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

  Grow your money! My wife and I are recent early retirees at ages 51 and 48.  Since our early retirement in August of 2020, we’ve been slow traveling with our Pomeranian dog, Toby.  We’ve visited destinations such as Ocean City (Maryland), Atlantic Beach (North Carolina), Claysburg (Pennsylvania), Ellicottville (New York), and we see ourselves continuing to travel in our foreseeable future. In this post, I’d like to share my tips on putting away money towards retirement accounts, like the 401k and the IRA/Roth IRA. When we started this journey to become financially independent, there were few pivotal moments that altered our path.  Had we not chosen to increase our savings rate from measly 3% in the beginning of our journey, to eventual 24% by the end of our journey, we probably wouldn’t be where we are today.   To achieve our goal, constant corrections, like increasing our savings rate, were needed along the way.  Lifestyle changes, like spending less, that would allow this to happen

  Beautiful scenery on I-80 Pennsylvania  My dad was the one who was instrumental in instilling in me the love of the open road.  One of my favorite childhood memories was going on road trips with my dad, my brother, sometimes my mom, and  my dad’s friends to places like Washington D.C., Luray Caverns, Philadelphia, Longwood Gardens and Atlantic City. As a child, I loved looking out the car to the ever changing scenery around me.  I loved how the landscape would change from the concrete jungles of New York City, then to open areas right outside the city. I would marvel at how many trees would start to appear once we cross over one of the many bridges and tunnels to leave the city behind. All the wide expanse of farmlands, the hills which would eventually become mountains the farther west we go, and the sparkling bodies of water, would fill me with awe and wonder. I loved when I would lie down on the back seat then look up at the top of the window to see highway light posts moving into

  Grayden Paul Town Park, Beaufort, North Carolina  George Bernard Shaw:  “You don’t stop laughing when you grow old.  You grow old when you stop laughing.” Whenever we mention to anyone about retirement or early retirement, the most popular option people ask about, seems to be RV (recreation vehicles).  A variant of RV’ing is ‘van life’, which takes the RV concept but it goes even more extreme, in that the space is even smaller with less amenities compared to an RV.   For awhile, we’ve been following the tiny house movement thanks to hit TV show ‘Tiny House Nation’, which showcases people downsizing to a home about 1/10th their current home!   We also thought about house sitting wherever possible for some time. In the end, we chose slow travel using services like AirBNB and Vrbo, to stay a month or longer at one destination.  Below are our reasoning behind why we decided this way and our reasons for/against each lifestyle option: RV (recreation vehicle): We seriously considered buying

  Harkness Memorial State Park, Waterford, CT In early May, we took our family to Preston, Connecticut for our mom’s birthday.  Why did we choose Preston?  Well, it was absolutely the best option available that had fantastic views from anywhere in the house! We were searching for any AirBNB rental for two nights in any of the tri-state area that borders New York.  We searched Long Island, upstate New York, and New Jersey, but we didn’t see anything that blew us away. We found a rental in Preston, Connecticut which did just that! We set our search criteria to fit under around $200 per night (fees/taxes included).  This house went a bit over that at $220 per night, but boy, it was worth it!!! We left early to do some light grocery shopping from a supermarket near where our mom lives.  We bought some water, drinks, snacks, and meals, then headed out via the Throgs Neck Bridge. We were excited to take a mini vacation and have some quality family time!  We all commented on how beautiful the

  Letchworth State Park, NY My wife and I (and our Pomeranian Toby) have been slow traveling since our early retirement last August.  We rely on AirBnB or Vrbo when we travel, and this past April was no exception. We chose a monthly rental via AirBNB in the month of April, in a town called Claysburg, Pennsylvania.  The rental was a studio unit that has a bed, a futon, full kitchen and a private bath. On the day of our arrival (April 1st), we were greeted by snow falling at the condo.  It was a beautiful sight to behold! We checked in with no problems and slowly settled in.  The next three days were uneventful.  We did our usual unpacking, then we went shopping for food from a nearby supermarket the following day.  We enjoyed the sights nearby and were having a good time at a new location. By Monday of the following week, our luck had changed for the worse.  The neighbor upstairs did what sounded like to us, either deep cleaning and renovating! We heard loud music blasting, while heavy

  Point Park, Johnstown, PA In the month of April, our pack (myself, my wife, and our Pomeranian dog, Toby) stayed a month in the town of Claysburg, Pennsylvania.  It was during that stay that we decided to venture out to a nearby town of Johnstown, PA. Johnstown is perhaps best known for the bursting of a dam in 1889, creating a flood that killed thousands of people.  It created a media frenzy back in the day, and the event was later dubbed “the Johnstown Flood.” Today, the events of the flood are commemorated at the Johnstown Flood Museum.  The documentary which is viewed at the museum, tells the heartbreaking story of the events of the flood. With this limited knowledge of Johnstown, we headed out on a beautiful day in mid April.  There was no major highway from Claysburg to Johnstown, so we took multiple country roads.  The roads took us down and over mountains revealing magnificent views of the valleys below. We saw farms miles out in the distance, and we saw plenty of huge windmi