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

  Huntington Beach State Park, Murrells Inlet, SC Epictetus:  “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” My wife and I were watching a documentary called “ Generation Wealth ” directed by Lauren Greenfield recently.  The documentary delves into our worship of money, status, celebrities, and always wanting more and more.  In a word, it deals with our current version of hyperdrive capitalism and how destructive it can be for those that choose money, status, celebrity over things that matter, like family, deep relationships, and living a normal/modest lifestyle. Growing up during the 80’s, the so called ‘Greed Decade’, I got a first hand look at how rampant consumerism and materialism was.  Everything in the 80’s was over the top.   Shopping malls were proliferating at an accelerated pace all around the US.  Movies like “Wall Street” was a box office hit.  Even hair styles got crazier and crazier, from the punk hair to long ‘hair metal’ hair.  Use of recre

  Vereen Memorial Gardens, SC When our pack (my wife, myself, and our Pomeranian) was researching for a place to visit, that is a place where dogs are allowed, we came upon Vereen Memorial Gardens in Little River , South Carolina.  Vereen Memorial Gardens turned out to be a hidden gem of a place, which all of us really enjoyed. Vereen Memorial Gardens is located near the border of North Carolina, and it’s about 40 miles from Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, where we were staying.  Named after Jackson Hiram Vereen , a native of Little River, the land was donated in 1972 to Horry County Historical Commission.  The gardens encompasses 114 acres of woodlands and marshes, and offers nature lovers plenty of opportunities to hike, fish, or birdwatch.   On a beautiful, sunny and warm morning in January, we set about exploring this hidden gem!   We left our rental in Murrells Inlet around 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning, and proceeded to our destination via Route 707 , Route 31 , then Highway 17 Nor

  Grandview Overlook, New River Gorge National Park Fred Rogers:  “Often when you are at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” Recently, I came upon an article that piqued my interest.  It was about a 38 year veteran of the financial services industry who had retired, but failed at it.  He was going through a phase similar to what I went through after retirement, which is figuring out what you want your retirement to be.   Without having a purpose, you can easily feel lost after reaching your financial independence, then retiring early.  In this post, I’d like to share my thoughts on this phenomenon after retiring. Let’s first get few things put out there about the reality of early or normal retirement.   Retirement will not fix all of your problems You will still be the same person before retirement and after retirement.  If you were a happy person before retirement, then you’ll probably be happy after retirement.  If you were a constantly on-the-go type p

  Murrells Inlet, SC (morning view of the golf course) When my wife and I booked our 3 months long stay via AirBnB to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, we were stoked.  It had been 18 years since our last visit to Myrtle Beach, and we had always talked about wanting to go back there again.  When the opportunity came up to book this stay, we jumped at the chance.   Even though this particular rental was over our normal monthly budget of around $1,000 - $1,200 at $1430 per month, we couldn’t pass up the chance to stay at a spacious 3 bedroom/2 bathroom condo located within a beautiful golf community.  Even after we booked the stay, we weren’t sure the booking would stay that way, as we had read reviews of the property, where some reservations were cancelled at the last minute. We didn’t get our hopes up until it got to the month of November, one month prior to our scheduled stay.  We were ecstatic when the rental didn’t cancel our reservation at the last minute.  We definitely didn’t want to

  Death can teach all of a lesson on living… William Shakespeare:  “Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.” When we’re young, death is not something we think about or worry about.  At that age, we feel invincible and feel as if we’ll all live forever.  As we age slowly but surely, this attitude starts to change.   As our grandparents or someone of that age, start to pass away, we start to feel that maybe, we’re not invincible after all.  Losing someone who you knew all your life, changes a person’s perspective on life, and of course, death. We start to realize our own mortality as we get older.  The foolish notions that we’ll live forever and we’ll be in the most optimal physical shape we were enjoying when younger, start to fade away slowly, as surely as the changing seasons. For the most part, this realization doesn’t hit home for some until someone really close passes away, like a parent or a friend.  This was certainly th