Healthy Life, Happy FI

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It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted our last blog. I didn’t know if it was writer block, burnout or just sheer laziness. But I didn’t feel like writing or doing much of anything for that matter.

It’s interesting because just when things are going well and excitement for our future plans should be building, I seemed to have hit a funk. Business has been great, the markets have been great and we have a couple of small weekend trips booked. We also started mapping out our college road trip and even have a preliminary itinerary for getting to the university on time. Planning these trips is one of my favorite things to do, but I’m finding it hard to enjoy it this time. What the heck is going on? Continue reading “Healthy Life, Happy FI” →

December 2019 Financial Update

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Goodbye 2019! What a year for the markets as well as personal change and direction. And if everything goes as planned for 2020 this ride will not stop.

The month of December unexpectedly proved to be the busiest month on the business front. It seemed like there was a mad rush to close out real estate deals before the end of the month so bookings were up and so was revenue. Because of this I expect January to be slow as the pipeline reloads. However, I am very new to this industry so this is just a gut feeling and hopefully I’m wrong. Continue reading “December 2019 Financial Update” →

2019 Year In Review

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2019 was a year of change and planning for our future.

After stumbling onto the F.I.R.E. movement and realizing we didn’t need to work into our 60’s, or even mid 50’s as we had always planned, we started taking our finances more serious. We cut back quite a bit on our spending and increased our savings rate nicely. We have never been able to accomplish a 50% plus savings rate because we have always had a sizable lifestyle and also took on the equivalent of a second mortgage with our RV. However, we did manage to move the needle in the right direction after cutting some costs and scaling back on frivolous spending.

On the downside, sort of, when I decided to move on from my job and start our business our savings rate went down to almost nothing for the last quarter of the year. Hopefully this is just a small set back as the business grows and contributes more to our finances. Continue reading “2019 Year In Review” →

Financial Independence and Mortality

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Sometimes little things occur and bring a renewed focus and a reminder of why we work to achieve financial independence and the life of freedom that comes with it.

I have had several of these moments over the last few years. They usually occurred in the corporate setting where I was just plain tired of the daily rat race. Many times I realized I was missing important events our son was involved in exchange for being miserable at work. It’s never a good feeling to have to choose work over family because financially you have no choice.

Recently I had another one of these moments, but this one was different and much more emotional. Maybe the holiday season had some additional influence but it hit me hard. Continue reading “Financial Independence and Mortality” →

November 2019 Financial Update

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Here we are, heading into the final month of 2019. It’s amazing how time flies by when you are busy and focused.

Business continues to pick up and there were only a few days in the beginning of November where we didn’t have any appointments booked. Since that time we have received a steady flow of business and increased billing for services. On paper we already have enough revenue in billed services to cover all of the start up costs and expenses up to this point. So after a little more than two months we are at break even which is a nice accomplishment.

Another positive was actually receiving our first payment for services. And just in time too, because the business account we opened was getting very low on funds and I didn’t want to dip into our personal account again. We wanted to do the old frame and hang your first dollar tradition, but how do you do that with a check? I just made a copy and quickly deposited it so we had some funds in the account. Continue reading “November 2019 Financial Update” →

Happy Thanksgiving!

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We would like to take a moment to wish all of our readers a happy Thanksgiving.

We appreciate your support and taking time to follow our journey.

Joe

Lifestyle Deflation

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Recently some of my fellow bloggers have written some excellent posts about lifestyle inflation and the impact it has on savings and finances over time. My friends over at moneyonfire.blog have a great write up on the subject which you can find here.

This got me thinking about the subject and I came to the realization that over the next year we will be entering a period of significant lifestyle deflation. This has always been the plan as you can’t live full time in an RV and have a lot of stuff. However, the fact that we are now within a year of making this dream a reality is very surreal.

This realization is already starting to impact our decision making and spending habits. Several times this past week we passed on purchases because it wouldn’t fit our future lifestyle. We have had more discussions about things that we need to figure out how to make work in the RV, like computer equipment, as well as things we are going to need help getting rid of. Continue reading “Lifestyle Deflation” →

This and That……

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It has been a few weeks now since our RV was damaged in a incident at a truck stop. You can read up on that here if you missed it. This has been a major bummer for us as we have had to cancel two trips now and have been stuck at home on weekends. The good news is that we finally got word this week that the repairs are completed and our RV is ready to be picked up.

The worry however, as with any vehicle, is that there will be additional issues that need to be worked out or that some things will not work the same as they did prior to the accident. I guess we will cross that bridge when we get to it. Also, our insurance waived our deductible so we are not out of pocket for any money. In the end, we got the best results out of a bad situation and we are grateful for that. Continue reading “This and That……” →

College Road Trip 2020

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This past Summer we enjoyed a wonderful family adventure. We visited Yellowstone National Park and a whole host of other states and campgrounds. It was our assumption that this trip would be the last time our son would join us in the RV as he would be heading off to college next Fall. Well, it looks like we will be doing a little family road trip next year after all.

Now that our son has accepted admission to a big east coast U we started discussing the logistics of getting him and his stuff across the country. Our first thought was for us to fly there and ship all of the necessary items to him. This was going to be very expensive as flying is not cheap and neither is shipping. Our son is also a student athlete so we are not just talking about shipping some clothes and some bedroom items. We need to bring his gear also, which is a big and heavy bag. Continue reading “College Road Trip 2020” →

October 2019 Financial Update

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Another month down and it feels like the year is flying by. October was an exciting month right up to the point that our RV got smashed by a trucker that apparently doesn’t value the use of his mirrors.

The month started out slow after I left my job. As I wrote about in my blog post titled “Two Weeks In” I didn’t get any work or even a single phone call for the first two weeks. I was getting kind of worried that I might be stuck without any income for a long time and that wasn’t going to cut it. Luckily I was able to get a connection with a company and they started sending steady business my way. It’s not paying me a lot at this point, but it’s a start and also gives me something to build on. Continue reading “October 2019 Financial Update” →