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

  Markets will go down, but they will always come back… Warren Buffett:  “Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.” During the heydays of the late 1990’s when everyone and their babysitter was investing in the stock market, I also got my feet wet looking to make a quick buck.  It was a time when everyone made money if they bought anything. I had purchased a mutual fund ($3,000 worth), held it for about 3 months and made $800 in profit when I sold it.  I thought I was a genius, but then, so did everyone else.  I remember reading the cover of “Time” Magazine which showed everyone buying everything to do with the then new technology, the internet.  Back then, if you had a company that did anything related to the internet, then you got rich. You could do no wrong during those years leading up to the ‘dot-com bubble.’  Because I thought I was an investing genius, I invested another $8,000 to buy a technology growth m

  Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, SC During our pack’s (my wife, myself, and our Pomeranian Toby) 3 months stay in South Carolina near Myrtle Beach area, I was doing my usual research to figure out where we should visit.  Unlike during the first few months of our early retirement (August 2020 until April 2021), where I would search for a destination within around an hour drive or so of where we were staying at, since last summer, I’ve been broadening my search to go as far as a 3 hour drive time. As my criteria broadened, so did the list of potential destinations we can explore on a day trip.  One such place turned out to be Swan Lake Iris Gardens , in Sumter, South Carolina. Swan Lake Iris Gardens is the only public park in the United States that feature all 8 species of swans, as well as some of the most intensive plantings of Japanese iris in the US.  The gardens encompass over 150 acres, and feature over 120 varieties of Iris and other seasonal blooms including camellias, azaleas,

  Rat race is no joke… Lily Tomlin:  “The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.” Since my wife and I retired early in August (2020) and got off the rat race, our friends who are still working, all comment that they wished they can do the same.  As far as we know, most of our friends do not find fulfillment and/or satisfaction with their jobs.  Talking with them, they all comment how their jobs have gotten even tougher compared to just 10 years ago.  Even before the pandemic hit, the quantity of work, and the stress that comes from that, have been building at an incremental pace. It seems most companies are letting 2-3 people do the work of 4-5 people lately.  Far as we can tell, the level of frustration and dissatisfaction with their jobs are at an all time high. In this post, I’d like to share my thoughts on the worst days of a typical working week, when I worked. When I started my last job in 2007, I was pumped.  I was so happy that I had finally gott

  Barefoot Landing, Myrtle Beach, SC When we last visited Myrtle Beach area some 18 years ago, we remember eating some great Japanese food for dinner at one of the many restaurants around Route 501.  Even back then, this road was incredibly busy with all kinds of traffic even during early November. We remember waiting about 20 minutes before we were seated at that Japanese restaurant, which was jam packed with diners.  We had some great memories of Myrtle Beach area thanks to excellent food and shopping centers sprawled all over the area.  *Back then, we loved shopping centers! Unlike many places we had visited, we never ran out of places to eat, shop, or do… These days, Myrtle Beach area is even busier, with more developments (commercial and residential) that seem to constantly change the landscape with each passing month.  The popularity of Myrtle Beach area as well as Horry County , which Myrtle Beach is part of, is well documented. In fact, Horry County is one of several counties