I was conditioned from a young age to defer to authority. “Don’t talk back” and “Because I said so” were common phrases uttered by parents in my house. You did what you were told or suffered consequences.
In high school, I was once again taught to listen to my authority figures without question. “No, deadlines are not negotiable”. “Yes you have to learn X despite it having no practical application to your life.” Continue reading “How Pursuing FIRE Has Changed How I Act At Work”
This Thursday is Thanksgiving: a holiday filled with too much food, too much alcohol and if you’re lucky, not a lot of drama. I unfortunately am not one of the lucky ones. Growing up, Thanksgiving (and all holidays where family was involved) instilled a sense of dread in me. We would have hoards of people descend on our house not just on the day, but often for the entire week. Continue reading “How To Cut Out Net Negative Experiences And Live Your Best Life”
I feel like people are always calling me a weirdo for some aspect of my life. I’ve started to wear the label with pride. One part of my life that seems to be met with the most shock and horror lately is that I walk my groceries home. This might be surprising to friends because we live halfway up a 400 foot hill. There is a grocery store at the bottom of our hill and at the top. Either way, you’re climbing a hill in one direction, often with pounds and pounds of groceries on your back. When someone asks where my car is and I tell them I’m carfree for life usually the first question is: “But how do you get groceries?!” Continue reading “Why I Enjoy Walking My Groceries Home”
I have a confession to make: I didn’t come to all these wonderful conclusions about how to retire at 30 all by myself. In fact, there were years where I completely resisted the idea. My partner actually convinced me to try FIRE and I’m here to share all the gory details. Continue reading “How My Partner Convinced Me To Retire Early”
The responses to my last post helped drive home the point that everyone’s retirement and pre-retirement is unique. Both should be tailored to what you crave in life and what brings you the most joy. Recently a friend asked me what my perfect day looked like. After I finished answering her, I realized that I had also described what I imagined a day in early retirement would be like. I’ve written down my retirement plans for a regular day and they were identical. Nothing fancy, just simple pleasures, adventure and lots of love. Here’s what I said to her: Continue reading “How I Imagine A Day In Early Retirement”
When someone learns that I want to retire early I get a variety of reactions. The most common one is actually indifference 🙂 , which works for me. The second most common reaction involves asking why I’m waiting for a far off goal instead of pursuing other options to change my life NOW. This came up a lot at the beginning of my journey when retirement was 10 years away. My friends and family seemed confused as to why I would reach for something so far in the future instead of changing my work to be closer to what I want immediately. Totally fair critique! Let’s explore my reasoning. Continue reading “Why I Pursue FIRE Instead Of Other Options”
It finally happened – 7 years out of college and I am finally getting my first 401k match! I’ve dreamed of this moment for so long (yes, I have weird dreams – deal with it). While working at all of my previous jobs, I never qualified for the 401(k) match (if they even had one). If they did have one, you were not eligible for it until you had been there 4 or so years, which is basically unheard of in ad agencies. Well played HR. Well played. Continue reading “My First 401(k) Match, An Updated Salary and Inching Closer to Early Retirement”
For the first 5 years of my career – with 5 different companies – I never received a performance review. Not once. Not even after asking and hounding my manager for months. I hounded him because I was told performance reviews were how your manager evaluated you to give you raises and promotions, but as I soon learned, in my industry that’s not exactly the case. Continue reading “Are Performance Reviews Useless?”