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

  Falls Lake Dam Recreation Area, Wake Forest, NC After my wife and I sold our home at the end of August 2020, we headed down to Wake Forest, North Carolina.  This would mark the beginning of our early retirement.  We wanted to spend time with my brother in law and his family, who we haven’t seen in over a year.  It was during this visit that we discovered this fantastic recreation area. Falls Lake Dam Recreation Area is a man made reservoir located in the upper portion of the Neuse River Basin, nestled near North Carolina’s bustling Triangle Area.  The reservoir covers nearly 12,500 acres of water and is surrounded by 25,500 acres of public land.   The lake stretches 22 miles upstream to the confluence of three rivers: Eno, Flat, and Little Rivers. Falls Lake Dam Recreation Area boasts hiking trails, fishing, water sports, biking, wildlife viewing, etc. See my notes below when visiting the Recreation Area: The main entrance to the Recreation Area is accessible from the Falls of Neuse

  Building your wealth with a retirement plan! Retirement plan, like the 401k, is one of the most important tools you can use to accrue wealth.  About 58% of Americans were active participants to 401k plans according to a report in 2018.  The built in tax advantage of a 401k plan allows individuals to grow their money tax deferred.   Other advantages like company matching and automatic enrollments are beneficial in ensuring individuals have the best chance at growing their nest eggs for retirement.   However, for all the advantages of a 401k, it’s widely believed that many Americans are falling behind on their savings.  A general rule of thumb says you should have saved the following amounts equal to your current salary: Age 30:  One time your annual salary.  If you make $30k, then you should have $30k saved. Age 40:  Three times your annual salary.  If you make $30k, then you should have $90k saved. Age 50:  Five times your annual salary.  If you make $30k, then you should have $150k

  Garage Sale! My wife and I recently sold our home during the pandemic and had to figure out whether or not to do a garage sale to get rid of our belongings.  We had decided to retire early, so starting around June 2020, we decided to downsize to get rid of about 90% of our stuff.  We weren’t going to be living permanently elsewhere.  Instead, we were planning to travel and spend time with our family.  This meant we needed to downsize and do it in a hurry within about 2 months! This is our story about us getting rid of our stuff we had accrued over the 14 years we’ve lived in Pennsylvania.  Included are our observations, tips, and know-how of doing a garage sale during the pandemic. Once we hired a real estate agent around mid-June, we set about exploring options to downsize within the next two months.  We had done a garage sale few years ago and it was a moderate success.  We managed to make about $220.  For this garage sale, we needed to get rid of much more stuff, so we ended up do

  Time to give thanks! Welcome back readers!  In this post, I’d like to take the time to give my thanks and to give back to our readers for their support.  My wife and I have always believed in the power of showing gratitude, and this felt like the right time to do just that!   To start I’d like to quote a tidbit of one of my favorite ball players, the immortal Lou Gehrig of the NY Yankees:   “... today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth ...”  This is one of my favorite speeches of all time.  It shows a man who would succumb to ALS disease in less than 3 years, showing gratitude even in those harrowing times.   His speech will forever be remembered for its message of courage, determination, and hope, which all of us can learn from... When I started this blog (Wandering Money Pig), I had no idea who, besides few of my family members and friends, would read my blog.  The reason I started the blog was to share my two passions in life:  travel and money matters.  I

Emerald Isle Boating Access Area My wife and I have spent the months of December, January, and February (2020 through 2021) in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.  This was our second long term destination, after Ocean City (Maryland), where we spent a month or longer, as part of our slow travel plan. By ‘slow’ traveling, we’re able to see and experience a destination’s attractions much more in detail.  We can explore the nooks and crannies, places most visitors may not get to see.  On a ‘normal’ vacation lasting a week, our itinerary would be somewhat hurried as we were eager to discover as much of the destination as possible.  This would also tire us out to try to keep to our itinerary! The three parks we’ll be covering in this post are my favorite parks on Bogue Banks.  Our pack (my wife, myself, and our 13 pound Pomeranian, Toby) spent countless hours in these parks.   Our top 3 Bogue Banks parks:      1.    Fort Macon State Park ***Fort Macon State Park was previously covered in my p

  Getting insurance is part of being financially secure! Welcome back!  This is a sixth installment in the series of financial tools to master.  In the previous installments, we covered checking accounts, savings accounts, budgeting, retirement accounts, and brokerage accounts.  I’ll put links to all of these posts at the bottom of the page for those who have missed any of them. Insurance, as weird as it sounds, is one of the most important tools to master for financial well-being.  Without it, all the money you have will no longer be with you.  If you have a medical emergency or a car accident, insurance is what you need so you won’t have to pay out of your retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, or your emergency fund. It’s not one of the more sexier topics for financial independence but I believe it warrants a closer look as it does require everyone to deal with and to understand it.   Let’s first define the term: Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss.  It’s a form

Sunset at the beach, Atlantic Beach, North Carolina  I have been retired since August of 2020, at age 48.  In this post, I’d like to share with you my personal experiences after my last day at my job. August 17th would be Day One of my early retirement.  I had dropped off my company equipment and signed my papers, then had come home after saying goodbye to my supervisor / mentor (with a box of Sam Adams in my hand, courtesy of my mentor!) That day and subsequent few days until closing of our home (August 24) would be spent not on enjoying our early retirement, but rather on preparing for our home sale and on downsizing.  * Click here to read about selling our home during the pandemic here . Our typical day would include dropping off donations, throwing out/recycling stuff, shredding old documents (why in the world did we have documents from high school!?!), painting, and cleaning each room.   August 24th came.  We loaded up remainder of our belongings (we were loading our belongings in