SteveR
Moderator Emeritus
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2005
- Messages
- 2,811
I have not been on this forum in quite a while. I have dropped in from time to time to get a quick snapshot of what is going on but have not posted in a long time. Over the past couple of years I have received a number of PMs from a few members checking on me and I do appreciate their concerns and updates on the forum.
So by popular demand ; here is my update of my Life After Fire.
The past couple of years have been busy for us. The motorhome odometer now reads a bit North of 30,000 miles and we have been coast to coast more than twice so far. I am in a campground in East Tennessee as I write this. We visited family during Thanksgiving and I am on my way to the Tiffin Service Center for some work on the coach before my warranty expires. The DW flew out for a week for the family visit but needed to stay in town to take care of business (more on that later). So I am doing a 4000 mile round trip solo. I plan on being back home around Christmas unless I get stuck in the snow somewhere.
Our most recent RV trip was to spend some time on the Calif. coast. The trip included Salt Lake City, Reno, Napa, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Monterrey, Morro Bay and then some time with family in the Fresno area. We had a great time. Our next trip back that way will be North along the coast up through Oregon and Washington.
We will be in Quartzsite, AZ in late January for the RV and Sports show and to visit some friends and family that attend the event every year.
Other than the RV trips we have also been busy in other ways.
After a nearly 25 year hiatus from scuba diving I jumped back in to it; so to speak. I am all geared up and have done a few ocean trips as well as the local diving (yes there are lakes in the desert). My last trip was to Cozumel for a week of reef diving. It does not get any better than that in North America. Prior to that I did some lobster hunting off the coast of Catalina off a dive boat for three days. I also managed to get my Advanced Open Water certification along the way.
DW has been busy as well. In January she had surgery to fix a constriction in her kidney. The surgery was a partial success but more surgery may be needed to do additional repair work. She also decided that it was time to live out a life-long dream of hers and own her very own Boutique. We stumbled across one that was a steal and I ran out of reasons to say No. We (she) are the owners of an exclusive women's boutique in the historic district of town. She is having a ball. I am doing the books and helping out with the "man stuff" i.e., fixing broken fixtures, replacing light bulbs, replacing floors, hanging racks etc. etc. She is having far more fun that I am but seeing her enjoy life is worth the minor aggravation of accounting, taxes and maintenance. She is moving her life into a whole new direction and is loving it. We have a couple of part time ladies who do most of the heavy lifting so her job is mostly buying stuff and what woman would not love to do that all day long? We are still building the business and hope to see some actual income sometime next year if the economy continues to slowly slug forward.
Those are the highlights of what our FIRE life has become in the past couple of years. There is far more we have done but I don't want to gloat ...As you can see we have not been sitting in rocking chairs watching the grass grow.
For those already FIREd, enjoy your life; we never know what tomorrow holds for us. For those still planning on FIRE, keep to your plan and allow some real fudge factors in your calculations. These past couple of years have not been kind to many of us. Planning never ends...it just changes on what you plan to plan after you retire.
Good luck and may the FIRE be with you.
SteveR
So by popular demand ; here is my update of my Life After Fire.
The past couple of years have been busy for us. The motorhome odometer now reads a bit North of 30,000 miles and we have been coast to coast more than twice so far. I am in a campground in East Tennessee as I write this. We visited family during Thanksgiving and I am on my way to the Tiffin Service Center for some work on the coach before my warranty expires. The DW flew out for a week for the family visit but needed to stay in town to take care of business (more on that later). So I am doing a 4000 mile round trip solo. I plan on being back home around Christmas unless I get stuck in the snow somewhere.
Our most recent RV trip was to spend some time on the Calif. coast. The trip included Salt Lake City, Reno, Napa, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Monterrey, Morro Bay and then some time with family in the Fresno area. We had a great time. Our next trip back that way will be North along the coast up through Oregon and Washington.
We will be in Quartzsite, AZ in late January for the RV and Sports show and to visit some friends and family that attend the event every year.
Other than the RV trips we have also been busy in other ways.
After a nearly 25 year hiatus from scuba diving I jumped back in to it; so to speak. I am all geared up and have done a few ocean trips as well as the local diving (yes there are lakes in the desert). My last trip was to Cozumel for a week of reef diving. It does not get any better than that in North America. Prior to that I did some lobster hunting off the coast of Catalina off a dive boat for three days. I also managed to get my Advanced Open Water certification along the way.
DW has been busy as well. In January she had surgery to fix a constriction in her kidney. The surgery was a partial success but more surgery may be needed to do additional repair work. She also decided that it was time to live out a life-long dream of hers and own her very own Boutique. We stumbled across one that was a steal and I ran out of reasons to say No. We (she) are the owners of an exclusive women's boutique in the historic district of town. She is having a ball. I am doing the books and helping out with the "man stuff" i.e., fixing broken fixtures, replacing light bulbs, replacing floors, hanging racks etc. etc. She is having far more fun that I am but seeing her enjoy life is worth the minor aggravation of accounting, taxes and maintenance. She is moving her life into a whole new direction and is loving it. We have a couple of part time ladies who do most of the heavy lifting so her job is mostly buying stuff and what woman would not love to do that all day long? We are still building the business and hope to see some actual income sometime next year if the economy continues to slowly slug forward.
Those are the highlights of what our FIRE life has become in the past couple of years. There is far more we have done but I don't want to gloat ...As you can see we have not been sitting in rocking chairs watching the grass grow.
For those already FIREd, enjoy your life; we never know what tomorrow holds for us. For those still planning on FIRE, keep to your plan and allow some real fudge factors in your calculations. These past couple of years have not been kind to many of us. Planning never ends...it just changes on what you plan to plan after you retire.
Good luck and may the FIRE be with you.
SteveR