Wow! I never really thought I would be here doing this now. Okay, I really did not think I would have quit my day job and become financially independent at the age of 50. Well, that is not entirely true…
Have you ever set up a vision board? Vision Boards can be whatever you want them to be, they can be simple or crazy like mine. Whatever makes you feel inspired. It is a graphical board with quotes and/or photos that helps remind you of what is important in your life.
WARNING: This is not a post on alien abductions. Sorry to disappoint, however that would have been fun to write about.
This is my first post in a series of words/sayings/phrases, whatever you want to call them, that I included on my Vision Board. I somehow ended up with 52 sayings that resonated with me and thought that I would try 1 post a week for a year. There must have been a reason why these words struck a chord with me, so I wanted to journal about each of them and see where that takes me. A good project for my second year being FI.
Shake it…Shake it…Shake it like a polaroid picture. Snow globes are a little magical world, frozen in time. This is how I feel like our year is going to shake out (pun intended).The Year of the Snow Globe is going to be our theme for 2022, break out of the life rut I am in.
Today marks my one year anniversary of quitting my corporate job and retiring from my W-2 Income!!!!!!! I could put a ton of crazy emojis here for my celebration, but thought that might be overkill.
Retirement is such a loaded word, but I put this on my Vision Board and it does hold a lot of weight and meaning for me, so I wanted to take a look at my last year with a little review of:
What I did
What I learned
How I feel about the year
One of the beautiful things of being financially independent is having flexibility (okay, I also do yoga) of my time. Having retired parents and in-laws allows for us to visit them whenever or wherever they might be. So, that is what we did this past week. We headed to Tucson, AZ to visit my in-laws or I really should say out-laws since we were heading into the Wild Wild West.
Travel and get tickets now! Everyone always says when they retire they want to travel. Well…I have to admit, that is top on my list after getting enough sleep. I want to get out of my little bubble and experience the world a little bit for a while. Scott and I decided that this year we were going to say “Yes” to pretty much everything and travel seems to be the thing that is coming up for us right now. So, let’s book our trips and get tickets now!
Have your New Year’s Resolutions worn off yet? I know we get super motivated at the beginning of the year to start making changes in our lives, and then the shininess of that for me wears off about 2-3 months in. Here are my 5 Ways to have a Happier Healthier 2022.
I am 13 months in from quitting my job and I am still logging in about 10 hours of sleep a night! Boy did I need to sleep!
The Need to Sleep quote stuck out for me when I was creating my vision board. I am surprised that I have not been working for over a year now and my body is still requiring a lot of hours of sleep.
What do you think of when you say Hawaii? Walking along an exotic sandy beach with warm water lapping over your feet? Drinking fruity pineapple cocktail drinks under gently swaying palm trees? Snorkeling within volcanic reefs and frolicking with Hawaii’s green sea turtles? Yep, that is how I pretty much think of the islands of Hawaii and it is not too far off the mark. Here are my Top 3 Maui Vacation Highlights.
I grew up in the 80’s with Linda Carter being Wonder Woman. I used to twirl around screaming Wonder Wooomaaan and pretending I was Wonder Woman, all the while striking a pose with my gold bracelets. I think Wonder Woman is for the Birds!
It’s summer and everyone is going on vacation, especially to the National Parks it seems. Forget that gas prices are over $6.00 a gallon in California and pushing into the $7.00 range if you need Premium. Love my Ford Fusion with 170,000 miles! So, Let’s Hit the Road!
Our 42 Changes to FI is a checklist of financial and lifestyle changes we made to help us move closer to financial independence.
Colorado Rocky Mountain High…I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky…you know the John Denver song!
Sing with me!
Yep, I was belting that while we were driving from Los Angeles to Colorado on our recent road trip. Love me some Johnny Denver! Colorado Come to Life now!
Post FI Life featured on Mile High FI Podcast.
Explore! I feel like I am on board the starship Enterprise. For you Star Trek geeks like me, Star Trek represents exploration, learning about new cultures, trying new things that I have not done before and experimenting along the way. Star Trek could be a metaphor for a FI lifestyle.
Did you know there is a beard “club” for dudes that have longer, mountain man style beards? Yep, it’s true.
Dudes with longer beards will give a little nod and slight wink to other dudes with longer beards. It is like motorcycle riders that will give little waves to other motorcycle riders, UPS drivers acknowledging other UPS drivers, or truck drivers nodding to another truck driver. The Year of the Beard begins.
I love my toiletry bag! Scott makes fun of my toiletry bag all the time and how it takes up half the suitcase when we used to travel.
I would agree.
I am not a big makeup person, but for some reason I really have loads of toiletries. I love them & need them! I love traveling light.
Be Inspired, Finding Inspiration at FI Chautauqua
Who inspires you?
A friend? A family member? A public figure? A writer? An artist?
Someone who is walking the walk and living their purpose or at least striving for living a more meaningful life?
I worked in Corporate America for almost 30 years and finally retired last year at the age of 50. I was burned out and wanted to do something more creative with my time. In my final few years of corporate work, I was exposed to the FIRE community (Financial Independence Retire Early) and heard about creating printables and selling them on Etsy from Julie and Cody of Gold City Ventures. This sounded like the perfect side hustle to channel my creative energy! Here are my 5 Reasons to Sign Up for Etsy E-Printables Course with Gold City Ventures.