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:
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”
Short answer: No 🙂 . End of post.
Just kidding…I’ll explain. A few years ago I was laying on the deserted beach in Vietnam. The wind was blowing through my hair, the waves were crashing, the sun was slowly rising in the sky and I was thinking about…Emails. Yep. Emails. Specifically client emails: Continue reading “Do Vacations Rejuvenate You?”
It’s time to bring out my planning materials! *rubs hands together maniacally*
A reader requested that I post about my early retirement strategy. Thanks for the suggestion Palmetto Millennial!
First I’m going to set the stage. Continue reading “My Early Retirement Strategy”
So I was born and raised in Atlanta. Something that might surprise people is that Atlanta has horrendous traffic. We’ve been on the top 10 list of most congested cities since I was born and while I was growing up we were right behind New York and LA. We had the third worst traffic in the US. Continue reading “Carfree For Life”
I love reframing how I view the world. A tax reform bill passed near the end of last year so taxes have been in the public eye for a bit now. Though I don’t agree with exactly how my tax dollars are spent I do not mind paying taxes. Every time I’m on a public road or see one of our public transit lines expand I think about how my money helped build that for myself and the community. This feeling is heightened when I learned that a 4 lane highway costs over $1 million PER MILE to build. Wowza. That’s a lot of cheddar. Continue reading “I Pay More In Taxes Than I Spend Annually”
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”
I want to make sure I remember the feeling of a weekend during my working career. I’m sitting here at 8:30pm on a Friday, waiting for someone that owes me a deliverable to email me back. Such is the life of a project manager/ client service person. You bother people, remind them of what’s happening and then check their work and try to gently nudge them to complete what was technically due at 5pm today. It’s a balance of staying on their good side (so they’ll continue to be a good colleague) and pushing them. Difficult balance. Continue reading “Remember The Feeling Of The Working Weekend”