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

  Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY Albert Camus:  “Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle.  This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.” During the month of April (2022), my wife and I had the privilege of staying in the Adirondacks region, in a small town called Tupper Lake .  Tupper Lake turned out to be a great location to enjoy various attractions of the Adirondacks region, including Lake Placid , Saranac Lake , and incredible choice of mountains to hike. By the second week of our stay in Tupper Lake, we had already explored Tupper Lake, Lake Placid , and had summited Mt. Jo .  We were extremely happy with all these places, but we were looking for something different, more specifically, culture.  We found it in the form of Hyde Collection , in Glens Falls , about a two hour drive from our temporary home in Tupper Lake!   Hyde Collection, the former home of founders Louis and...

  Be uncomfortable to achieve something great! Walt Disney:  “All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me.  You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” Recently I was listening to a podcast about an ex-Navy Seal commander of SEAL Team 3, Jocko Willink .  In it, he talked about the importance for new recruits to accept, then embrace the uncomfortable reality of the Navy Seal BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) school. He believed that for new recruits to be successful at the BUD/S school, they would need to have the mindset to take what’s uncomfortable and turn it into comfortable.  For someone like Jocko, who loved being a commando ever since he was a child growing up in the woods of Maine and Connecticut, the BUD/S school was a joyride. He fully embraced the uncomfortable, then came out on the other side as a lean mean fighting machine.  Lis...

  Smalls Falls, Rangeley, Maine The state of Maine was one of the two New England states that my wife and I hadn’t visited, even after living on the East Coast of the United States all these years.  Maine just seemed so far away from New York City, at around 8 hours drive time.   Of course we had heard so much about Maine from friends and family, who extolled the virtues of the state on many occasions.  We longed to eat some fresh lobster and fresh seafood, visit the famous Acadia National Park , see a moose, and immerse ourselves with the “Pine Tree State.” While searching for a suitable place to stay for the summer months, we were ecstatic when a cute mountain cabin in the town of Stratton (Maine) was available via AirBnB.  We booked the cabin for June and July, then went to work exploring the area near where we were staying. The town of Rangeley, is a great little town in the northwest part of the state of Maine.  We first heard of the town from a frie...

  Heritage Shores Nature Preserve, SC When my wife and I worked full time during our accumulation phase to achieve financial independence and to retire early, Sundays were usually gloomy days.  I realized the weekend was coming to a close, and that meant I would be going to work, come Monday. I can’t tell you how often I felt this way as Sundays would pass, as surely as the changing seasons.  The gleeful Sunday mornings when our pack (including our Pomeranian Toby) would eat our breakfasts, then carry our still warm mug of coffee downstairs to hang out in the walkout basement, would eventually change to sad realization that the day was coming to a close… By evenings, I was researching frantically to figure out how I can retire early sooner.  Our mortgage felt like an anchor weighing me down.  I felt suffocated, looking for ways to make it stop… During these Sundays, I felt a need to quicken our quest to achieve financial independence.  I was looking at diff...