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

  Winston Churchill:  “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” As we wrap up the previous year (2025) and look forward to a new year (2026), I‘d like to take this time to reflect on the past year and to plan ahead for the upcoming year.  It’s hard to believe but my wife and I have been retired (early) for over 5 years now.   We are ever so grateful that we’re living the way we wanted to live without conforming to what the society expects us to do.  We said goodbye to participating in the rat race, to pay ever increasing real estate/school/property/county taxes to live in our own home, and we also said goodbye to the constant bombardment by media to make us consume.   By choosing the “ red pill ”, like Neo , the main character from the popular movie “ The Matrix ”, we finally saw the true meaning of finding happiness.  It’s not through living the way society tells you to, but rather by figuring out ways to...