Early Retirement Life
I spent last Monday through Friday in Tallahassee, and then came home in full Christmas mode. Here is how the things I am working on are going:
- Spanish. I finished level one in Pimsleur, and kicked off level two today. I found a couple of YouTube channels to add to beef things up: Dreaming Spanish, which has short videos in very basic Spanish, and I'm also trying out Language Transfer, which has very short Spanish lessons and from what I saw on Reddit, might have more of an explanation of grammar than Pimsleur's "we'll just throw words at you and let you figure out the rules".
- Math. I'm out! I finished the first unit of the class that I was looking at and was colossally bored/out of motivation. I'm going to move on to something that is more interesting, most likely a Photoshop tutorial. TBD if I start this week or wait until after Christmas.
- Money! I'm planning to write a more detailed, semi-voyeuristic rundown at some point, but for now it's enough to know that I have some old school investments that kick off a bunch of cash at the end of the year (long term capital gains for you money nerds). The payout was this week, and in years past it's been about 2/3 of my annual expenses. This year it was...drumroll please...about 98% of my annual expenses. This is very inefficient for tax purposes, but very efficient in me not having to make decisions about what to sell off to fund my adventures next year. Financially things are going well!
Eats
Christmas baking season is here! I try not to start too early since we don't need our goodies before Christmas Day, but now we're at the point where I can start baking one thing a day. I even hauled up Mixie the Amazing Stand Mixer from the basement to join in on the fun.
Workouts/Wellness
Doggo's best hiking picture of the week is at the top of the post. My tailbone is finally better but I still have a wonky chest muscle that wants no part of pushups. Cardio is fully back, strength is still on hold. Sigh.
Watching
I haven't been playing Connections for very long, and my solve rate isn't very high. However last Tuesday I had no problem at all figuring out the blue level!
Reading
Well, having just watched Rebecca, my next move was to pick up the book (just sayin' the Kindle version is 99 cents right now). This is a tricky book vs movie smackdown since both are very similar and almost equally excellent. I know from past watches/reads that one part of the story had to be changed to meet the censorship standards of the day, but otherwise the movie and the book are near identical. My goal with the reread is to refresh my memory and to Take a Stand instead of saying that they're both good. So far the differences are:
- The book gets to take a little more time with descriptions. Both the book and the movie open with the words "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again" but from there the movie gets right down to action while the book takes two chapters to bask in the glow of Manderley.
- The first name of the narrator of Rebecca is never revealed, and we know her only by her married name of Mrs. de Winter. The movie just rolls with it, but the book teases us a bit. When the narrator sits down to have lunch with her soon-to-be husband, he remarks that she has a very beautiful name.
But forget Rebecca, what you really want to know about is the other book that I'm reading. I came home on Friday to Best Laid Plans!
I'm going to make this one last and only read one chapter each night. Doggo and I are both taking notes.
I very rarely read print books, so this is as good a time as any to tell you about my go-to bookmark. Suzanne asked everyone what the last bookmark that they used was in this post, and here is my visual.
I love these post-it markers because they last forever, they don't damage the book, there is zero chance that they will fall out, and I can put them in the exact spot where I left off.
Peace out! How is your Christmas prep going? Do you have a go-to bookmark?
Ooo, I need to check out Dreaming Spanish to see how much I can follow!
ReplyDeleteLmk if you need Photoshop help! I've been using it for more than half my life! LOL.
Glad the tailbone is better and hope your chest heals up fast too!
Noted! I may take you up on the PS help once I get my bearings again. There are a few features that I use regularly (content aware fill and auto in camera raw for a quick overall fixup), but so many more things that it's been too long since I learned them so I've forgotten.
DeleteEnjoy Dreaming Spanish. There's a video where they show you clips of their four levels to see where you rank, and needless to say I was at the beginner level. But I am a beginner so that's OK.
Okay, that is a very smart bookmark.
ReplyDeleteWoo hoo capital gains! That is so excellent and I am super interested to here all the nitty gritty. Also please send me investment recommendations thank you.
Atta girl tailbone, keep healing!!!! I did a strength workout yesterday and my back behaved, so I think I'm going to keep at it. There was an exercise where the option was to do a lunge and then a dead lift from lunge position and my back was not having THAT, but otherwise all was good.
Rebecca!!!!! Another book I adore and another movie I haven't seen.
Loving all the doggo pics in this post. She is so pretty.
Yay for a well behaved back! Between you and me, I hate combo moves like lunges to dead lifts. I feel like I don't do either move well when they're combined like that.
DeleteRebecca the book is such a gem! So is the movie, but I really love coasting along in Du Maurier's words.
My way of investing made sense in the 90s when I started but it comes with a tax burden that I didn't understand until way later in the game. Today the cool kids use index funds that play much nicer with taxes. For my FU money, I like the Vanguard funds VOO and VTI, but for retirement I play it a little more conservative and use a target date index fund that has the fun stuff plus bonds and international stocks and rebalances so that you're never getting too wild.
I am here for more money talk! Do you and your husband split things 50/50? I’m thinking you have separate bank accounts? When I retire early, Phil will keep working. He isn’t going to want to retire as early as I want to. So he will be my sugar daddy + insurance source and I will take over some household duties he’s done while we both work. Or something to that effect. We haven’t discussed it in detail at all since it’s still a ways off.
ReplyDeleteI am not great at Connections but I guess I am in the top 4th percentile so I am less bad than I think I am. I did not get that Hitchcock one right. Today was a rare day where I got the purple one right first!
We use a kinda sorta 50/50, which is typical of folks who met later in life/blended family situation. We have a joint checking account that we both pay $500 into every two weeks, which covers our basic living expenses (mortgage, utilities, insurance, yada yada yada). When the balance in the account gets too low and/or unexpected expenses come along, then we top up the balance 50/50. We have separate 529 accounts for the boys (separate only b/c I started mine before we got married) and we're tapping out his first and then we'll switch over to mine. We don't 50/50 groceries and such, but if there's a situation where one person feels like they're doing most of the buying, we take a look at the numbers and true up if needed. From there we provide our own stuff - he pays for Boy Scouts and all of his hobbies, and I pay for my travel. Back in the days of child support he paid 100% of that. I always had better health insurance when I was working so I took that on just because it made sense and now what went around has gone back around==>he's the sugar daddy for insurance!
DeleteMixie is the exact same kind of my old one that recently died. It had a good run though! One thing I loved about that mixer is the little timer on it. I have a few recipes that were like "mix slow for 30 seconds, then medium for 3 minutes" and it was so handy for that!
ReplyDeleteYay for the retirement life. It's so great! I'm glad your tailbone is all healed up!
Rebecca is such a good book! I read it as a young person and then fairly recently re-read it - creepy and great!
When I read that your new mixer has a self scraping feature, I kind of wanted to move Mixie a little closer to the edge of the shelf that she lives on. I do like the the timer!
DeleteI love Daphne du Maurier's way with words so much. It's a delicious read.
Yes to the PhotoShop tutorial. That sounds like a great asset to your adventures!
ReplyDeleteOur KitchenAid sits on our counter all the time. Good for you for keeping yours a little tucked away. I guess I do use ours approximately weekly, but it takes a lot of space!
Yippee on the financial gains!
And I am today years old coming to the understanding that Connections colors mean something. Thanks for the insight!
Enjoy reading, baking, and all the holidays have to offer. Merry Christmas!
I'm not that many days older than you in the Connections colors game;-) Honestly if I can solve two rows that's a good day.
DeleteNecessity is the mother of invention. We just don't have the counter space to keep Mixie on the counter, so she lives in the basement. That means that for most mixing jobs it makes more sense to just use a hand mixer.
My first goal with Connections is what I call a Rainbow Row, which means I have to figure out the entire puzzle and then choose one word from each category, so my first row is one each, purple, blue, green, yellow. It makes me happy! I totally thought of you when the Hitchcock row came up. I think that was my last row, though.
ReplyDeleteI put my 401(k) money into index funds because they have lower fees, but beyond that I have no idea what I’m doing with investing. Sad. (Trump voice.)
I had big plans for your math class. I bookmarked it. I have not done more than that, and likely will not. I can balance my checkbook. Do I need more?
If math was more interesting to me, or if I had a need, then I would be all over it. It looks like I got carried away by watching someone else's (Youtube's Chelsea Callahan's) success. Hey, if I hadn't tried it I wouldn't know.
DeleteAll that I know about investing is to put money in and keep it there! The word on the street is that what we're supposed to be doing so I think you're well ahead of the game.
The rainbow row makes my head spin! You are way ahead of my Connections level!
That year-end money update is impressive, Birchie. Covering ~98% of annual expenses in one go may be tax-inefficient, but from a life-admin perspective it sounds perfect.
ReplyDeleteI’m curious - do you tell people outside the bloggy world that you’re FIRE? Or do you have a handy "part-time work from home" excuse you can use when things get awkward?
Also: I use the exact same post-it bookmarks! Once you discover those, there’s no going back.
Bookmark twins! Catrina, you are my people.
DeleteWhat I do for work doesn't come up very often in conversation, but when it does I just say that I'm retired. Around this time last year when I put the stake in the ground and said that this would be the year, I experimented with telling people and found out that a few acquaintances were also team FIRE, so that was an interesting conversation. Another person kind of gave me shade and I have a feeling that says something about that person's financial situation. So far I haven't encountered anything that bothered me. We'll see what happens going forward.
Woot, woot! Hooray for investments that pay off, literally.
ReplyDeleteI am also savouring SHU's book! That and everyone is home and so time to read is scarce right now.
Is that a fresh batch of Kelly's Brown Sugar Shortbread cookies I spy?
You do spy Kelly's shortbread! I learned from my past mistake and made a double batch this time.
DeleteWell, I can't wait for the baking recap. I want to make the shortbread cookies everyone keeps talking about, especially since I found cookie stamps when I pulled out my cookie cutters. But I won't get around to any more baking until after Christmas. That's okay because I plan to celebrate for the full 12 days of Christmas this year!
ReplyDeleteSomehow I missed the post about Tallahassee- I have to go back and read it. Isn't there a FLW house there??? (I guess all will be revealed if I just read the post.)
Love the top photo of Doggo!!!
I feel like everyone has cookie stamps except me! I never heard of them before I saw Kelly's post. I wonder what other great things in the world I don't know about yet.
DeleteYes to 12 days of Christmas!
I'm not sure where the FL FLW house is, but they only do private tours and it's crazy expensive. I paid $100 for a four hour tour of his Wisconsin estate and thought that it was money well spent, but $75 for just an ordinary house tour is too much. If they ever get to the point where they do public tours I might be interested, but for right now, I'll pass.
Yay for financial gains! I bought SHU’s book as a personal Christmas present and am having such regrets that I wrapped it instead of just diving in. Happy baking to you - and watching to Doggo! PS: I thought of you when I saw that Connections connection!
ReplyDeleteNot to worry, you'll have your SHU book soon enough and will catch up. I'll only be a few chapters in by the time you start.
DeleteI'm going to have to check out those Spanish resources. I've been doing Duolingo for a few years, but need to up my game. I listen to some Spanish podcasts and did join an online Spanish conversation group but lately I've abandoned that. Love hearing about your retirement life.
ReplyDeleteA Spanish conversation group sounds like a great way to learn, but right now I just want to study on my own. All of which is to say that I probably would abandon it as well;-)
DeleteI do Connections every morning along with Wordle and the Mini and Spelling Bee. I think I'm at 70 for my Connections streak, but the one you mention here gave me a bit of trouble at first.
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I have a deal: she does baking and I do candy making. Then we trade. I used to bake dozens and dozens of cookies and so many different kinds. It was ridiculous. No one needed that many cookies.
I used a ton of those sticky arrows when I was teaching. So handy! For my bookmarks now, I tend to use the front and back flaps of book jackets or an old Dairy Queen gift card that has maybe 89 cents left on it from years ago.
I'm not that great at Connections. I didn't get any of the rows today.
DeleteI approve of splitting up the goodie prep in the family! It's a hard call on how much to make. We need treats for our family Christmas party, a NYE party, and a NYD party plus whatever we want to snack on. TBD if I've made too little, just right, or too much.
Mixie looks like a true workhorse! I can't wait to see your baking results! I like your bookmark idea. Does learning Spanish mean there are some trips to Spanish-speaking countries coming up? I'm so glad your tailbone is feeling better, and hopefully the chest muscle will soon. I woke up yesterday morning with my shoulder in terrible pain. What did I do? Nothing! It still hurts today, not as bad, but still not great. It's terrible to just have a sleeping injury.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any specific plans to go to a Spanish speaking country, but I'm sure that it will happen. I just want to see what will happen if I spend a few months studying another language. The contenders were Spanish, French, and German and basically I flipped a coin and got Spanish first.
DeleteI FAILED at that exact connections!!!! I should have gotten it from reading your blog alone!!! And so excited you are reading BLP ❤️
ReplyDeleteSHU, your book is amazing! If anyone is looking for a reason to make a 100 dreams list, your book is it. I can't wait to see what comes next!
Deletegreat to learn about passive financial decisions paying off. please share more.
ReplyDeleteLoved SHU's book too!
I'll get there eventually but it's going to be super boring...keep piling money away and eventually it will make more money that you could ever dream of.
DeleteI’m very interested in the financial information about your early retirement life. I also just started reading Rebecca for my book club book. I’m going with the audiobook to listen to during my commute. I think it will make my commute more fun and not creep me out by reading it too close to bed time.
ReplyDeleteI’m glad your tailbone is healed up and you are able to do most of the exercise you want again.
I guarantee that it will make your commute more fun! I'm almost at the end and it was all that I could do to "adult" and put it down at 11:30 last night because I knew that staying up to finish would not make me feel good. And this is a book that I've read a few times so I know what happens!
DeleteI'm sorry I'm so late - I meant to rush right over here on the Connections Hitchcock day. My daughter was so mad, she was like "who even is this guy and his movies" and I felt like a failure as a mother. We exchange opinions (complaints about connections) fairly often and it's a real bonding experience. Do you know about the Minute Cryptic? If you don't, don't go there, it's terrible and makes me hate myself.
ReplyDeleteBeing so intentional about your retirement life is so smart. Knowing when the class is going to be bad and boring is also good.
Your dog is unspeakably gorgeous!
Those kids! If you asked the boys about Hitchcock they would say "who?". We showed them NxNW, the rest is up to them.
DeleteI feel like Minute Cryptic is...something that I am not ready for yet. I need to get better at Connections first!
Everybody and their cousins are reading Best Laid Plans this Christmas season LOL :) and I love that your mixer has a name.
ReplyDeleteYes we are!
DeleteI'm in a group with friends where we share our Wordle and Connections results, and let me tell you, it makes me feel very dumb because I am SO BAD at Connections and they are SO GOOD AT IT. Like, they regularly get purple first??? Why am I friends with these people?? SIGH.
ReplyDeleteI have Rebecca on my bookshelf! I want to read it in October, but I keep forgetting, so I probably should stop waiting for a specific month.
I don't have a go-to bookmark. I have SO MANY BOOKMARKS and I love selecting a new one for each new print book I start. :)
Yes please read Rebecca ASAP! It's too good to wait on any longer.
DeleteLol "why I am friends with these people?" I know the feeling!