How I Retired At 41 - Part 2

I’ve always been fairly frugal.

Growing up with immigrant parents (who are Dutch, no less!) will help with that.

I wouldn’t say I’m overly cheap, but I do appreciate value for my money and don’t tend to spend frivolously. I will pay extra for quality, if it’s something I need to last, or if there’s an opportunity to travel somewhere cool, but I don’t collect ‘toys’ or attempt to keep up with the Jones’.

My car was new in 2014 and has been paid off for a long while. After that, what would have been the car payment was applied to the mortgage or savings for something big.

Every dollar has a purpose.

September 2017 was the start of what I call my ‘country song year’.

I lived on our beautiful acreage alone after we separated and my husband moved a couple hours away for work. I was working full time at a demanding job and raising two young kids on my own with a break every second weekend.

Then in February 2018, my dad died.

Three months later, my father in law died.

Every man I had ever loved was removed from my life in less than a year. And then even my dog had to be put down!

My life had truly become a country song – and not one of the fun ones…

I took a break from work during that time to deal with my grief and try to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.

All of these sad things had happened, and all at once, but the experience left me grateful for what I still had.

I figured I had survived the worst life could throw at me, so now I could design what I wanted going forward.

What I wanted most was simplicity.

I packed up only the things that I loved and/or used often and I rented a sunny 3 bedroom duplex.

The kids started at a new school and the bus provided before school care. I was close enough to walk to work and manoeuvred my schedule to be able to meet the bus at the end of the day, eliminating the need for expensive after school care.

Eventually we sold the acreage and because we had so much equity in it from paying off our previous house, I now had a nest egg to start our new lives.

I worked with Barbara, my Money Coach to figure out what to do with this cash and decided a robo-advisor was the way to go.

I wanted to invest the money, but knowing nothing about investing, I decided to stick to my simplicity mandate and get in the market the easiest way I could.

Once I had a home for this pot of money, I promptly forgot about it and went back to my spending plan.

I was making a good wage at my job and my expenses were now less as I was renting a home, walking to work and didn’t need as much childcare.

I didn’t just sit at home during this time either.

I took full advantage of travel opportunities as they came my way. My company has offices near my hometown, so I was able to visit more frequently and work paid for my flights. I booked the kids on air miles and we were off.

I also got to travel to Pittsburgh, Toronto and even New Orleans through work. Sometimes I’d tack on a day or two after my meetings were done and check these places out.

I had a friend in Oregon and when I found a cheap flight, I’d go to see her.