Wandering Money Pig - A journey of early retirement and FIRE (financial independence retire early)

  Toby on his first day at our home It has been several months since we said our final goodbyes to our beloved Pomeranian Toby.  A day doesn’t go by when we don’t think about him.  Sometimes it’s the sad moments we remember several months prior to his passing when we noticed he was getting more lethargic and visibly not enjoying life, and sometimes it’s the cute or funny moments we remember when he made us laugh and cry at the same time. Few days right after his passing, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking he had to go potty.  I thought I heard his trademark spinning and making loud footsteps on the bed to wake us up, but I must’ve been dreaming…  There was another time when my wife thought she heard his prancing footsteps walking into our room, looking at us for directions as to what the pack’s schedule for that day would be, but again, she must’ve heard it in her dream… There are so many moments like these when we hear, or more correctly, want to he...

  Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:  “Many people take no care of their money til they come near the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.” As I write this post on our 2 year anniversary of our early retirement, I can’t help but be amazed at how quickly the second year went.  It really seems like yesterday when we retired, but that was actually two years ago! If the first year was us getting used to the idea of not working after all those years of working, figuring things out along the way after being ‘homeless’, and traveling throughout the eastern parts of the United States, then the second year marked the repeat of our pattern established during the first year of retirement.  We got the pattern down pat, in that we knew basically what to do, including where to travel to, what to do and see during our travels, how to live month or longer at a destination, and how to spend our days when we’re staying home. ...

  Top of Mount Jo, Adirondack Mountains, NY John Muir:  “And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.” Back in 2002, my wife and I visited the Adirondack Mountains region, specifically Whiteface/Lake Placid , to do some skiing.  We had booked a 5 night/6 day stay at the Mirror Lake area, then skied the beautiful but extremely cold mountains of Whiteface! We came away feeling rejuvenated after a week’s worth of skiing at the time.  We explored the area where we had stayed by doing some shopping and eating out, but the thought of hiking the mountains didn’t even enter our minds at the time. When the opportunity came to revisit the Adirondack Mountains region in April 2022, we jumped at the chance to finally do some hiking and even summit a mountain!  For the month of April, we lucked out when we found a single family home in Tupper Lake , which is about 30 miles away from Lake Placid, via AirBnB. Using our rental at Tupper Lake as our base camp, we...

  Murrells Inlet Marshwalk, SC Robin Williams:  “There are no rules.  Just follow your heart.” At my last job as an IT help desk technician, I got to know many people who were in their 60’s and 70’s.  There were times we would chat about their retirement and what that may look like.  We also talked about when they would like to retire among other things… It was all a good way to kill the time while we were waiting for the computer to finish rebooting after installing patches or updates.  Each of those conversations left me wondering when my retirement would be… Those conversations took place before I retired early in August 2020.  Prior to that, I was just fascinated with how different people thought about their own retirement.   I could tell some wanted to retire soon, but couldn’t because of their kids, liked the steady income, and/or scared of the unknown.  Back in 2018 or so, I heard about the passing of one of those colleagues who I had...