Category: Early Retirement

How My Mom Retired At 55

by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement, Guest Posts

Today I’m happy to introduce the first guest post on this site with a very special guest: My Mom! As I’ve mentioned a few times on the blog, she was my main inspiration in starting my journey to financial independence. She actually retired the same month I started writing this blog. Hopefully her story can help inspire others and show that it’s never too late to begin your journey. She didn’t start investing in stocks until she was 40 and still retired at 55 with 3 kids and 2 paid off houses. If she can still retire early basically anyone can. Let’s see what she has to say. Continue reading “How My Mom Retired At 55” →

Another Retirement Prequel

by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement, Jobs, Musings, Travel

Our living room view in Ecuador

My trip to Ecuador allowed me to explore more of my possible early retired life and try to discover who Retired Me might be. There are a few goals I have for retirement that I tried to accomplish during this trip, such as:

  1. Go to sleep soon after sunset and rise with the sun
  2. Watch the sunrise and sunset as much as possible

Continue reading “Another Retirement Prequel” →

Half A Million Together and Keeping Finances Separate

by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement, Finance, Net Worth Update, Relationships, Spending

We finally did it! After saving intentionally for almost 4 years we reached a new milestone: my partner and I have amassed half a million dollars together. I can hardly believe it. This is a special number for me because it’s the amount I need to retire. Now I know what you’re thinking: Why doesn’t he just give you his portion so you can retire now? I’ve wondered the same thing! 🙂 Continue reading “Half A Million Together and Keeping Finances Separate” →

Planning to Pull the Early Retirement Trigger

by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement

There’s a fork in the road – It’s decision time.

I am a serious candidate for One More Year Syndrome. I know this. Major life changes are scary and my dislike of unknowns and my discomfort with change just adds to that. When I moved across the country to a city I’d only visited once without an apartment, job or friends (except 1 who lived relatively far away) I was terrified. The night before I told my boss, who at the time had given me the best job I’d ever had, I actually (TMI WARNING) threw up I was so scared. But I did it – I told her and I knew I had to because we had a locked-in end date: The end of our lease. NYC apartments don’t usually allow month-to-month leases so we were either renewing and staying another year or leaving before August 1. I had a set end date. Continue reading “Planning to Pull the Early Retirement Trigger” →

Bringing Retirement Into Now: A Visit From Mom

by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement, Musings

One of the things I’m trying to work on is not putting things off for retirement. If there’s something that I want in retirement – I ask “Is there a way to bring it more into my daily life now?” My main driver for retirement is to spend A LOT MORE time with the people I love. And not just more time, but less distracted, more focused and less tired time. Continue reading “Bringing Retirement Into Now: A Visit From Mom” →

What Do You Want To Do When You Grow Up?

by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement, Musings

My Mom recently told me a story about myself that I completely don’t remember, but SPOILER ALERT: I’ve always been this way y’all. Apparently my dreams of retirement were not born out of frustration after job hopping once a year and finding more ways that traditional work is incompatible with the life I want to lead. Here’s the proof. This is an interaction between 10 year old me and my uncle: Continue reading “What Do You Want To Do When You Grow Up?” →

Time Distortion

by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement, Musings

2 years, 4 months until I retire. That timeframe at once sounds short because I began this journey thinking this goal was 10 years away. And it is at once long: multiple years – almost two and a half more years of this. This stress, this tiredness, this sense of ineffective wastefulness. I know I have the cushiest job situation I’ve ever had, but 2.4 years still feels like a long time. However, looking back at what I was doing 2.4 years ago I remember it vividly like it was not that long ago.

Time is strange. My partner asked what my current timing is and his response to “2 years, 4 months” was “WOW that’s soon!” I found this interesting since I had the opposite reaction. “Goodness that’s far away.” I guess that’s the weirdness of time distortion. Let’s see how it feels when I get there.