Funding the Adventurous Life
Hi guys. Many in the financial independence community see a new car as the sunlight and garlic to an otherwise sublime fiscal vampire existence.
Thou shalt not buy a new car!
Well, thankfully there are no rules in financial independence, so we bought a new car. Twice. In three months. And we learned a hell of a lot in the process about how to get a good deal.
Continue reading “How to Get a Fantastic Deal on a New Car”
Alrighty folks, we’re back on the interview bandwagon! This week I am pleased to bring you an interview with the industrious and energetic Lauren Abernathy. Lauren is a 25-year old professional, fully-obsessed climber, writer, and lover of adventure. And she’s a boss of her money.
At an age when Lauren began optimizing her professional life and learning to save for her freedom, I was trying to free myself from four to three nightly PBR’s.
Grab a cup of coffee, PBR, or whatever and let’s settle into some incredibly important life lessons for those at any point along their journey.
Continue reading “Lauren Abernathy: Finding the Balance”
Right as all this coronavirus nonsense was ramping up, I was writing a really long post about what we were going to do with this new-found financial freedom. I was going to tell you about how (and why) we bought a new 2020 Toyota Tacoma in January. And then I was going to regale you with stories of our sweet little A-Frame camper, and solar, and batteries, and stuff. Oh, and then I was going to explain to you our plans for a super-rad road-trip across the country and all the adventure. Then came the coronavirus. Then I was rudely smacked by an absent-minded 27-year-old girl going 60 mph on the interstate while I was stopped. We suddenly went from one car to no car.
I think we all can agree how quickly life changes.
Continue reading “When Being a One-Car Household Really Sucks”
Happy Monday! What a week! The coronavirus is spreading like southern Kudzu and is now officially a pandemic. Social distancing is suddenly the new order, flaming a wildfire of fear and panic, crippling the economy. The stock market is currently down 20% from its February high. The S&P 500 dropped 9.5% in a single day. And then the very next day the market bounced back 9.3%. We have entered bear market territory, ending the historic 11-year bull market run. OPEC meddling crashed oil prices. And I just quit my job. We have (had?) big plans for a new way of life. So, what’s changed?
Continue reading “The Sky is Falling: Lessons from the Coronavirus”
Hey guys, we’re back stateside (coronavirus free?) and I’m here to provide the final installment on our trip to Sicily. We’ve discussed the climbing, the lifestyle, and the food, but perhaps there’s a feeling of dismissiveness because it all seems too outlandishly expensive to go galavanting around in Europe. But is it?
Continue reading “Sicily, Part 3: Two People, Two Weeks, $1300.”
Alrighty then, welcome back to more spray-down about our trip in Sicily. If you missed last week, check out the little ditty on the beachside climbing mecca of San Vito Lo Capo. This post highlights the cities of Syracuse and Palermo, a stark contrast to the low-key coastal town we experienced in our first week.
Continue reading “A Winter in Sicily, Part 2: The Big City Life”
So last week I quit my job. And now we’re in Sicily. Greetings from the sunny Mediterranean! And sunny it is, a wonderful departure from the snowy and dark northern latitudes where our journey began. We find ourselves this first week in the small town of San Vito Lo Capo, living that peninsula life in northwestern Sicily.
Continue reading “A Winter in Sicily, Part 1: San Vito Lo Capo”
Raise your hand if you want to climb more but work seems to always take up so much time? This notion of balancing work and life is essentially the essence of what we do on this site, and there’s nobody better to discuss this intricate balance than elite-level climber and software engineer Mike Doyle.
Continue reading “Mike Doyle: A Remote-Controlled Climbing Life”
Hey you guys, it’s 2020, a new year! One of my favorite (past) pastimes is to begin each year with a plan for using all of my vacation. Studies, however, reveal that Americans are rarely capitalizing on the full gift of paid time to not work, and it’s costing us all big-time. The rippling effects go far beyond our own well-being and can affect society at large.
How much are we truly leaving on the table?
Continue reading “The Astonishing Cost of Unused Vacation”
Charles Sheldon lived over a century ago. There was no Twitter, no hashtags, no websites, and no “financial independence movement.” After a brief but lucrative career in the railroad and mining industries, Sheldon became a self-made millionaire in his 30s and retired at age 35. He used his newfound freedom to track down bighorn sheep and then, you know, became the “Father of Denali National Park.”
So, it begs the question: what would we do if we were given the gift of time?
Continue reading “Charles Sheldon: FIRE Before It Was Cool”