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

  Sunset at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina My wife and I sold our home during the pandemic (August 2020), and we needed a place to stay long term.  We chose to travel and spend time with our family instead of looking for a permanent place of our own.  We chose Airbnb sublet eventually, and it’s working out great for now.  Here are our observations and our tips for traveling during the pandemic.   Observations: Once we knew our home’s closing date, we needed to start looking for a place to stay.  We looked into various travel booking websites, including Expedia, Travelocity, Hotwire, Hotels.com, etc., but couldn’t find anything in our price range of around $800-$1000 per month.  What’s common with most travel websites is they almost always charge additional fees like taxes (state/county/municipality/hotel occupancy/travel surcharge, etc.), and resort fees.  Whereas a simple motel/hotel room may start at $30-$35 per night, with these fees tacked on,...

Theodore Roosevelt nature trail, Pine Knoll Shores, NC Ever since I started working full time (since 1996), the thought of early retirement always seemed like a pipe dream.  I knew I wanted to do that some day, but to be honest, I couldn’t even balance my checkbook in the beginning.  I didn’t know how to retire nor how to plan for retirement.  For me, retirement was just some far away, intangible thing I should think about because everyone said so, but had really no drive or desire to understand how to get there. Having monthly bills like everyone else made planning for retirement an impossibility.  How could I put away money when I had $20000 in credit card bills?  I had bills to pay!  The rent, transportation, credit card bills, groceries, food, and feeling of missing out (or deserving something because I had a stressful week), had me living a paycheck to paycheck existence. It wasn’t until I had turned 35 years of age that I grew up.  Up until then,...

Atlantic Beach Causeway Bridge  Atlantic Beach, North Carolina is a beach town in Carteret County, North Carolina.  It is one of five communities located on Bogue Banks.  Bogue Banks island is a barrier island which is 26 miles long and half mile at its widest points.  Although not as well known as mega beach destinations like Ocean City, Maryland to the north, or Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to the south, it more than makes up for it by its unspoiled natural beauty.   Atlantic Beach is geared towards families and is not yet commercialized like the two above mentioned destinations.  There are few chain restaurants/national retailers on the Bogue Banks.  This is a blessing as it manages to keep things as natural and pristine as possible.  Yes, you will find stores on the Bogue Banks, but it’s nowhere near as prevalent as those mega destinations. My wife, yours truly, and our dog, spent the entire month of December in Atlantic Beach.  We hope t...

Moving Day! My wife and I are recent early retirees.  I am 48 years old while my wife is 51 years old.  We made the big decision to retire this year rather than wait another year, then another, and so on...We are adherents of FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement.  We had been planning for this D-Day for years.  Once our financial independence part worked out, we jumped off to our early retirement in August, 2020. Going through this year was tough for everybody, I’m sure.  Seeing people die each and every day due to the pandemic put things in perspective.  We realized time here on Earth is too short.  We wanted to spend more time with our family and with each other.  Instead of asking ourselves ‘can we do it / should we do it’, we said what we have is enough.  I mean how much more is enough if you already have enough? This is our story and our experience selling our home. My wife and I sold our home during the heat of the summer...

  I’m a recent transplant from Pennsylvania to North Carolina.  In this post, I’d like to share with you my experiences obtaining a North Carolina driver’s license, registration, and vehicle insurance. I found North Carolina’s DMV website (ncdot.gov) as the best source for information.  Please be advised North Carolina driver’s licenses are handled by the NC DMV office, while title / registration / license plates are handled by a license plate agency.  These are two separate entities.  License plate agencies will typically contract with NC DMV to offer these services. I highly recommend obtaining the North Carolina driver’s license first, then going to a license plate agency afterwards.  As you’ll see later, depending on whether you’re currently financing your car or leasing your car will determine how quickly you can get your registration done after getting your NC driver’s license. Obtaining a NC driver’s license Go to the ‘ncdot.gov’ website (https://www...