This blog will return to normal programming shortly (finance, farts, and dinosaurs). However, summers are pretty busy with the girls out of school. Posts where I show you some pictures are easy, so this is what you get! Hey, at least I’m honest! Plus, maybe my tales of adventure will convince some of you to jump on the FI bandwagon! Life is good here on the Other Side. And, there are a couple of FI nuggets in here as well…
Here is how our summer adventures were supposed to go down:
- Drive to Oregon over the course of 3 days
- Spend one week in Sunriver and Bend
- Drive to Pismo Beach over 3 days by way of the California coast
- Spend a week in California
Everything was going great. My friend and I leisurely drove to Oregon with our two younger daughters. We visited friends, hit tennis balls, and floated the Deschutes.
And then my daughter came down with a sore throat. She’s fully vaxxed and already had COVID, but the test came back positive anyway. The only good choice was to drive home. Oof.
But, the daughter’s case was minor and after completing her quarantine period, we realized we could still fit California into our plans.
Before we get to the pretty pictures, some random thoughts on financial independence and travel:
- Leisurely movement: FI allows you to travel at a slow pace. It was great to be able to drive 1,000 miles over the course of 3 days. In pre-FI times, I would have driven 1,000 miles in a day.
- Flexibility: When you don’t have to answer to a job, you can plot your wanderings more efficiently. Go to wherever you want to go in the off-season or when a last-minute deal pops up.
- Community: The best part of FI for me is the wonderful people I’ve had the pleasure to meet. I feel like I have friends all over the world. In Oregon and California, I spent time up with four different sets of friends who I’ve met through FI events and the coworking space.
Post-kids, Mindy and I will travel even more leisurely. I look forward to a time when I can delete the word travel from my vocabulary altogether. Instead of traveling someplace, Mindy and I will rent a space for a month or more and live like a local. I’m not sure what the word is for this (partial nomad?), but it sounds like a pleasant way to be.
No need to rush around. Go to the beach and read. Take walks around the neighborhood. Write on the laptop. Create on the iPad. More than anything, just live intentionally slow. I’ve been going fast for long enough.
Morro Bay And Pismo Beach
Travel has come bouncing back. Most of the hotels in Pismo Beach were sold out, so we spent the first couple of days in Morro Bay. This was just fine because Morro Bay is pretty great.
We drove up to see the elephant seals:
The elephant seals were big, smelly, and violent (the boys were competing for the girls).
In contrast, the Kilowatts Rivian I spotted nearby was sleek, beautiful, and did not stink in any way:
Wine country:
We moved on to Pismo Beach which was mostly foggy. We did manage to see signs of the sun a couple of times though:
I spotted a Model S Plaid near Shell Beach. It looked great. While I’m a fan of Tesla, the cars have been plagued with poor build quality. The fit and finish on this one was great though:
Back To Work?
No, I’m not going back to that kind of work! I’m done/ through/ finished with 40 hours per week in a cube answering to a boss. No thanks to any part of that! Heeeeellll no! No WAY! Is that clear!? 🙂
When the girls go back to school next week, I’ll start working on the weird house that we’ll eventually rent:
After that, I’ll finish the work on our primary house.
This time, I’m not going to be going at it solo. Mindy will be helping and filming our work for BiggerPockets. I’m also hiring my friend Arik. Work is best with friends.
I like the way my life has turned out. Living in a van or on a beach with no work to would drive me nuts. I like balance where I can bounce between work and fun. Best of all, I can do it on my own terms and according to my own rules.
Life is good.
More 1500 Days!!!
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Hi Carl –
Glad to hear D is recovered from Covid and you guys made it to California. I had to laugh at your phrasing of what you and Mindy might get up to “post-kids”. I sure hope you don’t have something nefarious planned!
Enjoy the rest of your trip!
P.S. My sister recently listed a twin toilet brush holder for sale (hers was a pink Siamese cat) for $5 on FB Marketplace. She literally got dozens of replies and a bidding war commenced. It sold for $30 the same day. Too bad the Dalmatian is broken. ?
Hey, you went right past us! *Belated wave* We love Pismo and Morro Bay, it was a regular stop with the dogs, pre-kids. I can’t remember when we last got to hang there for a little bit but it’ll be nice to go back sometime.
I’m glad this latest case passed quickly. I hope that’s the last of it for y’all for a good while.
Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life recently posted…Summer travel recap
Hi Carl!
Big fã here, and love your humor too… hahahaha
“The best part of FI for me is the wonderful people I’ve had the pleasure to meet. I feel like I have friends all over the world.” So I´m here in Portugal waiting for you guys!!!
😉
Cheers and keep up the great posts please!!
heheh
Hi Carl,
Hope younger one fully recovered. I loved all the pictures. Thanks for sharing a picture with Scott. That’s awesome!
Interestingly, you mentioned Mindy and you planning to travel once you are empty nester.. 3 months back, I set up a countdown on my phone when my daughter would turn 19. My wife and I would be 55 by then. As of today, there are 4 x 1500 days + 201 days and 12 hours remaining. I would be financially independent much before that but that’s when I would start exploring the world as a living as a local.
However, I don’t know if I would be healthy and alive to execute my plan, so I would be traveling every year as I used to do before covid. I am looking at international exploration couple of years from now as I would get my Greencard (fingers crossed) and getting in and out of USA would be much easier.
Thanks again.
Looks like you had a great summer vacation despite the Covid diagnosis. Sorry to hear you got sick.
We moved this summer, so as soon as I find a more permanent place to live it’s “back to work” for me too.
Looks like you’re living the FI life my friend! Funny thing is FI led me down the entrepreneur path. I’m working on growing my paid newsletter and YouTube channel, both of which are making me decent side income right now, into enough to at least meet my expenses so I too can pull the plug on full-time work. I had the same realization: I love work, but I hate restrictions. I love building things (physical and building brands/companies/ideas) so I just want the freedom to do that as I want and not punch a clock.
If I’m being honest, I go back and forth in the spectrum between the extremes of [I could quit right now, take out enough for a year’s expenses and really focus on growing my two businesses] to [keep things as is, which is really supercharging my FI growth]. I’ve even considered finding something part time that would help pay the bills while I grow my two businesses. So many possibilities!
~BC (of the former FI blog FrugalWheels
Hey Old Friend!
Wow, I like how you’re doing things. How cool is it that you could step out of work and into your hustle? In any case, it’s pretty awesome to have all of these options.
Work is the key to happiness!
How wonderful! We live in morro bay so this was such a fun post to read! We are also FI and have been for about 8 years it is so wonderful to live this life and as you said we are grateful every day for it sometimes it feels like it must be a dream but it isn’t. Next time you are in this area please let me know i would love to connect! We don’t really know anyone else in our situation and it can be weird to talk about with non FI people often times when people ask what we do we end up explaining this crazy story u til their eyes gloss over lol. We became FI at 32 so you can imagine how weird it is to tell people you don’t work in the traditional sense when it is so ingrained in this culture. Thanks for your blog!
Wendy!
Thanks so much for the kind note!
You live in such a wonderful corner of the world. Morro Bay is fantastic!
We’ll definitely reach out next time we’re there. Please do the same next time you’re in Colorado!