Retired in 2013 at age 33. Life is Good.
In November, our spending was very average and our net worth went up very slightly by $8,000. With $2,764 of income in November, we barely covered our $2,640 in spending. November marked the start of a major construction project on our house and most of the month’s spending was devoted to material purchases.
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After losing $50,000 in September, October started out looking just as ugly. By the middle of October we had lost another $50,000. However the last half of October made up for all those losses and left us substantially wealthier by month end. In terms of expenses, we didn’t do a lot of spending in October other than the ordinary monthly bills.
With $2,619 of income in October, we more than covered our $1,383 in spending. The excess of income over expenses of $1,200 or so was dwarfed by tens of thousands in investment gains.
Most people would say the pinnacle of life is when you score a top level job in your field, when your kids are born, when you land a full ride to college or sign a multi-million dollar contract with your favorite sports team. Achieving financial independence (FI) in life is typically an afterthought. That is why we see hundreds of celebrities and lottery winners squandering their money and years later filing for bankruptcy. Just look at MC Hammer, Kim Basinger and Michael Jackson.
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I was lucky enough to be invited on the Radical Personal Finance podcast last week. The host, Joshua Sheats, “interviews others to learn from their success, to hear what they’re doing and how they’re winning.”
During the interview, Joshua points out that retiring at 33 is kind of radical and asks me to explain to an audience not indoctrinated into the Financial Independence / Retire Early world how it’s possible to retire that early. I do my best, but you’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out how successful I was.
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September. An ugly month for our investments, but an awesomely fun month for us. After making $33,000 in August, we gave it all back and then some in September by lopping $50,000 off our net worth. Our spending was roughly in line with our budget in spite of almost $2,000 in unplanned vacation expenses (the “awesomely fun” part).
With $6,125 of income in September, we more than covered our $2,802 in spending. More than half of our income came in the form of dividends and interest from our investment portfolio.
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While on our road trip through Canada, we rented a two bedroom apartment in Quebec City. The reviews at AirBnB were great and made the place sound clean and well-appointed. It had a large kitchen with plenty of room for us to cook. The living room was spacious and had enough seating for our family of five. The bedrooms had comfortable beds and plenty of linens.
Unfortunately, the apartment was filthy!
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Quebec City was as far as we made it on our trip. We decided to call it quits, pack up, and go home after we found out our apartment for the week in Quebec City was really, really, really dirty. That’s not to say we didn’t enjoy our limited time in Quebec City. It’s a cool place with lots to see. We, as a family, were travel weary.
We were worn out. We set out on what was supposed to be a five week trip with dual goals of sightseeing and relaxation. We visited all kinds of places and saw most of the things on our wish list. But that took a toll on our efforts to relax.
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Wow, what a month! The markets started off August with a whimper and closed out the month with a bang. The steady rise in the stock market throughout August made us wealthier by $33,000. We spent the month at home in Raleigh, and kept our spending in line with our budget.
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A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit down (virtually) with Jake Desyllas and discuss the financial moves and life decisions that put me in a position to retire by age 33. Jake runs The Voluntary Life podcast, which features over 160 podcasts recorded to date that cover entrepreneurship, financial independence, and freedom among other topics.
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I’ve been expecting a stock market dip for most of the year and it finally arrived in July. So what, right? We were left with a little bit less in the investment portfolio (if losing $19,000 is “a little”). But life is still very good for this particular early retiree. In July, we spent a bunch of money and made even more than we spent.
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