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Two Years of Early Retirement

Two Years of Early Retirement

It has now officially been over two years since I’ve received a paycheck. I did a one year early-retirement retrospective around this time last year, so I figured I’d continue the tradition in order to document things for myself and for anyone else interested in what life after pulling the FI/RE trigger looks like. Where my first year of not working was dominated by lots of little projects, a lot of time devoted to hobbies, and generally just flitting about…

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Being Early Retired Won’t Magically Make You a Better Person

Being Early Retired Won’t Magically Make You a Better Person

(Or: Why I Sent Out My Wedding Thank You Notes 7 Months Late) We all do it. You’re sitting in traffic, or at your desk, or in bed trying to fall asleep, and you’re daydreaming about what life will be like once you finally have the time to do all those things you’ve been putting off because you’re just too “busy/tired/focused on getting that promotion right now.” Once you’ve made the money you need to retire early you’ll finally be…

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Looking Back on My First Year of Early Retirement

Looking Back on My First Year of Early Retirement

(Or: “Look Mom and Dad, I’m Not a TOTAL Lazy Bum!”) It’s been a little over a year since I last received a paycheck. I’ve already written a bit about what the first three months of early retirement “feels like.” And I also wrote about what I considered my purpose in life without a job to give me direction. But, now that I have a full year of early retirement under my belt, I figured this would be a good…

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How I Think About My Life Purpose in Early Retirement

How I Think About My Life Purpose in Early Retirement

They say it’s not enough to retire from something, you need to retire to something. Examples abound of people in the early retirement community finding out that early retirement didn’t, by itself, make them happy. If you’re too focused on leaving the rat race behind that you fail to think about what comes next, you’re going to have a hard time in retirement. I took this admonishment seriously before I retired at 31 and I spent a lot of time…

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Thoughts From 3 Months of “Early Retirement”

Thoughts From 3 Months of “Early Retirement”

A few months ago, at age 31, I quit my job. I left because of a combination of a new boss I didn’t see eye-to-eye with, a stressful period of wedding planning and house-moving, and a desire to spend more time on all the hobbies and projects I’d neglected for work. Plus, since I’ve saved and invested 15x-25x my annual expenses, I figured I could take some time off (whether it will be a mini-retirement or permanent remains to be…

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