10 Purple Questions With A Purple Life

Today’s 10 Questions features A Purple Life (APL)! No, this blog has nothing to do with Prince or even Minnesota. APL lives in Seattle and her story is pretty great. She went from this:

I believed that no one could retire early. I received an email from my Mom during my early years in NYC about how to retire early and I literally laughed it off.

To this:

Current projections have me retiring in 2 years at age 30.

So yeah, TOTALLY killing it!

Why did you start your blog?

I started my blog like many, as a journal. I wanted to catalog my journey to financial independence and track how I changed along the way. I think of myself as a “curator.” I take pictures and write down my experiences so I can enjoy and remember them later in life (I have a horrible memory…). Blogging privately (or I guess that’s just called journaling…) let me get to know myself better. It helped me question my assumptions and actually changed my entire life. I started my blog saying I was going to retire in 10 years, and then I was able to cut it to 5 without changing my standard of living. It’s insane what you can do once you set your mind to it.

What has surprised you about blogging?

Literally everything. I was expecting blogging publicly to be the same as blogging privately: no one would read it, but I would enjoy it and that’s that. That’s not been the case. In just the first month I received heartfelt emails saying how similar I was to a reader, or how I helped them rethink something they were doing. I received comments saying I was a good writer (WHAT?!) and that they enjoyed my ramblings (my phrase). I even found the courage to meet up with blogging legends in person, and they didn’t run away screaming! A few people even set dates for future hangouts. It’s been said before, but I admit I didn’t truly understand it until that moment: I found my tribe. People that I get along with effortlessly; people who I don’t have to defend myself to; people who get me. After only a month of blogging, I was a changed woman. I’m hooked and can’t go back. This community makes everything worth it.

Where do you live? Do you love it, hate it or just meh.

Seattle and I LOVE it! Like the nerds we are, my partner and I created a spreadsheet to categorize all the places we were thinking of moving to when we still lived in Manhattan – expensive, expensive Manhattan. I’m happy to report that this spreadsheet has been used by our friends as well to choose cities to move to. Did the sheet tell one friend to move to Seattle? Yes. Is the spreadsheet rigged? I can neither confirm nor deny that!

After living in Manhattan all of my adult life, I was looking for actual nature (no – Central Park does not count), fresh air that didn’t smell like garbage, public transit that I didn’t have to THUNDERDOME my way into and out of. A city that was walkable, that had nice public transit, access to international airports, great food and a Manhattan salary (Sounds easy right?). It turns out that such a place exists and it’s Seattle. We’ve been here 3 years and originally agreed to 4 (the amount of time we were in Manhattan), but I love it so much and am only 2 years from retirement that I’ve negotiated to stay. What do partner negotiations look like?….Don’t worry about it.

Do you rent or own? What are your thoughts on home ownership?

I am a renter for life. Everyone can do whatever they want (I really don’t care), but personally the idea of being my own landlord sounds horrible. I’m super lazy. I like to just text someone when something is broken and have it magically fixed. I don’t want to deal with that noise. I also believe that for me, change is the spice of life. I can’t imagine buying one home and being tied to it. I think the situation would go like this: “There’s a discount flight to Thailand and I’m going for 6 months – what do you mean I’m still responsible for this house?!”

I’ve also lived in some ridiculous markets in my adult life (Manhattan and Seattle) and have seen a few friends wreck themselves as a result. Buying is not for me for mental and monetary reasons. I also suck at DIY. So I’m planning to be a renter for life.

What do you do for a living?

I’m in marketing and previously worked in ad agencies – and yes, it’s just like Mad Men. As in full of alcohol. I’ve been pressured into taking a shot directly before a client meeting, told to order the most expensive item on the menu because “it’s on the expense account,” and watched a coworker vomit into a potted plant on our way to a client dinner. Fun times. At least I got a liver of steel as a result. Trying to find the upside here!

How old are you and do you have a family?

I’m 28 and if you mean kids, no I do not. My partner and I are also childfree for life. I should write a post about that, but I’m finding it hard to get past the sentence “I personally don’t want kids and think kids should be had by people who want them wholeheartedly.” It’s a short post. As for my household, I’ve been with my partner 10-12 years (it’s a long story…). We’re also not planning on getting married so this is as hardcore as it’s going to get!

Transportation (how do you get around): car, train, bus, bike or VTOL.

I’m car-free for life (I’m sensing a lack of responsibility pattern here…), and I use a mix of walking and public transit with car sharing services thrown in when we’re hauling something heavy. But mostly I walk. We chose our current apartment (which we’ve lived in a record-breaking 3 years!) partially for its location. It’s a 30 minute walk to both our offices as well as to Pike Place Market. The fact that it’s a top floor, corner unit with almost floor to ceiling windows that was cheaper than anything else we saw, didn’t hurt either…

Mr. 1500 note: Lack of responsibility? No way! No kids, no house, no car? This is intentional and thoughtful living by your own rules. Kudos to you Purple One for not doing what society says you’re supposed to do.

What is your FI number? How close are you?

I currently spend between $18K and $20K per year. My FI number is $500K and as of this writing, I just hit $300K! 60% there! I update my net worth here monthly if you want to see how it’s going. Current projections have me retiring in 2 years at age 30. Fingers crossed the market agrees!

What is one thing you firmly believed 5 years ago that you no longer believe?

That no one could retire early. I received an email from my Mom during my early years in NYC about how to retire early and I literally laughed it off. It wasn’t until 4 years ago when I started making more money, seeing how easy it was to cut my spending even in Manhattan and creating a real plan for my future, that I started believing early retirement was possible.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

My hair would be naturally purple. No, I’m not joking. The way I’ve gone about changing my appearance is by going towards what I look like in my mind or as the Matrix calls it my “residual self image.” I’ve always imagined myself with a nose and cartilage piercing, so I got them in high school. It was the same with purple hair – I dyed it myself for the first time in college and haven’t looked back since. The only downside is the upkeep! Hair grows fairly fast so if you don’t have to be rocking an ombre look, you have to keep dying your roots, dying your hair and making sure you haven’t stained your only remaining white towel or last clean pillowcase (both of which I’ve done). It’s a dangerous game dying hair! I’d much prefer if it just grew like that.

If you were a dinosaur, what kind would you be and why?

Oh my goodness I love dinosaurs. Love the Michael Crichton novel, love the ORIGINAL Jurassic Park. Lately, I’ve been watching it almost daily in the background of my life. I guess it’s back on Netflix since the abomination that likes to call itself a sequel is out…ANYWAY, I think I would be a triceratops. I’ve always felt connected to that dinosaur for some reason. Maybe because we both have big ‘hair’ and big hips…and (I imagine) enjoy the possibility of impaling others on our horns. Way to end on a morbid note!

Mr. 1500 note: DO NOT mess with APL.

Thanks for those great responses! Show A Purple Life some love:

• Blog: A Purple Life
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