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

  Henderson Beach State Park, Destin, Florida  Oscar Wilde: “Work is the curse of the drinking classes.” August 2024 marks my wife and myself’s 4 year anniversary of our early retirement.  My, how time flies!  It does seem like yesterday that we made the leap of faith to trust the concepts of the FIRE (financial independence retire early) movement and to retire. Just thinking back to the days leading up to my final day at my job floods me with nostalgia.  It was during the peak of the pandemic, so I had to work remotely.  I remember dropping off all the company equipment on August 17 (my last day) like laptop, cell phone, etc., then meeting one of the best supervisors I’ve ever had (Kelly), for an exit interview. I could tell she was emotional after working together for the better part of 14 years, then having to say goodbye.  It was Kelly who made working there possible in the first place as she was one of the interviewers when I was hired.  She was so nice to have bought my favorite

  Driftwood Beach, Jekyll Island, Georgia  While I was planning our 8 week long road trip to the American South/Southeast/Deep South/Central South, I had this idea of visiting bunch of forts as well as other interesting points of interest along the way.  I’m not sure when I started to get interested in forts, but almost overnight, they looked really interesting. There’s something very appealing about forts with their combination of beauty, situated right near the waters, with plenty of history thrown in.  It’s learning about history not through textbooks, but rather from actually seeing and experiencing it first hand, simply the best kind of learning possible. I knew I wanted to visit the following forts during our trip: Fort Pulaski National Monument, Fort Frederica National Monument , and Fort Pickens Area of Gulf Island National Seashore .  Just  planning and mapping them out was so exciting, and it really got my brain working overtime, but in a good way. My brain is wired for trave