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

  Shopping at high end stores Dr. Steve Maraboli:  “A sense of entitlement is a cancerous thought process that is void of gratitude and can be deadly to our relationships.” Welcome back! In this post, I’d like to share my thoughts on the dangers of entitlement to your happiness, as well as dangers of entitlement to your financial independence. Let’s first define what entitlement is: Entitlement is defined as the fact of having a right to something or the belief that one is inherently deserving of privileges and special treatment. Throughout my early childhood until I turned 20, I felt entitled.  I believed the world owed me something for all the perceived ‘wrongs’ it has done to me.  I thought I was deserving of everything because the world made my childhood unhappy and difficult.   I thought, wrongly, that just because I had a tough childhood, that something good had to happen.  This toxic thought process took hold of me in my teen years... I had classic symptoms of someone with enti

  Toby enjoying himself at Port Jefferson, NY! During the month of March and May, my wife and I (and our Pomeranian Toby), visited our family in New York.  Because it had been over a decade(!) since my wife and I last visited Port Jefferson, we decided on just that on two different occasions. My first trip (when I was in my teens) was made possible by my buddy Jimmy, who grew up in Long Island.  I remember visiting there to see the beautiful sights, and that good memory stayed with me all these years! We took our mom and our sister, along with Toby, to Port Jefferson on a Saturday in March.  Even in March, the place was crowded.  We couldn’t find parking anywhere near the Harborfront Park.  We instead drove further on and found a spot in the Port Jefferson Public Beach and Dog Park. This actually worked out great because Toby was able to freely explore the area right in front of the parking lot! I can tell he was totally excited to visit a new place.  By now, you probably know when Tob

  Living with less! My wife and I were watching a documentary by two well known minimalists, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemu recently.  We were fascinated by their journey to become minimalists, to live with less, and to thrive. Our journey to live with less coincided with us preparing for our early retirement.  Even though we retired in August 2020, our journey to live with less, actually started around 2019.   In 2019, my wife decided to quit her job of 10 years.  That year, we decided to really tighten our budget.  We stopped buying stuff that wasn’t needed.  Out went shopping for clothes, knickknacks, household items, Toby’s (our Pomeranian) toys, and others… We trimmed our budget to live with less that year.  Little did we know at the time, but this practice to live with less, actually helped prepare us for our early retirement the following year. To prepare for our early retirement in August 2020, we pared down our belongings to around 10% of what we started out with.  T

  View of the Huntington Harbor  My wife and I wanted to look for a park on Long Island that was both beautiful and dog friendly, so all of us, including our family (our parents) and our Pomeranian dog Toby can enjoy.  Luckily, we found such a park in the town of Huntington, Long Island. Chateau at Coindre Hall was built in 1912 modeled after a medieval French chateau.  It boasts 80,000 square feet of living space, which is currently put to good use as a popular wedding/reception venue.  Overlooking the Huntington Harbor, Chateau at Coindre Hall almost feels as if you’re in Europe somewhere.   Besides being used as a popular wedding venue, the grounds are used as a popular dog park as well! We arrived at the Chateau around 11 a.m. and were greeted by the majestic chateau and its circular driveway, befitting a castle.  Parking was behind the chateau, and there were plenty of parking spots available. We marveled at the beautiful scenery all around us.  As impressive as the chateau was,

  Highpoint Scenic Vista and Recreation Area, Pennsylvania  My wife and I are recent early retirees at ages 51 and 48. Since our early retirement in August of last year, we’ve been traveling with our companion Toby, a 13 pound Pomeranian dog, to various destinations in the eastern parts of the United States.   In this post, we’d like to share our thoughts on debt and how it affects financial independence and early retirement. When we were growing up, no one taught us anything about debt, or finance for that matter.  There was no finance class in junior high/high school that was mandatory, nor was there a mandatory requirement in college.   Whatever we learned was through our own experiences and learning them the hard way.  Because of our zero knowledge of finance and debt, we really didn’t think much before using debt.   It quickly became apparent that my wife and I were way over our heads.  What started out as few hundred dollars for a two night overnight trip to a city near New York

  Philadelphia Museum of Art My wife and I are recent early retirees at ages 51 and 48.  We’ve been slow traveling with our traveling companion Toby, a 13 pound Pomeranian dog since our early retirement in August 2020.  We’ve spent a month or longer in various destinations, including Ocean City (Maryland), Atlantic Beach (North Carolina), and the Poconos (Pennsylvania). We’re originally from New York City.  Our journey began there, but we left New York for Hawaii on Thanksgiving Day 2003.  After living in Hawaii for 2 years and 4 months, we started to miss our family and friends, so we headed back to the east coast, to a suburb of Philadelphia. We chose Philadelphia area for several reasons: Close proximity to New York City.  We could drive to NYC, where my family and friends live, in about 2 1/2 hours.  We made good use of this proximity as we constantly got together with family and friends. Job opportunities.  Compared to Hawaii, where the majority of the economy is dependent on to