2Birds1Stone wrote: ↑Fri Jun 02, 2023 2:42 am
I am officially retired as of yesterday......let the games begin!
Well, it's officially been a full year of retirement......and it's been glorious all things considered.
Financially, things are as good as they can be with the current frothy equities market and seemingly "here to stay" inflation. We calculated that a 3.2% WR would be safe to use as a spending ceiling for the first year, and we've come in at 2.15% of starting portfolio value (1.85% of current value). This is both due to portfolio appreciation over the past 12 months, but more so our spending only being 65% of what we could have spent and still been within that 3.2%.
I haven't had to rebalance anything, and we continue following a rising equity glidepath. Our target asset allocation is 63/37 and we're sitting at 64/36....so just about 1% off.
There hasn't been a single day where I missed work or my old career. There hasn't been a single day where I regretted or questioned our decision either.
I have a few very random observations, lessons, and takeaways that will probably impact the second year quite a bit.
First of all, the good. Being completely free from work was everything that I hoped and dreamed of, and remembered from my first stint in late 2019-2020. Some people have a lot of their identity tied up in their careers, and I was definitely not one of these people. That being said, there are certainly aspects of my job that I do miss now that we're perma-traveling......though these are not work specific things, they are just needs that happened to be met through work for a period of time. That's on me to figure out moving forward, as I feel the need for some sort of ongoing mental stimulation and more regular interaction with other humans.
Not having to answer to an employer is glorious, as is being in complete control of your location and schedule. Over the past 14 months we've spent extensive time in;
Sevilla, Spain (9 days)
Valencia, Spain (13 days)
Algarve, Portugal (2 week hike)
Lisbon, Portugal (3 weeks)
Northwest, Portugal (2 week road trip)
Southeast, Poland (3 months, home town)
Zakopane, Poland (3 weeks hiking)
Lake Solina, Poland (1 week, camping/sailing)
New York, USA (1 month visiting with family/friends)
Florida, USA (2 months, snowbirding for winter)
Bangkok, Thailand (8 days)
Koh Samui, Thailand (1 week)
Koh Tao, Thailand (10 days, scuba diving)
Phuket, Thailand (1 week, scuba diving + breaking my back)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (8 days)
Da Nang, Vietnam (3 weeks, beach life)
Hoi An, Vietnam (5 days)
Ubud, Bali Indonesia (15 days)
Nusa Dua, Bali Indonesia (4 days, resort life)
Gaeta, Italy (4 days)
Rome, Italy (5 days)
Umbria, Italy (3 weeks)
Lake Como, Italy (8 days)
I looked back at our AirBnB/Booking.com info, and during these 14 months we've slept/lived in 53 different "homes" (including hotels, hostels, guesthouses etc).
While it's been amazing, and given the choice I would do it again in a heartbeat.........it comes with some downsides too. The lack of routine and constantly being on the move does wear on you. There's some decision fatigue you deal with, and while you do get better at being a nomad, it's still a lot more effort to get daily things done/figured out in each new place you go.
Our diet, exercise and other important routines/habits did suffer in some locations due to lack of options, convenient options, and at points just lack of willpower to make the right choices.
The comfort of our accommodations varied greatly. I am realizing as I get older, a good nights sleep is something that is becoming exponentially more valuable. We had the pleasure of sleeping in some really comfy beds in nice hotels, but also suffered on some rock hard mattresses or in locations with poor sound insulation where getting a good nights rest was difficult, or I woke up feeling like I got beat up with a baseball bat.
Having access to a kitchen and supermarket/grocery store is paramount in the grand scheme of things. The exception to this was in Da Nang, Vietnam where eating out was so cheap and healthy options were so abundant and tasty that it didn't matter.....but the difference in quality of life and sense of well being when we're cooking and preparing our own food vs. having to eat out or rely on premade stuff is huge. Luckily it was only in Asia where we stayed in more hotels and relied on meals out for the majority of our diet.
I was able to successfully keep up with a good weightlifting routine for ~12.5 out of the past 14 months, which is pretty good.....however, in Italy it was next to impossible to get to the gym. Not only do commercial/public gyms simply not exist in many of the small towns and villages where we stayed, but in order to join almost any public gym, even for a drop in session, you need medical clearance from an Italian doctor. So my fitness and physical well being has suffered greatly in the past 6 weeks we spent there.
It made me realize, that I want to make regular training a priority in future travel plans, and the longest I plan to go without consistent access to a a well equipped resistance training facility is ~1 week at a time. There's just too much of my mental and physical health tied to regular workouts, and bodyweight shit just doesn't cut it. Much less important but tangential is having a foam roller with me when we're traveling.......in Asia I made due with weekly massages and some gyms had a foam roller, here in Italy it's become blatantly obvious that myofacial release on a very regular basis is necessary for me to not feel like I'm twice my age.
The last is walkability of wherever we stay. DW and I are vastly happier when we can step outside the door wherever we are in the world and just walk somewhere. This can be rural or urban, but it's VERY important. We have stayed in several places over the past year which were not walkable (or very walkable) and it's a glaring net negative to our quality of life. Some outdoorsy and nice places, like Lake Como where we stayed at the end of our Italy leg, lacked walkability. We were in a beautiful condo, right on the lake there, but there was one very narrow road that circles the lake, we had the option of going either north or south on this road, there are many sections with no sidewalk and a very narrow or no shoulder and locals and tourists treat it like a private race track. Spending 8 days there, we went on walks mid week during times when car traffic is low, but walking the same 1-2 miles of road gets old really fast. Bangkok was also an interesting example, where it's walkable in the sense that there are sidewalks........but the pollution and daytime air temperatures made it unpleasant most of the time. Luckily there's enough air conditioned indoor space to keep you busy for a week.
So, with some of these lessons learned we have some tweaks to our plans for year two of FIRE.
Slow down on the travel, staying in each place for a longer period of time and making sure that we prioritize the amenities and services that are important to us......namely having regular gym access, a kitchen/supermarket, an immediately walkable area, etc.
And speaking of gym access........getting small and fat over the past few months has lit a fire under my ass to prioritize fitness/health/well being going into year two of FIRE.......with a separate post coming on my thoughts/plans around this. It's going to get spicy though.....
