Pilot Episode

The Pilot Episode

Welcome! Welcome to My Early Retirement Journey.

About Me: Today is Feb 20, 2018 and as of today, I am a single 30-something, openly Christian, hesitantly immigrant-y, human woman. I love watching TV while eating takeout, and I want to retire early. I started really getting into savings and investing late 2017 when I stumbled upon the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) community.  In 2018, I made the decision to try to save for a sabbatical and maybe if all goes well continue the journey to early retirement.

Why a blog? I started this blog to chronicle my journey to early retirement (or a sabbatical) as either is still 10 to 20 years away. That's a long time for a millennial and at times can be really discouraging. I enjoyed writing blogs I had in the past that ended when that season of my life ended. I hope to have an outlet for my musings on the workplace, early retirement, and a touch of personal finance. Lastly, I hope to have some modicum of accountability to the void without the pressure of doing something I wouldn't normally do.

Why Blogger? So like the personal finance bloggers before me, I tried BlueHost because they all said so. It seemed as though everyone was doing it. It was easy, they said, just 3 to 5 steps and you're on your way to a passive income stream. On Saturday, Feb 17, 2018, I gave 3 hours of my life and $60 to setting up my first pay-to-host blog. On Tuesday, Feb 20, 2018, I called and asked for my money back. I then tried the free Wordpress.com site and couldn't find my way out of the dashboard screen. I had penned 3 blogs before while in college on Blogger and thought I could step it up from the beginner feel you get from Blogger. But alas, here I am. To step it up on this platform, I want to see what this AdSense business is about.

April 19, 2018 Update: I went back to Blue host March 28, 2018 and after a lot of technical difficulties, I came back to Blogger April 19, 2018. 

What's this blog about? As I said above, I want to retire early. I read many a FIRE blog one day during the lull of the holiday season at work. The one that stuck out the most was rootofgood.com. His path was clear and concise and although he began writing after he reached early retirement, he left some good breadcrumbs. Other FIRE blogs I came across had similar themes and varied themes from extreme frugality to those with higher incomes who were able to save more and thus retire faster. Almost all were men with wives and children. When I thought about how my blog would be different, I started there.  My blog would be a space for the actual journey of one single 30-something woman on the way to early retirement! Come along for the ride. I urge you!

How do you feel so far? Well, 3 different platforms later, I'm able to type in downtime at work and I feel freer and I'm enjoying myself already! I don't feel the pressure to attract an audience that was implicit in a paid site. I think this was a good choice and as of April 19, 2018, it still is.

March 7, 2020 Update: Went back to self hosting in Aug 2018 and in March 2020, transitioned to Blogger.