The Month Of Spring(?): March 2022 Recap

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

We’re back in the Northeast USA! After a month in Thailand, I landed in NYC, went to Connecticut for a hot second, and have been bopping around New York State, Massachusetts and Vermont ever since. It’s been a wild time – mostly because of the weather. It’s gone from a sub-zero snowpocalypse to 65 and sunny and back in the Northeast. I’m getting whiplash 🙂 .

Luckily, as you’re reading this, I’m settling into sunny Mexico to start our two month adventure there so I will be warm soon enough. Anyway, let’s see what I got up to in March!

I Started Learning Spanish

So, I’ve never learned Spanish. I focused on French in high school and Italian in college. However, I’ve dipped my toe into Duolingo Spanish during the beginning of my career because I thought it was ridiculous that I didn’t know any of the language. Luckily, Spanish is a little similar to Italian so it’s not completely foreign to me.

In advance of us moving to Mexico, I wanted to be able to speak at least basic Spanish. Especially since the city we’re going to (Merida) isn’t known as a tourist hub where it’s common for people to also speak English. So I started practicing Duolingo every morning and also finished the amazing book Fluent Forever, which gave me a lot of new techniques that I had never heard of before (I’ll be listing those out in the “Learning” section below).

As for Duolingo, I was impressed to see how much it’s improved since I used it almost a decade ago. They seem to be focusing on how to get you to see the rhythm of a language instead of flat out memorizing it. For example, they now have Duolingo Stories where you help to complete a story that’s unfolding in your target language and Duolingo Podcast where you can listen to your target language on the go. Very cool!

However, during this month, they got rid of the Duolingo forum, which I found immensely valuable so I was quite sad about that. Luckily though, my time with Duolingo has come to an end for now (and hopefully they’ll restore the forum before I come back…) because April marks a month where my Mom and I are taking 20 hours a week of Spanish classes…and I am terrified 🙂 . We’ll see how that goes!

I Played The Sims

When we were back in NY State, we got to hang around my partner’s beloved gaming PC. And yes, us visiting did intentionally coincide with the release of the game Elden Ring. This is a judgement free zone 🙂 .

Anyway, when my partner wasn’t clocking in 60+ hours on Elden Ring, I took it upon myself to play The Sims! I tried the new Scenarios feature that Sims added, which I’ve enjoyed and also made me laugh because Sims fans have been unofficially doing this exact same thing by sharing Challenges with each other on forums since Sims launched 15 years ago. It’s cool to see these finally integrated into the game though 🙂 .

My Faith In A Company Was Renewed

So I usually use cheap or free sunglasses that more than likely don’t actually protect my eyes (#Oops). However, in my old age, (I’m turning 33 soon alright!) I’ve been trying to take better care of myself and part of that was buying good-for-my-eyes sunglasses.

Last fall I bought some seemingly well made sunglasses from REI. The brand was Knockaround and I loved those glasses. I wore them all the time and when I wasn’t wearing them, they lived in a hard case. Well, a few weeks into my visit to Thailand, I was shocked to see that while holding my glasses and not exerting any pressure on them – they split in half! Down the middle – just cracked.

I was surprised because REI is known for the longevity of their products. I was then curious if they had any process for getting a refund or a new pair of glasses or something, given these sunglasses didn’t even last a year.

REI replied and without any run around sent me a new pair, which arrived promptly and look just like my last ones. I was shocked to say the least. I was expecting them to link me to a complicated and time consuming process to possibly get replacement sunglasses, but instead, received that treatment, which restored my faith in that company.

To go even further, Knockaround also responded to my inquiry, though I told them REI was handling it and not to worry. I’m usually very skeptical of brands and if I find one that treats their customers right, I remember. And REI has just officially joined those ranks. I guess I’ll try to reign in my inherent cynical nature 😉 .

I Got A Pill Organizer

Exiting right 🙂 ? I seriously thought so! I’ve been juggling mini pill bottles for over a year now and found it a daily annoyance, so I finally gave in and paid a whole $6 to fix my problem (yes – I should have done it sooner). However, this was a good reminder to find ways to make my life easier, especially if they only cost $6 for something I would use daily. Here’s my adorable organizer if you’re curious.

I Read 6 Books

This month I read:

  1. Wallet Activism: How to Use Every Dollar You Spend, Earn, and Save as a Force for Change by Tanja Hester
  2. Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It by Gabriel Wyner
  3. The Guest List by Lucy Foley
  4. One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
  5. Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell
  6. Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Reading went really well this month and I’m very much enjoying the mix of fiction and non-fiction compared to my wild goal last year. My overall goal to read 52 books this year is also going really well – I’m already 31% done. Maybe I need a harder goal 😉 .

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 5 Posts

In case you missed it, this month I published the below posts:

  1. From Hate To Love: How I Became A Runner
  2. The Month Of Thailand: February 2022 Recap
  3. A Day At A Spa In Thailand: Wyndham Grand Phuket Zana Spa Review
  4. Review: 21 Hours In Etihad Business Class (Part 1) – Phuket To Abu Dhabi On A 787 Dreamliner
  5. Review: 21 Hours In Etihad Business Class (Part 2) – Abu Dhabi To NYC On A 787 Dreamliner

In addition to those posts, I was honored to see that I was featured in an article by Conde Nast Traveler, which you can read here if you’re interested. It’s almost like I’m a real traveler or something 😉 .

I was also asked to be on a podcast that CNN sponsors. We’re in the process of scheduling that interview, so if it happens, I’ll let y’all know when it’s live.

I was asked to do an interview with a Wealth Management App, but declined. However, I found it interesting to see what new types of requests come through my email inbox.

I also volunteered to give feedback on a novel that a FIRE friend is writing. I usually don’t add things to my to do list, but I got the urge to help and am glad I did. I’m also starting to work on a presentation I’m giving for Bravely Go’s Free Financial Feminist Summit in May. My portion is due in April and it’s the first time I’ve done something like this. It’s outside my comfort zone, but I like pushing myself from time to time 🙂 . Hopefully it turns out well.

Lastly, and randomly, I was quoted in a Taiwanese Magazine Article that I had no idea about: that’s here if you’re interested.

I Hung Out With People

This month was filled with a lot of seeing the people I love, which I always enjoy (…though I do also require some recovery time after 😉 ). I saw some family in Connecticut when we got back from Thailand and discovered that 72 hours is way too short to see people in retirement. Lesson learned!

Then I saw my partner’s family in Upstate New York along with a college friend in Massachusetts. I also continued all my usual virtual hang outs with my friend in Argentina, weekly movie club, bi-weekly catch ups with an ex-colleague and watching Schitt’s Creek with a different ex-colleague. It’s been a busy time 🙂 and I’m excited to slow down a bit when we hang out in Mexico.

Physical

Sleep

So I’ve never been more happy that I’m retired and can take all the time in the world to deal with jet lag. That fact is how I got over my jet lag from a month of living in Thailand in only a few days.

I slept whenever I was sleepy and was back on east coast time before I knew it! Even outside of that, I slept really well this week – Minecraft style 😉 .

Food

I went back to Keto and calorie counting this month and it was a lovely time. I ended up losing 3 inches around my waist, which was a welcome change after eating everything in sight in Thailand.

Exercise

I continued running 3x a week and doing 20 squats 6x a week. In fact, I started roping other people into these endeavors and heard from my MIL that even after I left, she was still doing squats, which makes me feel warm inside 🙂 .

In case you’re curious, I recently wrote a whole post about how I went from despising to loving running. It’s been a surprisingly wonderful journey.

Mental

I mentioned last month that I was trying out incorporating the free Loop Habit Tracker app into my life and I’m still loving it. I’m up to 12 Habits that are more like things I want to, and sometimes forget to do. It’s really helped me focus and do things consistently.

I also accidentally discovered that I can change the lock screen on my Android phone from battery remaining to weather and that’s been a surprisingly large change in my life. Knowing vaguely what the weather is has helped me a lot since I plan what I do based on my mood, energy and the forces outside.

Learning

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

NYC Public Transit

So, as you know, I lived in NYC for 4 years. Well, I thought that knowledge would help me be savvy when navigating my old stomping ground, but that was not the case 🙂 . Despite doing ample research, I had a snafu when trying to take public transit from the Lower East Side of Manhattan to Laguardia Airport.  I used to take a similar route often and was confident in my knowledge.

Well, it wasn’t good enough 🙂 and I wanted to document that here in case it could save anyone else some time and stress. Basically, if you’re getting on a Select Bus Service (“SBS”) in NYC, they now require that you get a ticket before boarding from a nearby kiosk. Previously, these buses were within the regular public transit system and accepted metro cards, but that is no longer the case.

I didn’t know about that and I didn’t know that if you take the F train to Queens and transfer to the Q70 SBS, that there is basically a hidden bus depot there – buses stacked one behind the other – instead of regular bus stops. So heads up if this applies to your future travels!

Mexican Airports

Another fun adventure I had was landing in Merida, Mexico and being told incorrect information by one of the United flight attendants. Once again, quite niche, but in case you’re heading to Mexico from the US, here’s a few tips to help get through the Merida airport unscathed:

  1. Even if your airline says you don’t need a customs form unless you have something to declare, you do need it
  2. Fully fill out both the immigration and customs form. If you don’t before you leave the plane they will make you leave the immigration line to fill them out and you’ll waste a lot of time
  3. At least in the Merida airport, there are many taxi companies with stands where you can pay for a taxi in advance with a credit card. These stands are in the hallways to baggage claim and in the main ground transportation area. Despite the time estimate they give you, your car might already be outside. Head there and find someone to ask what car you should go into (the cars are labeled with a specific company). Also heads up that I paid for a private taxi, but they paired me with a random dude going in the same direction at the last minute 🙂 . For a @12 a fare I wasn’t upset about it, but heads up.

Language

As I mentioned above, I read Fluent Forever and learned about a multitude of language tools I’ve never heard of before. Here are several of them:

  • Frequency dictionaries show you the most used words in a language – here are the ones for Spanish though most common languages can be found through that link for free
  • Pronunciation guide – these or these help you understand how to pronounce a word, which I thought was something I would pick up and not something I would pick up through practice
  • Looking words up in a monolingual dictionary of the language you’re trying to learn also never occurred to me, but would obviously help me learn in a new way
  • Similarly, if I was looking to learn a language in order to go into a specific field such as medicine or opera, a thematic vocabulary book would be extremely helpful and fill in any large gaps I have in my language learning. There are examples here. Apparently with a good thematic vocab book, you can learn the most frequent 1,000 words for a solid foundation in specific situations and will then have 90% comprehension in your life
  • Anki is the suggested way to learn languages through flash cards, which my partner has also suggested. And here are the sample decks Fluent Forever’s author has created
  • The International Phonetic Alphabet can also come in handy 😉 – here’s the example for Spanish resources on it
  • Also, languages that have genders are listed here, which I found very helpful.

  • This website (Lang 8) offers free writing correction assistance help in other languages
  • If you’re curious to know how many words you know, this site provides a quick test to figure it out. I was all caught up on knowing the 300K+ words in the Spanish dictionary and it turns out that, according to this test, I only know about 25,000 English words and I would definitely consider myself fluent. SWEET!!!
  • The Fluent Forever book also had some suggestions about how to supplement language learning. They suggested reading a book while at the same time listening to the audiobook in that target language, which I hadn’t heard of before.
  • The book also suggests watching a film or TV show with no subtitles and if possible, no comedy shows since comedy might not translate well. If you’re not familiar with the plot, they suggest reading a symposia before watching in your target language. You can do that by switching the language of a Wikipedia page on the bottom left
  •  You can chat with a native speaker of a language with several sites, such as Verbling.com or yourather.com
  • Forvo.com is a fantastic resource to hear how a word is said
  • There’s a way to sort Netflix (and most likely other streaming services) by audio type here for Spanish audio for example.

Now, before you think I only learned about languages from one book this week, that’s not the case. I also learned something new about the Google Translate app: it’s a lot faster to translate images in real time compared to Google Lens, especially if you’ve already downloaded the language like I have with Spanish and Thai.

Also, my SIL (who is an ASL interpreter), taught me that most visual languages have influences from France and a similar sentence structure to French. Based on this information and our future travel plans, I’m going to attempt to learn ASL after I re-learn French in the coming years and after I become fluent in Spanish 🙂 .

Excel

My partner (a programmer) taught me and my SIL about excel this month. I’ve used that program for my job over the decade of my career, but didn’t do anything as advanced as he showed us, which was basically coding within excel. It was super cool!

Astronomy

It was pretty cold a lot of this month, but I still managed to see a gorgeous Full Moon, beautiful sunsets and some lovely constellations.

Birds

My birding this month included most of the usual suspects with some stand outs including:

Connecticut

Winter Wren, Downy Woodpecker, Tufted Titmouse, White-throated Sparrow, American Robin, Blue Jay, Norther Cardinal

New York

Cooper’s Hawk, Mourning Dove, Black-capped Chickadee, Green-winged Teal, Dark-eyed Junco, Canada Goose, Mallard,

I also learned why the Dark Eyed Juncos I saw in New York didn’t look like their representations in my Audubon app. I checked Merlin and learned that a “Slate-Colored Adult Male looks different in Oregon in CA, and [is] pink-sided in Wyoming, Red-backed in AZ, Grey-headed in CO, [and] White-Winged in SD. There is a huge range of geographic variation in the Dark-eyed Junco. Among the 15 described races, six forms are easily recognizable in the field and five used to be considered separate species until the 1980s.

A field guide is the best place to look for complete illustration of ranges and plumages, but in general there are two widespread forms of the Dark-eyed Junco: “slate-colored” junco of the eastern United States and most of Canada, which is smooth gray above; and “Oregon” junco, found across much of the western U.S., with a dark hood, warm brown back and rufous flanks. Other more restricted variations include the slate-colored-like “white-winged” and Oregon-like “pink-sided” juncos of the Rockies and western Great Plains; and the Yellow-eyed Junco-like “red-backed” and “gray-headed” juncos of the Southwest.” Mystery solved 🙂 !

Flora & Fauna

I saw a small squirrel with a reddish tint that I didn’t notice and it turns out, it’s a Red Squirrel 🙂 . I also noticed a Dawn Redwood in Connecticut and Snowdrop flowers in Vermont. I need to step up my plant identification game because it was pretty standard this month 🙂 .

Random

Here are some random things I learned this month:

  • The phrase “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” is from a 1800’s physics schoolbook as an example question to show how it’s not possible. It entered into common discourse as a sarcastic phrase….because it’s impossible. Fascinating.
  • Masala in a spice name means “mix” so for example Garam Masala that I am using for Butter Chicken this month, is a mix of spices that I can add individually. Mind blown!!

Creativity

Creativity has been good. I’m back into a writing groove and have even been inspired to review books, which is usually a good indication that I’m feeling particularly inspired.

Emotional

My emotions were great this month – I had no depressive episodes or anxiety flare ups. I guess surrounding myself with loved ones and taking it easy can be good for me 🙂 .

Money

This basically says it all:

The market went down this year until this month. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m here for the long haul so I’ll keep living my life without worrying about money. However, despite not thinking about it, it’s going rather well based on the system I had already set up:

Conclusion

So that’s what I got up to in March! It was a nice, chill and loved-one filled month between our trips to Thailand and Mexico. It helped me finally learn how to run well with my lungs in the cold and to appreciate March – even when there’s a snow storm in the middle of it 🙂 . Next, let’s see what I get up to in April during my first visit to Merida, Mexico 🙂 .

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)
  9. The Month Of City Hopping: Early Retirement Month 12 (September 2021)
  10. The Month Of The Southwest USA: October 2021 Recap
  11. The Month Of Santa Fe: November 2021 Recap
  12. The Month Of Family: December 2021 Recap
  13. The Month Of Freezing My Balls Off: January 2022 Recap
  14. The Month Of Thailand: February 2022 Recap

How was your month?

21 thoughts on “The Month Of Spring(?): March 2022 Recap”

  1. Sounds like a fun month, if a bit cold considering it’s supposed to be spring. 🙂 I’ll have to check out Fluent Forever – I’m happy to say I used some of those strategies you mentioned (Anki, looking up words in a monolingual dictionary) when I was learning Russian. I hope you’re having a good time in Mexico. That sounds SO fun and SO relaxing, which is definitely something I need right now! 😀

    Reply

    1. Haha yeah, but don’t worry – the hottest months in Mexico definitely made up for it quickly 😉 . That’s awesome you already use some of those strategies! I’m indeed having a lovely time in Mexico 🙂 . Not exactly relaxing now that I’m in Spanish class half of the day, but definitely rewarding!

      Reply

  2. Great write-up! Mexico should be a blast. Show us everything you see and eat 😉 imagine getting over jet lag in just a few days, dang. That’s a talent.

    Loved the language-learning links and the vocabulary test. I’ve fallen out of love with learning French, so maybe these will help me fall back into it. Other tips I’ve received over the years: passive exposure like listening to the radio or the news in the background of another task can help a lot. Also reading kids’ books (like, toddler level, telling you shapes and animals and simple stories) and magazine articles, watching a TV show or movie with the subtitles on (you mention to do it without the subtitles, apparently there’s some evidence that reading the language while hearing it spoken helps!), repeating lines from said TV show to practice speaking and pronunciation – choose the show wisely 😉 and, if you have a YouTube account and an afternoon to kill, find a video that needs captions in the language, generate the automatic translation, then correct the translation. I did this for a few videos and noticed a big difference in what the automatic translation caught and how the youtuber actually uses language, especially with informal/slang words.

    Let us know how speaking Spanish with your mum goes!

    Reply

    1. Haha will do! And those are great tips – thank you 🙂 . And speaking Spanish is going really well. After two days I could have a conversation, which wasn’t something I was anywhere close to doing before. By mid-week I chatted with my friend in Argentina for almost 20 minutes in Spanish. All that to say, it’s going better than forecast 🙂 .

      Reply

  3. Fluent Forever sounds great, I’ve struggled with figuring out how to learn languages outside of a formal class. Excited to try some of those strategies!

    Reply

  4. REI is the best! They used to have unlimited returns until people started taking advantage. Now it is one year. Even if it is more than a year old, still try. I had running shoes barely used, about two years old so they looked brand new but the sole separated in half. They promptly replaced it as well.

    Enjoy your time in Mexico!

    Reply

    1. Oh cool! Glad to hear they’re still awesome from other people’s experiences as well. And thank you 🙂 .

      Reply

  5. Thanks for the Fluent Forever recommendation! I’m struggling with French and need to replace my internal narrative of “I’m bad at languages.”

    Have fun in Mexico!

    Reply

    1. I’m sure you’re not bad at languages 🙂 . The ways we’re taught are just kinda ridiculous in my experience. You’ve got this! And thank you 🙂 .

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  6. Great update! I don’t think I knew your SIL is an ASL interpreter. I am too! It’s a great field. Best of luck with what comes next.

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  7. thanks for the links and books for learning languages. Me =engineer, always slower with languages but it seems I didn’t try enough. So I will re-start Spanish now.

    Reply

  8. Great job being super productive, especially all those things before 10am! You sure did a lot this month. I also have Wallet Activism on my list, and if you need more book suggestions to hit that target let me know! Loved the post on the Thai Spa Day, it’s like were there with you.

    One other things about Masala, it’s a good balance if you accidentally add too much salt or garlic, tikka masala is a wonderous dish!

    Reply

  9. “It’s gone from a sub-zero snowpocalypse to 65 and sunny and back in the Northeast. I’m getting whiplash” → So are all of us…

    “Luckily, Spanish is a little similar to Italian so it’s not completely foreign to me.” → Spanish, Italian, and French are all considered ‘Romance Languages,’ because they’re direct offshoots of Latin. English, by contrast, is a ‘Germanic Language.’

    On doit pratiquer le français, puis on peut souvenir la langue!

    Reply

    1. I guess I’m glad I’m not alone in that then 🙂 . Et oui – j’ai besoin de pratiquer le français.

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  10. Hello! I’ve been reading your blog for a while and I really enjoy it. I’m 26 and hopefully will be able to retire within the next 10 years. I have a question (and I searched your archive to see if you have a blog post about this already, but couldn’t find anything): I understand how your money is invested all in VTSAX. But I am wondering how you withdraw it once you retire? Do you take out a small amount each month? Are there tax implications to this? If you have a blog post about this that I missed, please feel free to point me in the right direction! Thank you.

    Reply

    1. Thank you for looking beforehand 🙂 . You didn’t find it because I’m not withdrawing my money yet so I haven’t written about it yet. The closest I’ve gotten is the below where I talk about managing my money in retirement, but I’m living on my cash cushion that I saved up as a precaution for retiring into a pandemic and possible recession. I have my taxable dividends going into my checking account, which is about $5K/year, but otherwise don’t touch my portfolio. When I do withdraw money in a few years I’ll do it annually and because I’ll be taking out about $20K I won’t have to pay taxes on that money again.

      https://apurplelife.com/2021/08/17/retirement-money-management/

      Reply

      1. Thank you, this is very helpful! I have read a lot of blogs with people who retired with between $500k and $1m invested, but I realized I didn’t understand the logistics of actually accessing that money once you hit retirement. Thanks for clarifying and linking that post!

        Reply

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