The Month Of Settling Down(ish): May 2025 Recap

Yes – “Settling Down-ish” 😉 . I won’t keep you in suspense. Let’s see what wild things I got up to this month!

I Got A Homebase!

As I explained two weeks ago, it finally happened. Almost exactly 5 years after getting rid of our Seattle apartment and becoming full-time nomads, my Partner and I signed a lease for an apartment in Upstate NY in the town he grew up in.

• I Got A Homebase! (But Will Still Travel 1/3 Of The Year)

I went into all the details in that post, but in case you missed it – the short version is that the FOMO I mentioned in my monthly recaps earlier this year caught up to me. My Partner’s family all moved back within a 15 minute radius of each other last year and we were seeing them all hanging out and having a great time in our group chat while we were traveling the world.

And every time we returned, one of our niblings had reached a new milestone because kids grow up fast. So we have a homebase now, but we’re still planning to travel 1/3-1/2 of the year. Snowbirding here we come!

I Furnished Our Home

…or I started to 😉 . I didn’t have a lot of time before I took off traveling again, but I got the place liveable in a week, which I’m really impressed by! I thought it would take way longer, but I suspect me not having a job and making this my full-time ‘job’ helped a lot.

I might also write a whole post about how I furnished the place with less than $2,000. If that sounds like something you would want to read about, feel free to let me know in the comments.

It was a bit wild to try to remember all the little things that it takes to run a home so I could buy them. Our Airbnbs are so well stocked that I forgot all that went into it.

I haven’t had to acquire stuff for an apartment since 2011 when I graduated college, but the acquisition process this time was also a stark contrast to 2011 Purple who had only a few thousand dollars to her name.

Now in 2025, furnishing a home involved me buying things that I liked without worrying about prices. If only 21 year old Purple could see me now 😉 .

I Bought A Car!

I wasn’t planning to do this so soon, but a great deal popped up so I took it 🙂 . This was after doing more than 100 hours of research on used cars in the area and calling dealerships to assess if I wanted to work with them and how this entire process would work since at the time I was still a Washington State resident.

In the end, I didn’t need to work with a dealership at all. My Partner’s Mom’s friend mentioned that she was about to try and sell her car and it was the type I wanted for a good price so I raised my hand as tribute 😉 .

So we bought a 2016 Honda CR-V EX with less than 90K miles on it for $13,000. It works great and has all-wheel drive, heated seats and a moonroof – fancyyy!

After buying the car, the experiences of getting insurance, registration, and an inspection were of course sagas so I’m going to write a whole post about that in case it can help others avoid my frustrations🤣.

In the meantime, I’ve read the whole owner’s manual so I know this car inside and out. Now I’m doing a lot of research on how to do standard repairs myself. Maybe I’m entering my Mechanic Era 😉 .

I Upgraded My Luggage

After 5 years of using a $21 40L Foldable Backpack and free Vanguard Tote, I’m upgrading my travel luggage. Why? Several not fun reasons 🙂 – basically: Old age, injuries and jealously🤣.

This year the issues with my knee/hip/back from a running overuse injury I got last year continues. Going to 8 sessions of PT and continuing to do those exercises is helping a lot, but when looking at my luggage, I suspect that putting my Vanguard tote on one shoulder didn’t help this problem 🙂 .

• My Packing List As A 5 Year, Full-Time Nomad

I explained how I carry everything when I travel to my PT and they also suggested I change up my luggage. Health comes first so I started looking for another solution.

And one presented itself 🙂 . The jealousy portion is from my Partner getting a TravelPro Platinum Elite 29″ Spinner a few years ago after seeing the NYTimes say it was the best luggage option. And that seemed true based on my experience because I was always happy to help him with this bag in airports because the wheels feel like they’re floating on air.

My Partner travels with 1 checked bag (the TravelPro one) and 1 carry on rolly bag, which is much smaller, and I find it easier to roll the much larger TravelPro suitcase despite its additional weight. Interesting 🙂 .

So I dove in and did a ton of research. And it turns out that the reason the wheels on his suitcase work so smoothly is because of their “PrecisionGlide^® System” that does a lot of things you probably don’t care about 🙂 , but the gist is that TravelPro has done specific things to the wheels on this luggage to make it roll like a dream. And this system is not available on their less expensive rolly luggage.

So I knew what I wanted: The TravelPro Platinum Elite 21″ Spinner, but I also wanted to replace my Vanguard tote. So I went down another rabbit hole to see which backpack has all of the pockets I need and has a strap to attach to my new rolly bag. And then I found it 🙂 : The TravelPro Platinum Elite Backpack had everything I wanted and was being offered in a set with the rolly I wanted for a discounted price. Perfect!

I think these items will also help with my fast travel that’s coming up because unpacking and repacking a 40L backpack daily isn’t the easiest thing to do like I did in Iceland or will during our UK trip that’s coming up. This new rolly and backpack offer an easier approach since it’s quicker to open and riffle through without having to repack everything.

Now the questions of the hour: is this lifestyle inflation? Yep 🙂 . And is it built into my retirement plan? Absolutely!

• Why I’m Comfortable Retiring With $500,000

I’ll post a full review of these items and if I think they’re worth the cost after I’ve tested them out for 6 months at least. So stay tuned for that if it’s of interest.

I Learned Cheesemaking

I once again need to eat my hat 🙂 . My Partner goes down a lot of YouTube rabbit holes and one that I saw him going down a few months ago was cheesemaking. I made fun of him because the YouTuber he was watching calls his followers “Curd Nerds”….well now, I am a Curd Nerd 🙂 .

My SIL has a farm and currently has too much milk so she’s been looking for ways to use it before it spoils and she wanted to try cheesemaking and I jumped at the chance to learn with her!

We made “Chèvre” with cow’s milk, which is apparently called “Bovre” since Chèvre is the French word for goat because that cheese is made from goat milk. And…it was surprisingly easy and the outcome was DELICIOUS!!!

The entire process took more patience than I was anticipating (as someone who knew nothing of cheesemaking before this moment), but it was so cool to see that we could create something so delicious with so little expertise. I’m excited to try more – we’re planning to tackle Cheddar next!

I Learned About Gardening

In the same vein of me getting curious about random homestead stuff, my SIL and MIL started their gardens this month and I asked to tag along and learn all I could!

We went to a local farm that sells vegetable and herb plants. And my first lesson in gardening was: buying baby plants can be expensive 🙂 . It makes sense, but I’d never thought about it before. I also started learning about which plants like to live near each other and which quickly take over everything in sight: I’m looking at you mint, chives and horseradish! There’s still a wild amount to learn, but I think I’m on my way!

I Did My Nails

My Dashing Diva obsession continues 🙂 . I ‘accidentally’ made another big order and next month I’ll be trying out their Glaze line that requires a small UV light. I’m curious how that will work 🙂 .

• Review: Dashing Diva Gloss Nail Stickers – A Nomad Beauty Revelation

Also I Googled around for a random discount and saved $10 on my $80 order. Nice! I need to remember to always do that.

I Knitted

I’m still knitting that giant scarf that I started in New Zealand! I also started a Knitting Club of my family members, which was amazing. We’re going to rotate whose place we go to each week (my new apartment kicked off the tradition!) and help each other get better at this hobby. I have a lot to learn and I’m excited to do it with them. Also hopefully I’ll finally finish this scraf next month that I started in February!

I Played Video Games

I know I said I spent a surprising amount on Sims 4 expansion packs last year, but…the trend continues 🙂 .

• How I Lived On $21,499 As A Global Nomad In 2024

The Dream Home Decorator Game Pack was 30% off so I snapped it up out of curiosity.  Unfortunately I was soon bored with this new pack and my interior design business quickly, ‘accidentally’ became a criminal enterprise. I guess that’s what happens when I’m bored 🙂 .

I’ve mentioned the first game in this series, Cities Skylines, on here a lot and I was SO excited for its sequel, Cities Skylines II.

• The Best Video Games I Played In 2024

When the $50 game came out it was to resounding reviews that it was almost too buggy to play, so I bided my time for them to fix those bugs and hopefully have a sale. And it finally happened!

I had a Steam alert set up and was alerted that Cities Skylines II was 20% off and my GameTubers said it wasn’t as buggy as when it launched so I finally bought the game. And I’m very sad to say that so far it’s…meh.

The graphics in the game aren’t that much better than the original (but was a huge marketing point), the leveling up process makes way less sense, and the mechanics of how to operate the world are worse in my opinion. And while it’s awesome that they have a grid creation option for roads and seem to have included a lot of items like natural disasters that are a separate DLC in the original game, overall I’m underwhelmed and pretty sad about it 🙂 . I’ll keep playing in case it gets better, but right now…yeah 🙁 .

I Hung Out With People

This month involved some of my usual virtual meetups, such as that weekly call with my Mom and Weekly Movie Nights where we watched the below. If you’re curious about my ratings of movies, I have a Letterboxd account here.

1. Sinners
2. Spy X Family
3. Speak No Evil (2024)
4. Last Breath
5. Alien: Romulus
6. The Spy Who Dumped Me
7. Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer
8. Mickey 17

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In addition to all that, my social life has never been more active 🙂 . I’ve been going over to my MIL’s house every morning for coffee time with the family and I also organized that Knitting Club I mentioned above, went to the movies at the theater, went to a May Day Festival in Vermont, had a Post-Memorial Day Parade BBQ and also popped over to the houses of family and friends countless times over the month.

So I’ve had a lot of wonderful times with loved ones, but my introvert light is sending out a warning 🙂 . I’ll work on that in a bit, but overall I’m just happy that my FOMO is fixed and I had an absolutely wonderful time this month surrounded by people I love.

I Read 15 Books

Here were my favorite reads this month:

1. Not The End Of The World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie
2. The Simple Path To Wealth (2025) by JL Collins
3. When The Tides Held The Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley

To see the other books I read this month and my ratings of them, I have a Goodreads account here.

I Wrote 4 Posts

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

1. The Month Of Seattle: April 2025 Recap
2. My Packing List As A 5 Year, Full-Time Nomad
3. I Got A Homebase! (But Will Still Travel 1/3 Of The Year)
4. Travel Delays In Retirement: Surprisingly, Not A Big Deal

In addition to writing those, I pre-ordered the new, revised and expanded 2025 edition of my favorite investing book: JL Collins’ The Simple Path To Wealth. Hilariously a few days later, I got an email from his publisher asking if I wanted a free copy. That’s never happened before without someone asking me to also review the book on my blog, which I don’t do because it seems like a conflict of interest.

But another copy of a book I already bought with my own money that I can gift to someone else? Sure! However, I didn’t hear back from them after my reply so assumed it wasn’t happening, but then a book showed up a few days before the release date. Fun!

And since I pre-ordered the book I got to attend a zoom call where JL Collins was interviewed by James Clear of Atomic Habits, which was very interesting.

Physical

Sleep

I was pretty sleepy this month and I couldn’t figure out why. Then my Mom very helpfully pointed something out. She mentioned that in the first week of May I:

1. Signed a lease for an apartment
2. Furnished an apartment
3. Bought a car
4. Went to the DMV to register the car
5. Got my car inspected
6. Changed my residency
7. ⁠Maintained my blog

When that’s all listed out – fair enough 🙂 . I’m allowed to be tired. I’ve been working on getting our home all done for the rest of the month before heading to Peru and have been taking abundant naps and sleeping in when possible. But yeah – now I understand why I’m tired 🙂 .

I also have been getting used to the noises in our new place. The actual apartment is shockingly quiet, but it does have a lot of windows and is in nature so with the sun rising at 5am, I’ve been waking up to an abundance of sun in my eyes and birdsong in my ears.

I know I can close more of my blinds, but I do like some light and being able to see the night sky when I’m falling asleep. So my eyemask has been getting a workout. I’ve also been popping in one earplug in the morning so I can sleep later than the birds want me to. I assume I’ll soon tune out that early morning birdsong the same way my brain doesn’t even register city sounds now, but until then I’m loving my earplugs for small ears 😉 .

Food

I ate some great things this month 🙂 , but I did have to change my keto approach. Originally when I came up with a chart of the days I would take off keto, they only revolved around our international travels, but as my post a few weeks ago explained – we have a homebase now and a whole state to explore!

So I’m changing my plans and letting go of my original goal of keto days because I value exploring our home state more 🙂 . This month I ate keto 65% of the time and took 11 days off keto – and I have no regrets.

Exercise

My working out this month revolved around keeping up my physical therapy to be fully prepared for climbing mountains in Machu Picchu and I’m doing really well! I’ve done at least 6 PT exercises almost every day and also have been walking on the beautiful forest paths around town and between loved ones houses (I love that I can walk there 🙂 ).

I also did try running again for the first time since starting PT last month when they told me to stop. My physical therapist told me to take it slow distance-wise and stop if running started to hurt, so I went out on a super slow run and accidentally ran 2.65 miles…because it never hurt 🙂 . So that was a pleasant surprise, but I didn’t mean to run that far and have been sticking to long walks instead so I don’t aggravate my injury before Peru next month.

Overall I’m feeling a lot better thanks to PT (though paying the medical bill didn’t feel the best 😉 ) and am glad I went so that my overuse injury didn’t get worse. The only downside of exercise this month has been me having to add “tick checks” to my to-do list after going outside. Ticks are wild in NY State.

Mental

Learning

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

Astronomy

This month was the Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower, but once again when I tried to see it – it was cloudy 🙂 . Sadness, but I did enjoy seeing the full moon this month and lots of stars that can be seen in rural New York! Nature is beautiful out here.

It’s really cool that I can see stars from our new apartment. I’m not used to that since I’ve only lived in cities in my adult life and I’m almost always downtown in Airbnbs when I was a full-time nomad so stars were usually covered by light pollution. It’s nice to see more of the night sky again.

Birds

Walking through rolling hills and forests to get to know my new home state has stepped up my birding game! Here are the birds I saw this month:

Wood Duck, Boblink, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Carolina Wren, American Goldfinch, Northern Cardinal, Ovenbird, Veery, Song Sparrow, Tufted Titmouse, American Robin, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern House Wren, Chimney Swift, House Sparrow, Black-Capped Chickadee, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, Eastern Bluebird, Brown-Headed Cowbird, American Crow, Blue Jay, Wood Thrush, White-Breasted Nuthatch, Louisiana Waterthrush, Gray Catbird, Northern Flicker, Red-Eyed Vireo, Red-Winged Blackbird, Yellow Warbler, Warbling Vireo, Savannah Sparrow, Barn Swallow, Common Yellowthroat, Least Flycatcher, Eastern Towhee, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Chestnut-Sided Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, Eastern Phoebe, Killdeer

Flora

I’ve also been enjoying all the beautiful blooms in NY State during the spring, such as:

Japanese Flowering Crabapple, Confederate Violet (interesting name), Grape Hyacinth, Eastern Cottonwood Tree

Creativity

My creativity has been flowing pretty well given all that’s been going on. I’ve kept on top of my posting schedule and am getting a little ahead of it since my upcoming Peru trip is approaching. I’m still way behind on posting my pictures on Insta and I’m going to try and focus on that next month so my posts catch up to where I am in the world.

Emotional

My emotions were great this month! The only bad thing that happened was that I got stung by a wasp and that hurt pretty bad for about a week, but I’m all better now. Despite the huge changes, curveballs and unexpected challenges that happened this month, I remained very happy and in a bit of disbelief about how my life changed so quickly and ahead of schedule.

My suspicion that being closer to family was what my heart needed has already proven to be correct. My days are filled with laughter and love and they also unfortunately fly by because there’s always something happening with a nibling or another family member.

It’s a faster pace than I’m used to with my slow travels and hilariously, it seems like our upcoming travels are when I’ll be able to slow down and relax more. I’m sure part of that feeling is how much setting up a life, apartment and car in a new state takes to do, but I suspect not all of it. So upcoming travels are looking pretty relaxing and then I get to come back ‘home’ – that’s weird to say after all these years 🙂 .

Money

I don’t think I’ve ever spent this much money before in one month 🙂 . But unlike when I would be paying a lot of money to move into another apartment in NYC for example, I didn’t feel that panic of “can I afford this?!?” I just noted that my expenses spiked this month for good reason and knew I had enough money to cover it all. It’s a wild feeling 🙂 .

Anyway, here’s where my net worth netted out despite all my large purchases:

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Also this month my Mom’s Vanguard financial advisor shared this video and chart with her that I thought might be nice to share here. When my Mom sent it to me she said “I think it’s a great animation showing all of the crises over the years and the impact on the stock market – it keeps going up overall despite the turmoil just like what you’ve always said”. Nice!

And this is a chart of market returns and all the crises that happened in those decades:

Conclusion

And that’s what I got up to in May. It’s been an absolutely wild month that has once again reiterated that I can make all the plans I want, but sometimes everything is ahead of schedule and too good to pass up.

I have no regrets, but it’s weird to say goodbye to an era: my time as a full-time nomad is done for now. I’m curious if I’ll get back to it after our lease is up or sink into the easier life of having a homebase while traveling. We shall see!

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
8. The Month Of New Hampshire: August 2022 Recap
9. The Month Of Maine: September 2022 Recap
10. The Month Of Acadia: October 2022 Recap
11. The Month Of Argentina: November 2022 Recap
12. The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2022 Recap

Monthly (2023)

1. The Month Of Snow: January 2023
2. The Month Of New Hampshire: February 2023
3. The Month Of Sea: March 2023
4. The Month Of California: April 2023
5. The Month Of Seattle: May 2023
6. The Month Of Chicago: June 2023
7. The Month Of Montréal: July 2023
8. The Month Of Troy, NY: August 2023
9. The Month Of Australia: September 2023
10. The Month Of New Zealand: October 2023
11. The Month Of Puerto Vallarta: November 2023
12. The Month Of Warmth: December 2023

Monthly (2024)

1. The Month Of Family: January 2024 Recap
2. The Month Of Costa Rica: February 2024 Recap
3. The Month Of San José: March 2024 Recap
4. The Month Of The Solar Eclipse: April 2024 Recap
5. The Month Of Arizona: May 2024 Recap
6. The Month Of Upstate NY: June 2024 Recap
7. The Month Of Montréal: July 2024 Recap
8. The Month Of Canada: August 2024 Recap
9. The Month Of Iceland: September 2024 Recap
10. The Month Of Switzerland & Italy: October 2024 Recap
11. The Month Of Amsterdam: November 2024 Recap
12. The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2024 Recap

Monthly (2025)

1. The Month Of Yuki Matsuri: January 2025 Recap
2. The Month Of Auckland: February 2025 Recap
3. The Month Of Sakura: March 2025 Recap
4. The Month Of Seattle: April 2025 Recap

What’s a fun fact you learned this month?