Happy 6th Re-Birthday to Me!

Happy 6th Re-Birthday to Me!

Six years ago today, I held my breath, crossed my fingers, and mixed together the ingredients of the early retirement elixir -- a dash of hope, a dash of crazy, and a whole lot of courage. Voila! All of the sudden, I found myself free of a job, free of the tedium of normalcy, and free of the confines of time.

My Interview with "Eyes on the Goal" Blog

I was recently interviewed by Eyes on the Goal blog.

Run by Katerina Apostolova, Eyes on the Goal is about "personal finance for freedom seekers." Katerina has a goal of reaching financial independence within five years, and her blog is all about keeping her eyes on this goal.

In learning about financial independence, Katerina had listened to My Interview for "The Voluntary Life" Podcast. She then reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to provide a guest post for her interview series. Click on the image below to read the interview:

Thanks for the fun interview, Kate. I wish you the best in achieving your financial independence!

Happy 3rd Re-Birthday to Me!

Happy 3rd Re-Birthday to Me!

It's cupcake time, my friends! It's time to celebrate!

It has been three years since I quit the rat race. It has been three years of semi-retirement bliss. It has been three years of waking up on Monday mornings, endlessly grateful that I don't have to drag my butt into the office after a nice weekend. Nope, siree -- my life now consists of perpetual weekends!

Ingredients for a Tenday

Recently, I've been noticing myself thinking: "Today is a tenday."

"What is a tenday?," you ask.

Well, for starters, I should clarify that the term is my own device. I never intended to create the word; I just started using it.

Now, imagine a scale that ranges from 1 to 10. At the far left of the scale is the 1, which represents "not-so-hot." At the far right of the scale is the 10, which represents "flippin' fantastic." Given that scale, a "tenday" is used to describe a day that is a 10.

"Today is a tenday."
Coming across the words of Mary Oliver, chalked on the front steps of a home.

For the record, I experience sevendays. And fivedays. And occasionally, though rare, onedays as well. After all, it's very much part of the human experience to have ups and downs in life.

I'm Officially Homeless

Someone once said that the days are long, and the years are short. I'm reminded of this today.

I've had so many wonderful, long days over the last few months since I returned from my visit overseas. I crossed two items off my bucket list -- including getting a tattoo (see Sailors, Whores, & Ink) and taking a sailing course. I've spent lazy afternoons enjoying Seattle's unseasonably mild weather. I've spent hours relearning the Spanish language that I haven't spoken since the last millennium. I've started to plan a big bike trip for this upcoming fall and winter. Oh, and I finally met my financial target for early retirement (even though I left my job two and a half years ago, only 75% of the way to my target).

Suffice it to say, it's been a great few months of back-to-back long days. But it's already June 4th, and I am officially homeless!

Let me back up a bit...to October of last year...

My Interview for "The Voluntary Life" Podcast

Over the years, I've consulted a number of resources about voluntary simplicity, financial independence, and early retirement. One of my most favorite resources has been The Voluntary Life podcast.

The podcast, hosted by Jake Desyllas, covers a number of topics related to entrepreneurship, financial independence, and freedom. Jake's podcast has been immensely helpful at providing inspiration and encouragement in pursuing my early retirement lifestyle.

I have spent literally hundreds of hours listening to The Voluntary Life. So, you can imagine my thrill in having the tables turned; Jake wanted to interview me about my early retirement story and how housesitting fits into my early retirement lifestyle.

Happy 2nd Re-Birthday to Me!

Happy 2nd Re-Birthday to Me!

It has now been two years since I took the plunge and quit my job. As this event was pivotal in achieving my new lifestyle, I like to celebrate this re-birthday! Happy 2nd re-birthday to me!

Claiming Your Unclaimed Property

When I was a kid, I'd pick up the stray pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters on the sidewalk. Others overlooked these coins, considering them to be petty. But to me, they were worth something. I'd put them in my pocket and say "Every little bit helps! Now I'm 5¢ closer to retirement."

I'm still picking up these coins, and I'm still acknowledging that they are helping to inch me closer to retirement. Nowadays, I chuckle as I ponder how fortunate I am to have started my retirement in my mid-30s.

Admittedly, scanning the sidewalk for dropped coins isn't going to get me too far. On the other hand, scanning the Departments of Revenue websites to see if I have any unclaimed property may get me a bit farther.

Panning for Gold

You need to pan to find the gold.

When I first quit my job, I made a mind map of interests I wanted to pursue.

A skinnied down version of my mind map.
(Some of the map is not for public consumption;
refer to "Guarding My Intentions.")

Once I started investing large chunks of time tackling these interests, I noticed that exploring my interests led to even more interests. The panning led to riches, and so my mind map grew.

But the explorations revealed that some of my supposed interests weren't really interests after all. In these cases, the panning yielded pebbles, and these pebbles were tossed by the wayside.

Happy Re-Birthday to Me!

Happy Re-Birthday to Me!

I'm not one who enjoys celebrating my birthday. But this is an occasion I'm proud to celebrate: it was one year ago today when I took the plunge and quit my job. This event was pivotal in achieving my new lifestyle. Happy re-birthday to me!

Don't Let Tomorrow Be Your Retirement

Take one: Holy smokes! Prudential gets it!

Er... scratch that. Try again.

Take two: Holy smokes! Prudential has a really good ad agency!

Yes, that's more like it.

A friend sent me a link to an online video. Before I could watch the video, I was subjected to a 31-second advertisement. [Roll eyes.]

"Oh, but wait!" said I. "That's Dan Gilbert, the social psychologist from Harvard and author of 'Stumbling on Happiness.' I like him! This advertisement is speaking to me!"