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

  Presque Isle State Park, Erie, PA Winston Churchill:  “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” Since our early retirement in August 2020, my wife and I (and Toby, our Pomeranian) have kept our promise to travel more, and have seen our share of so many wonderful places, like Niagara Falls, Letchworth State Park, Ocean City, Atlantic Beach , and Presque Isle State Park. All these travels would not have been possible today were it not for the sacrifices we’ve made throughout our journey to be financially independent and to retire early.   In this post, I’d like to share my thoughts on what it means to sacrifice to achieve financial independence. Our journey to be financially independent started around the year 2010.  Thanks to blogs like Mr. Money Moustache and Early Retirement Extreme , I finally found the answer to my question, “How do I retire early?”   The simple math of saving up at least 25 times your yearly spending was a definite eureka moment.   Armed with t

  Waterfront, Morehead City, North Carolina  Dante Alighieri:  “Do not be afraid; our fate cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.” When my wife and I broached this idea of early retirement to our friends and family at first, they all asked similar questions:   What happens if the stock market crashes? What happens if you get really sick?  How will you pay for insurance? What if you get really bored? Isn’t it weird to retire at your age?  Shouldn’t you work until you’re 62 or later? Let me start by saying these questions are understandable.  These were the same line of questioning I had when I discovered FIRE (financial independence retire early) movement.  I honestly didn’t have all the answers I was curious about at first.  I started to understand more and more about FIRE movement after voraciously taking in blogs, articles, podcasts, etc.   The answers to the common questions listed above are below: What happens if the stock market crashes? The short answer is, no one knows what the

  Be aware of the next great stock or investment ‘tip’ Warren Buffett:  “If you aren’t willing to own a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes.”   My wife and I are early retirees at ages 51 and 48.  We’ve been slow traveling with our Pomeranian dog Toby, since our early retirement in August 2020.  We’ve visited various destinations on the eastern parts of the United States including Ocean City (Maryland), Atlantic Beach (North Carolina), the Poconos (Pennsylvania), and few others.   We plan on living this nomadic lifestyle in the foreseeable future. In this post, I’d like to share my thoughts on latest & greatest investing/stock tips. It’s easy to fall prey to a ‘hot’ investing or stock tips from a fill in the blank (YouTuber, friend, friend of a family, friend of a friend, a stockbroker friend, you get the idea...).  I look at these tips this way.  If it was so great, why would they tell me about it?  Wouldn’t you think this person would keep all t

  Port Jefferson, Long Island, NY Colin Powell:  “Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.”  Looking back at my life (all of 49 years or so), I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve always tried to find something good out of most situations so I can better cope with a tough situation.  With few exceptions, this has kept me going through the thick and thin. How many times have you faced adversity or tough situations in life and you had to deal with it in your own way?   Well, if you’re human, then you would’ve done this hundreds of times (and continue to do so every single day)… The ability to see a positive in any situation is something we can all get better at.  I believe it’s a learned skill and not an innate skill.  We can train ourselves to get better at this with practice and more practice. At age 17, I was lucky enough to be gifted with my first car.  It was a sports car that I had been eyeing for years during my early teens.   You can imagine how excited I was at getting my firs

  Walkway Over The Hudson State Park, NY Our family had booked a week long stay at Mountain Creek timeshare for the month of September back in May, not knowing then, that our mother would pass away towards the end of August.  We had, as usual, wanted to spend time together like we did twice previously in November 2020 and in March 2021. After the funeral was over, my wife, myself, and my sister-in-law decided to go to that timeshare as that was what she would’ve wanted us to do anyway, to spend quality time together.  It was during this particular trip that we explored Walkway Over The Hudson   State Park and New Jersey State Botanical Gardens .   Both of these attractions are about an hour drive from Mountain Creek area.  We were glad we explored both of these places, as they were absolutely beautiful in their own unique ways. We left our condo at around 8:00 a.m. hoping to be back at the condo before we hit any traffic when coming back from Walkway Over The Hudson State Park.  As w