Musings about early retirement with no fixed address
A few weeks ago, The Karate Kid marked its 35 year anniversary. To celebrate, the studio decided to have a special re-release in select movie theaters nationwide. Considering that it’s quite possibly Katie’s favorite movie of all time, we decided to break our multi-year theater fast and head to the cinema two towns over. Knowing that this would be a popular event, we purchased advanced tickets for a Sunday matinee.
It will probably not shock you to learn that growing up, I didn’t care much about supermodels. Of course they were attractive, but eyeing a magazine cover in the grocery store checkout line is about as close as I got to knowing anything about them. I could put a name with a face, but that’s about it. I was not into fashion then and not much has changed with age. As such, I only know two things about Kate Moss. The first is that she was extremely skinny. So skinny that even the President of the United States decided to comment on it. (This was back when it meant something for a President to address an issue, unlike the verbal diarrhea we’re subjected to on a near-daily basis now.)
When preparing for a marathon, most runners follow a strict training program. Starting a few months ahead of time, they begin with runs of a few miles and eventually build up to a peak of around 18 miles before ramping back down before race day. Unlike people running a shorter race like a 10k, it’s not recommended to actually run the full distance while in training. That 26.2 miles is too hard on the body and requires too much recovery time. The idea is that when race day comes your legs will ache, your lungs will burn, and your feet will scream, but you’ll rise to the occasion using adrenaline and willpower to get through the final stretch to the finish line.
There’s a recurring theme in the media that Social Security will not be around for much longer. Anytime SS makes the news cycle for any reason, multiple discussions pop up about why it’s doomed. According to a 2015 Gallup Poll, over half of the working public expects to receive zero dollars from Social Security. Especially within early retirement circles, there seems to be a misguided badge of honor to plan a retirement without any SS payments. For a bunch of people who analyze numbers and build spreadsheets for fun, I find it dumbfounding that any of them would voluntarily decide to ignore all pertinent data and plan for zero. Especially because the result of ignoring Social Security is several extra years of unnecessary work. I’m not sure whether this is rooted in general anti-government sentiment or simply good old fashioned pessimism, but the idea of collecting nothing is completely unfounded.
Deciding to embark upon retirement in our early 40s can be a scary prospect. As many, many people like to point out, there are numerous risks associated with that decision. The stock market is due for a crash. Our money may have to last 60 years. Economic signs point to a recession. The uncertainty of self-inflicted trade wars, foreign policy, government dysfunction, and [insert current event here] means that the future is bleak. We could be forced to go back to work with a huge resume gap or work a crappy job when we’re old. Quitting in our peak earning years means we’re giving up money and safety when it’s the easiest to amass both. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
“The traffic is terrible. Everywhere is crowded. It’s polluted and hot. The air quality is bad. It smells. But you should go, you’ll like it.” This is how my friend Dennis sold me on going to his native country of Vietnam. While obviously Dennis does not work in sales, I didn’t actually need much convincing. Ever since I slurped my first bowl of phở, I’ve wanted to go. And everything he said is true, including that I’d like my visit.
This seems kind of strange to consider, but I think we just returned from our last vacation ever. Don’t worry, we’ll still be embarking on our grand travel adventure soon enough. It’s just that our future travel won’t qualify for the title of a vacation. It will just be our everyday life. As such, we wanted to make this last real vacation count. To do that, we decided to branch out of our comfort zone and make our first ever trip to Asia. It was a whirlwind trip through Hong Kong and Vietnam in 10 days. And while I never want to move at that fast pace ever again, it was a ton of fun.
It’s surprisingly hard to pick a domain name for a personal blog. Some of this difficulty stems from the fact that it has a sense of permanence to it. Whatever is chosen, that name will be attached to me for somewhere between years and the rest of my life. As such, I view it as an absolute requirement to pick something that I like, as well as something unique. It would be way too boring and forgettable to pick something like Eric and Katie’s Travel Blog or I’m Gonna Retire Early dot com. That’s not me and it really doesn’t reflect my vision or reasons for writing.
As someone who loves to travel, I have always cherished each and every vacation day. I view them as precious gifts. They are definitely not to be wasted, misused, or arbitrarily cashed in. Using one at home means that I can’t stay that extra day in France or Mexico or Vietnam. As such, I can’t remember the last time I burned a vacation day that wasn’t connected with a trip. But considering that I will have no use for these in the very near future, I broke my rule the other day. For the first time in at least a decade, I took a random weekday off for no real reason. And it was glorious.
Growing up we didn’t eat out often, but when we did my family liked to go out for Chinese food. In particular, my grandpa Herbie was fond of it. I’m not 100% sure if my dad liked the food as much as we did, but he was always willing to go because it allowed him to crack the joke that “if you fart, you’re hungry again” after the meal. When you add in the fact that it was reasonably priced, tasty, and of course came with free cookies, it checked all of the boxes to keep both the adults and the kids happy.
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