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Category: Early Retirement Updates

Early Retirement Week 1: The Freak Out

October 13, 2020November 6, 2021 by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement, Early Retirement Updates, Fitness, Food, Hobbies, Keto, Musings, Relationships

Here is a sampling of the thoughts that have been swirling around my head the past week: Continue reading “Early Retirement Week 1: The Freak Out” →

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About A Purple Life

Hi! In 2015 I started this blog and hatched a plan to retire in 10 years at 35. With the help of decreased spending, increased wages, and geoarbitrage I reached my goal in half the time and retired in 2020 at age 30. This blog catalogs my journey to and through early retirement.

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This is @PanaderiaGala and it’s a speakeasy bakery This is @PanaderiaGala and it’s a speakeasy bakery🥐! I didn’t know such a thing existed, but it does in México City🇲🇽. Outside there’s a door with a tiny bakery sign and a bell you need to press.

When you’re buzzed inside you walk to the back of the building and it expands into the actual bakery - you can watch everything being made while sitting at a tiny 8 top table next to a coffee bar and a wall full of pastries available for purchase.

We got the Concha Rosa (for Valentine’s Day💕), a Croissant con Almendras (which has a delicious custard that’s not too sweet on the inside) and a Pistachio Spiral (that I sadly forgot the Spanish name of) along with coffees. 

The service was lovely, the food was delicious, the coffee was yummy and the environment was completely unique. I’m so happy we visited this wonderful secret place and I’m excited to return🥰!
March Net Worth Update📊: The market went down 5% t March Net Worth Update📊: The market went down 5% this month and is down 4% YTD📈 .

Meanwhile I’ve been settling back into my homebase in Upstate NY. I thought I would return to a beautiful Spring🌸, but nope: here’s some Snow 🙂❄️. Oops. 

Regardless, it’s been great to get back into my homebase routines of seeing my loved ones every day, walking around our rural town and learning how to adult in ways I apparently didn’t learn while galavanting around the world. 

Next month my travels start up again so it was nice to have a little respite in our small town. Until next time 💜!
Today is another beautiful Dividend Day🤑. I was re Today is another beautiful Dividend Day🤑. I was recovering in bed from a cold that my niblings gave to me when I saw that a chunk of change had dropped into my account through no direct work of mine😎. It’s always a wild feeling🥰.

My Q1 2026 dividends are 2% higher than they were in 2025 and 115% higher than in 2020 (the year I retired😉). And here are the answers to questions I get every quarter:

📈 What am I invested in? 100% VTSAX (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund)

📊 Is this number all of my dividends? Yes - it includes my taxable and tax-advantaged accounts, which are split about 50/50 in my investments. The taxable half is what is deposited into my checking account every quarter.

💰 Do I live off my dividends? Not completely - I do live off my taxable dividends and I withdraw from my investments. I wrote a step-by-step blog post about the process of withdrawing money from my taxable account called “How I Sell Investments To Fund My Retirement” if that’s helpful.
This is how much I spent living for one month in M This is how much I spent living for one month in México City🇲🇽, which I’ve been told is the New York City of México price-wise. And that seems to be the case compared to the rest of México for things like housing, but everything else was wildly affordable. After this trip I became fully onboard with my new Snowbird status and my Partner even suggested we spend part of every winter in CDMX. We shall see😉.
This was my first time knitting something as small This was my first time knitting something as small as a thumb🧶🤪🧤. These are fingerless mittens that I knit based on the free pattern “My Cup of Tea Mitts” by @Isabelle.Handmade.Stories. I knit these with hand-dyed “Love Letter” yarn from @AChickThatKnitz that I bought at the Rhinebeck Wool Festival🐏.

I tried knitting with Double-Pointed Needles (DPNs) for the first time on this project and sadly I didn’t enjoy it so I bought the super flexible @OfficialChiaogoo Red Twist cables and have been happily using Magic Loop ever since. The world is now my knitting oyster😍!
February Net Worth Update📊: The market went down 0 February Net Worth Update📊: The market went down 0.6% this month and is up 0.8% YTD📈 .

Meanwhile I was exploring México City🇲🇽 with my Partner. We were there for over a month and I still didn't get to see every neighborhood in that giant city. It’s beautifully green, perfectly sunny and filled to the brim with delicious and affordable food. We’ll be back soon💜.
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