the money tools you need to be set free
I have a big announcement to make. I’m moving. Again. To Amsterdam. If you’ve been following the blog, this might come as a shock, as I just finished a coast-to-coast move. Although I thought I would be sticking around in Santa Barbara for the next four years, things changed. Life demanded a pivot, so I […]
How did this happen? I am reviewing my finances, and the number on the screen bamboozles me. I’m not complaining, but I don’t really understand how it all happened so fast. The numbers are all there, the graphs show a steady increase of my net worth all the way to the current mind-boggling number. My […]
I’m positive that 2020 will be a bookmark year, one that we can flip to easily in our minds and remember exactly what we were doing when the whole world shut down. For me personally, 2020 brought on lots of change and forced flexibility. I moved from New York to California, worked from home the […]
** NEW SERIES – Financial independence has far-reaching effects on our lives, and for many the pursuit of independence and the obtaining of it has impacted us in profound ways. Today, we hear from Jessica from The Fioneers, who recently quit her job to become a full-time entrepreneur! If you are interested in writing for series […]
An Early Retirement Success Story A year ago, I asked A Purple Life to write a post for this blog. We brainstormed some ideas, and I asked her to write all about a subject I was dying to read more about: how exactly did she plan on retiring on $500,000? She wrote a magnificently detailed […]
We were walking down the path by the river to go meet our friends. As it was the last day before our cross-country move and we still hadn’t finished packing or cleaning, this was a bit of an interesting choice. I didn’t think it was a good idea to pause our cleaning frenzy to go […]
I blinked and July disappeared. At least, that’s what it felt like. The news cycle blares bad news and rising COVID-19 cases every day, and I sometimes feel like a straight-faced duck– calm and serene above the water but paddling like crazy underneath. As you know by now, we moved cross-country and spent a good […]
My family was always thrifty. My winter coats came off the rack of the local Goodwill, my shoes never cost more than $10, and any time I wanted new clothing as a teenager my mother took me to the thrift store (to my horror). As a teenager, I hated it. I wanted the hottest fashions, […]
We did it! We moved from the East Coast to the West Coast, from New York to Santa Barbara, from sea to shining sea. This included selling all of our furniture, shipping our car, packing our stuff, and — last-but-not-least — trundling our cat along for the ride. Are you curious how much it cost […]
Yes, we are moving cross-country during a global pandemic. It turns out that hospitals are considered “essential,” in times like these, so Mr. Mechanic’s residency will start in Santa Barbara on July 1st as originally scheduled. Last year we packed the car to the brim with our favorite things and drove it from Portland, OR […]