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

  Silver Lake Bog Preserve, the Adirondacks, NY John Steinbeck:  “People don’t take trips, trips take people.” I’ve been so fortunate to have retired early at the age of 48, then travel the country with my wife.  Traveling has always been something that I was born with.  Ever since I was a child, the thought of going somewhere new, always made me incredibly excited. Every child can relate to going to a zoo, an aquarium, or a park and feeling the wonder of it all, experiencing new sights, smells, touches, and feelings.  These memories tend to stay with us forever, as during our adolescence, we tend to have open minds, capable of soaking in all new stimuli with gusto. As we age, that wonderment goes away, replaced by a jaded view of the world around us.  We no longer feel amazed by a trip to a zoo or an aquarium, as most of us has seen it all.  We no longer are that excited by trips to new places, like when we were young. There are too many things going on all around us.  There is the jo

  At the bluff overlooking Silver Lake, Silver Lake Bog Preserve, NY John Muir:  “In wilderness lies the hope of the world.” During the first week into our month long stay in the Adirondacks (New York) in April, my wife and I had hiked to the top of Mt. Jo and we absolutely loved it.  We were exhilarated, at times scared, but also had the time of our lives on that hike. We did get lost on our way down, but it’s these trips that you tend to remember when you think back.  We were secretly hoping we could do more hikes in the Adirondacks after that first hike to Mt. Jo. Our AirBnB rental provided a local magazine called “ Adirondack Life ”, which we got to read at our leisure.  In one of the magazine articles, I came upon one of the quintessential hikes to do in the Adirondacks, the Silver Lake Bog Preserve . After our exhilarating hike to Mt. Jo, followed by our hike to Mt. Arab, the following week, we were totally excited to hike the Silver Lake Bog Preserve.  So, on a beautiful, sunny