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

  Borgata, New Jersey As I write this post sitting on a comfortable sofa at the Fiore Suite at the Borgata Hotel & Casino , the wind is howling, making those same windows to flap at times, while the heavy rain is pattering the floor to ceiling windows.  It’s a bit scary, but it’s also incredibly exciting to be staying indoors in the comforts of this beautiful hotel. The remnants of Hurricane Ian is dumping several inches of rain in the Atlantic City area, where the Borgata is located.  In all my hotel stays at any casino, I’ve not had a stay quite like this.  All through out the night, rain kept coming down, as if the heavens decided to dump all of its yearly rainfall, seemingly on this one day! My wife and I briefly worried about losing power and whether or not the windows would stay intact, but luckily everything is still good.  I woke up couple of times during the night thanks to the winds hitting the windows then shaking it, as if trying to break them...

  Vanderbilt Mansion, Hyde Park, NY Oscar Wilde:  “Simple pleasures are the last healthy refuge in a complex world.” Recently, I was reading an article from the Money section of MSN , where I came upon an article about the sanctity of needing 70-80% of retiree’s pre-retirement income to maintain his/her lifestyle into retirement. This is something I’ve always read about and known about, since my wife and I decided on our journey of FIRE (financial independence retire early). The 70-80% rule kind of makes sense as most retirees generally tend to spend about the same (or a bit less) amount of money each month on expenses in retirement vs pre-retirement.  Generally speaking, retirees won’t need to spend money on work related things (think work wardrobe, daily commute in a car for most Americans, eating lunch at work, happy hour after hours, etc.), reducing that part of after-retirement budget. Despite this fact, the reason most retirees spend close to their pre-retirement i...

  Portland Head Light, Maine Our (my wife and myself’s) 2 months long stay in the beautiful state of Maine was coming to a close by the end of July.  By then, we had already seen famous attractions like Acadia National Park , Colby Museum of Art , as well as several waterfalls in the state, and we had ventured out to other places like Wolfeboro (New Hampshire), and to Quebec City (Canada), thanks to our rental’s proximity to both places.   After coming back from our trip to Quebec City the previous week, we were hoping to visit one more place in Maine, to wrap up our very first trip to the “ Pine Tree State ”.  To that end, we decided to visit Portland  near the southern coast along the Casco Bay , a city known as the center of economy, tourism, and growth in the region. On one of the many Maine tourism brochures we picked up from one of the Maine welcome centers/information centers, Portland was named as one of the top destinations to visit in Maine.  Be...