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

  Saying goodbye to a loved one is never easy… Helen Keller:  “What we have once enjoyed we can never lose; all that we deeply love becomes a part of us.” My mother-in-law passed away recently at the age of 82.  She had been suffering from complications from a stroke suffered in June, and her heart finally gave up the fight.  She leaves behind 4 children and 6 grandchildren. In this post, I’d like to share my thoughts and my memories of my mother-in-law. When my wife and I prepared to retire early in the summer of 2020, one of our main objectives was to spend more time with loved ones.  We realized how brief life actually is, especially the time we have to spend with our parents. Our parents weren’t getting younger and neither were we, so we wanted to do as much as we can to do exactly that.  Since our early retirement, we spent time with my mother-in-law every time we were back in New York City. Those months were September, November, March, and May.  ...

  Northeastern view from the Blue Knob Resort, PA For the month of April, my pack (myself, my wife, and our Pomeranian dog Toby) traveled to Claysburg, Pennsylvania.  This would be our first trip out to the central Pennsylvania area, west of Harrisburg, PA.   We were pleasantly surprised by so much natural beauty and scenery surrounding this part of the state.  We had no idea I-99 is such a beautiful highway.  It cuts through the heart of the PA’s mountainous region (Allegheny Mountains) north and south, and it affords awesome views, not unlike the Swiss Alps. Each drive in and around Claysburg area was jaw dropping as we would climb up towards the peaks of mountains, only to be greeted by similar jaw dropping drive on the way down the mountains.   I enjoyed goosing the accelerator when climbing and hearing the turbo engine spooling up to provide much needed power.  I made sure the SUV was in all wheel drive mode during our entire stay at Claysburg for...

  World Trade Center (Twin Towers), New York City  9/11 (September 11th) 2001 would forever be remembered as a day that would change my life.  It was what triggered my first inkling to want to live somewhere else.  It kickstarted a wholesale change to my life in more ways than one.   Within the next two years, my wife and I would leave New York City for Oahu, Hawaii.  Two years after that, that move would eventually land us back on the East Coast where we settled for the next 14 years or so until our early retirement in August of 2020. In this post, I’d like to share with you my experiences of 9/11. I remember 9/11 because it was such a beautiful day.  Skies were blue and the heat of the summer was slowly being replaced by cooling breezes coming over the East River.  I felt better than most days because of how nice that day started. I took the usual #4 train to get off at Bowling Green station in lower Manhattan.  I was listening to music on ...

  Our trip to Niagara Falls and Toby enjoying his visit! Unknown:  “Retirement is wonderful if you have two essentials:  much to live on and much to live for.” The month of August marks our one year anniversary of our early retirement!  Wow, how times flew by… It seems like only yesterday that we sold our townhome, got rid of around 90% of our belongings, and started our nomadic lifestyle.  It’s hard to believe that was a year ago! When we set out on our journey after retiring, we wanted to travel more and spend more time with family.  We think we’ve accomplished both those goals. This is a quick rundown of our travels during the previous year: End of August - September :  Moved down to North Carolina to our brother’s place to establish domicile, then went to see our parents in September October :  Spent a month in an Airbnb rental in Ocean City, Maryland  November :  Booked a short trip to Bushkill, PA area for my mom’s birthday and spe...

  Beaufort Waterfront, North Carolina  Lao Tzu:  “Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.” My wife and I have been traveling with our Pomeranian, Toby, since our early retirement last August.  Since retiring, we’ve spent time in various destinations on the eastern parts of the United States, and we look forward to exploring more destinations in our foreseeable future. In this post, I’d like to share my thoughts on the notion of ‘not caring’ to see how this helps achieve the goal of financial independence and retiring early. Growing up, I was always a bit different.  I didn’t like following a trend or buy something just because everyone said I should.  I, not anyone else, have to really like something for me to pursue that.  No one else could make me like something... When Sony Walkman (Google that if you’re younger than 40) came out in the early 80’s, my best friend bought one (actually, his mom bought it for him). ...

  Rainbows over the Niagara Falls, NY Mark Twain:  “One frequently only finds out how really beautiful a really beautiful woman is after considerable acquaintance with her; and the rule applies to Niagara Falls, to majestic mountains, and to mosques-especially to mosques.” During the month of June 2021, we booked a month long stay at a rental in a western New York town of Ellicottville, using Vrbo.  During this month long stay, we visited so many wonderful places, one of which was Niagara Falls State Park. Our previous visit to Niagara Falls was with our friends 19 years ago.  It had been a long time and we were looking forward to visiting it again. On a warm June weekday, our pack (myself, my wife, and Toby, our Pomeranian dog) set out to Niagara Falls State Park.  My wife prepared lunch, snacks, and drinks so we can eat at the park. We left early around 8:30 a.m. from Ellicottville hoping to arrive there by around 10 a.m.  We didn’t want to scramble for a...