The Month Of City Hopping: Early Retirement Month 12 (September 2021)

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

With this post, it’s a wrap on a full year of early retirement that I’ve documented on this blog! It’s been a full year since I quit my marketing job and set out into the sunset. It’s been an absolutely wonderful time that I’m grateful I saved for posterity here.

So let’s get into what I did in Month 12 of retirement:

We Lived In Catskill, NY!

We spent a month in the Catskills and had a lovely time! We basically threw a dart at a map to see where we would go next without any prior knowledge, and were very surprised with how happy we could be in a completely random rural town.

In case you’re interested in what that town has to offer, I wrote a full post about it here: Slow Travel Review: Catskill, New York, USA – The Land Of Mountains.

I Visited NYC!

At the tail end of our Catskill adventure, I decided that I didn’t want to have a layover on my flight to Austin and would fly out of NYC. Then I remembered I’m retired, hadn’t visited my old stomping ground in years and had friends I wanted to visit, so I made it a week long adventure leading up to my flight.

I took the train from Catskill to Penn Station. It went along the Hudson river while the sun was setting and it was an absolutely gorgeous ride. Once I got to NYC I had a great time and ate too well. Check out my Instagram to see some awesome eats (I originally had links here, but they are no longer working – I’m not sure if that’s because of the outage yesterday or what).

We Visited Austin, TX!

It’s a long and random story, but basically we originally planned to visit Austin for my partner’s job, had everything booked and then were told that trip was cancelled.

However, we had already agreed to also stay with and spend time with my stepbrother who I hadn’t seen in years, in his new home, in a city I had never visited. And I’m so glad we did! It was wonderful to see yet another city I never would have considered and was surprised I enjoyed. Maybe I’m not as picky as I thought 😉 .

I Created The First FriendCon

Since I was randomly in Austin, TX at the same time as FinCon, I set up the first “FriendCon” at a coffee shop down the street. I had people sign up with Calendly because I’m neurotic like that for coffee dates and got to catch up with people I hadn’t seen since FinCon 2019 – or ever. It was fun to see my money nerd friends once again!

I Started Running!

I thought I was secure in telling my partner I would “never” be a runner like him. I never say never as a rule, but that was the one time I felt it to my bones.

Well, I lied 🙂 . After two years, I tried the run-walk-run method for 20 minutes 3 days a week this month. I ran 4 minutes, walked 1 minute and repeated that until at least 20 minutes had passed. And…it wasn’t the worst thing in the world 🙂 .

I tried to remember the last time I ran and I think it was high school. I don’t know why, but I used to really dislike the sensation, but running for 4 minutes at a time instead of 20 minutes straight somehow seems way more doable.

I just put on a banging song and use the energy I would usually use to dance to it, to run to the beat instead. No idea if I’ll keep this up, but I’m happy that I’ve kept it up this month.

By the end of the month, I found an app that counts my run/walk intervals for me (Just Run – it’s free!) and bought some more running gear including awesome leggings with a phone pocket and headphones that allow me to skip to the next song without pulling out my phone.

I Hung Out With A Reader

I’ve mentioned hanging with readers in previous posts and others have reached out to meet up when I’ve either just left their city or it wasn’t a good time for another reason.

As a result, I want to figure out a better way to let y’all know where I am so we can hang out! I’m not sure if this should be a pinned Tweet or something since not everyone is all over Twitter like I am – or maybe I should mention it in each recap post? I feel like these are such long beasts though that it might get lost. Anyway, let me know if you have a preference, but here’s where I’ll be for the foreseeable future if you want to have a masked, outdoor hang along the way:

  • NM/AZ/UT National Park Tour: Now – October 21
  • Santa Fe, NM: October 21 – November 23
  • Austin, TX: November 23 – November 30
  • NY State: November 30 – January 30
  • Phuket, Thailand: February 1 – March 3

I Read 6 Non-Fiction Books

This month I read:

  1. The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel
  2. The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik (Audiobook)
  3. Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins
  4. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
  5. The Oxygen Advantage: Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques to Help You Become Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter by Patrick McKeown
  6. The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People by Meik Wiking

I was recommended the book Die With Zero by a friend when we were discussing my plan to give all my money away when I die. She mentioned a sentiment that my partner had said many times before: despite being a smaller amount, giving more money now would most likely be more helpful to society than giving the 5-10% I do now and then donating the approximately $65 million inflation adjusted dollars I’ll have when I die. To investigate further, I decided to read this book the friend recommended.

Just a heads up: IT’S NOT ABOUT GIVING. It’s about spending all your money on yourself before you die – and because that’s the opposite of what I thought this book was about, it made me kinda mad to read 🙂 . It talked about how people are too cautious with their money and some save too much – both of which I do not think are the main problems based on what I can see of America.

Anyway, because of that misalignment on what I thought this book was about and because of it touting spending above almost all else in a world where savings is almost non-existent: I really didn’t like this book 🙂 . Just wanted to give an explanation in case y’all saw my 2/5 on Goodreads and wondered what happened.

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 September:

  1. The Month Of New York State: Early Retirement Month 11 (August 2021)
  2. Saalt Cup Review: Period Cups Are Life Changing!
  3. Slow Travel Review: Catskill, New York, USA – The Land Of Mountains
  4. 1Password Review: Protect Yo’ Shit!

In addition to the written word, I was featured on the Best Interest Podcast:

In addition to that, I had some interesting opportunities come through that I declined. One was a start up that reached out asking to partner with me to understand the finance space with the opportunity to make me an advisor down the line. They offered to pay me for my time and give cash and/or equity in the company as an advisor, but it sounds like too much work to me 🙂 . Another opportunity was a group that’s making a financial crime themed game. How random and fun!

And as promised, to update you on the Female Invest payment saga that I mentioned in the last monthly post, I have still not been paid 🙂 . We have had multiple back and forth emails over the last few weeks asking for piecemeal information and then going radio silent. As I said, if I am ever paid for my work, I’ll let you know and if I’m not I’ll also give you a heads up so y’all aren’t bamboozled out of your time 🙂 .

I Hung Out With People!

In addition to all that fun of FriendCon and hanging with a reader, I also had a lot of other social interactions this month. We stayed with my stepbrother for about a week in Austin, we had 3 pairs of visitors to our Catskill Airbnb and I visited friends in NYC.

Throughout all that, I kept up my weekly chat with my friend in Argentina, weekly movie night with college suitemates and bi-weekly chats with a former colleague. I really need to schedule some introvert time in my future 🙂 . I was tired recently and when looking at all the social time I’ve been having, it totally makes sense. While tiring, it’s been awesome to see people after so long. To remedy my tiredness, I’m planning to not move a muscle for the month we’re in Santa Fe and just enjoy the calmness of the desert.

Physical

Sleep

I’m debating removing this section because I feel like it’s the same every month. My sleep is better than ever – I’ve never felt this well rested and if I even dip below wonderfully rested, I take a nap and fix that real quick 🙂 .

I might do a review of my sleep for the first year of retirement to examine overall trends and how long it took me to finally be good at sleep for the first time in my life, but I think telling y’all every month that it’s awesome is a bit boring 🙂 . Let me know if you disagree.

Food

While in the Catskills, I got back to eating keto and calorie counting until the last few days we were there so I could say goodbye to our favorite food spots. Then I went wild eating everything delicious in NYC and Austin, which I’d never visited before. After all that indulgence, I’m back on keto for the foreseeable future while we travel around the southwest seeing national parks – it’s all about balance over here 😉 .

Mental

Learning

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

Location

The Catskills

  • The 1987 film Dirty Dancing was set in the Catskills during the summer of 1963 (though it was actually filmed at Mountain Lake in Virginia and at Lake Lure in North Carolina)
  • The town of Bethel, New York, which is in the Catskills, was home to the famous Woodstock music festival that took place August 15–18, 1969
  • As for the Catskill Mountains, the meaning of the name (“cat creek” in Dutch) and the people who named it that (early Dutch explorers) are known, how and why the area is named “Catskills” is a mystery. It’s suspected that mountain lions (also called catamounts) were known to have been in the area when the Dutch arrived in the 17th century and were possibly a reason for the name
  • Catskill, NY is the location of the story “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving. A giant cantilever bridge in Catskill is named after that story as well. It’s 5,041 feet long and 145 feet in the air. Walking across it freaked me out so much I had to turn back 🙂
  • Mike Tyson, the champion boxer moved to Catskill, NY from Brooklyn in 1980 and trained at the local gym

NYC

  • Since I started my adult life living in NYC, I assumed that the driving rules there applied everywhere. Well, it turns out that right on red is not allowed in NYC – at all. It’s allowed anywhere else in the country unless there’s a sign that states otherwise. Weird.
  • There are random Hobbit doors in a neighborhood in Brooklyn I visited. There is no explanation for why they are there 🙂
  • The new NYC water taxis are electric and look like something out of the classic Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century.

Austin

  • Austin is the live music capital of the world! They took the title in 1991 when they had more live music venues per capita than anywhere else in the country. There are more than 1900 bands and performers living in Austin and playing at their 200+ live music venues. Austin is also the location of some of the biggest music events in the world, such as South by Southwest (SXSW)…which I thought was a work conference until this very moment
  • I learned that Austin is the home of the outdoor brand Yeti
  • Apparently Austin is a giant tech hub – I had no idea. Oracle moved their headquarters there and they also have offices of big names like Google and and Facebook

Astronomy

Stargazing has been going surprisingly well since we’ve been in major cities since leaving the Catskills. I was able to see Jupiter and several constellations in NYC despite the wild light pollution. I don’t know if I just never looked up when I lived there because I was too stressed or what, but there are more opportunities to see the stars in the Big Apple than I would have guessed.

While we were in Austin, it was easy to see Jupiter, Saturn and Venus every night. And when it was clear we were able to see a whole sky of stars right outside our door. It was gorgeous 🙂 .

We also had the pleasure of seeing the Harvest Moon this month, which is the full moon closest to the Autumn Equinox.

Fauna

I’m once again surprised with the amount of wildlife I simply never noticed while working. Here’s what we saw in all the cities we visited this month:

Catksill

  • Grey squirrel
  • Spinney spider

NYC

  • There’s an invasive insect called a Lanternfly that New Yorkers have been told to kill it on sight. We experienced this outside a winery – I saw a dude trying to kill a large bug and he turned to us and said “Just doing my part”

Austin

  • Eastern Fox Squirrel – These guys were super fun to watch. They were always being playful with each other and I thought they were a fox from the corner of my eye originally

Birds

I’m starting to recognize birds just by their silhouette! I can now parse out their beak, body and wing shape to guess what type of bird it is even when they are backlit at sunset for example. Progress! Here are the birds I saw this month:

Catksill

Bald Eagle, Great Egret, Little Blue Heron, American Pipit, Double-Crested Cormorant, European Starling, Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, American Goldfinch, American Black Duck, Northern Cardinal, Chimney Swift, House Sparrow

Fun Fact: Check out a Bald Eagle’s terrifying wingspan:

From Avian Report

NYC

Chimney Swift, Blue Jay, Black-and-white Warbler, Swainson’s Thrush, Northern Mockingbird, Great Black-Backed Gull, House Sparrow

Fun fact: According to a hilarious website I didn’t know existed called Pigeonpedia, there is one pigeon per person in NYC. No wonder they seem like they’re everywhere!

Not so fun fact: Over 300 birds smacked into the World Trade Center during migration one day and died. Apparently in NYC, between 90,000 and 230,000 birds are killed each year when they collide with building glass. As a result, there is a push to turn off lights in skyscrapers at night during migration seasons.

Austin

Cooper’s Hawk (this one had a nest across from where we were staying with babies!), Muscovy Duck, American Coot, Black-Crested Titmouse, White-Winged Dove, Ladder-Backed Woodpecker, Northern Mockingbird, Black-Chinned Hummingbird, Downy Woodpecker, Boat-Tailed Grackle, House Sparrow, Common Grackle, Red-Shouldered Hawk, American Robin, Pileated Woodpecker, Blue Kay, Black-Bellied Plover

Flora

Plant finding was wild this month! There were so many I didn’t recognize and had to look up with the help of Google Lens. Here’s what I saw:

Catskill

Japanese knotweed, raspberries, sedums, cosmos, strawberry lemonade hydrangea, pokeweed, dense blazing star, orpine, common morning glory, common zinnia, snapdragon, surfinia, tromboncino, trumpet vine, common hibiscus, ipomoea, peegee hydrangea, love-lies-bleeding, cherry tomatoes, solenostemon, dahlia, dahlia pinnata, flowering cherry, crab apple, indian shot, cleveland pear

NYC

Cleopatra canna lily, buckeye, fiddle leaf fig, purple coneflower, bur oak, cherry plum, claire grace bergamot, bluebird smooth aster, summersweet, sassafras, grow-low aromatic sumac, bigleaf magnolia, swamp azelea, hoary mountain mint

Random Shit

The weather events of this month led me to go down some rabbit holes to understand how this shit works. Here are some examples if you’re curious. My motto is “explain it to me like I’m 5 😉 “.

Creativity

My creativity continues to surprise me. Words are flowing, I’m inspired to dive deep into new subjects and try new things – including fun foreign films like the ones I review on Instagram!

I’ve come so far from watching the same season of 30 Rock over and over because that’s all my brain could handle after a wild work day 🙂 .

Emotional

I’ve been feeling a lot more calm lately. I thought I had reached the peak calm possible for my neurotic brain, but apparently there was more growth to be had! I’m now much better at weird ‘limbo’ times like when we’re basically waiting to start a trip or move Airbnbs or get on a plane.

It used to stress me out and I hated that limbo feeling, but now I just plan around them – I know that picking up my latest non-fiction book, responding to short comments or catching up on my favorite YouTuber’s latest videos are great ways to not feel like I’m just in a waiting state.

Money

Money continues to be a non-issue and this 180 from my previous feelings never don’t surprise me. I’ve been eating everything in sight, buying flights, changing accommodations and generally living my life without money being a consideration and yet:

My post next week will lay out what I spent in my first year of retirement, but compiling those numbers made my jaw drop. I expected a nomad lifestyle to be more expensive than living in Seattle, but it looks like that might not be the case. And to top all that off, the market went up 27% in the last year. I started my first year of retirement after leaving work with $500K invested and $40K cash and now I have $705,229.

Simply ridiculous. My finances are a non-issue and that’s been a wonderful feeling to have – I don’t watch my budget and yet, so far, it’s all worked out better than forecast. And, to end on a silly note:

Conclusion

So that’s a wrap on recapping my first year of retirement! 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)
  7. The Month Of The Northeast: Early Retirement Month 10 (July 2021)
  8. The Month Of New York State: Early Retirement Month 11 (August 2021)

How was your month?

30 thoughts on “The Month Of City Hopping: Early Retirement Month 12 (September 2021)”

  1. Q: Why don’t dogs like cats?
    A: Because Catskill Mountains!
    🤣

    Anyway, interesting and wide-ranging update. Glad you enjoyed your time in Austin more than you thought, even though you didn’t enjoy the book Die With Zero as much as you thought. Win some, lose some ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    And gotta admit, I’m a little jealous right now of your well-restedness.

    Reply

    1. Haha win some, lose some indeed – it was still an overall win though so that’s nice. As for well-restedness – is there a way to prioritize sleep more? I never did when I was working and am curious if it’s possible.

      Reply

      1. A way to prioritize sleep while working? I don’t know…I try to set things up so that I get 7-8 hours of sleep per night.

        Unfortunately, my well-laid plan doesn’t always work. Sometimes I’ll fall asleep quickly, but other times I just lie awake and keep rolling over for an hour or longer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

        The other night, I got only 1.5 hours of sleep. That was an unusually bad night! I think I’ve caught up since then, though.

        Reply

  3. Love seeing your bird lists. The American Coot is such a strange little dude. Those beady red eyes! Those creeeeepy blue feet! There’s tons of them in Green Lake seasonally, and I miss them when they migrate to their breeding grounds.

    Reply

  4. Great update! What an awesome surprise that you’ve been able to make moving around just as affordable as staying in one place.

    Do you envision the reader meetups to be 1 on 1 or with a larger group? I’m also nomading, and will be in Austin in November. Would love to do an outdoor meet up!

    Reply

  5. What a busy month! I’m envious of your nomadic lifestyle. Hopefully, we can take a year or two off to go nomad at some point. Maybe I just need to go by myself, though. Hahaha. 🙂
    Your finance looks awesome too.

    Reply

  6. Cruel, cruel, cruel of you to post your feet by the pool as I sit in my frigid northern home desperately hoping the COVID supply chain glitches don’t delay the part for my furnace too much longer.

    Hey did you like board games? I got one called Wingspan a few weeks ago and it’s based on birds in the States and the artwork is *gorgeous*. They did a beautiful job making it immersive and it’s kind of competing with yourself alongside your friends rather than competing with each other for resources. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/266192/wingspan

    Also… Thailand? THAILAND? JEALOUS! I prefer reading where you’re headed here, maybe someday we’ll cross paths. 🙂

    Reply

    1. Eeek I’m sorry! I hope your furnace part comes soon and you can stay warm.

      I do indeed like board games – thank you for sharing! I’ve saved this one to look into. Not sure when it can fit into my nomad travels, but I’m plotting haha.

      Reply

  7. I think you are doing impressive things, not only with numbers.

    What are your thoughts on The psychology of Money?

    Keep going strong,
    Petra

    Reply

  8. What a great 12 month update! Life sounds so good and how interesting that opportunities come your way despite you not looking for them. I somehow got the impression (culture? Society? My parents?) that unemployment == stuck forever, doomed to cardboard box living, so always have a job to help you get another! While there’s some truth in there, it’s reassuring to hear that’s not the case in reality.

    If sleep status remains the same after a few months, it does get a bit samey to read about it every month. But if it’s helpful for you to track it a bit longer, to see trends or something, I’m not going to complain! It’s your blog. If there’s a section I don’t want to read, I can always skip over it 🙂

    You’re burning through non-fiction. I don’t mind non-fiction, but it doesn’t hold my interest as well as fiction. Bill Bryson’s ‘Short History of Everything’ is excellent, but I started reading it in 2018 and I’m still going :S I’ve read millions of words of fiction in that time! I’m in awe at your focus and speed!

    Loving the calendar as an insight into your next travels. Yes Thailand! Go!

    Reply

    1. Thanks! And yeah it’s completely ridiculous – I didn’t expect any opportunities at all, but here we are: with so many I turn most down lol.

      Actually sleep has finally changed this month so I have something different to say! I’m with you though – this record is for me first and I am curious to see how my sleep evolves over time. I’ll keep it in and try to remember people can totally skip if it’s boring 🙂 .

      And yeah I have a goal to read 52 non-fiction books in 2021 because I’ve only been reading fiction for the last few years. It’s been tough, but I might make the goal (and then not do it next year haha).

      Reply

  9. What a year! I enjoy reading your updates and hope you continue to write since you are feeling more creative. Well of course, as long as you are not feeling obligated. That would not be fun in retirement.

    You are a great example of designing a financially sustainable lifestyle which allows you not to worry about daily spending. I’m sure it has a lot to do with not owning/committing to the typical American stuff (house, car, etc).

    If you want another perspective on the book:
    https://www.gocurrycracker.com/book-review-die-with-zero/

    I also highly recommend “How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty” by Harry Browne. I’m in the middle of it but it is such thought provoking how we see the rules of society as being rigid when they are not.

    Enjoy your travels!

    Reply

    1. I’m so happy to hear that – thank you 🙂 . Also thanks for the link – I already read GCC’s review (I’m on his mailing list) and understand where he’s coming from. Without the (inaccurate) context I had, the book has good points. I’ve heard of that book before and thought it was on my reading list, but was surprised to discover it’s not – Added!

      Reply

  10. I’m in the Hudson Valley, about an hour north of NYC if you want to visit! It’ll be cold when you come up this way, but we have ducks, chickens, and an utterly adorable Australian Shepherd that loves new people.

    Reply

  11. re: “So is there anything you miss about work?”

    I retired “early” at 55 back in 2013 and have given this question a bit of thought over the years. I keep coming to the same conclusion. There are actually TWO things I miss about “work”:

    1. The 30 minute walks in the little park right next to my building that I would take during the first half of my lunch break.
    2. The 30 minutes I would spend eating lunch in the cafeteria with my work colleagues once I returned from my walk.

    Looks like my son was correct that time when he was in first or second grade and told me the favorite part of his school day was Lunch and Recess. 😉

    Reply

  12. One other fun fact about the Catskills area: Ichabod Crane (the Headless Horseman fairy tale) also happened in the Catskills, only a little north of where you two were staying! There’s a school named after him up in the town of Valatie (which is pronounced Va-Lay-Sh-Uh, half the names around here have very odd pronunciations between native populations and the fact that we had so many Dutch/English/other settlers) and they are famous for having more snow days than any other school in the Albany area. Also, I like the sleep updates, at least in the monthly wrap-ups, they actually remind me to check in on my own sleep. I agree with the commenter who said it can just be skipped, we all know how to skim. 😆

    Reply

    1. That’s so cool!!! I had no idea about any of that. And haha – I’ll try to remember y’all know how to skim 😉 .

      Reply

  13. Not sure if you’re reading fiction, but Last Summer at the Golden Hotel was a good read about an old Catskill’s hotel. When you say coming to NY, where do you mean? We’re a big state 🙂

    Reply

    1. Thanks for the recommendation! I’ve added it to my list. Usually when we’re in NY State we’re on the eastern side – I don’t mention the city for privacy reasons because we have family that live there.

      Reply

  14. That was a LOT of socialising! 🙂 And Phuket!! I wish I remembered the name of the place, or had any idea if it was still there but we discovered (something like ten years ago) THE MOST amazing chicken and rice place out in Phuket Town. I hope you find as fantastic eats out there as we did.

    Friends recommended Die with Zero too but they didn’t imply that it was about giving 😉

    Since I struggle with sleep a whole lot, I love seeing your monthly updates that it’s still great. Every night (I was going to say week but that doesn’t happen here) with good sleep feels like a minor miracle.

    I’m still baffled by how amazing your spending is with all this travel and eating 😀 It’s awesome but puzzling.

    Reply

    1. Oooh I hope I find it! And good to know about the reco 🙂 . Fair on good sleep feeling like a minor miracle. And yeah it’s definitely puzzling. When I have the inclination I’d like to calculate what percent of my eating has been eating out vs. cooking. I feel like it ebbs and flows, but overall I cook way more than I eat out. I still expected life to be way more expensive though.

      Reply

  15. Fantastic that your portfolio continues to be doing so well so you don’t even have to think about money.
    Am loving all the fun facts and loving the freedom you have to learn and write about them all – so clear that you are enjoying yourself!

    Reply

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