Retired in 2013 at age 33. Life is Good.
This morning I was relaxing in my hammock while enjoying the mild spring weather. With coffee in the mug next to me and two year old Mr. Root of Good Jr. playing on the deck not far from me, I was planning on a morning of peace and quiet. I set the lofty goal of finishing the last hundred pages of Nanjing Requiem, a work of historical fiction set in the 1930’s in Japanese-occupied Nanjing, China. I managed to finish the book this morning, but not entirely in peace.
Read more
Over the course of a month, we buy an astronomical amount of food. It takes a lot of food to provide 450 meals per month for our family of five. I wanted to show what we put in our grocery cart in a typical month to produce those 450 meals.
Read more
April left us slightly wealthier due to a small amount of stock market gains and very moderate spending. Our year to date spending is back within our budgeted levels four months into the year.
Read more
I consider myself frugal in most ways, but not really “cheap”. Sometimes I approach that thinly drawn line between frugal and cheap and dip my toe over the line to the dark side of cheapdom. Last week an editor from Business Insider contacted me and asked me to highlight a few specific items where it makes sense to be downright cheap.
Read more
March proved to be another great month for our early retirement finances. Our investment portfolio went up slightly. I had a fair amount of income from this blog and other online writing. Spending in March
Read moreWelcome to this week’s Carnival of Money, March Madness Edition! While you are watching your favorite team score more points than the other team, check out a few of these excellent articles: Cat presents
Read more
Hesitating in the doorway of my mother’s hospital room, I’m distracted by the usual thoughts in such situations, like hoping she’s getting over the pneumonia (she is, and is discharged the following day) and wishing that hospitals didn’t smell so weird, so I was unprepared for the white-coated person standing idly in the room chatting with Mom. Ever proud of our travels, Mom immediately announces to the Physician’s Assistant that this is her daughter who is traveling around the world in a school bus.
Read more
Not having a full time job was very convenient the past few months. Here in North Carolina, when it snows, everything shuts down. Including the schools. It snowed a few inches and schools were closed
Read more
The Question Of The Day: Is it possible to retire early to a life of leisure while raising kids that understand hard work and success? My answer: YES! Some people are afraid to retire early
Read more
Six months ago, I found myself suddenly unemployed. After a day or two of thinking about my situation and my finances, I decided I might as well call it “early retirement”. Maybe a better job
Read more