My plan was to visit a particular city, see their downtown area and have a meal. I thought it was an 1.5hrs away but it was a bit farther and I took the longer route so it turned out to be 2 hours. The issue is that I didn't leave home early. I left closer to 1 and the restaurant I was going to was going to be closed when I got there but would reopen at 4 🙄 With that discovery, I decided to detour to another town and see what it's like there. When I got there, I saw they had Long John Silvers. I haven't seen those around here and it had been a while since I ate at one. I decided to order an old favorite. Big Mistake! I feel like they took all the salt in Utah and dumped it into the batter. The hush puppies were good, the Coleslaw was good and the fries were good. The shrimp and fish were hot but it was so salty. I tasted the corn and trashed it with the rest of the fish. For me to throw food away, it means it was bad. All I really wanted was the shrimp which I ate.  The la...

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, a question I see sometimes is: What do you do with all your time now that you have FI/RE'd or reached FI/RE. Since I don't use that term, I've had another nurse ask me what I do with my time now that I'm home because she knows I quit and it's been months. She actually found out around last September so she's not known for long. I was driving home earlier today after having a conversation with someone I met last month and I thought to blog about this week. I wrote about Sunday and I'm going to document some of the things I did today.  I was up after 7 today but really didn't get up until closer to 8. I'm trying to get up early. I really should have been up around 7 because I went to be early. I did my morning devotion and then ate. I just realized that I haven't really read the paper today. I usually take time to catch up on Wapo while eating breakfast. I had planned to cancel my subscription in May but I fo...

A question I see on Reddit sometimes is: What do you do with your time now that You have FI/RED?  To me, simple answer is "living". The sum of one's life shouldn't consist solely of work so that when you don't work, you feel you are not living. Also, if your entire identity is tied to what you do, I can see having a sort of crisis, existential or whatever, when you stop doing that.  Life is meant to be lived. Personally, doing this in my 30s has been a blessing and I feel like it is a great time to do it because there is much to do while young.  I thought to give a glimpse into how I spend my days. I don't think this is representative of how I usually spend my days as I've had some interesting past month that may have been worth blogging about but I also chose to spend my free time doing what I wanted. I don't have much planned for this week so we'll see. I tend to rest on Sundays because during the weekdays and Saturday, I'm usually doing some...

 I've had another nurse ask what I do with my time. She simply knows that I quit my job but I have not mentioned FIRE to her. She has asked that question more than once. Interestingly, I've been busy. I find it so interesting because I went to work full-time sometime post-pandemic and I read about 15 books in the second year of working full-time. I went part-time the year before I FIRE'd and read less books. I think I only read a handful of less last year. This year? I think I've only read 2 and it's June! One would think that I should have read more after going part-time and if "One" didn't think so, I  thought so. No, I'm not sitting at home watching TV, I'm also not on social media scrolling. So what do I do with my time? Living. I recall a colleague asking me back in 2023 when I went part-time: what do you do with all your time? I said I'm in the business of living. Actually, I wanted the days available so I could schedule therapy becau...

 I was at a wedding reception last December, so less than a month ago, when someone asked me where I worked. Usually, I get asked what I do for a living. It's easy to say "I have a degree in Nursing". But this woman asked where I worked. I simply said I don't work. She didn't believe me. She asked if I was being truthful.  Considering I don't know her very well and primarily know her from the church, I don't know why she would think that I'm lying. But I quickly turned things around to ask her where she worked. And was asking more questions when the couple came in and so I stopped.  The question about what to say when people ask what you do for a living is something I've seen asked on the FIRE subreddits. So here  is my take on it.  First of all, I try not to talk about work. I think some people ask this question just to make conversation and in some cases, it's easy to say "I have a degree in Nursing". That tends to move the conversa...

 Happy New year!  Last night, I was on the phone with a friend who asked if I was working and I said no. And she may have said something about it being good because "you don't have to worry about the snow". I simply thought she meant this season. I didn't bother to look outside until this morning when I realized that it has snowed overnight. I'm pretty sure schools are closed because I didn't see much activity outside.  So one of the things I was grateful for this morning was the fact that I don't have to go outside. I thought I would go out and clear the snow but I didn't feel like it. I really wasn't expecting a snow storm. We really haven't had one for a few years and I'm so glad I exited before we got one. Whew! One of the benefits of getting FIRE'd is not having to worry about getting to work during snowstorms. I got some groceries on Thursday and I have enough food available. So what did I do today? Lived. I actually did some cook...

 There's something I've found myself doing lately. I sometimes walk into the bedroom on my second floor and look out the window. I didn't use to do that. I had family there and they would do that. They were retired but they didn't look out always. Still I had to change the blinds so that says something. I was usually amazed they knew who lived where, who was pregnant, who did what when I didn't even know. Or I would ask "is so and so pregnant" and would hear something like "...long time". While I didn't work full-time for the longest time and so was here, I still didn't look out or bothered with what was going on around here. I had houses sell on the block that I didn't even notice were for sale.  Today, I looked out and saw a pick-up truck across the street. The man in it had what looked like a cigarette and the windows was up. I was wondering why one would smoke inside a parked car with the windows up. I was also on my computer havi...

 Nothing really.  I rested. Lots and lots of rest. Eating, snacking and rest.  It was like a burden was lifted off me. I felt like doing nothing but just living. I relaxed and just enjoyed the peace. I think my alarm still came on but I was under no obligation to get out of bed if I didn't want to. It was surreal in a way.  Another thing I did was start an exercise regimen. I figured it was the least I could do. I just wanted to keep active and I'm happy to say I've kept it up. I'm really proud of myself. For the most part, my goal the first week was to rest and recuperate. I did nothing my last day of work. There wasn't a single patient for us. I worked about 4 hours 3 days before that so it wasn't fatigue but there was some amount of burn out and just wanting to have an emotional rest that had nothing to do with nursing.  One of the things I did that week was contact my 403k custodian. I was told they had me as still active. I thought to myself that maybe it...

 A few days ago, I decided to take advantage of a Cyber Monday deal and buy a digital product on Amazon. Initially, I converted some points into my gift card balance so I could use it for the purchase. But when it came time to buy, I decided to use my points. It was a small purchase and for no apparent reason, I decided to leave the gift card balance for another time. I barely shop on Amazon lately. And I've been a customer for over 20 years. I canceled Prime long before the Pandemic. For reference, I used to buy things on there almost daily. And back in 2005, I ordered petty household stuff from there. How could a college student afford that? Gift cards and Amazon was very cheap back then. I had also moved to a state that didn't have an Amazon presence so they were not charging taxes back then? Remember those times when Amazon had a bit of an edge from Brick and Mortar stores😁? Although prior to that, I lived in a state with an Amazon presence and they charged taxes. But I mo...

 I am proud to say that I bought nothing on Black Friday. This may be my first. I had considered buying certain clothing items but one of the things I did this past week was get rid of clothes. I have a lot. As much as I used to shop a lot, I've not been one to get up early to go to a Black Friday event. I shopped a lot last year but I took advantage of the sales weeks before. This year, I still looked around on line and saw on a website that people who showed up at 5 a.m would get $10 off coupon, $100 off coupon or a $500 off coupon. I was like No. I didn't get up to at 1710 JST this November to watch Grand Sumo live. I caught up with it later. If I didn't get up for that, I don't think I'm getting up in the cold to drive to a mall for a chance at that. I read the fine print and saw that 90 out of a 100 were for $10 and 10 out of a $100 were for $100 and 1 coupon per store was for $500. Maybe it's because I liked Statistics and Probability but I decided to pass...

 I had someone ask: what do you do with your time? when I mentioned that I wasn't working. That took some maneuvering to get out of. But this is a question people ask and there are people who post asking what people do with their time when they FIRE ( F inancial I ndependence and R etire E arly) at a young age. I used to wonder what the old people retiring would do with that time and thought they would get bored. Here is one suggesting for those who are wondering what to do when you Retire Early: Volunteer .  A friend texted a picture of us from an event we volunteered at. Her timing was perfect because I was feeling around the moment that I'm not "serving" enough and was feeling a "certain way" about it. She shared the flyer for an event that needed volunteers to distribute food. I've been wanting to volunteer for again for some time now but I don't feel like volunteering in a clinical capacity. My volunteer activities in the last decade or so have...

 This came up just moments ago as I read a message from someone who said work has been really busy today. No, they are not in the nursing field. But it brought back memories - Wednesdays were our busiest days. And I realized I do not miss it  - not the people, not the place and not the patients. I miss none of it.  Honestly, it's been more than 7 months and it doesn't seem like a long time but it's all a blur. It's almost like a part of me wanted to forget and has worked on doing so. I also have to remark that I went from 0 to Burnt out quickly. I realized I could leave and be okay back in September or so. And I was dragging my feet and kinda didn't want to leave. What was I thinking?!  But between realizing I could FIRE and about 2 months later, I was burnt out. I'll discuss when I knew  it was time to leave another time because that is a story by itself. I talked to my manager at the start of February and I'm not sure why I decided to hang around for the s...

Check your benefits - even if you don't anticipate making any changes.  This is something employees are used to getting emails about: open enrollment season. What do you do during open enrollment? You have a few choices during open enrollment season and a good part of it depends on your needs in regard to changes you have had. In some cases, you many not need to do anything if you wish to keep the same plans and benefits you had in the previous year. Still, I suggest that you log in and just take a look so that you are aware. Because while you many not need to change the plan you had, the plan may have changed and I think it's good to be aware of the upcoming changes. For example, the PPO plan last year may have been charging $55.01 last year. Next year, the same plan will be charging $57.97. That's almost a $3 change. It may not be significant butt it's good to know that your deductions will increase.  Sometimes, the only thing that changes in a healthcare plan isn...

 not having to wake up to an alarm clock.  Although it's got it's downsides. For example, a friend's text woke me up this morning. Although I would've preferred to be up earlier than I did. I was up late. As for the text, it came after 10 a.m. I have my Do Not Disturb set to automatically come on at 10  p.m and go off at 9 a.m. It used to be 9:30 but I changed it recently. And my current phone is so good about it that I don't get any kind of notification. The downside to that is that if anyone calls me before the time, it doesn't ring. It's been helpful in terms of those who've tried calling me at 7 a.m. That early? Why?  I had been wanting to wake up early and had gotten better at getting up at 7:30. A couple weeks ago, I got up late during the week and I was back to doing good this week except for today. Another downside is that I'm trying to exercise and eat breakfast early and so I didn't exercise today since I was up later than usual. I'...

 It's been a little over 7 months since I FIRE'd. (Financial Independence / Retire Early) It's been interesting. First of all, I wasn't expecting to do it at this age but I'm so grateful to God for helping me. It had come to mind to blog but I stayed away from the idea for a few reasons. It's come to mind again recently and I'm interested in it now. I think it would be nice to share my life since reaching FIRE. I've some unexpected things happen but God has been faithful.  What this blog is not: I'm not here to sell courses or some service. I have no interest in getting a hold of your money or your account. Personal finance is "personal" after all. This isn't a blog about someone trying to reach fire and helping others along. I have already reached  FIRE. As in I handed my employer a letter saying that I've decided to FIRE. I'll have to find the letter and post it here one of these days.  I'm hoping that as I share my journe...