Funding the Adventurous Life
So…2020. To say this year has been unusual, trying, or downright depressing at times would be…well…a start. On any given year, some of us will suffer. All of us will face tough times to some degree. This year, well, we all took one on the chin.
But with so much change, certainly there were some silver linings, no?
Today we reflect on a trying, yet eventful year. How does it feel to be living history in real time?
Continue reading “2020: An Unusual Year We Won’t Forget”
On Monday, December 14, 2020 my grandmother died. This week I’m dedicating my time and effort to reflecting on her life and how she influenced me and so many around her. We examine the power of love and the resilience required to maintain it, strength in the face of adversity, and the search for just good-ole’ fashioned, no-frills, deep-fried, gravy-covered, and Texas-Pete-smothered southern value. This week’s post is a letter to you, Nana.
Continue reading “A Letter to You, Nana”
After years of planning, overanalyzing, and thinking too much, in July we listed our house in Denver for sale and hit the road. Our goal was to spend up to a year traveling in search of our next home base. Five months later and we are back to the game of home ownership again.
In this post we examine the unexpected location of our new home, the current home buying environment, and a hard look at whether current mortgage interest rates are the final incentive to jump into home ownership. Should you consider home ownership right now?
In our minds, we always assumed we’d end up back in Flagstaff, Arizona, where we both lived a decade ago while I attended graduate school.
Well, it didn’t turn out that way. So, where are you going to come visit us?
Continue reading “And We’re Back to Home Ownership! But Why Now?”
Hi, how are you? I don’t have any super financial hacks, tips, or tricks. Not this week. That’s because I’ve been busy with some major adulting, which I discuss at the end. Back when it was rainy and dark and 2020 and I was in a bad mood, I wrote about how I was considering taking a break from this site. One of your key pieces of feedback, thankfully, is that you guys seem to want some interesting stories about life after FI, or life on the road. Well, here’s a true story about two cows and a horse. Apologies if it gets a little weird. After all, I did spend six months of the pandemic reading Stephen King’s The Stand (read it before it becomes a mini series. You know it’s coming).
Please enjoy.
Continue reading “Tales From the Road: Two Cows and a Horse”
This week I’m thrilled to bring you an interview with a pinch of international spice and flavor. Please welcome to the site, the legendary Australian climber Lee Cujes.
In this interview we take a hard look at the long-term aspects of finding a balance on career, lifestyle, relationships, nails-hard climbing, and future prosperity. Lee graciously shares with us how he was able to carve a career niche while climbing at an elite level, how he and his wife Sam made the big move out of the city to a small climbing mecca in the Blue Mountains, and how Lee has used the same, boring and lazy-ass methods of passive investing to build an enduring path to financial freedom. And during some of his darkest days, Lee and Sam embarked on an incredible global climbing trip. Yeah, let’s discuss that too.
Shall we?
Continue reading “Lee Cujes: Super Psyched on the Long Game”
I stand up on my bike pedals in the fading sun of a late spring afternoon. Facing what feels like gale-force winds, I can’t wait to get home and have a discussion with my significant other, who just so happens to be my wife.
We’ve been texting all day, popping off with ridiculous reinterpreted and borderline inappropriate emojis. I told her about how my boss, who in a very important meeting discussing a new research project, explained to a company executive from Houston…
“Well Gary, this stuff is complicated. It’s like trying to figure out your wife.”
Fortunately, I understand my wife fairly well. She is rooted in a strong desire for security, so something like financial stability is very appealing to her. This day at work in 2015, I’ve been reading Mr. Money Mustache, like all day. I’m convinced that we can now super-charge our path to a corporate exit, and we can make work an optional part of our lives, forever. Now, I just have to do some convincing.
This should be easy, right?
Continue reading “Help! My Significant Other Is Terrible with Money!”
We’ve moved from high mountain valleys and ridge lines, to coastal tide pools and arid western expanses. As much as this journey has been the best lesson in the school of life, after four months, how much longer can we go? Today, we find ourselves at a crossroad and we’re lookin’ to make a deal.
So dude…where to?
Continue reading “Four Months on the Road: Can This Really Last?”
Well, damnit. Try as I might to take some time away, I’m still a sucker for this stuff. Last week I asked for your feedback. I’ve been getting to the point where I felt I was hitting a lot of the same talking points week after week. And you guys delivered.
Here’s what you had to say.
Continue reading “Your Feedback Is Very Wonderful and I Am Weak”
Well folks, I have a confession. After two+ years of posting here every single Monday, trying to keep a weekly schedule on this website is starting to be draining, for reasons I’ll discuss below. But I have a request of you. Please read on to see some of my thoughts and ideas on how to make this a better resource.
Continue reading “Moving Forward With This Website: A Request of You”
I’ll admit. I thought that quitting my job would lead to hours of newfound productivity. I will write for hours. Now I’ll double down on web design skills. I’ll climb more, and I’ll rest more. I’ll dust off my 15-year-old gear and start writing and recording music again. Once I don’t have a job I’ll truly find contentment.
The truth is, I’m largely the same guy I was in January, weeks before I walked away from my job.
Is that a bad thing?
Continue reading “Contentment: The Greenest Grass of the Them All”