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

  “Shop ‘til you drop” is not going to help with finances... Thomas Jefferson:  “Never spend your money before you have it.” One of the most important things to reach financial independence and to retire early, requires the discipline to not shop for unnecessary things.  Without this under control, the path to financial independence will no doubt be incredibly harrowing. In our consumer driven culture of buying things with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like, is something all of us are ingrained into from early on in our culture. As soon as we’re able to watch television, we’re bombarded by commercials to buy the latest cool cereals, snacks, drinks, toys, and experiences.  I remember watching Saturday morning cartoons dispersed with incredible amount of commercials.  Admittedly, I did enjoy those ‘Tony the tiger’ cereal commercials, or anything featuring Bugs Bunny and company! Looking back, how could a child, like me, not be brainwashed and sw...

  Our Pomeranian Toby  Mark Twain:  “Heaven goes by favor.  If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.” On a cold and rainy day in March (2022), my wife and I said our final goodbyes to our beloved Toby.  Toby had been suffering from failing liver and kidney functions for some time, and we realized we had to let him go when he just stopped eating for 5 days. Toby had been losing considerable weight, and when we measured him in early December (2021) at a veterinarian’s office, he weighed just under 9 pounds.  He had weighed around 13 pounds about a year prior to that, at his last checkup… Immediately after that vet visit in December, Toby had shown improvements with help of medications, suddenly eating much better.  He showed marked improvements for the next two months, looking happier, gaining bit of weight, and being more alert. In retrospect, we think the medications he was taking, gave us two additional, precious months to spe...

  Typical working day I’m a recent early retiree as of August 2020 at the age of 48.  Since then, my pack (myself, my wife, and our Pomeranian Toby), has been traveling the eastern parts of the United States.  In between these travels, we’ve spent time with our family. Recently a question came up.   What was the #1 thing that made me want to retire early?   After giving it some thought, I realized it was the stressful job.  I hadn’t realized it while I was going through it, but since about the last two years or so of my tenure at that job, it really had become the reason for hastening my early retirement.   All my life, I’ve been told that I should work 40 somewhat years then retire at the golden age of 62 or 65.  I found nothing wrong with that plan for awhile.  In the first few years of my working years, I just wanted to make more money so I can spend it.  This drive to make money kept me going at first.   It wasn’t until I quit ...

  Spruce Knob, West Virginia  While I was researching for a place to visit during our pack’s (myself, my wife, and our Pomeranian) month long stay in West Virginia, we came upon Spruce Knob .  Spruce Knob is the highest point in all of West Virginia at 4,863 feet above sea level.  This fact alone was enough for me to visit! Spruce Knob is located within the eastern West Virginia and it is the highest ridge of the Allegheny Mountains.  The “whale-backed” ridge extending for about 16 miles, from northeast to southwest, has many of its peaks exceeding 4,500 feet in elevation.  Spruce Knob is part of Monongahela National Forest and Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area . On a rather chilly morning during the middle of October, we set out to check out Spruce Knob.  As usual, we prepared our de facto lunch lately, of peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which is by far the easiest of lunches to prepare and more importantly, to eat.  Why PB ...