Oh no! How did this happen? Somehow, we accumulated a whole bunch of “stuff” and we’re bursting at the seams. Three years ago, we went through multiple rounds of downsizing from nearly 6,000 square feet to around 700 square feet. We did so well with weeding out all of the stuff we didn’t need. How…
Like everyone else, we were super excited for summer to get here. We were planning to head to Colorado for 5 months, hang out with family and friends, ATV a couple times a month, take in Red Rocks concerts, visit Rocky Mountain National Park, find new restaurants…we could go on and on. Well, our plans…
We all fear getting that dreaded letter from the IRS saying we’re being audited or owe additional taxes. Well, we got one of those letters last summer while we were on the road last summer. We weren’t completely surprised by the IRS letter. 2017 was a complicated tax year for us. We sold our home…
Read more How to NOT freak out when you get an IRS audit notice
I’ll start by saying Carter is 53 years old and doesn’t have a single cavity. HOWEVER, he has managed to crack 4 teeth. I guess he follows his own motto (DON’T DO ANYTHING HALFWAY) even when it comes to dental hygiene! We both clench and grind our teeth at night. And, we both wear nightguards…
Read more Emergency Dental Expenses on an Early Retirement Budget
A few weeks ago we went to Costco to buy paper towels since we were down to our last roll. They were completely sold out! We didn’t realize Coronavirus hysteria had already taken hold here in Mesa, Arizona. Well…fast forward 2+ weeks and we’re making all kinds of adjustments to our budget and lifestyle and…
Read more 8 adjustments we’re making on a Coronavirus budget
Do we miss working at all? The obvious answer is HECK NO. And, that answer would be 95% accurate. But, we’ll be honest, there are a few aspects of work that we really do miss. What we DON’T miss: Meetings and never-ending conference calls. When we were working it felt like most of our meetings…
We did pretty darn good living on a budget I had never really been on a budget before we started thinking about retiring early. On the other hand, Carter was a budgeting guru. He actually liked tracking expenses, balancing the books, and looking at trends. Thank goodness! We’ve also realized we’re both naturally frugal, which…
As our first year of retirement came to a close, we set down to talk about what went well, what didn’t meet expectations, and lessons we learned along the way. Here are 5 of the more practical things we learned about ourselves and living life as early retirees. 1 We’re starting to sound more and…
Read more 5 very practical lessons we learned in our first year of early retirement
Christmas is JOY and STRESS all wrapped into one holiday. We really try to focus on the joy of the season and not stress too much. In some ways it’s easier to be less stressed out since we’ve put ourselves on a pretty strict budget. I know that sounds like reverse psychology mumbo jumbo. But,…
Did reading the title of this post make you cringe just a little? Us too! When my dad was getting ready to retire, his employer introduced email. Actually, it wasn’t even called email at that point. His employer called it “the DG” and it had read receipts for every message. That meant when his boss…
