The Month I Became A Millionaire: October 2025 Recap

I’m writing this while looking out at the sun rising over the Rocky Mountains. Adorable birds are chirping and I’m curious what wildlife we’ll spot today (recent favorites included hawks, turkeys and deer).

Colorado has been an interesting first stop after being overseas for months. And it’s been a busy month so let’s get into it!

I Went To Colorado For The First Time!

I’ve somehow never been to this state before. I have no idea how that happened since I’ve been to most US states, but I kept barely missing it. 

A lot of people have told me Colorado is wonderful so I was excited to go, but all of that praise might have worked against my thoughts on the state and gotten my expectations too high unfortunately. 

Colorado has beautiful nature, but the dry air and I did not get along – at all 🙂 . Which was very unfortunate since going outside is kind of required for you know, being in nature. 

I have eczema and grew up in Georgia, which often has 100% humidity so my skin apparently had no idea how to handle the mile high altitude of Denver combined with the already dry air. It led to a very physically uncomfortable 5 weeks in the state unfortunately. 

However, I did hang out with some amazing people, eat some delicious food, have a few great beers and see some beautiful things in Colorado. I’ll focus on the positive 😉 . 

I Celebrated 5 Years Of Retirement!

Time continues to fly and I’ve entered my 6th year of retirement! To celebrate I recapped the last year from an overall perspective and based on where I’ve spent my time. Here are posts with all those details:

• 5 Years Of Early Retirement: Finances, What’s Changed And What’s Next?
• Here’s What Retirees Do All Day! (I Recorded What I Did Every Hour For 5 Years Of Retirement)

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I Became A Millionaire!!!

5 years and a little less than a month after I retired with $500,000 invested, I became a millionaire. I wasn’t expecting this at all because it’s way ahead of schedule and in my heart I’m a pessimist, but it happened 🙂 . 

To celebrate, my Partner and I did the same thing we did when I hit my FIRE number: we high-fived across the room and then went about our day 😉 .

• $500,000 at 30: I Hit My FIRE Number!

However, a little later we took a walk through the fall leaves that looked like they were on fire because of the setting sun, picked up some Chinese takeout and mailed my ballot for the November General Election. It was a lovely celebration for a fun milestone. 

Emotions wise I once again was surprised with how excited I got about numbers ticking over to a slightly larger number. I was warned by previous FIRE bloggers that they didn’t feel any different when reaching new net worth milestones, but I guess I continue to be an anomaly because I did 🙂 . 

It was really exciting and my heart was racing a little to reach this arbitrary number. I never could have imagined this happening when I was struggling to pay my rent while also feeding myself my first year working in NYC.

• $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 1 “Is This Adulting?”

I’m really excited that I hit this milestone even if it’s short-lived because the market is fickle 😉 . We shall see. 

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I Knitted & Went To A Wool Festival!

I continued my knitting obsession this month 🙂 . My Partner even said he thought this is the hobby I’ve spent the most time on lately. 

I responded that I think I still spend more time reading, but that’s a fair comment. I’ve been knitting like a fiend because I love it so much – and how relaxing and challenging it can be. 

Ombre Hat(s)

This month specifically I made my first (and second) hat! It took a video call to my SIL to help me figure out the free pattern since it assumes you know how to make a hat, which I obviously didn’t. But I had fun and I think it turned out well!

After I finished the hat for myself on the right, my Partner said he wanted one too, so I made him a larger, matching one with opposite colors. 

A Second Headband

I also made a second Icelandic headband for my Mom in red. And she kindly let me borrow it to wear while attending my first wool festival!

Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival

I took advantage of being an Upstate NY resident and having a car, and road tripped to the Rhinebeck Wool Festival! It was interesting to see so many fellow knitters and to buy gorgeous hand-dyed yarn from its artists. 

I also saw more types of sheep than I knew existed. They were wildly cute. The festival in general was more crowded than I prefer my activities, but it was fun to check out. 

A “Knives Out” Future

And finally, I began to climb what might be my Everest: knitting a sweater inspired by Ransom’s in Knives Out. I made my gauge swatches and have ordered some cable needles and will dive in when they arrive. 

Also just a heads up that I have a profile on Ravelry in case you want to be knitting friends.

I Did My Nails

Speaking of another relatively new hobby, I was all about Halloween themed nail stickers this month! I’m not sure why, but one of my retirement hobbies is becoming themed nails. I find it so festive and fun 🙂 . 

This month I celebrated Halloween with these beauties from Dashing Diva: 

• Just My Blood Type
• Somebody’s Watching Me
• Deja Boo

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And that last one “Just My Blood Type” was actually a cured, gel nail sticker, which was a new experience for me since I’ve only used Dashing Diva’s Gloss nail sticker line previously. 

I Tried Gel Nail Stickers

So I tried the Glaze collection for the first time. Unlike my usual nail stickers (from Dashing Diva’s Gloss collection), these Glaze stickers require a mini UV light that’s actually small enough for me to travel with. However, the Glaze nails are also more expensive ($15 to Gloss’s $8). 

I’m currently still assessing these nails and will likely write a whole post with my thoughts and tips, but my first impression is not a great one 🙂 . While it’s nice that they’re thicker than Gloss so they don’t show imperfections in the nail, the Glaze stickers look more fake than Gloss – perhaps because they’re thicker.

It looks like something is sitting on my nail instead of actually a part of it like nail polish or Gloss nail stickers. The nails also look a bit bumpy, which lends to the thought that something is on my nail. However, I might have found a solution for this that I’ll test with my next set of Glaze nails.

(Spoiler: It’s pushing down the sticker immediately before curing, which would mean doing one finger at a time, which would make the curing process take 7.5 minutes total instead of 90 seconds, which wouldn’t be ideal.)

And worse, these Glaze stickers are slightly raised from the nail after the UV curing so they catch on things, like my hair when I’m trying to put it in a bun, which I find really annoying. Gloss stickers are flush to the nail so I’ve never had this problem with them. 

And then on Day 4 the worst thing happened – one of my Glaze nails just fell off, which has NEVER happened with my Gloss stickers. In fact, I think my record for wearing them is 5 weeks and none have ever fallen off. 

I redid that nail and then 4 days later it popped off again. Literally, WTF? The fact that they come off so easily makes me not want to use them for a trip for example.

However, one positive was that these were really easy to get off with my cuticle oil and wooden cuticle stick method that I’ve mentioned before and use with Gloss. I only had to let the cuticle oil sit for about a minute and almost all of the nails came off immediately. A few took another coat of oil, but this was a way faster process than with Gloss nails, which take me 30-60 minutes to remove gently with the same method.

Anyway, as a result of all of the above, I’m not sure Glaze is for me. The Glaze nail stickers also don’t give me the feeling of fanciness I’m used to from the Gloss nail stickers. I’m going to try a few more pairs to see if my increased proficiency helps with the above issues, but if not – I’m out 🙂 .

I Did Car Maintenance

As I’ve mentioned before, I currently know very little about cars. 

• I Bought A Car! What I Learned As A First-Time Car Buyer

However, I am trying to learn since I now own one. While my Partner and I were away for 3 months, I lent our car to his family who were very kind and able to use it about every 1-2 weeks to make sure it stays happy.

The night I arrived back it had been a long travel day and I saw a light on in the car. My tiredness made me think it was the “check engine” light, which is very serious, but later when I had time to sleep and think, I realized it had actually been the “low tire pressure” light, which I know a little about!

I then did some googling and learned that people can fill up the air in their tires for free at a lot of gas stations, including Stewart’s! I love Stewart’s for a lot of reasons, such as focusing on employee profit-sharing, having fresh dairy from local farms (including yummy ice cream), serving fresh food and providing good customer service. 

But first my Mom suggested that I check if there’s a nail in my tire to make sure that wasn’t the problem. So my Partner checked for exactly that as I drove super slowly around a parking lot. No nail!

Then I went to Stewart’s and I was excited to see a “Free Air” pump with instructions of how to use it that were super easy. From my research I knew that I should check my car door or manual for my car’s ideal tire pressure and then test my tires and fill them until I reached that level. 

My car door said my tires want to be at 33 psi. So on the Free Air Pump I set it to 33. It then started blowing air so I removed the cap on my tire and attached the air pump. It filled the tire and it beeped when it reached 33 psi.

I then put the cap back on and repeated this for all of my tires. I then reset the tire pressure monitor light in my Honda CR-V by holding a button with the same icon down until it blinked. And then the tire pressure light went off – success! I’m basically Rosie the Riveter 😉 !

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.

Films

1. Black Bag
2. The Accountant
3. The Accountant²
4. Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
5. Knives Out
6. The Woman in Cabin 10
7. Bedazzled
8. Alien: Covenant
9. The Core
10. KPop Demon Hunters

I also continued my annual tradition of rewatching all of the Brooklyn 99 Halloween Heist episodes near Halloween and enjoyed the new season of High Potential. 

TV Shows

1. Brooklyn 99 (Halloween Heist Episodes)
2. High Potential (S2)
3. High Potential (S1)
4. Taskmaster (S15)
5. Homestead Rescue (S13)
6. Alex VS America (S5)

I also had some fun experiences with friends and family, which included:

• Daily Morning Coffee Time with my MIL and SILs
• Weekly Family Dinner
• Being a Bingo Caller while my Mom virtually babysat my 5 year old second cousin
• Celebrating my Nibling’s Birthday with a bonfire
• Visiting a Pumpkin Patch
• Taking fall walks through gorgeous local parks
• A Halloween Party
• Going Trick-Or-Treating with my Niblings

I Read 5 Books

Here were my favorite reads this month:

1. Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America by Bridget Read 
2. Flip by Ngozi Ukazu
3. Flagrant Foul by Jesse H. Reign 

To see the other books I read this month and my ratings of them, I have a Goodreads account here. I completed less books than usual this month, but I think that’s because I unfortunately DNFed a lot of books. I DNFed 15 books this month, some of which I read to 75% or 50% completion. 

However, I’ve been intentionally combating my need for “completionism” when I told myself a few years ago that I can’t properly say a book wasn’t great or not for me unless I finished it. I decided that was kind of a silly stance for me and have since been DNFing like a motherfucker. 

And when I do that a lot in a month, my completed book numbers are obviously lower since I spent a lot of time reading books I didn’t finish or rate on Goodreads. I don’t think any month has seen more DNFs than this one, which makes me a little sad. However, I’m trying to focus on the positives since there are a lot of books I’m excited to read before 2025 ends!

I Wrote 4 Posts

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

1. The Month Of Iceland: September 2025 Recap
2. 5 Years Of Early Retirement: Finances, What’s Changed And What’s Next?
3. Longterm Travel With A Homebase Feels Worse Than Being A Full-Time Nomad
4. Here’s What Retirees Do All Day! (I Recorded What I Did Every Hour For 5 Years Of Retirement)

I also met up with 4 bloggers and 3 readers while in Denver and attended a potluck at MMM HQ in Longmont.

And this month in the realm of “weird opportunities I declined” we have:

• A business partnership with Snapchat…is that app still around (#ImOld)
• A travel deal website that I’ve never used
• A company that wants me to turn my Instagram into a private, paid community. (Lol – no thx)
• A company that automatically adds links to money making travel activities into all my posts (Yikes)

Physical

Sleep

My sleep this month was good, which I was surprised by and happy about. My Partner had some trouble sleeping as we went into the mountains of Colorado because of the increased elevation, but I didn’t feel any of that surprisingly. 

I had a few naps this month, which were lovely and was generally able to fall asleep quickly and stay asleep. Wins all around!

Food

I ate some delicious food this month, but surprisingly didn’t have to stop eating keto very long to do so. I ate keto 77% of the time and took 7 days off keto. 

And my days off were filled with some amazing In-N-Out Burgers, delicious Ice Cream Pie and yummy frozen meals from Amy’s Kitchen along with some delicious local beers. I’m surprised with how much I was able to pack into a few days off keto and happy with the result. 

Exercise

My physical activity this month was once again all about my yoga, pilates and physical therapy regime that has been making me feel a lot better overall. I’ve also been walking more, which I love.

However, I had forgotten that that kind of physical activity during the winter, which is drier, requires pre-moisturizing. Ugh – can my body stop being high maintenance, please 🙂 ?

Mental

Learning

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

Colorado

• Colorado is the US state with the highest elevation and the only state that is entirely above 1,000 meters (3,280 ft) elevation. Also mountains with an elevation over 14,000 feet are apparently called “fourteeners” and Colorado has 58 of them, which is the most of any state
• Colorado is apparently 1 of 3 US states that has its boundaries defined by latitudes and longitudes (the other two states are Utah and Wyoming)
• The Grand Mesa in western Colorado is the largest flat-topped mountain in the world with an area of 500 miles
• Colorado’s Mount Evans Scenic Byway is the highest paved road in North America, reaching 14,130 feet in elevation
• Colorado’s southwest border is the only place in the US where 4 states meet – the other states are Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico and apparently you can stand in all 4 states simultaneously at that location

Denver

• As I implied above, Denver is also called the “Mile High City” because it sits at an elevation of exactly 1 mile or 5,280 feet above sea level
• The Denver Airport is the largest airport in the United States by total land area (33,531 acres). It also has the longest commercial runway in the United States

Astronomy

My celestial explorations this month were pretty good in Denver and wonderful once we went outside of it. The full moon and bright stars were visible in Denver and I even saw a sliver of a smiling moon next to a winking Venus while I was falling asleep. It’s nice that the city doesn’t have too much light pollution so that I was able to see some stars and planets. 

When we were outside the city I tried to see the Draconid Meteor Shower, but there was only a tiny window between sundown and full moon rise when I could see it and sadly I did not. I guess it’s good I have unlimited time to watch the next one 😉 .

Fauna

I wasn’t expecting to be one with nature when we explored less populated places in Colorado, but that’s exactly what happened. During our time outside of Denver, our house was visited by a family of deer and a gaggle of turkeys. It was wild 🙂 . 

Birds

I had a fantastic time birding this month. I saw some birds while in the city of Denver, but understandably many more outside of it. Here are the birds I saw in Colorado: 

Denver

Broad-Tailed Hummingbird, House Finch, Cooper’s Hawk, Black-Capped Chickadee, Bushtit

Colorado Springs

Pygmy Nuthatch, House Finch, Chipping Sparrow, Blue Jay, Mountain Chickadee, Stellar’s Jay, Blue Jay, Black Phoebe, Western Bluebird, Spotted Towhee, Pine Siskin, Northern Flicker, Red-Winged Blackbird , Black-Billed Magpie , Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay, Red-Tailed Hawk, Belted Kingfisher

Random

• My Partner showed me this video and it blew my mind: 

Creativity

My creativity this month was pretty good! I wanted to write so I wrote a lot 🙂 . However, I am very behind on posting my adventures to Instagram, which for some reason I decided I want to be current by the end of the year. 

So I’m trying to meet that made up deadline while also taking the many breaks I do from social media to make sure I still enjoy it and am not sucked into its vortex. So stay tuned to see what the fuck that looks like 🙂 . 

Emotional

Emotionally this month was wonderful. Maybe it’s my old age of 36 😉 , but I have noticed a pattern that my emotions are even better and my heart feels more full while I’m around “my people” which happened a lot this month when my Mom joined my Partner and I in Colorado and when I returned home to New York and saw my Partner’s family daily. 

I often told my Partner “I’m so fucking happy it’s ridiculous!!!” just because I spent the morning chilling with my SILs, going to a pumpkin patch and staring at the Knives Out style wonder of fall in the Northeast. It’s gorgeous, especially when it’s sunny and I’m so happy that it’s a little gross 😉 , but I like that. 

Money

Money continues to be a vague concept 🙂 . I know that I’m way over my original 2025 budget because of the car I bought and the apartment I rented and then furnished, but I can’t seem to make myself….care. Literally who am I?

• From Frugal To Fuck It: The Evolution Of My Thoughts On Spending Money

But I guess that’s fair enough when despite spending hundreds of dollars on local yarn for my new knitting hobby, or on my Dashing Diva nail sticker obsession, I still don’t seem to be spending a ridiculous amount of money. On the core costs I anticipated for the year, I’m still on track so I’m just going to keep on doing whatever the fuck I want and see what happens 😉 .

For the record, here’s where I left off at the end of this month net worth wise after hitting millionaire status a few days earlier in October:

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Conclusion

And that’s what I got up to in October! For the rest of the year I’m planning to enjoy that homebase we’re paying for and enjoy all the holidays I’ve missed with my Partner’s family for the last few years, such as Trick-Or-Treating at Halloween, having a Thanksgiving surrounded by family and a Christmas lit up with love. 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
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
5. The Month Of Settling Down(ish): May 2025 Recap
6. The Month Of Machu Picchu: June 2025 Recap
7. The Month Of The UK: July 2025 Recap
8. The Month Of Bath: August 2025 Recap
9. The Month Of Iceland: September 2025 Recap