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.
What It's Like Living in Texas as a California Native
Moving from California to Texas was not an easy decision. After all, my entire family is California-native. Nevertheless, after much research and planning, we firmly believe we made the right decision to relocate to Dallas at the end of last year. After living in Dallas for about 2 months now, I wanted to share some of my observations about the area and how it contrasts with California. Many of them were expected, but not everything!
2022 Business and Personal Goals
Happy New Year! To kick off every new year, I like to set goals for all aspects of my life, both personal and professional. By publicizing my goals, it helps me stay accountable for the things I set out to accomplish for the year. I also hope that some of my goals inspire you to set some for yourselves, too! Let’s get started.
My 2021 Year-End Review
At the start of 2021, I set out to accomplish some business and personal finance goals for the year. By the middle of the year, I published a review of how those goals were progressing, as well as some of my personal goals (not money-related). Now that we’re at the end of 2021 (crazy how fast it went), I will do one final review of both my money & non-money goals and share how I did!
I Just FIRE’d Myself At 31
When I was studying computer science in college just over 10 years ago, I told my partner that I was going to retire early. They didn’t understand what this meant at the time, nor was I taken seriously. We hadn’t even started working yet, so how could we think about retirement already? Well, fast forward to today, and I have 2 major life updates to share with you all!
First, I have officially quit my corporate career at the age of 31, having worked for just a decade. Second, I’m relocating from Silicon Valley, California to Dallas, Texas, accelerating my FI/RE timeline by nearly a decade! These were some of the hardest decisions I’ve made in my life, but they are ultimately right for me and my family. I’m positive that at least 80% of you have thought of relocating (however fleeting) and are also wondering why I am quitting my corporate career at such a young age, so I will share my thought process and reasoning in this blog post.
How A Self-Made Millionaire Budgets
Have you ever wondered how much a millionaire spends per year? Do they even have budgets? What do they spend their money on? Speaking from firsthand experience as a self-made millionaire, I definitely do have a budget, and I know exactly where my money is spent every month. It’s important to know where my money is spent no matter how high my net worth is. Tracking my expenses and comparing them against my budget is crucial to attaining financial independence some day. Becoming a self-made millionaire in my 20s didn’t happen by sheer luck; it was calculated. Budgeting helped me get to where I am today, and I assure you that it will continue to help me reach my goal to attain financial independence by 40.