August 2026 FIRE Budget: No Buffer Left for September
We were $668.22 over budget this month at a 4.59% annualized withdrawal rate. Our kids return to school in August, and there are always associated costs. We know these are coming, but we never know how much they will be. This year they totaled $539.82, and $334.33 of that landed in the budget. That’s normally…
Coworkers, Birthdays, and Fantasy
This week felt pretty long, and covered a lot of ground. I started off the week a little sick (days 57-59), and saw my old coworkers around mid week (day 59). Later in the week between my fantasy league draft (day 61) and a neighbor’s birthday (day 62), I drank enough alcohol that my whole…
Tech work in the suburbs
This week I wait and watch to see if my lead foot in South Africa is going to cause me more issues. It was also JC’s birthday. The rest of the week after that was about as mundane as it can get, at least for content in this blog. I spent the bulk of it…
FIRE Induced Anxiety
This week was unfortunately dominated by more existential thoughts about FIRE. After going the full year of travel without any of these thoughts, I figured I was in the clear. FIRE induced anxiety (not a real thing I’m sure) has been bugging me a bit this week, and it’s something I’m going to have to…
Getting Scammed: The Anatomy of a Hack
This week we saw our identities and financial accounts flash before our eyes with JC getting scammed (day 36). We scrambled for a full day to get a hold of that situation. As we came up for air the next day, she got tricked into using a shady passport renewal site as well (day 37).…
July 2026 FIRE Budget: Month One in Colorado
This month was one of those in life where you look back on it in a couple contradictory ways. While I’m proud of all the accomplishments over the course of July, I never want to live this month again. We had a mountain of work to accomplish between home repairs, home renovations and moving back…
Settling In To Our CO Life
This week we were wrapping up a lot of nagging things around the house, and we finally put an end to all of our extended family activities. We’re finally settling into our CO life. FIRE: Day 29 (7/27) There wasn’t a lot going on today with the house now that we have it almost fully…
The Premature FIRE Experiment Worked: We Hit Our FIRE Number
This blog started with the premature FIRE experiment that was our international gap year. At the beginning, we had not hit our FIRE number at home in Colorado. We would have had a risky 4.5% withdrawal rate, having only 22 of the required 25 FU’s. Slow traveling internationally was an adventure of its own, but…
Finally Home
This was another week of busy house activity. We returned to stay at our house (day 22), sleeping in sleeping bags because we don’t have any furniture in the house. We continuously worked on unpacking, installing, and fixing things through the week. The carpet installation took place later in the week (day 25), and once…
Flooring Marathon
FIRE: Day 15 (7/13) The days are starting to feel like they are just blasting by, and I’m not sure what that is. Today felt like it was about six hours long, and maybe it’s just because we’re busy with various things. I continued with intervals of applying mud to my drywall patch, scraping, sanding,…
Traveling Toward Fire
A Premature FI Experiment
