The Month Of New Hampshire: August 2022 Recap

by A Purple Life, posted in Blogging, Early Retirement, Early Retirement Updates, Film, Finance, Fitness, Food, Hobbies, Investing, Keto, Musings, Net Worth Update, Travel
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2022 continues to pass by with the speed of a bullet train. I guess I’m having too much fun 😉 . This month we continued our exploration of the northeast – we like to come here in the summer if possible since it’s cooler than other parts of the country. We started by saying “hi!” to family in New York State and then moved further east. So let’s see what I got up to!

We Moved To New Hampshire!

We visited my aunt who lives in New Hampshire and had a wonderful time spending time with her. It’s still shocking to me how much better time with loved ones is now that I’m retired. There’s no need to rush and pack our few days together full of activities to get the most bang for our buck.

Instead we combine our lives for a time and as a result, have a lot more chill, relaxed time together. The approach is also much less exhausting for an introvert like me 🙂 . Anyway, it was lovely to see her and to help her with things around the house such as this:

I also really enjoyed planning my day around the tides. In case you’re looking for a tide chart for some reason this one by Surf Forecast was my favorite because of how clearly and visually they present the information. I also enjoyed this one by Willy Weather because of its hover feature.

Another reason for this NH visit was to go whale watching. Apparently whales migrate right next to New Hampshire in August so I wanted to see them. I’ve only seen whales twice before in my life – Humpbacks once in Seattle and once in Provincetown, both many years ago.

I Learned Spanish!

My language learning continues to evolve and this month I added back in a key factor: intensive classes! My Mom and I were together for the first time since México, so we scheduled 1 hour of class a day online with a teacher from the awesome Spanish school we attended in Mérida!

Unsurprisingly, it kicked our ass a little 🙂 . What I found interesting was that homework and preparing for classes took more time than the actual class. It was a busy, but fulfilling week and I’m so happy we were able to meet with our teacher for private online lessons. The internet can be pretty great 🙂 .

As a result of the ease of scheduling online lessons, we’re going to do it again when I see my Mom in October. Instead of 1 hour every day we’re going to 2 hours, 3 days a week. I’m looking forward to the ass kicking 🙂 .

Reading

I changed my phone to Español! Some of y’all might have noticed that the screenshots I post on here lately have been in Spanish and that’s why 🙂 . Changing my phone also changed all my applications to Spanish and it was definitely a trial-by-fire situation.

Changing everything was unsurprisingly difficult, but I kept at it and have learned a lot of vocab! It was really helpful to see all those words every day even if it was difficult and (at times) a little nerve wracking. Since the beginning of the month, I’ve successfully ordered food delivery, got a library book and done everything else a phone is used for, in Spanish without any mistakes!

However, one mistake was made in a specific situation 🙂 . The situation was when I was using my phone for directions with someone else directing me. Oops! My phone was showing and saying directions in Spanish, which wasn’t very helpful for my navigator. We ended up going the wrong way and generally didn’t have a great time. So then I tried to change just that app to English, but I learned that Google Maps apparently reverts back to Spanish if I’m using it and someone opens another app that’s still in Spanish (such as Spotify) while they’re using the driving nav. Uh oh!

So for road trips, I changed my phone back to English for that time. I learned that while this is a great learning tool, roping other people into my forced learning isn’t a good plan 🙂 . Also in general, this kind of forced language learning can get in the way in high stress environments or when I need to use my phone to do something really quickly. Luckily, it’s easy on Android phones to switch the language back and forth and it doesn’t even require a restart, so I’m becoming a pro at switching back if someone is relying on me and my phone to work quickly 🙂 .

Anyway, when I’m at home, it obviously takes me longer to do anything (like texting my Mom in Spanish or posting something to the ‘gram), but I think it’s worth it to immerse myself in this language.

Writing

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve only texted my Mom in Spanish since I left México and now we only talk in Spanish during calls (unless we’re talking about travel logistics since we can’t have misunderstandings there) so like 99% of the time – we only communicate in Spanish! I was never able to do this in Italian or French so I think that says a lot about my Spanish skills.

I also tested out of 28 more lessons in Duolingo and passed checkpoint 7/10 for all of Duolingo Spanish. I also have a 80+ day streak on there where I just go through their Duolingo Stories. I find it much more helpful to see the context than just doing drills. Also interestingly, the instructions on Duolingo have changed from English to Spanish for me about 2/3 through their Spanish program. Cool!

One negative thing about Duolingo was that they tried to trick me into competing with my favorite language learners. When you join, it looks like there are 3 leagues that you can work hard to get to the top of, but it’s intentionally misleading. There are actually 10 leagues. Mentiroso! I got up to 6/10 (the Emerald league) and the BRIGHT RED “Demotion” section kept flashing at me and igniting my fear response.

For a few weeks it scared me into working on Duolingo for hours to get promoted and then to just not get demoted, but I wanted to break free from their game. So I stopped looking. I now go directly to the Duolingo Stories page online and don’t look. On the phone app it tells you at the end of each lesson – NOPE! I broke their hold over me 🙂 .

Speaking

As I mentioned, I speak with my Mom in Spanish during our weekly calls and I’ve been continuing my weekly calls with my friend in Argentina in Spanish. After protesting having to learn “vos” (which Argentina uses instead of “tú”) I finally taught myself and was surprised to find it’s shockingly easy 🙂 .

Listening

Listening has been going really well! I learned that completing a Duolingo Story unlocks “Conversation Mode” so you can just listen to one half of the stories – it doesn’t show you a typed out version of what they’re saying and you have to answer comprehension questions. It’s helpful since my main goal is listening and speaking (versus reading Spanish books for example). Interestingly, I have the same comprehension of a story whether it’s just listening or reading, which I’m happy about 🙂 .

I also accidentally had many instances of being surprised that I understood Spanish in passing this week. For example, I understand songs in Spanish about as much as I do songs in English (which is like 50% 🙂 ). My Spotify Release Radar has been including more Spanish songs, which I’ve been appreciating.

I also heard Spanish radio while playing Jurassic World Evolution (which I talk about below) and understood it (takes place in Costa Rica). I also watched a movie that took place in México and understood what people were saying! I even founds some errors, which I’ll talk about below as well.

I’ve also started watching Spanish movies/shows while playing The Sims, which is kind of perfect because I’m watching and listening enough to still write down new words and verbs, but also able to play a game and they’re not speaking English so it doesn’t mess me up 🙂 . Maybe I’m also learning Simish accidentally 😉 .

Watching

Here’s what I watched this week outside of Spanish FilmTube:

Films Watched En Español

  1. Aquaman
  2. Ocean’s 11 (La Gran Estafa aka The Big Scam)
  3. Bourne Identity (Identidad Desconocida aka Unknown Identity)
  4. Finding Nemo (Buscando A Nemo)

Shows Watched En Español

  1. Elementary (Elemental)
  2. Snapped (Crímenes de Pasión)
  3. Succession (Sucesión)
  4. Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Ley y Orden: Intento Criminal)

Succession in Spanish was interesting – I got bored with the story in episode 2 (let me know if I should power through because it gets amazing) and I stopped watching it. The episode was also understandably filled with workplace and company terms that I no longer need to know in English 😉 and DEFINITELY don’t need to know in Spanish.

Revelations

A relative said something in Spanish to me this month and I responded and then they continued in English and I felt something like shift in my brain – like a car turning over or something. It was strange and for the first time, I felt a physical reaction to the supposed change in my brain that’s happening according to the awesome book Fluent Forever.

Also strangely, learning Spanish seems to have improved languages I haven’t practiced in literal decades, such as French. I was watching The King with friends and noticed that I understood the French and that the subtitles are inaccurate. Maybe because romance languages are kinda similar, but I was shocked I could do that! I guess I’m unlocking my brain Arrival style 😉 !

I Bought A ‘New’ Laptop

My 2015 laptop that I bought refurbished from Apple in 2016, was starting to show its age in the amount of charge it could keep, so after doing a lot of research and realizing that replacing the battery might be more expensive than buying a new computer, I decided to upgrade.

Luckily, this turned out to be the perfect time to do so because my sister-in-law is heading to college in the fall and needed a reasonably priced laptop – she found my free one to be quite acceptable 🙂 .

Then I bought a refurbished M1 2020 Macbook Air from Apple once again for $850 or 15% savings while still getting the full 1-year warranty Apple offers for all their products. I’ve bought all my laptops refurbished from them for as long as I can remember (20 years?) and never had an issue. This came as a surprise to a few people online so I might write a whole post about it if that would be helpful.

Anyway, after I got the new laptop, I was SHOCKED with the changes that have happened in a few years. Check this out:

Not only was my new laptop a clone of my old one in a matter of minutes, but I no longer have to wait until I’m near a gaming PC to play my beloved Sims in Ultra HD!…which may be a problem for my (already small) productivity, but who gives a shit!! I’m so happy 🙂 .

I Played Sims & Jurassic World Evolution

Speaking of Sims, I have been playing a lot more now that I carry it with me wherever I go and it’s been awesome. I also started playing a game that a friend recommended that’s sadly only on PC: Jurassic World Evolution. The game is basically rollercoaster tycoon or Sims city, but with dinosaurs! I guess something good came out of those new horrible films 🙂 . The game was 75% off and I couldn’t resist.

I Hung Out With People

This month was unsurprisingly friend and family filled. As I mentioned, we were staying with my aunt which led to family dinners, movie nights and lots of tech support 🙂 . I also had my usual weekly activities of my friend calls and movie nights. In addition to all that, I got to see a friend I met through this blog: Darcy from We Want Guac 🙂 .

I also sadly had to turn down a few people who reached out to me through the blog to hang out. Thank you so much for reaching out! I really appreciate it. I just had too much going on to add those social interactions in this month, but I would love to see y’all, so below is where I’ll be for the foreseeable future.

August: New Hampshire
September: Maine, Connecticut
October: Maine, New Jersey, NYC
November: Buenos Aires, Argentina
December: Connecticut, Upstate New York

2023

January: Upstate NY, Boston, New Hampshire
February: New Hampshire
March: New Hampshire
April: Northern California

Feel free to leave a comment if you’ll be nearby and want to hang or send an email to purple [at] apurplelife.com. So far I’ve only done 1:1 coffee meet ups, but maybe if several people in an area reach out again, I’ll combine them into a group hangout. We shall see 🙂 .

Anyway, here are the things I watched with others this month:

Movies

  1. Prey
  2. Avatar 3D
  3. The King
  4. Orphan
  5. 47 Meters Down
  6. 47 Meters Down: Uncaged

Re-watches

  1. Dune

Shows

  1. Westworld (Season 4)

If you’re curious about my ratings of movies, I have a Letterboxd account here.

I Bought New Running Shoes

So as you know, I love walking. And it took me years and years to find walking shoes that I love. I’ve talked about them a few times here – they’re Privo’s, which are now made by Clarks. So when I started running and didn’t know if it would stick as a hobby, I began running in those shoes.

However, since it’s been a year I can confirm this is a legit hobby and my family was correctly pushing me to get actual running shoes. So I reached out to y’all to see what I should get:

And then I did research to see what stores could properly analyze my feet and had good reviews and return/exchange policies. I was so happy to easily find one:

So now I’m rocking my new $140 shoes, which is the most I’ve ever spent on a pair before (I thought my $70 Privo’s were fancy 😉 ). I’ve run in them and walked in them many times and I’m very happy with them. Now I’m wondering if I even need my walking shoes anymore or if I’ll get rid of them to lighten my nomad load. We shall see!

I Read 7 Books

This month I read:

  1. Book Lovers by Emily Henry
  2. Beach Read by Emily Henry
  3. People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry
  4. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
  5. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
  6. Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
  7. Network Effect by Martha Wells

This month I really dove into two authors. Emily Henry’s various novels, two of which I loved (Book Lovers and Beach Read) and one of which I sadly didn’t enjoy (People We Meet On Vacation). I then read the rest of the sensational Murderbot Series by Martha Wells.

It was first recommended to me by my friend Mel at Modest Millionaires and I’m so happy I finally made the time to read those since I quickly became obsessed and had to read them all 🙂 . 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. The Month of Washington State: July 2022 Recap
  2. Purple’s Partner Spills All!: Answering Your Questions & Concerns
  3. From Insomnia To Sleeping Like A Baby: How I Improved My Sleep In Early Retirement
  4. How My Definition Of ‘Optimal’ Has Changed In Retirement
  5. Celebrating 1 Year Of Running: My Progress and Revelations

Outside of that, I learned that I’m a Finalist for the Blog Of The Year Plutus Award. WOW!!! I didn’t even mention that the awards were going on here so it was a wonderful surprise to see that y’all nominated and voted for me – Thank you so much!

I was also interviewed for an article in Next Advisor in partnership with Time. Check that out here: ‘Lean FIRE’ Can Help Middle-Class Americans Become Financially Free

I also accidentally recorded a podcast 🙂 . I thought it was a media interview for the above article, but turned out to also a podcast recording of my responses. I didn’t know this would happen so I didn’t have my mic set up. As a result, if the audio is bad, I won’t be sharing when it’s out, but if the audio is surprisingly ok from just my headphones, I’ll share it here.

I was also featured in another magazine article in Shoutout Arizona, which you can check out here: Meet A Purple Life l Blogger & Early Retiree. This happened after I pointed out to the reporter that I have nothing to do with Arizona, but they still wanted me, so here we are 🙂 .

In addition, I was so happy to finally get my hands on the amazing new book Cashing Out: Win The Wealth Game By Walking Away by rich & Regular. Not only was it a great read, but I was starstruck for the first time in a long time because I’m IN a book. Say WHAAAAT?!?!?

On a different note, I said “no” to a few things this month. Some I was happy to say no to, such as being asked to promote a finance app and financial services since I don’t see the point of paying for something you can easily DIY.

I was sad to say no to a few other things, such as the people that have reached out to me lately for meet ups in Seattle and New Hampshire. It sounds weird to write since I was in those places for at least a month each, but I didn’t have the time. However, as I mentioned, I’m going to try to build time in for that going forward because I do love to meet y’all in person 🙂 .

Physical

Sleep

Sleep this month has been lovely though my timetable has shifted a bit. Since we’re on the coast, I love to have the sun rising over the ocean awaken me in the morning, which happens around 5:30/6am. As a result, I am tired soon after the sun sets around 8pm and often go to bed around 9:30 or 10pm. I’ve also been taking afternoon siestas when I have the time. This beach life agrees with me 🙂 .

Food

My eating is still on track. I’m still:

  • Eating keto
  • Calorie counting
  • Hitting my protein goals to not lose muscle
  • Intermittent fasting 16:8

As a result, I’ve lost 14lbs in the last few months. Not bad at all 🙂 . I’m planning to keep this up so I can eat everything in sight when I go to Argentina in a few months. It’s nice to have a goal 🙂 .

Exercise

Running has been going wildly well! I’ve also been walking more, which has been lovely.

I definitely feel like I’m helping to accomplish my goal of being more one with nature through this hobby. Out of necessity, I now know the weather forecast like the back of my hand, such as if it’s going to rain or when the humidity will peak throughout the day.

Another unexpected result of running has been that I sit up straight now. My Mom mentioned it in passing the other day and I was surprised to realize that she was right. I unintentionally sit up straight now, which was a goal I had and routinely failed to succeed with. I now do it automatically and without effort, which is awesome!  I assume it’s related to the ab muscles I’m making while running? No idea.

I also learned about Bone Conductor Open Ear Headphones from y’all in my Insta DMs – thank you so much for that! I’ve been doing research on them and want to try them on for fit if I can before pressing the buy button. That should solve all of my concerns about hearing music while also listening for cars and other things while running alone. I was so shocked and happy to see such a thing exists, we really do live in the future huh 😉 ?

Mental

Learning

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

New Hampshire

Every time I’m driving in a new state ask myself “Can I turn right on red?” and I realized that’s because I started my adult life in NYC where that isn’t permitted, but actually in all other locations, (unless there’s signage to the contrary) it’s fine!

For example from Wikipedia: “All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico have allowed right turns on red since 1980, except where prohibited by a sign or where right turns are controlled by dedicated traffic lights. (The last state with a right-on-red ban, Massachusetts, ended its ban on January 1, 1980.) The few exceptions include New York City, where right turns on red are prohibited, unless a sign indicates otherwise.”

Last year when I was in New Hampshire, I mentioned that they take their state motto of “Live Free or Die” very seriously and don’t require anyone to wear seatbelts. Well, there’s been an update to that: New Hampshire law requires that any child under the age of eighteen riding as a passenger in a motor vehicle be secured by either a seat belt or a child safety seat and that any child under the age of seven be secured by an approved child restraint (RSA 265:107-a).” Alrighty then 🙂 .

Astronomy

Since I changed my phone to Spanish, my Star Walk 2 app is obviously in Spanish as well so I’ve been  learning the Spanish names for constellations and stars 🙂 . Outside of my phone, I’ve been loving being on the coast because I enjoy watching the sunrise rise over the ocean (when awake that early 🙂 ) and the sunset on the other side of the house. There are less trees since it’s the coast so I can see more, which I love. The sunset colors seemed to be different every day.

I also FREAKED OUT while watching the Perseides Meteor Shower from the beach because the Full Moon rose BRIGHT FUCKING RED out of the sea. It was one of the wildest things I’ve ever seen and of course I couldn’t properly catch it on camera. It didn’t even look real. I’m debating getting an attachable camera lens for my phone or something because I want to step up my phone photography game (and don’t feel like lugging a real DSL around 🙂 ).

Anyway, the meteor shower was also a success! I saw several shooting stars including one HUGE one that was trailing multiple colors – it was a lovely night 🙂 . If you’re interested, I use this awesome Time And Date site to track meteor shower conditions in my area.

Flora

Plants this month consisted of a Chokecherry I saw and LOTS of Poison Ivy. I’ve learned too much about poison ivy 🙂 , such as:

  • There are male and female plants
  • The Female plant has red berries that birds like and where they poop it out creates a new poison ivy plant
  • There is a poison ivy “season” from April – Sept when it’s in full “bloom,” but it can still hurt you at any time – lovely 🙂
  • This plant grows roots down and sideways so if you’ve just got it at the root, you haven’t actually gotten it – sneaky!
  • There are poison ivy removal specialists that you can hire 🙂

Fauna

This month was filled with some awesome animals! I went Whale Watching and saw a few things, such as this terrifying Sunfish:

Photograph credit: Mike Johnson

Apparently Ocean sunfish are the largest bony fishes in the world and they can weigh up to 2,205 pounds (1,000 kilograms) and be more than 8 feet (2.5 meters) in length. People often think they’re sharks because of their fin, but they’re not.

On this whale watching trip, we also saw a group of Atlantic White-Sided Dolphins, a Minke Whale and Fin Whales. Fin Whales are apparently the second largest whale species and grow up to 85 feet (26 meters) long and 160,000 pounds!! These whales are baleen whales, which is similar to the Spanish word for whale: Balleña!

During this trip, I learned that human breath capacity is WAAAY lower than whales. For example, humans absorb 5% of the oxygen we breathe in a single breath while whales absorb 90%-95% of the oxygen in each breath. This is what allows the giants we saw to stay underwater for up to 45 minutes even though they’re air breathing mammals. Other whales can hold their breath for up to 222 minutes or almost 4 hours. Interestingly, whales have to think to breathe. It’s not involuntary like with humans so if they pass out they’ll drown – oh no!

On a lighter note, I also saw all kinds of animals at an Aquarium in Connecticut that we took my baby cousin to, such as the local Cownose Ray, Harbor Seals, Moon Jellies, Sand Tiger Shark and Striped Skunk. We also saw the less local Blue and Gold Macaw, Cuvier’s Dwarf Caiman, Geoffroy’s Tamarin, Leopard Tortoise, and Meerkats.

In my regular life, I also saw a Cabbage Butterfly and a few Eastern Cottontail Rabbits.

Birds

So I was in this same area of New Hampshire last year and saw a variety of wonderful birds, but this year it was basically ALL sparrows. I’m not sure what’s happening, but they’ve taken over. There were dozens of sparrows in my lawn when I woke up to go on my morning run and dozens more that would take flight as I ran past them.

As a result, I learned more about sparrows. For example, that they’re an exception when naming flocks of birds. From the Spruce: “Any large group of birds, no matter how many different species make up the group, can be called a flock if only a general flock term is used.

The more unique, specialized terms, however, are only used for single-species flocks. The exception is when all the species that make up the flock are still in the same related family. A flock of sparrows, for example, can still be called a knot, flutter, host, quarrel, or crew even if several sparrow species are part of the group. ”

From this same site, I learned WHY a group of crows is called a murder. I previously assumed it was just because it sounds badass 🙂 : “A flock of crows is known as a murder, a name given to these smart, social creatures because they were once thought of as omens of death, scavenging for food where there were dead bodies.”

That’s enough fun facts. Here are the birds I saw this month:

New York

Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch,

New Hampshire

House Finch, Song Sparrow, House Sparrow, Pine Warbler, Double-crested Cormorant, Spotted Sandpiper, Herring Gull, Least Tern, Semipalmated Plover, Northern Mockingbird

Massachusetts

Black-capped Chickadee, Carolina Wren, Blue Jay, Sharp-shinned Hawk

Connecticut

Gray Catbird, House Sparrow, Carolina Wren, Great Egret

Look at this cute Spotted Sandpiper!

Random

Here are some random things I learned this month:

There are many names that were once 100% male, but are now mainly female, such as:

  • Beverly
  • Hilary
  • Lesley
  • Leigh
  • Meredith
  • Shelly

Also the fact that Pakistan is apparently an acronym: “The name of the country was coined in 1933 by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, a Pakistan Movement activist, who published it in a pamphlet Now or Never, using it as an acronym (“thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKISTAN”)[35] to refer to the names of the five northern regions of the British Raj: Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan.”

  • Cough drops are called that because candy makers drop them to create the singular pieces
  • Red cabbage turns water blue because of a chemical reaction
  • Random wild things are hexagons, such as carbon (which is the foundation or life) and a honeycomb
  • I watched a silly film called 47 Meters Down and it stated a lot of facts that I was curious to know if they’re true. Unsurprisingly, they’re mostly not 🙂 , but I did learn a few things. For example:
    • Nitrogen narcosis: “Deep-sea divers use oxygen tanks to help them breath underwater. These tanks usually contain a mix of oxygen, nitrogen, and other gasses. Once divers swim deeper than about 100 feet, the increased pressure can alter these gasses. When inhaled, the altered gasses can produce unusual symptoms that often make a person appear to be drunk.
    • Sharks can hear your heartbeat….up to 328 ft. (100 m) away. Well, fuck 🙂 . Source
    • “Great whites typically attack from below, delivering a massive catastrophic bite. In some cases they will withdraw while their prey bleeds to death before returning to eat.” Source

Creativity

I had my first creativity slump in a while this month. I think it was a result of posting about so many exciting things in Seattle. I posted on Insta way more than usual and I think it understandably sapped my energy from other places. I started worrying about what I wanted to write on the blog for the rest of the year, which is usually not an issue for me.

However, I sat down to try and address that feeling and realized I was feeling strange because I didn’t have a plan. I love plans 🙂 . And usually by this time in the year, I have a vague idea of what I want to say by the end of it. After that sit down, I realized that I still had too much to say (my preferred side of that coin) and I now have a vague idea of what that will be through 2022.

After I did that, the words started flowing again and instead of starting to write a post that’s published that Tuesday, I now have pieces of drafts for the next month, which is more my speed 🙂 . Overall, I’m glad that a rest helped to reset me and I’m going to be more careful going forward with my creative outputs so I don’t get tapped out again.

Emotional

My emotions have been really good this month. I think being by the sea, running and seeing loved ones agrees with me 🙂 . I haven’t had any depressive episodes and only a few flares of warranted anxiety, which I count as a win. While I do love adventure, it seems like my emotions are often improved when I’m surrounded by my found family – who would have thought 😉 ?

Money

Finances shockingly continue to be a non-issue. I didn’t even think about them before buying my new laptop for almost a thousand dollars (1/20 of my annual budget) or buying myself fancy running shoes the other day. I checked my budget at the halfway point of the year to see how I was tracking, and it looks like I won’t wildly exceed my spending goal even if I keep up this blasé approach I’ve adopted in retirement. So I’m going to keep doing it 🙂 .

Cash cushion wise, I still have about a year and a half in cash and net worth wise, the market seems to have decided not to go into a bear market for some reason:

In summary, life is good and I’m going to keep living it 🙂 .

Conclusion

And that’s what I got up to in August! It was a nice introduction back to the northeast after our time abroad and in the west for the first part of the year. Next up I’m hopping around the northeast (specifically CT, ME and NJ) before I finally go to Argentina in November! Until next time 🙂 .

If you’re interested in the other weekly and monthly retirement updates I’ve written, they’re all here:

Weekly (2020)

  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 (2021)

  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

Monthly (2022)

  1. The Month Of Freezing My Balls Off: January 2022 Recap
  2. The Month Of Thailand: February 2022 Recap
  3. The Month Of Spring(?): March 2022 Recap
  4. The Month Of México: April 2022 Recap
  5. The Month of Mérida: May 2022 Recap
  6. The Month of Seattle: June 2022 Recap
  7. The Month of Washington State: July 2022 Recap

How was your month?

32 thoughts on “The Month Of New Hampshire: August 2022 Recap”

  1. One more great month, one more more inspirational for me.
    It brings me more motivation when I see how many things you did in your last 30 days.
    Can you provide, please, the link to your podcast? There are so little women voices in FIRE movement – let’s promote it more.

    P.S. The Time.com article I found it very well done – detailed, rich in formula and solutions, practical examples, several numbers. You collaborated with a great writer.

    Reply

    1. Thank you!! I’m so glad it was helpful 🙂 . I checked and that podcast wasn’t published yet, but I’ve been on a bunch of them – just search “A Purple Life” on your podcast app or go to my Press page in the top navigation – I have a sampling there. And yeah the Time article was nice and the writer was lovely to work with.

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  3. Didn’t you vow to avoid winter weather? Maybe being with your people makes it worth while. I guess you’ll update us in Jan/Feb and we’ll see!

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    1. I have made many vows – that I eventually break 🙂 . That’s why I try to never say never – it always comes back to bite me! After leaning towards really hot (110F 100% humidity) places and having trouble running in them I’m going to try some cooler ones – and if we don’t like it I’m prepared to call it quits and move south in a heartbeat lol.

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  4. Your adventures in learning Spanish have helped reassure me that I can indeed become fluent in Dutch (and Italian, and French) and have also given me an excellent road map to follow. Once again, you’re positively changing lives just by posting about your day! 🙂

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    1. YOU CAN DO IT!!! I’m so happy my ramblings are a roadmap of some kind that you can decipher haha. And that is so kind – thank you friend 🙂 .

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  5. Love these recaps! I learned two new things from this post – why a group of crows is called a murder and that Pakistan is an acronym.

    I’m in NYC, and I’d be interested in meeting up in October if it fits into your schedule! I’m FIREd too, so I can be flexible.

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    1. I’m SO glad you enjoy them 🙂 . And right?!? It’s wild that after all these years on this Earth I still learn new things every few days. And good to know! I’ll add you to my list and end out a message if I have time for a meet up. It might be tough since it’ll be the dead of winter (since parks are out of the question haha), but I’ll keep it in mind.

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    1. That sounds wild to read, but comparing all this to what I did in a year while working – I think you’re correct 🙂 .

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  7. Look forward to reading your updates each week.
    Your learning of Spanish is so impressive!
    I am curious why you have chosen Upstate New York for the winter knowing how cold it can be there?

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    1. Thank you so much! That warms my heart to hear 🙂 . And thanks so much – the Spanish is hard, but rewarding. Someone else asked something similar and for Upstate NY specifically it’s because it’s Christmas and we usually spend that visiting family who live up there 🙂 .

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  8. Fantastic write-up! Unlocking one of the romance languages gets you solid intros into the others, in your case, French, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, and Romanian. If you’re ever in Brazil or the relevant countries in Europe, it’ll be interesting to see what’s the same and what’s different!

    Translated subtitles can be a tricky beast. Firstly, sometimes slang or a language-specific phrase or idiom doesn’t have a ready equivalent in another, so the translation won’t be exactly accurate. Secondly, (and this comes from a friend of mine currently doing a course in film translation) subtitles can only be so many words because, of course, people can only read so fast at any given moment. I think she was told that subtitles can only show like ten words at time, or something, so translations sometimes have to be condensed right down. Meaning, yes, sometimes they’re not accurate.

    Well, there’s reduced accuracy compared to what’s being said, and flat out wrong because the translation went through an automated program instead of a person, so mileage may vary!

    Turning right on red: this isn’t a thing at all in Europe, so imagine my shock and horror the first time a friend drove me around in the USA XD I asked her why the hell she was going through a red light and she looked at me like I was the crazy one haha.

    It’s funny how certain male/female associations change with culture. Evelyn is another one: I see it as female name but it’s also used for men (see: author Evelyn Waugh). Also the pink/blue colours. Used to be the other way around, pink for boys and blue for girls.

    Super jealous of you seeing that moon and the meteor shower! Incredible! Night photography is notoriously difficult to get right. Every amazing night scene I’ve tried to capture was a total failure.

    Congrats on making finalist! Fantastic! Good luck!

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    1. Thank you! And yeah I was surprised with how it unlocks some of my past French and Italian learning. And oooh now I want to learn Romanian 🙂 . I already get really confused with Portuguese because it sounds like Spanish, but…not. Difficult to explain, but I thought I had somehow stopped being able to understand Spanish, but it was a video in Portuguese instead lol. Anyway, I will also be interested to see what’s the same and what’s different.

      This is SO interesting! So I totally understood that the English -> Spanish translation couldn’t be exact for idioms and other types of reasons, but I never considered that subtitles need to be specifically short so people can read them (I’m facepalming myself now because OF COURSE) and that being a reason they would deviate from what’s being said in a dub. Also your friend is doing a course in film translation?? That’s so cool! May I ask where? I’d like to look into something similar for myself. Also are all subtitles auto-translations or do you mean something like YouTube where it says robo vs a feature film? I assumed feature film subtitles were written by humans, but I could totally be wrong.

      OMG that WILD about turning right on red. My Mom and I were laughing so hard while imaging that interaction. I had no idea that isn’t a thing in Europe and can imagine that would be such a stressful situation to see someone do in the US.

      And thank you for letting me know about Evelyn! I learned the pink/blue thing a while back, but don’t remember if I put it in one of these posts. I should check.

      I continue to be with you on night photography – I’m going to keep leaving it to the pros 😉 . And thank you so much!!

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      1. My friend is Japanese and doing an online course through a university in Japan. She can also speak French and English (she’s pretty amazing!) hence the interest in translation. She said it’s expensive and there are three levels to go through. The course is specifically translation for film, and yes, feature films do require a human touch. I know I’ve downloaded bootleg foreign films with very dubious subtitles, so I’m not sure subtitles are ALWAYS handled by humans, but official subtitles for global distribution are done by humans! I know there are automated translation tools for video (Youtube uses one) but sometimes they’re not very good 🙂

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  9. I hope you do a review on the ear conduction headphones. I’m interested too but so far I’m too cheap to pull the purchase lever!

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    1. I’ll add it to my list if I buy them! I really want to see if I can try some on before choosing which type, but I’m not sure that’s feasible (understandably) in the current health situation 🙂 .

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  10. These are my favorite posts (across all internet). It’s amazing your progress in Spanish and how much fun stuff you can do in a month. So impressive and interesting.

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    1. You are TOO kind 🙂 . I’m blushing right now. Thank you SO much!!! I’m glad you’re seeing progress because I was just (stupidly) beating myself up for being behind. I need to focus on all the progress I have made, not where I think I should be 🙂 .

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      1. It’s always hard to see your own progress. It’s much easier for people on the outside looking in. Very inspiring post and I love the language updates/movie updates/other fun.

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  11. Awesome for you committing to Spanish like that. Changing your phone is a great idea to force yourself to learn–I ought to try that if I ever muster up the courage and energy to learn another language. Looked like another great month!

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    1. I believe in you 🙂 . I say try it one afternoon if you’re not going anywhere. It’s super interesting. And thank you!

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  12. We LOVE the Norwalk aquarium, such a cool place with tons of things to do for all ages.

    If you set a meetup in the Hudson Valley/Westchester/Danbury area, I would love to meet you! I can even bring chicken or duck eggs with me to sweeten the deal 🙂

    Love these updates. Even though we are just starting to push hard on our FI goals, it is great to see what young retired life could look like. Can’t wait to get there ourselves!

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    1. That’s awesome! And good to know – I’m going to be back in the area in December if you want to grab coffee (weather permitting 🙂 ) . Let me know! And I’m so glad you’re enjoying these updates. You’ve got this!

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  13. If you haven’t already, watch La Casa de Papel in the original Spanish. It was a Spanish series that was dubbed into English as Money Heist and it was fantastic in English, but I bet it was even better in Spanish. Enjoy!

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  14. So why the northeast in winter?

    The nh fun fact helped with a trivia question this week!!

    I like when you include how much things cost like lodging and food expenses, especially in the US because you provide lots of good ideas of places for me to visit/live next ( cough, cough seattle and portland). I actually think i might take myself to dinner at laredo grill before i leave seattle ☺️

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    1. Because I want to try colder weather after I leaned towards hot weather recently – it’s an experiment. And oh wow that’s so cool about trivia! And great to know those are helpful – I only write those when I’m in 1 location for a month or more so I have a good sample of how much it costs to live there, but you’ve made me start thinking about sharing all that for shorter timeframes. And YES to Laredos!!!

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