Life Update As An Early Retiree
2022 was a crazy busy, expensive, and transitional year for my family and me. We moved and settled in twice last year, closed on our brand new home, bought big ticket items, and juggled multiple home improvement projects, all on top of the biggest one of all: adjusting to life as a Texan after living in California all our lives. In this blog post, I’ll touch on all those various aspects of our lives and share how each of them are going for us.
Adjusting to Texan life
At the beginning of 2022, we had just finished moving to Texas from California. We were soaking in all the newness and various things to explore in the area. It certainly was exciting (it still is), but so many aspects of Texas are just so different from California. Before we moved, we expected a lot of drastic changes, but there’s a big difference between expecting change and living with them.
For example, driving further distances to get from point A to B was challenging (it still is to a degree). The nearest indoor mall is about 20 miles away from us now! In California, we had almost everything we needed in a 5-mile radius. However, while distances are much farther, the road infrastructure in Texas is fantastic and drastically reduces drive times. A 20 mile drive may only be 20-25 mins. I don’t think you can really say that in California, unless you’re driving through the Central Valley.
Another change we’ve been wrestling with is food. Food is nowhere close to the caliber and variety that there was in California. Texas thrives on American food, fast food in particular, which isn’t really our cup of tea. However, we’ve found a handful of places that we now consider our go-tos! Compared to their California counterparts, they’re not as good, but they’re good enough. Luckily, we have plenty of ties to California. So knowing that we have plenty of upcoming trips out there helps reduce our longing for our favorite restaurants.
Outdoor activities are few and far between in Texas. For one, Dallas has no mountains, so everything is flat and windy as a result, so there really aren’t any natural hiking options. But we’ve luckily found a few nearby trails that are great for walking and biking. And since we expected there to be little to do outdoors, we’ve invested a lot into our home (more on that later) that will help us create lasting memories and stay entertained.
While there are still many aspects of Texan life we are adjusting to, I believe we’ve overcome a lot of the day-to-day challenges. I’m proud of us for persevering and adjusting to our new lives.
Travel
Because our cost of living has reduced after moving and there are not many outdoor activities here, we’ve made it a point to travel even more than we used to. Last year, we traveled to California, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado, and made a 3-week trip to Switzerland.
This year, we just came back from a trip from Cozumel, Mexico, which was absolutely stunning with their clear, turquoise waters and warm weather. It was a nice change from the freezing temperatures that we had in Dallas. We also have more trips planned for the year, including several to California, a local glamping trip, a 3-week trip to Croatia, and potentially another trip near the end of the year!
Life as an young retiree
One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced this past year was adjusting to early retirement. I can tell you that, in most regards, I don’t feel retired at all. When I think of traditional retirement, I imagine having the freedom to spontaneously pack my bags and go on a trip. Or perhaps I’d be able to lazily sit by the pool and watch Netflix for hours at a time. However, I don’t have a traditional retirement; I have an early retirement. And early retirement just doesn’t have those perks. To live such a life, I’d have to be an empty nester, which is years and years away (thankfully).
For the time being, my afternoons are filled with extracurriculars with my child and cooking fresh dinners for the family. However, I have an abundance of time every weekday morning. Sometimes I miss the everyday work life, not just for intellectual stimulation, but mostly for the rigid routine work requires of us. Oh and a consistent paycheck with benefits is always a nice bonus!
Over the past year, I’ve learned to adjust to living without a morning routine. Instead of trying to force myself to establish a strict routine, I’ve learned to have a running task list to help me stay productive. The list is loosely prioritized so that I tackle the most urgent (sometimes the quickest) tasks first, followed by nice-to-haves. For example, it’s filled mostly with home improvement projects at the moment, followed by business items, house chores, meal planning, and other miscellaneous adulting tasks. And believe me, managing the home improvement projects has been a Herculean task so far!
Big ticket purchases in 2022
As mentioned earlier, not only did we purchase our new primary residence last year, we also took on several home improvement projects and purchased quite a few big ticket items. I guess we felt we didn’t already have enough on our plates!
Here’s a list of the additional projects we took on and what those costs roughly came out to:
Tesla Model Y: $55K
Tesla solar panels + 2 Powerwalls: $68K
Pool and decking: $192K
Interior shades (both manual and motorized): $16K
Misc home improvements: $72K
Appliances: $5K
Furniture: $20K
Irrigation: $7K
Total: $435K (excludes primary residence down payment)
Buying the Tesla Model Y wasn’t difficult or time consuming, but it was a pretty penny. All the other items on the list went similarly. The most tedious one of all has definitely been building our pool. We began construction in June 2022 and have been nearly done since December. But it’s been over 3 months now, and it’s still not complete! This reminds me of the sarcastic yet somewhat accurate software engineering saying, “The first 90% takes 90% of the time, but the last 10% takes another 90% of time.” In other words, large projects like these are often more complex than what meets the eye and take longer than anticipated.
Nevertheless, I am confident the pool will be done before it’s officially swim season. And in Texas, taking a dip in a pool is pretty much a necessity to survive the brutal heat. In 2022, there were 21 consecutive days of 100+ degree temperature and 47 days for the year! Whew!
2023 is shaping up to be much different than last year (in a good way). Some of our upcoming big ticket expenses are:
Landscaping: $40K
Exterior, motorized shade: $8K
Furniture: $7K
Total: $55K
Overall, I don’t anticipate spending anywhere close to how much we spent last year. Spending that amount is simply not scalable. And believe me, I am very relieved to know most of it is behind us and we’ll reap the rewards in the coming years.
Takeaways
To say the least, 2022 was a lot. But given the number and size of projects we took on and things we bought, I see all of them as investments. Specifically, most of them were investments into our home, where we plan to make lasting memories for many years to come.
For 2023, I anticipate less stress, at least on the personal front. We should be wrapping up the pool shortly and will be able to enjoy it for the coming swim season! While the home improvement projects aren’t going to end any time soon, we will certainly slow down this year and spread out our costs and time we put towards them.
For my house flipping business, 2022 was largely muted. But this year I already have some exciting projects that are under way. I’ll be sharing all the fun details in a coming blog post, so stay tuned!
