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

  View of the Huntington Harbor  My wife and I wanted to look for a park on Long Island that was both beautiful and dog friendly, so all of us, including our family (our parents) and our Pomeranian dog Toby can enjoy.  Luckily, we found such a park in the town of Huntington, Long Island. Chateau at Coindre Hall was built in 1912 modeled after a medieval French chateau.  It boasts 80,000 square feet of living space, which is currently put to good use as a popular wedding/reception venue.  Overlooking the Huntington Harbor, Chateau at Coindre Hall almost feels as if you’re in Europe somewhere.   Besides being used as a popular wedding venue, the grounds are used as a popular dog park as well! We arrived at the Chateau around 11 a.m. and were greeted by the majestic chateau and its circular driveway, befitting a castle.  Parking was behind the chateau, and there were plenty of parking spots available. We marveled at the beautiful scenery all around us. ...

  Highpoint Scenic Vista and Recreation Area, Pennsylvania  My wife and I are recent early retirees at ages 51 and 48. Since our early retirement in August of last year, we’ve been traveling with our companion Toby, a 13 pound Pomeranian dog, to various destinations in the eastern parts of the United States.   In this post, we’d like to share our thoughts on debt and how it affects financial independence and early retirement. When we were growing up, no one taught us anything about debt, or finance for that matter.  There was no finance class in junior high/high school that was mandatory, nor was there a mandatory requirement in college.   Whatever we learned was through our own experiences and learning them the hard way.  Because of our zero knowledge of finance and debt, we really didn’t think much before using debt.   It quickly became apparent that my wife and I were way over our heads.  What started out as few hundred dollars for a two night ...

  Philadelphia Museum of Art My wife and I are recent early retirees at ages 51 and 48.  We’ve been slow traveling with our traveling companion Toby, a 13 pound Pomeranian dog since our early retirement in August 2020.  We’ve spent a month or longer in various destinations, including Ocean City (Maryland), Atlantic Beach (North Carolina), and the Poconos (Pennsylvania). We’re originally from New York City.  Our journey began there, but we left New York for Hawaii on Thanksgiving Day 2003.  After living in Hawaii for 2 years and 4 months, we started to miss our family and friends, so we headed back to the east coast, to a suburb of Philadelphia. We chose Philadelphia area for several reasons: Close proximity to New York City.  We could drive to NYC, where my family and friends live, in about 2 1/2 hours.  We made good use of this proximity as we constantly got together with family and friends. Job opportunities.  Compared to Hawaii, where the maj...

  Sagamore Hill National Historic Site Growing up in the concrete jungles of New York City, I always found happiness venturing out to wide open spaces of the world beyond New York City.  Long Island was always that place.  Thanks to my childhood buddy of mine Jimmy, who lived in Hicksville, I was fortunate enough to visit beautiful places like Oyster Bay, whenever we hung out. Oyster Bay is tucked away on the north shore of Long Island and is located about an hour away from New York City.  A popular route into Oyster Bay is via Route 106 which is accessible from any of the major highways, the I-495 (Long Island Expressway), or the Northern State Parkway.   Route 106 North takes you past Muttontown, featuring huge gated mansions, past Northern Boulevard, which is a major east/west route about 59 miles long from end to end, then past East Norwich, before entering the town of Oyster Bay.   Oyster Bay is synonymous with Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt (the 26th Pres...

  Saying when it’s enough on your path to financial independence  Laurance Rockefeller:  “Individually, people are finding that a simpler lifestyle provides greater satisfaction than relentless pursuit of materialism.” My wife and I are recent early retirees at ages 51 and 48.  We’ve been slow traveling with our companion Toby, a 13 pound Pomeranian dog since our early retirement last August, 2020.  We’ve visited destinations such as Ocean City (Maryland), Atlantic Beach (North Carolina), Claysburg (Pennsylvania), Ellicottville (New York), the Poconos (Pennsylvania), and other attractions on the eastern parts of the United States. In this post, I’d like to share my thoughts on saying when it’s ‘enough’.   The concept of when it’s ‘enough’ is central to being happy in life and happy while pursuing financial independence.  In our consumption driven economy these days, if you don’t realize you have enough material goods already, then you’ll constantly be ...

  Ocean City, Maryland sunset Albert Einstein:  “Make things as simple as possible but no simpler.” My wife and I are recent early retirees at ages 51 and 48.  We sold our home during the pandemic (August 2020) to prepare for our early retirement.  We had planned on traveling light in our SUV, so we needed to downsize in a hurry.  June through August were spent downsizing our personal belongings, which we had accrued over 14 years of living in the state of Pennsylvania. As we were downsizing, we asked ourselves why downsizing is so difficult.  We realized there’s always an emotional attachment tied to personal belongings.   In this post, we’d like to share our thoughts, experiences, and tips on downsizing. We had always been fascinated by the idea of minimalism.  The word minimalism in architecture, art, or music is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity.  When applied to a way of life, it means living with less material possession...