Early Retirement - Two Month Update

What the hell do I do all day; What we spent in August

How Do I Spend My Time? Am I Bored Yet?

It’s been two months since I decided to leave the cubicle behind and spend some quality time recharging and reskilling. I still have this mental hangup about calling it retirement, mainly because I don’t feel retired. At least not in the way I envisioned it, sitting on a beach somewhere with a drink in my hand.

I still wake up at 5 AM most mornings. I have no desire to sleep until 10 each day or to binge on the latest Netflix series with a bag of potato chips in my lap. Early mornings are, for me, a time for contemplation. My mind is very quiet before sunrise, the Sandman effective in his charge to stash or discard any and all mind-noise accumulated the day before.

Naps? Guilty as charged. And they are wonderful.

I still spend much of my day taking care of my family, cooking delicious meals for around two dollars per person, or driving my son to and from school. We have fascinating conversations. I marvel at how my kids’ brains work.

When Xiao, my oldest, was around three or four, she was dishing out sage advice that I carry to this day. Once, a car cut me off, and I started tailgating them out of anger. Xiao, perched in the car seat behind me, said “what happened?” I replied that a car cut me off and that made baba mad. Xiao, age four, then said “You worry about you.” Humbling parent moment.

I once asked Han, ever the little scientist, “Han, if walls are made of atoms and water is made of atoms, why can I move my body through water but not through a wall?” Han, maybe age five or six, answered “Oh! Baba, the atoms in a wall love each other very much and hug each other very tightly. The atoms in water are just kind of ‘friends’.”

Spending more time with these little humans before they rocket off into the world to begin their own lives was my number one reason to FIRE.

I now have time to take urban hikes through Lakeland’s beautiful downtown neighborhoods and historic district, almost daily. Many Lakelanders converge on the three-mile path around Lake Hollingsworth for exercise. I do as well, but I find the cobblestoned alleys and architecture of downtown more interesting. Plus there is the added benefit of ducking into the Library for some free books or a coffee shop if the mood strikes.

I captured this Roseate Spoonbill along Lake Hollingsworth. We have a lot in common in that we are both odd birds.

I’ve started doing yoga, which I am jokingly calling broga. For about five minutes, I thought I made that term up, but apparently, broga is already a thing. I am just beginning this journey, but I can already feel the benefit.

I repair my own things now, whenever I am capable. I recently celebrated my first time changing out the brake pads on our seven-year-old minivan. After a couple of youtube videos and about $60 dollars at my local Autozone, I was able to save about $300, strengthen my car-repair muscles, and even belt out a few curse words that were just waiting around in my mouth for an excuse to greet the world.

I don’t think about my old job or the day-to-day problems I left behind. It is actually amazing to me how quickly I let all of that go. Or maybe it isn’t, because I’ve always tried to work myself out of a job, empowering whatever team I was fortunate to lead. My last team was very strong, and I knew they would be ok.

I don’t look at role openings and have already turned down one offer to return to the cubicle. More and more, I am drawn to entrepreneurial thoughts. If I ever return to living off of a wage, rather than our investments, then it will most likely be in a venture of my own making.

August Spending

We are a few months into our new budget system, and it is working out well. In August, we spent $5,729 with most of the money going towards our basic needs. We don’t have a mortgage or car payments, so the bulk of the spending for our basic needs was on Groceries & Hygiene ($1256) and our Health Plan with the ACA ($1083).

Food, Glorious Food!

We obviously still have some room for improvement on the grocery front, but we grant ourselves some grace here with two growing teenagers in the house. When both of our kids leave to start their own journey, we expect our food costs to drop by at least half.

Navigating the ACA

We receive a small subsidy on the ACA for our bronze HMO plan. So far, we’ve had pretty good results with keeping our same Doctors and Specialists. We transitioned from a high deductible plan under my previous employer ($8,000 out of pocket before the insurer paid anything) to a $0 deductible plan with co-pays. We built up a pretty hefty Health Savings Account (HSA) balance during my working years, and we can now leverage that for co-pays under the new plan if we choose. We’ve had three doctor visits so far under the new plan, and I think our total out-of-pocket has been about $15.

Next year, our Adjusted Gross Income will be reduced, and we expect our ACA premium to shrink to around $300 per month thanks to an increased subsidy. I admit I am sometimes shy about telling people that we are taking advantage of a subsidy for our healthcare costs, feeling their judgment. How dare you draw from the government teet! But then I remember that over our 30 years in the workforce, we’ve paid approximately $1.1M in federal taxes, and then I don’t feel so bad.

Our Passions

While we like to see lower numbers in most of our budget, not so in Our Passions. This bucket is full of things like quality time with friends and family, travel, and learning new things. We’re happy that we were able to put up to 12% of our spending in this category, mostly as we made memories with our family, but we would love to divert a larger percentage of our budget to this bucket over time.

Travel Update

We’re still talking about the memories made on our recent trips to Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende. The school year has started, which hampers our ability to do more international travel right now. Maile and I are doing staggered trips up to Maine this month for some quality time with family and a few rejuvenating hikes. These trips cost nothing, as we tapped into hefty SkyMiles reward balances. We are also super excited about our spring trip to Cincinnati for the EconoMe conference to hang with some fellow money nerds.

Nos Vemos, Amigos!