I’m retired, so I don’t know much about dates. Heck, even figuring out the exact days of the week is often difficult for me.
So one morning when my wife asked me if I knew what day it was, my heart started racing.
I organized a Rolodex of important dates in my head. Our wedding anniversary? No. Is it the anniversary of your first kiss? No. Is it someone’s birthday? no. And when she said her date out loud, I realized, it was our one year retirement anniversary! I can’t believe it’s been a year.
We retired on Friday, June 4, 2021, and set out on a week-long camping trip on the Oregon coast the following Monday in our new teardrop trailer.
Leaving on Monday was intentional, adding a definite exclamation point to the fact that I didn’t have to get up and go to work.
It was strange to be free from work, but we both enjoyed it. When we returned from our trip, we had a hectic summer as we prepared to put our house on the market and started selling most of our belongings.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Retiring early meant getting creative with my spending. After many meetings with our financial planner, we created a plan and began putting things in place. Our strategy called for him to essentially liquidate his current life and move into a 21-foot teardrop trailer for his second year and his fifth year.
Living in a travel trailer was a thrill because we wanted to travel, chase sunshine, and visit friends and family we hadn’t seen since the pandemic.
We spent the summer selling furniture and landscaping, and put the house on the market in early August. After the house sold, we moved the belongings we wanted to keep to a storage facility and settled into our new, tiny home on wheels.
This first year has passed quickly. When you think about it, time is a strange thing. The older we get, the faster we seem to move. The first few weeks of the trailer turned out to be more difficult than we ideally expected, but we got through it.
More than once I thought I had made a huge mistake, but in the end I felt stronger with each challenge and after a month of getting used to it, I was ready to go. It’s all set.
We’ve traveled from coast to coast twice this past year, visiting some great spots and covering a lot of places along the way. We have always loved exploring national parks and visiting places on our bucket list. While everyone else was working hard during the week, we had a lot of fun playing tourist and appreciated the diverse beauty this country has to offer.
I also feel energized by learning new things and solving problems I’ve never dealt with before. Neither of us had ever owned an RV or towed anything in the back of a truck, so there was a steep learning curve. Her wife enjoyed planning routes and finding unique camping destinations, and she loved meeting people along the way.
Living in such a small space can be frustrating.
This is a simpler life, but many tasks are more logistically complex. For example, making your morning espresso with a manual machine requires a few extra steps compared to using a high-end home machine. Storing everything you need in the bed of your trailer or truck is like playing a game of Tetris.
Time after retirement has a unique meaning.
I’m no longer in a hurry, and I rarely know the day of the week. I’ve had a lot of high-pressure jobs with lots of meetings and responsibilities, so I’m very grateful to be able to live at a more relaxed pace. But what I appreciate most is the brain space that retirement gives me. With fewer responsibilities, my fun and creative side was freed up.
Surprisingly, it took the better part of a year before I felt completely rested.
I was enjoying my career so much that I thought I might miss it. I thought I was going to have an identity crisis because my career was such a part of who I am, but I’m glad I moved forward without feeling like I was leaving a part of myself behind. I enjoy being able to explore different aspects of my personality and interests and answer the question, “What’s next for me?”
Financially, the journey has been a roller coaster.
When we decided to retire early, the market was exploding and we were excited to see how well our money was doing.
Then the current economic instability developed and our investments plummeted.
It was interesting to experience it emotionally and learn to trust my decisions and not give in to fear or apocalyptic thoughts. We believe the market is in the game for the long term and will recover as it has in the past. If not, you will create a new plan and continue to thrive as you are now.
If we are willing to listen, there are many lessons to be learned even in retirement.
Perhaps the biggest lesson is to understand that our worth comes from who we are, not what we do.
It’s a lesson best learned early in life, and once you believe it to be true, it will definitely make your retirement experience better.
Overall, we are very happy with how our first year of retirement has been a great success. I’m excited that we’re taking the path less traveled and building a life that most people would consider very alternative. I am grateful for our tiny home and the ability to travel and live untethered.
Cheers to the start of the second year. No one knows what lies ahead.
When Kim Kelly (she) isn’t traveling with her wife in a 21-foot teardrop trailer, she calls home in the Pacific Northwest. She is an author, speaker, and espresso enthusiast who writes about her real life, her retirement, her relationships, and her life on the road.
This article was originally published at: Moderate. Reprinted with permission from the author.