Hey hey all!
It’s been awhile since I hit the keyboard. Not going to lie, I am 100% over blogging. It was a fun ride while we were on the journey to reaching our FI number. But now that we are here on the other side of the pasture, there’s really not much to write about in regards to personal finances.
It’s not that things are doom and gloom or that early retirement = depressed Court. It’s really the opposite. I used to type these posts up in the middle of a night shift at work at 2am to kill time. Now that I’m no longer working, I don’t want to be in front of a computer. It’s as simple as that. I want to be out living life. Spending time with my family. Hanging out with friends. Trying out new foods. Exploring new places. Building relationships. And when it’s time to relax, I want to actually relax and not be typing. Life has been good – really good – and I highly encourage everyone reading to pursue financial independence.
For those who think you will be bored, you need to figure out your WHY. Is it to travel? Spend time with your kids? Take care of your aging parents? Give back in ways you can’t while stuck in a day job? Whatever it is, you gotta figure that out. And if it means incorporating some sort of side gig, great. You do you. You have the flexibility to design your days how it best suits you and that’s what matters most.
The whole entire concept of FI is quite simple when you boil it down: spend less than you earn, invest the difference in a low fee diversified ETF/index, and wait (while enjoying life along the way). It’s really the mindset shift that’s required to make this possible as that spend less than you earn piece is hard to do. Once you’ve figured out that we don’t need to spend spend spend in the consumeristic culture we live in, your spending on things you value becomes pretty streamlined that you can guesstimate what you’re overall spending for the year will look like. Of course there will be one-off hiccups to account for but in general most things are in check. That’s the beauty to it. It’s quite a stress free way to live.
Stop worrying about hyper optimizing your portfolio, chasing the latest high interest savings rate promo, or uber focusing on a tax strategy that has minimal output. The biggest thing to focus on is your savings rate. Then select a low fee index and max out your registered accounts. Then go after your non-reg. Chug chug chug along. Calm down and go live your life.
Ok ok back to an update. Our portfolio continues to plough up and to the right. We are now multi millionaires which is sweet but honestly all we did was give each other high-fives once we realized our net worth now starts with a 2 in the front. We’re still spending ~2% of our portfolio not because we are worried but because this seems to be our baseline happiness number. Sure we could spend more on some discretionary spending categories, and we are, but it’s really not swinging the needle much. I’m sure as the kiddos get older, our yearning for travel will continue to grow, but for now as much time at the cabin in the summer + 1-3 week trips sprinkled throughout the year is working out well for us.
We are loving being present parents. It’s extremely exhausting but worth it. I’m volunteering a lot at Kindergarten and Girl Guides and taking some art classes, Nic has joined a soccer team, Finn is starting to confidently read (hallelujah!), and Parker is definitely turning into a little man with his personality starting to shine through.
I like to say I’m not really retired. Instead, we’ve taken on the following rolls:
- conflict resolution specialist
- alarm clock
- correctional officer
- hair dresser
- librarian
- house keeper
- chef
- waitress
- chauffeur
- referee
- snuggler
- teacher
- manners expert
- tooth brushing instructor
- keeper of top secrets
- birthday party planner
- playground medic
- meltdown negotiator
- search & rescue: small plastic pieces unit
- art critic
- playdate secretary
All while obtaining our Master’s & PhD in Patience while still remaining CEO of the Department of Make Believe.
All jokes aside, we are extremely privileged to be living this life and we don’t take that lightly. We try to help out other families around town as we are always saying to each other “can you imagine if one of us was still working?!” (recognizing having a 2 parent household is a luxury and then having one of those parents be a stay a home parent is an even greater luxury). We are wiped when one of us heads out for a few hours and we’re left to solo parent. We are extremely extremely grateful for our set up.
We all get to go skating together on Monday mornings, go to a play class Tuesday mornings, head to a STEAM class at the library Wednesday afternoons (when most parents are normally still working), head to a kids class out of town Thursday mornings, go swimming together Friday mornings. Gah typing all this up is giving me anxiety for next year when grade 1 is 8am-2pm.
That’s another thing. Kindergarten in Alberta is half days (2.5 hours) and I LOVE this set up. I SO wish all of school through grade 12 was like this. But of course, what other family wishes this?! Most families struggle with an 8am-2pm type set up and need to find after school care. Yet here we are complaining about not getting to see our kids for 6 hours a day.
What it’s ultimately come down to is that we are officially unrelateable (thank you Ryan for this concept).
We are in this enviable position to most people. But we can’t relate to most of society and how it’s set up. It’s a bit of a Catch22. Our ultimate goal is time freedom but it’s hard to talk about it to others as they simply cannot comprehend how we got to where we are. It’s hard to talk about our day/week/month to others when they are in the grind mentality. It’s not a bad thing per se, it’s just hard to have small talk with some people when our lives are literally a complete 180 to theirs. We never would want to come off as “braggy” to others, so it’s a fine line of trying to help motivate others while keeping our lips zipped up too.
That’s why I love the community of like minded FI folks we have in town and I like this little pocket of the internet where those reading do get it. So, I don’t think I’ll be giving up this ole blog tomorrow but don’t expect much from me in the future. I might pop in every once in awhile, but no promises.
Hope you all are living life on your own terms and enjoying it along the way. I’ll end this post with one of my favourite quotes that I have tattooed: “Let Life Take You”. I’m curious to see how our life continues to evolve over the years.
It’s great to hear from you again, and equally great to know that we haven’t heard the last of your adventures and progress deeper into parenthood. Your updates are a refreshing break from the “10 best stocks/ETFs for Canadians” and the like.
I know what you mean when you say “we can’t relate to most of society”, and “it’s hard to talk about it to others”. From our experiences, I don’t think that will change for a long time, if ever. I recall a quote I read somewhere: “Being in debt is normal, be weird!”. That weirdness that got us to this place, doesn’t go away. It’s good that you’ve found a community of like minded individuals.
I did a day of consultancy work today. I didn’t like it! I did it to help out a friend, and it reminded me of why I don’t work anymore. From the early rising, the 45 minute drive on icy roads to the office, to the all day meeting, and then the drive home in the dark, struggling to see the road through the drizzle, in the hopes of not hitting a deer (again). Nope, it’s not for me. The life of freedom is hard to beat.
Keep up the good work in all of your many new jobs 🙂
As always a great read. Glad to hear you are all well and thriving and happy. I never thought about relatability until reading your post. Thanks for the epiphany!
One of the challenges post FI is not to be consumed by MORE efforts to constantly optimize, which I had to learn to minimize with the help of stepping away myself from certain media and groups.
We are weird as we try to remain involved in our teen and early adult child’s lives. The trips to the playground are now driving my non-morning person child to school. Yes they can drive or bus or train but sometimes it’s nice to have that one-on-one time to catch up with their lives. I don’t see it as a chore but a blessing. I’m squeezing in a little time….. as long as they let me. But having even teens at home is a great transition period as we practice being just the two of us. And like you said our calendar is still really busy (how could we do this dual full time working?)
But we still have new adventures! I have an interview for my Nexus card this week (and I must admit I feel a bit nervous for some reason.) The appointment adds a cool different energy to my week.
Anyways take care and enjoy always! Thanks for your update and great job on all your jobs!
Thanks for the update, Court. Good to see you are doing well. This last few months of market ebullience has done well to calm nerves for those who are invested, perhaps less so for those still hoping to “get in.”
Thanks for the check in my friend, next trip your way I’ll reach out and hopefully have some time to spare unlike last time. Glad things are going well and are surviving being part of the toy search and rescue team 🙂
Sharing IS caring, and thank you so much for sharing. Yours and Nic’s teamwork is an inspiration.
Honestly, I really enjoy my kids as well! I was also lucky to be home with them until they were 2 and 4 (and then I only worked 9 months and took the summers off until they were 5 and 7). When they were babies we got comments like, “just wait until the terrible twos!” Then it was, “just wait until they’re in school, you will welcome the break!” Then it was, “Ugh, tweens are so awful” quickly followed by, “just wait until they’re teenagers, then you’ll see!” Maybe I will regret saying this in a year or two, but my kids are almost 14 and 16 and I LOVE hanging out with them! Teenagers are pretty great, quite frankly. I just really have enjoyed them at every age. Sure, not every day is a delight and there are moments where you just want to scream, but that is just life.
I am so grateful that our kids still want to hang out with us! Just last night my kids sat up drinking tea with me laughing and chatting. We have a lot of those moments but we have cultivated that culture in our home as well. IMO when you are active in your kid’s lives from the beginning then that continues over time. TBQH it’s weird to me to have kids and then not want to spend time with them!
Hi Post Morbus, I just wanted to say I really enjoyed reading your comment here.
I’m a teacher and it has always broken my heart to see the kiddos who come into school from before-school-care, and then leave school for after-school-care, and somewhere during the school day shed some tears because they miss their mom or dad. I don’t always know the situations but I’ve shared that feeling that it’d be weird to have kids and then not spend time with them. You really don’t get that many years, and even the hours are limited once they hit school age!
Keep enjoying those teenagers!
Thanks so much! I am so grateful that we had that time with them. Someone once told me, “the days are long but the years are short” and it’s so very true. I can’t believe the eldest will drive this year (I am sorry, what?!). 🙂
Goodbye to another of my fave blogs! Thanks for everything you’ve shared over the years. You’ve certainly helped many people with your diversity of posts.
I’m personally thankful for many posts over the years and even more thankful that it’s not goodbye in real life! If not for your blog I wonder how long it would have taken for me to put it together that we lived in the same community…
Pretty incredible how many of us there are here, and even though we’re in many different positions/life stages there is a very core outlook that I love to connect over.
So happy to hear you’re living life to the fullest and living your why. I do wonder if your family would do well with some form of homeschooling with a distributed learning school program that has some in person contact and community. I know you were waffling a bit on this before. Also, have you ruled out long, slow travel for awhile after Portugal didn’t end up quite as you’d pictured it? You all do sound definitely settled nicely in Cochrane (who knew there was an FIRE community there? A northern version of Longmont perhaps? Enjoy it all, and I always appreciate and look forward to more updates when you feel like it and will see you in the FB groups in the meantime.
Hey, friend! Like you, FI life takes up a lot of our time so I find it hard to keep up with blog stuff—including reading and commenting on my friends’ blogs!
I love your updates, but I totally understand why they’ll be less and less frequent. I’m in the same boat, sadly (but also not really as it means we’re living our best lives—offline)!
Happy that your family is living the best life! Thank you for writing this blog and I enjoyed the interviews. Have fun, and Happy Spring.