Retired in 2013 at age 33. Life is Good.
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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We stayed in Montreal for eight days and spent a lot of time seeing all that Montreal has to offer. We rented a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment in the Plateau neighborhood of Montreal. The apartment was located on Rue Fullum between Rue Rachel and Rue Sherbrooke in an apartment building that housed around 20 other apartments.
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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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Mrs. RootofGood and I have visited the Big Apple in the past, but our kids have not. On our first day in NYC we had lunch plans with Mrs. RoG’s coworker around noon, and we wanted to visit her firm’s equities trading floor before the markets closed, so we decided to drive into midtown Manhattan and park somewhere close so we could ensure our timely arrival. The tunnel toll from our hotel plus parking all day in Midtown was $30 – about the same as transit fares from the hotel into NYC and then MTA transit fares for the subway in NYC. Parking in NYC is expensive, but so are transit fares for a family of five.
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We made it to Canada, but just barely. I’ll summarize by saying the first five and a half days of the trip to get to Canada were awesome and the last half of the sixth day required perseverance. A lot of it. Some might say the last half day of the journey to Montreal was horrible, but I’ll stick with “required perseverance”. But let’s take things in chronological order.
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June came and went and treated us very kindly. Somehow we spent next to nothing, and had a fabulous month of investment income.
At $9,611 in total income during June, we more than covered our monthly expenses of $830. And then some. And then some more.
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Summer is here. Are your kids bored yet? They shouldn’t be. There are dozens of ways to keep your family busy and having fun without spending much money. Here is what we do to prevent ourselves from getting cabin fever.
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Throughout my life, I have been drawn to far away destinations. My first taste of wanderlust started in high school when I requested a free copy of the Mexico destination guide from AAA. I read that thing front to back then back to front. I folded down the corners of so many pages that described in fascinating detail all the interesting parts of a country I was yet to explore.
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For those following along with my early retirement monthly updates, you’ll know the Root of Good family is heading north to Canada for the summer. At the end of June, we will pack our kids (age 2, 7, and 9) and a trunk full of gear into our trusty fourteen year old Honda Accord and set out on a 2,300 mile trek through the US and Canada for about a month.
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In May, we had a nearly perfect month financially. We spent very little and our investments gained a lot of ground due to excellent stock market returns. At $3,575 in total income during May, we
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