Llorona's Log, Take II
Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2018 6:16 pm
Hi folks. It's been a little over a year and a half since I've participated in the ERE forum. A lot has changed in my life, so I've decided to resume my journal again.
DETAILS
Name: My handle, pronounced Yo-ROH-Nah, is a play on a Spanish word. The literal meaning is tearful or weepy, and "La Llorona" is a Mexican legend.
Values: Compassion, equality, diversity, transparency, kindness, simplicity, creativity.
Location: SF Bay Area, California, USA
Age: 45
Ethnicity: Mixed Asian/white. I identify as a person of color. I look Latina. Or maybe Nepalese or Egyptian.
Work: Self-employed part-time consultant in the nonprofit industry.
Marital Status: More on this later.
FINANCIALS
Since this is a forum on early retirement, let's start with the financial details. Not quite sure how this happened but my net worth is $900K+. This includes home equity but excludes cars and "stuff." Because I'm more or less the sole breadwinner in an extremely HCOL area, my monthly savings rate is not great. However, the practices of saving windfalls and pinching pennies 'til they squeal, combined with favorable market conditions, has lead to a steady increase in assets.
Home equity comprises approximately one-third of my net worth, largely attributed to buying right as the local housing market was taking off four years ago. One might contend that home equity is meaningless, but I'm including this information because the plan is to sell the house and move someplace cheaper to retire. Hopefully an earthquake will not destroy the house before this happens. However, if this occurs, the land will still be valuable, so I will erect a tiny home and create a mini urban farm with goats and chickens.
RETIREMENT PLANNING
Early retirement is still a ways off, perhaps nine or ten years. Theoretically, retirement might be possible right now in Thailand or a very LCOL part of the U.S.; however, since my work-life balance is positive, I'm okay with continuing to work for a while. Eventually I'd like to move up the coast, perhaps Oregon, and live a simple life with a vegetable garden and small livestock.
LIFE UPDATES
One a personal level, two notable changes have occurred in the past year and a half.
The first is that my father disowned me due to a difference in politics and values. (He is an extremist who believes in racial segregation.) This development was initially hard, but escaping the toxicity of our relationship has been exceedingly liberating and positive. He is dead to me. I have no regrets.
The second development is that my marriage is now open and I have a 20-something boyfriend who lives out of state. Presently, the relationship is a closed V with me at the hinge, meaning that neither my husband nor boyfriend are seeing other people, nor are they involved with one another. This arrangement has been in place for about six months and is going very well. I appreciate the stability of having a loving, established foundation with my husband, as well as an intense mind-body connection with a "cub" who thinks I'm hot.
The rest of my updates, including my ERE sins and transgressions, follow below in pictorial form:
Still gardening and growing fruits & vegetables.
DH and I redid the backyard last summer. We hired someone to install the patio, but we did the landscaping ourselves, including lugging two tons of ginger rock from the front driveway to the backyard.
We like to share our garden harvest with neighbors. They, in turn, share with us. Here, I am making limoncello and lemonade with lemons from my neighbor's tree.
Last fall, I checked an item off my bucket list by visiting the Sedlec Ossuary, also known as the Bone Church, in the Czech Republic. While we were in Europe, we spent time in Prague, Vienna, and Paris. My husband was particularly interested in visiting classical composers' homes.
A rare indulgence, my husband and I purchased a piano earlier this year. It was not inexpensive, but we got a good deal by buying it at a liquidation sale. My husband is a composer, and I have resumed playing classical piano for the first time in a decade. Currently I'm learning Schubert's Fantasie in F minor for two hands and Mozart's Twinkle Twinkle variations.
Because I have very little family apart from my husband, friendship means a lot to me. We do a lot of budget entertaining, such as this: butternut squash lasagna, zucchini, tomatoes from the garden, and a $6.99 bottle of wine.
=
Until next time.
DETAILS
Name: My handle, pronounced Yo-ROH-Nah, is a play on a Spanish word. The literal meaning is tearful or weepy, and "La Llorona" is a Mexican legend.
Values: Compassion, equality, diversity, transparency, kindness, simplicity, creativity.
Location: SF Bay Area, California, USA
Age: 45
Ethnicity: Mixed Asian/white. I identify as a person of color. I look Latina. Or maybe Nepalese or Egyptian.
Work: Self-employed part-time consultant in the nonprofit industry.
Marital Status: More on this later.
FINANCIALS
Since this is a forum on early retirement, let's start with the financial details. Not quite sure how this happened but my net worth is $900K+. This includes home equity but excludes cars and "stuff." Because I'm more or less the sole breadwinner in an extremely HCOL area, my monthly savings rate is not great. However, the practices of saving windfalls and pinching pennies 'til they squeal, combined with favorable market conditions, has lead to a steady increase in assets.
Home equity comprises approximately one-third of my net worth, largely attributed to buying right as the local housing market was taking off four years ago. One might contend that home equity is meaningless, but I'm including this information because the plan is to sell the house and move someplace cheaper to retire. Hopefully an earthquake will not destroy the house before this happens. However, if this occurs, the land will still be valuable, so I will erect a tiny home and create a mini urban farm with goats and chickens.
RETIREMENT PLANNING
Early retirement is still a ways off, perhaps nine or ten years. Theoretically, retirement might be possible right now in Thailand or a very LCOL part of the U.S.; however, since my work-life balance is positive, I'm okay with continuing to work for a while. Eventually I'd like to move up the coast, perhaps Oregon, and live a simple life with a vegetable garden and small livestock.
LIFE UPDATES
One a personal level, two notable changes have occurred in the past year and a half.
The first is that my father disowned me due to a difference in politics and values. (He is an extremist who believes in racial segregation.) This development was initially hard, but escaping the toxicity of our relationship has been exceedingly liberating and positive. He is dead to me. I have no regrets.
The second development is that my marriage is now open and I have a 20-something boyfriend who lives out of state. Presently, the relationship is a closed V with me at the hinge, meaning that neither my husband nor boyfriend are seeing other people, nor are they involved with one another. This arrangement has been in place for about six months and is going very well. I appreciate the stability of having a loving, established foundation with my husband, as well as an intense mind-body connection with a "cub" who thinks I'm hot.
The rest of my updates, including my ERE sins and transgressions, follow below in pictorial form:
Still gardening and growing fruits & vegetables.
DH and I redid the backyard last summer. We hired someone to install the patio, but we did the landscaping ourselves, including lugging two tons of ginger rock from the front driveway to the backyard.
We like to share our garden harvest with neighbors. They, in turn, share with us. Here, I am making limoncello and lemonade with lemons from my neighbor's tree.
Last fall, I checked an item off my bucket list by visiting the Sedlec Ossuary, also known as the Bone Church, in the Czech Republic. While we were in Europe, we spent time in Prague, Vienna, and Paris. My husband was particularly interested in visiting classical composers' homes.
A rare indulgence, my husband and I purchased a piano earlier this year. It was not inexpensive, but we got a good deal by buying it at a liquidation sale. My husband is a composer, and I have resumed playing classical piano for the first time in a decade. Currently I'm learning Schubert's Fantasie in F minor for two hands and Mozart's Twinkle Twinkle variations.
Because I have very little family apart from my husband, friendship means a lot to me. We do a lot of budget entertaining, such as this: butternut squash lasagna, zucchini, tomatoes from the garden, and a $6.99 bottle of wine.
=
Until next time.