Hopefully that’s the case there!
    Birdwatching is clearly going well and life seems content and relaxing. We love to see it! Keep trucking on, Purple!

    Reply

    1. And this is where I admit I’m too lazy to do that lol. I’ll just recycle them like usual. And will do!

      Reply

    1. Thank you! I actually did read that and still didn’t fully understand 🙂 . I’ll see if reading it a couple more times helps!

      Reply

  8. I had to watch Tenet a couple of times to get it. It was a bit confusing.
    As for estimated tax, I think it’s okay to mess up the first year. The IRS won’t penalize you unless you underpay every year. So this year, you can underpay and get away with it. (From my experience.)
    So just pay a bit and send in the rest next April. No need to stress over it.
    Next year, overpay a bit and get a refund. Go back and forth.

    Reply

    1. I got it…I just didn’t like it lol. If you ended up liking it after a few watches please tell me what changed for you because the audio mixing alone was amateur garbage that I couldn’t get past (and I usually love Nolan films).

      Good to know with the IRS! I’ll do my best, but yeah messing up feels a little inevitable since it’s a guessing game with those estimates. Thanks for the tips!

      Reply

  9. Great to read! Warning though, I had to warn you though, on the chicory. A friend served it while we were camping and I thought it was great. When I had to go off coffee, I ordered three different kinds to try.

    It. Was. So. Bitter.

    so, do better than me and ask around. I even got expensive kind, but it was awful. I’m going to have to track down the camp cooker and ask her how she made it taste so great!

    Reply

    1. Good to know! We’re actually going to harvest it so I have no idea its quality 🙂 . However, I already think coffee is super bitter so maybe I won’t be able to tell the difference 😉 .

      Reply

  10. It may have been hard for you to spell Massachusetts but it’s impossible for me to spell Mississippi! I’m sure I misspelled that somehow lol. If I didn’t, it’s a miracle.

    Congrats on another new net worth high. Do you include rent as a part of your $20k/yr spending? That also happens to be my target as well so was curious.

    Reply

    1. But the song from Matilda! MI-SSI-SSI-PPI! I guess a rewatch is in order 😉 . And thank you! Yes everything is included in $20K a year…I keep being asked this though so I’m curious if I didn’t make that clear in my posts? I don’t separate out any ‘hidden’ expense.

      Reply

    1. Oooh thank you for the suggestion! I just checked and my library doesn’t currently have it, but I’ve added it to my Want To Read list. I’ll check out the YT video 🙂 .

      Reply

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