It’s been another great quarter of reading! We always try to read a variety of subjects, genres, and authors; Dragon Guy keeps himself accountable by doing the Dewey Decimal Challenge. Feel free to drop us your recommendations in the comments bel...
In March 2022, we took our first international trip since the pandemic began. We flew into Madrid, Spain and visited five cities over a three week timeframe: Granada, Sevilla, Córdoba (day trip), Toledo, and Madrid. Getting to Córdoba We were in Sevil...
In March 2022, we took our first international trip since the pandemic began. We flew into Madrid, Spain and visited five cities over a three week timeframe: Granada, Sevilla, Córdoba (day trip), Toledo, and Madrid. In this post I will review the week...
This month, we took a Colorado roadtrip to Denver to visit family. We spent two nights on the road each way instead of one – we like to drive no more than 6 hours or so a day. We spent a total of 12 nights … The post Early Retired Life R...
Earlier this year we published our 2022 goals for the year and our 2022 expense budget. Now it’s time for our mid-year review of both our goals and our finances! 2022 DRAGON GOALS UPDATE Using the stop light as our inspiration, we’ve used a col...
In March 2022, we took our first international trip since the pandemic began. We flew into Madrid, Spain and visited five Spanish cities over a three week timeframe: Granada, Sevilla, Cordoba (day trip), Toledo, and Madrid. I will be breaking our trip...
We were home for the entire month of July. The crazy hot temperatures have worn us down. Thankfully we have been able to enjoy our neighborhood swimming pool a few times a week. In July we kept busy by learning together through different projects. T...
I’ve reached my fifth year in early retirement! I continue to be incredibly grateful that I discovered the FIRE movement in February 2017 and was able to retire that same year. We’d been saving consistently for almost 20 years of our career...
In February 2022, we spent five nights in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We visited family in Florida and then made the easy hop down to the popular Caribbean destination. Since Puerto Rico is part of the U.S., it was relatively straightforward to get there –...
We’re home for the next two months. We Dragons have traveled a lot since March, and it’s good to take a break, especially since air travel seems to be dealing with lots of delays. Despite being home, we still have plenty of activities to ke...
Every quarter we summarize our favorite reads in our Bookworm Chronicle series. Since we retired, we read whatever we want, whenever we want. Before the pandemic, about fifty percent of Dragon Gal’s reads were non-fiction. At the beginning of th...
In January 2022 we did a road trip to West Texas and visited Big Bend National Park and Ft Davis, TX. We’ve always wanted to go to Big Bend but lodging has been a challenge. The park is huge — larger than the state of Rhode … Th...
This is the fourth year I’ve done a declutter 1k challenge. Over the last 3 years, I’ve gotten rid of 2,811 items. 2019 – 1,089 items decluttered 2020 – 717 items decluttered 2021 – 1,005 items decluttered This year I’m getting rid of...
Dragon Gal first “met” Mark Jeffery on Twitter when he was tweeting “daily reasons to quit.” Wow! These tweets are so hilarious/thought-provoking/sarcastic/ironic/real, she thought. And who couldn’t use some authentic cont...
In May, we went on a three plus week trip to Germany and Iceland . We spent 12 nights in Germany – 5 in Munich and 7 in Berlin – and 11 nights in Iceland. But before we write about our trips this month, we … The post Early Retir...
Thanks to early retirement, I have been able to read more books than when I was working. From 2019 to 2021 I have read a total of 115 books. Dragon Gal has read more than double over the same period (282 books), but she reads … The post De...
In October 2021, we took our first airplane trip since the pandemic began. We flew into Albuquerque, NM and rented a car for a two week road trip to the Four Corners states of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. During our trip, we visited 6 Nat...
In April, we finished our 3 week trip to Spain and visited Dragon Gal’s family in New Jersey. Unfortunately we caught COVID from our family visit and spent about two weeks recovering. Up to this point, everyone in our immediate family has been COVID f...
The last leg of our Four Corners Road Trip was in Arizona, where we visited Petrified Forest National Park. We spent two nights in the nearby town of Holbrook, AZ. In October 2021, we took our first airplane trip since the pandemic began. We flew...
Yesterday was Tax Day in the U.S. (Thank you Washington, D.C. for your Emancipation Holiday which gave us all 3 additional days to file our income taxes). This is our second year of dealing with income taxes in early retirement. It is possible to kee...