Category: Musings

The Year Of Settling Down(ish): 2025 Goals & Accomplishments

by A Purple Life, posted in Annual Accomplishments, Blogging, Early Retirement, Film, Finance, Fitness, Food, Hobbies, Keto, Musings, Relationships, Travel

Throughout the year, I like to jot down new things I’ve learned, read, watched and experienced to try and remember what each year entailed. I then summarize all of that in my annual goals and accomplishments posts.

The goal of these posts is not just to curate what I’ve been up to, but also to document how I’ve changed from one year to the next and how I’ve grown as a person. I also like to give each year a theme in retrospect.

I wasn’t sure what this year’s theme would be but upon reflection, it became clear 🙂 . I’ve decided that 2025 has been The Year Of Settling Down(ish). 

Continue reading “The Year Of Settling Down(ish): 2025 Goals & Accomplishments” →

Am I Burned Out From Travel Planning?

by A Purple Life, posted in Musings, Travel

Something weird happened the other day that I want to talk about. As you probably know, from mid-2020 to mid-2025 I was a full-time traveler. 

I didn’t have a homebase and moved across the US and the world every month. It was a lovely lifestyle that I really enjoyed because I was able to both settle into a location, and feel like a local with “my” coffee shop where people know me and my local chippy or grocery store. 

Continue reading “Am I Burned Out From Travel Planning?” →

Longterm Travel With A Homebase Feels Worse Than Being A Full-Time Nomad

by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement, Musings, Settling Down, Travel

My Partner and I have been on the road for about 3 months now. We left our new homebase in Upstate NY and headed off to England, Scotland and Iceland and are currently in Colorado. 

This is our first time traveling longterm since getting that homebase and I’ve been having some thoughts and feelings that I wanted to work out. So I wrote this post 🙂 . Continue reading “Longterm Travel With A Homebase Feels Worse Than Being A Full-Time Nomad” →

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

by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement, Finance, Musings, Settling Down, Spending, Travel

So remember when I wrote a post 7 years ago saying I was going to be carfree for life? Well this is a great example of why I usually try to “never say never.”

I never would have imagined that I would want to move close to my Partner’s family and as a result live in a rural town in Upstate NY, which unfortunately has no public transit and requires having a car. So here we are 🙂 . Continue reading “I Bought A Car! What I Learned As A First-Time Car Buyer” →

Travel Delays In Retirement: Surprisingly, Not A Big Deal

by A Purple Life, posted in Musings, Travel

Travel delays are never fun but recently, I was reflecting on why I went from someone who was almost furious when delays happened to now being a chill little cucumber. And I think it all stems from retirement and my new freedom of time and money. So let’s get into it and see why travel delays suck a lot less in retirement.

Continue reading “Travel Delays In Retirement: Surprisingly, Not A Big Deal” →

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

by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement, Finance, Musings, Relationships, Settling Down, Spending, Travel

Well, it finally happened. But like a lot of things in life, how it happened was a complete surprise. Of all the reasons I suspected that I would settle down again, such as getting tired of traveling or wanting to create ‘roots’, FOMO was no where on that list🤣. But let me explain. Continue reading “I Got A Homebase! (But Will Still Travel 1/3 Of The Year)” →

10 Years Into My FIRE Journey: From $53K To $912K

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

January 2025 marks 10 years into my FIRE journey and also 10 years of writing this blog to document said journey. It’s absolutely wild how much can change in a decade so I wanted to take the time to reflect on the last 10 years and what happened. Continue reading “10 Years Into My FIRE Journey: From $53K To $912K” →

The Year Of Fitness: 2024 Goals & Accomplishments

by A Purple Life, posted in Annual Accomplishments, Blogging, Film, Finance, Fitness, Food, Hobbies, Keto, Musings, Relationships, Travel

Throughout the year, I like to jot down new things I’ve learned, read, watched and experienced to try and remember what each year entailed. I then summarize all of that in my annual goals and accomplishments posts.

The goal of these posts is not just to curate what I’ve been up to, but also to document how I’ve changed from one year to the next and how I’ve grown as a person. I also like to give each year a theme in retrospect. I’ve decided that 2024 has been The Year Of Fitness. Let’s jump into why 🙂 . Continue reading “The Year Of Fitness: 2024 Goals & Accomplishments” →